Mina-san, we’ve gotten a lot of requests for info about the crazy intros. We also always get questions from people who want to see what it’s like behind the scenes at JPod. We’ve combined both of those into 1 lesson. Marky, Naomi and Yūki take you on a wild tour through 11 intros.

There were soooo many cultural references and inside jokes that the lesson came out too long for 1 podcast, so we split it into 2 files. And even though all these intros were unscripted, we transcribed them all! You can find all of that in the PDF and in the Learning Center! We hope you enjoy this!

I didn’t listen yet, but I checked out the PDF. Thanks for all the Samurai stuff!!
Lookin forward to hearing this one!!

Dave

へへ　ユーキ先生が来た！ひさしくマーキ星もいる！楽しいね。

I use “でござる” all the time to my Japanese friends, much to their amusement and my girlfriend’s embarassment.

I like Mikiさん’s the best. I think we should all reply to her next blog entry with variations on ’昨日お猿をはりつけしました。楽しかったです。” (Yes, I crucified a Monkey yesterday. It was good)

And I’m glad that after all this time we’ve finally had a lesson with “archaic” in the politeness level.

また聞きたいじゃ！

I always wondered where that wonderful clip with Miki’s reaction 「ナンダヨー！？」
came from.

that was funny i expect to hear more
i have never crucifiled a monkey but i saw people crucified by monkeys in
planet of the apes
with Charlton Heston
thank you guys fpr the effort
ciao

This was a fun lesson, and quite useful too. I’ve heard じゃ used at the end of sentences quite a few times, but I wasn’t sure if it was the copula or not. I’ll have to do listen out for でござる as well. I heard Samurai use でござい when talking to a Lord in some old film that I saw, and I couldn’t pick up any ます endings, were they always used?

Also, I was just reading up on ぬ and ん endings replacing ない. ぬ sounds classic or old as Naomi might say , but apparently it’s still used in certain situations, and ん is old man’s style, right? Although young people say すまん, don’t they?

私もそう思います、ピーターさん。ユーキの”crazy”と言うセリフって本当におかしかったんじゃの～！

Marky,

I’m a pretty big nihonshi head too. Love the Bakamatsu. Especially Ryoma, Yoshida Shoin and the Sonjuku students. Hit me back on here if you want to talk about it.
Big fan of the intros too.

Dan

I didn’t enjoy this at all.

The history of introductions ?
The shape of leotards ?
Reactions to practical jokes in blog scripting?
Ad libs in intros?
Improvisations?

I can’t really see how most of this relates to Japanese culture, and found most it just too frivolous to be of any real use.

If this “fun behind the scenes silly stuff” is going to become more popular, please consider putting future offerings in another lesson title, so as not to mix it with the serious lessons.

Shiroi Neko sounds like a real party pooper.
I for one totally enjoyed it. The intros are great practice and really make me laugh, especially that I know what they are saying now!

This was awesome!
You guys hit so many things my head is spinning. Big ups on the Samurai stuuf, nobody really teaches that stuff, but that’s really Japanese culture, I think.

Thanks!

so many people had been asking for this since we started, i apologize in taking so long to get around to it. we bit off a little more than we could chew this time (hence two 15 min files). next time i promise to keep it within a reasonable time.

Javizyさん、 about ぬ an ん endings.
ぬ is just an old conjugation variation which gave rise to the modern ん form. but ん is not old man style. i tend to hear that when people are angry or caught off guard. and it’s not a polite.

for example つまらん！　”this is boring (and i’ve had enough of it)”
or わからん “i don’t know (don’t ask me again).”

this isn’t really a good way of explaining it. but it’s definitely not old man style, cuz i hear girls use it all the time. maybe naomi or yuki can explain it better.

danさん、幕末 is so interesting. so many great people with a different ideas about how to save japan. my personal favorites are 勝海舟 (Katsu Kaishu) and 新撰組 (the Shinsengumi).

marky

i tend to hear that when people are angry or caught off guard. and it’s not a polite.

That’s not quite true. すまん, the very informal form of すみません and すまない, is very common, and while it’s certainly very informal I definitely wouldn’t call it impolite. The nuance that ん has is rough and masculine, but not necessarily angry or rude.

とても　すごい　です。　オーパニング　は　楽しみかった　です　から　この
説明　を　前　から　聞きたがった　です。

ありがとう　ございます

I am so glad to hear this extra/lesson. I like these behind the scenes and the meanings things. I think this is the third time listening to this and I’m still not tired of it.
So I am guessing:
- コマネチ is Nadia Comaneci the Romanian gymnast.
- こうばしい to me is equivalent to the word pungent, a really strong smell, no?

Does こうばしい just relate to food or could it be other smells?

Ithought this was a great podcast…lots of fun, and I had definitely been wondering about some of the intros…looking forward to more explanations with lots of esoterica. It keeps things lively, and fun.
thanks
docmac

haha. i love the intros so much i play them to my non-japanese speaking friends. they laugh too.