Mina-san, in Tokyo….
you’re just better off taking the train. Believe me!

JP101 crew/listeners!

I agree with TempleUniJP-san!

Honestly I don’t have a car so I use the trains and buses so traffic is no problem for me.

Someday I hope to make myself out of my own car and I would have my first experience on traffic. I really like the traffic lights red, yellow and green. S_R_C

ぼくは日本に住んでいた時に[分からん]という言い方をよく聞きました。

Neil san thank you very much
that’s a very useful phrase
ciao

今日のレッソンは面白かったじゃねえええ！

I”m glad we’re learning da real Japaneez, I’m a geezer, too hard for that polite stuff.

well, naomi and peter and natsuko all said they don’t use this kind of language. but they all speak fairly prim and proper japanese. i also think age and your group of friends determines a lot of the language you use.

my girlfriend uses this kind of style all the time (she’s a bit younger than the hosts). so i showed her the posts and the conversation and she said, it’s fine with friends. not shocking at all. i also showed an acquaintance of mine who is pretty conservative and studying to be a highschool math teacher. she said she wouldn’t sustain an entire conversation in this manner, but she uses most of the phrases from time to time. she also said a whole conversation like this is too much for her. she wouldn’t want to talk to that kind of person much. so that’s similar to francisco’s fiancee’s opinion. whereas my gf was completely the opposite.

that said, one thing the hosts always emphasize at the beginning is
“who is this conversation between?”
and
“what kind of japanese are they using?”
it’s said so much that i almost don’t hear it anymore. but there is an important reason for this. you can’t go around using this kind of language with people whom you are not close with. and i think all individuals have different thresholds of closeness (or deciding who or when they’re ready to be close with). so that said, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ask yourself those question before speaking japanese. “who is this conversation between?” and “what kind of japanese should i be using.”

franciscoさん、 office stuff is right around the corner, actually!

bakanekoさん、i’m not gonna try to define it cuz i don’t hear it much, but Eijiro said this:
どんだけー（2007年の流行語）
→ そこまで言う？、そこまでやる？、すごい、超～、とんでもない

TempleUniJPさん、i haven’t heard any good (or horrific) road rage stories like we get in the States. as you probably know, お盆休み is infamous for hellacious traffic congestion extending for miles in and out of tokyo (bumper to bumper creeping traffic for 3-5 hours sometimes!) if there’s anytime that would be good for a shooting or punching the guy in front of you, you’d think this would be it.

if anyone has a road rage story, please share it! maybe we should start a topic in the forum about this? hahahah

マーキー

Just curious, in the podcast you said わからん　is very informal, yet you translated it as I don’t know. Just curious, would this be a more faithful translation? I know you need to be able to write the translation for the lesson to include it in the PDF. Unfortunately, I have no way of writing that recording.

Japanese Pod, うちの胸の置く、”ありがとうございます！”
Peter-san, I made a short write-up about u on my blog. 時間があったら、チェークして下さい。

Is it just me or did I hear a car swerve out of control and crash in the background of this conversation? You guys really keep me on my toes!

TempleUniJP, once I was sitting in a car with my friend (a guy), and we were looking at the guy walking, and I guess we look too long as he said, “文句ある？” (You got a problem?) And we started laughing. Once my friend, same friend (hehe), was followed by another car for driving like he was in a video game. On the whole, however, things are pretty good.

Sindyさん, I also take the train and bus, so I am alright, but….sometimes the trains are sooo crowded people “lose it.” So I suppose here they have “train rage.” Marky, let’s make that a lesson.

Rigoさん、As Neilさん　mentioned 交通渋滞に巻き込まれる。渋滞で動けなくなる。

Neilさん、徳島県行ってきたばかり、よく使われました!

Bakaneko, as I just found out, there’s already a really good answer!

Franciscoさん、yes, as Marky explained, we have repeatedly people before teaching this type of Japanese. With that said, this type of Japanese is quite important to understand as many people do speak like this. In fact, Take speaks extremely clear! Most Japanese male speakers won’t give you that luxury.
Me personally…I only use this type of speaking with my closest male friend. But, as Marky says, lots of people do use this with their close inner circle.
And yes, most Japanese will not teach you this. I think is more they’re afraid you’ll misuse it, and that horrifies them. However, one should really know this usage as it is very common. So, I am definitely with Marky on this.
With that said….let me complete the 540 by saying that I thought the way he spoke was not very polite. I think I even mentioned it.

Marky, you are the man!

クリストファー・ハートさん、I would go with “I dunno.”

JJKakkoiGirlさん、もちろんチェークしました。なんて恥ずかしい〜。 　
でも、of course I saved it! ありがとう！

ChristmasBurger (maybe should be cake or chicken), yes, the sound effects are pretty wild.

日本の高速道路を使うのは本当に高いですよね。例えば、東北自動車道の料金表を見たら（http://www.tecpro.jp/kosoku/ryoking04.html） 仙台から東京までは 20,250円もかかります！東京から大阪までは10,650円になります。電車のほうは良いの？

Hi J-Pod 101,

As Peter said, “this type of Japanese is quite important to understand as many people do speak like this. In fact, Take speaks extremely clear! Most Japanese male speakers won’t give you that luxury.”

Because this type of casual Japanese is so common (esp. on TV and in Anime & movies) and fast, abridged and unclear, I think we should study it all the more. Even if it’s just so we can understand it as opposed to use it.

Any (and many) more lessons like this would be hugely appreciated.