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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 25th, 2007 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Beginner Season 2 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
29 Responses to “Beginner Lesson S2 #56 - A Cozy Christmas”
Tuesday at 6:30 pm
Mina-san, Merry Christmas! What do you think about this couple’s romantic get away? Definitely not traditional by Western standards, but not a bad way to spend the holiday, don’t you think?
Tuesday at 7:03 pm
Bonus track is so funny
Tuesday at 8:51 pm
Happy X-mas JPOD101
Tuesday at 9:09 pm
I was expecting something really crazy or a ghost story

But this story was heart warming
Merry Christmas JPOD!!
Tuesday at 9:14 pm
Peter it is lesson 56 not 55.
皆さん、メリークリスマス!
Tuesday at 9:28 pm
Can someone kindly explain to be the usage of すれば?
Tuesday at 9:50 pm
Merry crimbins everyone. I usually have a couple of hours to kill before I go round my nan’s on Christmas Day, so I had a chance to listen to the lesson.
I find the Japanese R is closer to a softly pronounced D than an L or R. Your tongue is in the right position, so it’s a good way to start, you just need to learn to roll it a little bit. Making the right shape with your mouth is necessary too, although I only realised this recently. Check out http://www.hellonavi.com/foldera/html/hassei/hassei03.html (somebody posted this on the forum too).
I’d like to see Yoshikai do a lesson on how to do the macho style tongue roll, I can’t seem to do it
I had a Welsh business teacher who did it as well, it’s always cracked me up. うりゃっ!
Wednesday at 12:31 am
What does うりゃっ mean?
Wednesday at 2:56 am
Merry XMRadio!!!! I mean X-Mas!!
It just gets better and better!
Wednesday at 10:39 am
うりゃっ is just an aggressive noise I’ve heard tough guys make in films/anime when there are running into a fight or something. You see the small っ a lot in aggressive speech to signify a sharp ending to the sentence, for example, 早くしろっ!
Wednesday at 10:41 am
Happy Boxing day! And Merry Christmas to everyone in the Western Hemisphere.
Thursday at 12:01 am
What about うりゃ? I can’t find this word in the dictionary.
Thursday at 1:08 pm
It’s not a word. It’s a sound.
If you look up ‘huh’ or ‘erm’ or ‘ack’ in the dictionary you might not find them either.
Thursday at 8:02 pm
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Very nice lesson, but the bonus one was supberb!
Take, his voice is great, sounded really macho.
They mentioned on the ‘cast that he probably paid for the fireworks… Before they said that, I assumed there was some fireworks already taking place that he’s already planned ahead for
Sunday at 12:23 am
Merry christmas
Monday at 6:14 am
Mina-san, a bit late, but….メリークリスマス!
Tuesday at 4:07 am
To everyone at JapanesePod101, Happy New Year and thank you.
I have been using your web-site for a few weeks now, ever since someone I ran into told me about it. I started to learn Japanese at the end of September, this year. I am an American from Philadelphia and I speak only English; but I am determined to learn Japanese. I find it exciting to learn another language and I’m fascinated by the Japanese language and culture. The more I learn, the more I want to know.
Your lessons are so well done and so helpful, particularly with helping me hear and speak Japanese correctly. I also benefit from the comments from other fans of JapanesePod101. So my questions are directed to anyone kind enough to offer their opinions.
I began with Beginner Lessons, covering about three lessons per day. At some point, I began doing the Survival Lessons and the Newbie Lessons. I found that the pace of three Beginner lessons was a bit much. I have now settled into one Survival Lesson plus one Newbie Lesson plus one Beginner Lesson each day. I find that the Newbie and Survival lessons serve as a kind of review and reinforce what I have learned while introducing something new, as well. I am at Beginner Lesson 41 of 170. I expect to complete all the Beginner Lessons by the beginning of May. I should have completed all the Newbie and Survival lessons by that date, also. Then I plan to move through the Beginner (Season 2) lessons as quickly as possible as an overall review of the beginner course. The next step is to continue with the Pre-Intermediate lessons and ultimately to the Intermediate course.
In addition, I try to learn a minimum of 15 Kanji per week, using a text for that purpose. I have already learned to read and write Kana. I also have a native Japanese tutor that I see for one hour each week. I’m also looking to find other Japanese-speaking people in my vicinity to practice with.
My goal is to acquire as much skill with the language as possible before January, 2009, at which time I am planning an extended visit to Japan. I am 66 years old and semi-retired; so I have a good bit of time to devote to this pursuit. I wonder if I’m not the oldest person to use this site.In any case, through learning this wonderful language, I feel that I’ve begun a whole new chapter in my life.
For those of you with experience in learning Japanese. Do you think my plan for learning is reasonable? Do you have any comments or suggestions?
Thanks again for the great service you provide. Monosugoi.
Thursday at 12:25 am
That sounds like a really aggressive schedule Rich! My only advice is not to go through the lessons so fast that you don’t actually learn anything. Personally I find it best to listen to a new lesson in the morning, and then repeat a lesson that I’ve heard in the past week to help get it from my short term memory to long term memory. Probably the best in terms of actual learning would be to listen to a new lesson, yesterday’s lesson, and a lesson from a week ago, each day, so you’d listen to each lesson three times eventually.
Sounds like you’re really into it! I found the Pimsleur lessons really helpful also (but expensive). They were really good at drilling things into my brain, and I found I could handle a trip to Japan afterwards.
Thursday at 12:27 am
I should add, it may be sufficient to just repeat listening to the conversation and not the entire lesson commentary, and this is for the later beginner and S2 lessons, I don’t know if re-listening to the survival phrases would be worthwhile or not, probably better just to add the phrases to your flash card set.
Thursday at 3:15 am
Rich, I’m 47 years old! So, I don’t think you’re on the fringe here. Apparently people who wanna learn Japanese are all ages!!! That’s great for me!
I agree with Katherine a bit, but my advice would be don’t burn yourself out too quikcly. There are quite a few “go getters!” I’ve seen around here who burn thru 4-6 lessons a day. I wish that worked for me, but I can’t retain it all.
But you have an awesome goal!!! Go for it!!! And I’d like to hear how you go with that! My own habits are way to sloppy…. hahahaha.
Saturday at 12:55 am
co’ ai la` nguoi vn ko nhi?
Saturday at 12:59 am
eigo sukoshi wakarimashita
nihongo mo
hic.
betonamu kara kimashi ta
Friday at 2:33 am
so, is this really the last Season 2 episode?
Sunday at 1:43 pm
Jpod-san
I have a basic question of the “Mottainai” usage. It is used as “too short ” in this conversation. When I check the audio dictionary, it says *too good” and “unworthy”. And my friend used this term in yesterdays lunch . He could not express well the meaning. せつめして 下さい。
In our country also we call Jesus as “Yesu”. it is interesting to know this . Does any other contries call Jesus as “yesu”?
yoroshiku
Siva
Monday at 9:33 am
Sivasakthivelさん,
The translation of もったいない might change depending on the context, but basically it means “it’s a waste”. So in this case, the boyfriend is saying that it’s kind of a waste to go on a trip for only one night and two days.
Friday at 10:19 pm
Jessi-san
Thank you . I could understand the usage . Whenver people use, I could understood.
もったいない は なれました
Thanks
Siva
Monday at 9:57 pm
Dear 101″
if saiko means great, then saiko ja nai, is the mean not great.
your translation is saiko ja nai is better than ever.
sometimes I don’t really get it because most of your translation
is not word by word/
Thanks
Tuesday at 11:15 am
Tony-san,
You have to listen to the tone of voice of the speaker as well. “Saiko ja nai” here means “isn`t it great?”
Tuesday at 9:58 am
The bonus track was really hilarious!
ボナーストラックはとてもおかしいな。
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