Learn Japanese Hot Topics at JapanesePod101.com! Setting aside the jokes for a few lessons, we turn to the serious subject of karōshi (death from overworking). Students are discussing the topic in their class and we’re going to listen in. This is quite a serious problem in Japan, but why? And is this problem unique to Japan? We’re introducing a lot of vocabulary in this episode, so we kept the grammar points simple: to wa, –o imi shimasu, which is used to give definitions in writing and formal situations; and nante, which means “things like” with a negative connotation. After listening, stop by JapanesePod101.com and be sure to leave us a post!
This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 8:30 pm and is filed under Upper Intermediate Lessons. 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.
14 Responses to “Upper Intermediate Lesson #17 - Karoshi - Working to Death 1”
JapanesePod101.com says:
May 9th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Mina-san, could you imagine this happening in your country?
rigo says:
May 9th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
12 hours a day , 6 days a week for about 5 years is the ” hardest” i worked in my life , no more overtime for me unless under extreme circumstances
マーキースター says:
May 9th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
i’m lucky if i get more than 4 hours of sleep a night 
but it’s a labor of love 
TempleUniJP says:
May 9th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
How many hours does the average Jpod staff member work?
I just finished my last week of school. To graduate I had to write about 56 pages to finish my classes. I almost felt like doing karou jisatsu. Anyway, everything went well and I am free!
Recently, I bought a new computer and a premium subscription for a year as a gift to myself for finishing school. Im love the My feed feature becuase now all the PDFs are perfectly organized for me. Now that I dont have anymore text books to read ill be going over your PDFs everyday. (by the way, the PDF’s have been REALLY great) I like the new hosts alot as well.
Also, we have a language exchange in Philadelphia that meets every Sunday. Last week I went 4 hours without speaking one word of English and constant Japanese. Ive only taken 3 semesters of formal classes, so I really owe that ability mainly to you guys. 
仁居流 says:
May 10th, 2008 at 3:50 am
How is the character 疾both defined as: swiftly or a long time ago, and also associated with the very different variety of sicknesses?
planbattack says:
May 10th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Oops! there is a mistake in the audio version of this podcast. For the English translation of the sentence 「そういえば、英語でもそのままkaroshiで通じるって聞いたことがあるよ」 you say that it is “incomprehensible.” However, in your PDF lesson notes you have it correctly translated as “comprehensible.”
markystar says:
May 10th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
TempleUniJPさん、
thank you for the kind words!!
to be perfectly honest, i have no idea how much a typical jpod101 employee works. even myself. after i leave the office, i continue to work. today is saturday, but i’m back at the office. even when i’m out with friends i’m brainstorming (i believe it was lunch at a sushi-ya when the wasabi kunoichi idea came up. lol). i think everyone here is equally obsessed. 
毎日一所懸命頑張るぞ！
planbattackさん、thanks for the heads up! not sure how we missed that one, but we can re-record on monday and upload a new mp3! 
仁居流さん、
on monday, naomi-sensei or yuichi-sensei can answer this ☆
they are kanji gurus! 
ジャービジ says:
May 10th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
This lesson was reminiscent of the classic Destruction of Nature
プチクレア says:
May 10th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
ジャービジさん、そうですよね！
The worst I ever did was 126 hours in one week, including 72 hours straight without sleep…
sTeVe aUsTiN says:
May 12th, 2008 at 3:25 am
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
People need to take breaks for their sanity!
That said, I probably work too much too.
Naomi says:
May 12th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
仁居流-san
Inside the Kanji of 疾, there is 矢(arrow9. So it is said that this kanji originally means arrow wound.
But in modern Japanese, the basic meaning of 疾 is sickness, illness and it usually means serious sickness.
With the lapse of time, this 疾 started having the meaning of hatred, severe, swiftly etc.
Spidey says:
May 12th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
過労死の現状や社会的な背景などうを思ういますか？
Which camp do you belong to “work to live” or “live to work”? The latter could be called work to die.
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Category: Upper Intermediate Lessons |
Grammar: nante, to wa... o imi shimasu | Function: discussing current events, explaining things, giving definitions | Topic: business, death, dying, jobs, karōshi, work, working, workplace in Japan | Politeness Level: casual, Polite
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