Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! How does she do it? You’ve been trudging up these stairs for what seems like forever, and your legs feel all rubbery. Breathlessly, you ask your girlfriend in Japanese, “Does everyone in Japan do special exercises to get their legs in shape for the Konpirasan stairs?” Running around you in circles, she answers you in Japanese, “You can’t already be tired. We have so much more to do!” You have to ask, in Japanese, “Honey, don’t you need to come over to this bench and take a little break?” Realizing that you are about to keel over, she offers in Japanese, “The stairway is very long and famous. Why don’t we stop here for a bit and enjoy the view.” Catching your breath, you tell her in Japanese, “Wow, you sure can see a long way from here.” Admiring the spectacular view, you realize maybe that was not the best idea. Now your legs are starting to stiffen and cramp up. How are you ever going to get down from here? If your legs tighten up any more you won’t be able to walk down. Worried, you ask her in Japanese, “Hypothetically speaking of course, what will we do if I can’t walk back down? They do have a rescue team for people who get stuck on the stairs, right?” She replies in Japanese, “Well, I’m sure you’ll be able to come back down. Won’t you?” She seems very worried. How embarrassing. Maybe it’s like the Swiss Alps where they send a St. Bernard with a brandy cask to stranded people. Well, they probably don’t send a dog on the stairs, but you could sure use a little brandy.
Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Japanese Newbie lesson continues your review of Japanese verb conjugation with class three Japanese verbs. We will also talk about the difference between polite and casual style Japanese speech. You can rest assured, if you’re stuck on the 1386 steps of the Konpirasan stairs in Japan, no one will insist on Japanese formal style speech. Visit us at JapanesePod101.com where you will find many more fantastic Japanese lessons and learning resources! Leave us a message while you are there!

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Newbie Season 3 . 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.
21 Responses to “Newbie Lesson S3 #21 - Nihongo Dōjō - Do A Little More to Make Your Japanese Better!!”
Monday at 6:30 pm
Mina-san, do you like stairs?
Monday at 11:34 pm
Today’s photo was taken by 梅ちゃん(Ume-chan) who is the web master of the following site. He willingly accepted our request to use this photo on the Jpod101 site. Thank you so much, Ume-chan. ありがとうございました。
Mina-san, please visit the site to take a look at more beautiful photos.
http://web2.incl.ne.jp/umess/
Tuesday at 5:17 am
i’d really like to go to Shikoku…
I don’t really like stairs as such, but climbing stairs instead of taking the elevator is supposed to be good for your health, so…
However, I believe that unless physically unable to do so, you should take the stairs in monuments or public buildings when they have some relevance to the place (ie climbing the stairs to the Eiffel Tower instead of riding the elevator)… If only because after that you can claim “I did it !”
Tuesday at 6:15 am
I tried to go to Kompirasan over Christmas. After being stuck in traffic for an hour, then waiting in line for an hour or two and only moving forward about 20 metres, I decided it would be better if I came back another time!
Shikoku, however, is a very beautiful place and well worth a visit.
And also thanks to Ume-chan, I had a look at the site above and there are some absolutely stunning pics there. Everyone should have a look.
Tuesday at 7:53 am
私の彼女は四国人ですげん。
他の四国人と話すとよく「げん」と言う言葉を出てくる。四国弁かもげん。
Tuesday at 9:55 am
Someday, I plan on doing the 88 temple (plus 1 to complete the circle) pilgrimage circuit around Shikoku. It will take 40-50 days on foot so until I have the time(am no longer working!) I can’t do it.
Have any of you been a henro(へんろ) and done this hike/pilgrimage?
Wednesday at 5:54 am
Phil,
That would be something I’d love to do. When I was on Shikoku over Christmas I saw quite a few people in their white robes doing this.
Monday at 5:30 am
皆さん、こんにちは!!
I noticed that when Naomi先生 is talking about the big Buddhist temple complex, she says:
すごい大きいですよ!!
I was wondering what would be the difference between this sentence and
すごくて大きいでよ!!
Monday at 5:30 am
皆さん、こんにちは!!
I noticed that when Naomi先生 is talking about the big Buddhist temple complex, she says:
すごい大きいですよ!!
I was wondering what would be the difference between this sentence and
すごくて大きいでよ!!
ありがとうございます!!!
–G
Monday at 8:43 pm
Hey Gabriele-san, don’t tell Naomi-sensei, but you actually caught her… It should really be
すごく大きい as here “sugoi” is turned into its adverbial form sugoku
すごい大きい this is used by many Japanese, but technically…. as sugoi is in its adjective form.
すごくて大きいでよ!! here sugoku is in its conjunctive form: great and big
すごい adjective
すごく adverb
すごくて conjuctive
Was this helpful?
Tuesday at 3:09 pm
ありがとうございました、Peterさん, that was really helpful!!
Ok, now let me practice a little bit!!
JapanesePod101.comはすごくてかっこいいですよ!!
Apologies for the duplicate post earlier!!
–G
Monday at 5:01 pm
mina-sama, Bob Liederbach sent us these pictures of the shrine at the top of Konpira-san!
now you can get an idea of where Fabrizio and Fuyuka went! awwwwww yeah!
どうもありがとうございます!
doumo arigatou gozaimasu!
Saturday at 3:20 pm
I really love the way you are introducing the casual and polite usage of the language. When I began studying Japanese my teachers only taught me the polite forms. They said, that when I am visiting Japan it is more necassary for me.
But, meeting my Japanese Familiy I was confrontrated suddelny with the casual language and I was not able to understand their way of speaking and it took a long time to get familiar with it
.
In your lessons we are able to learn the natural usage of the casual and polite language and you can’t imagine, how thankful I am for that
!
Sunday at 4:13 am
I understand that family members use casual speech and work colleagues use formal speech. But aren’t Faburitsio and Fuyuka more than just co-workers? I mean he might not be her kareshi but he is staying at her house and they seem to hang out a lot. I thought friends would speak casually with each other.
Tuesday at 4:50 am
So… I guess Fuyuka-san was in a casual situation and that is why she was using お母さん and お父さん to refer to her own parents?
Tuesday at 2:14 pm
James-san,
In the dialog of this lesson, Fuyuka is talking to her mother and call her mother “お母さん” and his father “お父さん.” People refer to their mother or father as “母” or “父” when they are talking with other people.
Saturday at 7:20 pm
未だですか。急で長い階段ですか。
もうちょっと、この階段は長くて有名ですよ。
今から、お父さんと来るの。そっか、どうするの。じゃ、また電話する。
今から、来ますか。じゃ、また電話します。
またね。
Thursday at 6:07 am
Thank you for these amazing lessons. It is really helping me a lot, this is a site i’ve honestly started to recommend to people who want to learn a new language, it’s so informative!
I have a question though…
During this lesson, Fuyuka says ” kono kaidan wa nagakute yumei desu” and it’s translated as “this stairway is famous for its length”. So the [adjective 1 - i + kute followed by adjective 2] construction means that adjective 2 is the result of adjective one. But we’ve previously learned that this same construction is used to describe something using multiple adjectives, for ex. “takakute kirei kuruma desu” = it’s an expensive and beautiful car. So the sentence could both mean “this stairway is famous for its length” and “this stairway is long and famous”, right? How do you know which one is the right interpretation? Purely by context or…?
Friday at 10:41 am
Angelina-san,
Kon’nichiwa
This grammar is a little bit ambiguous.
As for yuumei na “famous” adjectives before it usually become the reason why something is famous, like nagakute yumei desu.
But this is also interpreted as “adjective1 and adjective2″ depending on the context. Some adjectives can have reason-result relationship but some cannot.
ex) Kono sakana wa shinsen de oishii desu.
“This fish is fresh and yummy.”
“This fish is yummy because it is fresh.”
Kono sakana wa yasukute oishii desu.
“This fish is cheep and yummy.”
I hope this helps.
Saturday at 4:02 am
Id does. Thank you Motoko!
Saturday at 4:03 am
Correction: I meant “IT does”
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