Welcome to our new Beginner Series! Can you introduce yourself in Japanese? Today we’ll look at 2 ways to introduce yourself to a group of people. Both are perfect for polite situations.
We’ll look at some humble verbs, used in Japanese to lower the speakers status in relation to the listener. This is called Kenjogo in Japanese and it’s critical to know how to use it to really master Japanese. Today we’ll learn the humble forms for “to speak” and “to do.”
This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Beginner Lessons (S4). 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.
35 Responses to “Beginner Lesson #1 - Nihongo Dōjo - Meet The Parents 1”
JapanesePod101.com says:
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Mina-san, in Japan meeting your boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s parents usually means you’re getting married. Anyone have any misconstrued assumptions when meeting the parents?
retropunk says:
July 9th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Yes, and it was almost exactly like Meet The Parents.. no really! 
プチクレア says:
July 9th, 2008 at 1:36 am
Beginner Lesson #1 ?!?!
I was frightened ! 
I don’t want to appear grumpy or anything, but maybe the lessons could also be numbered as “Season 4″ on the website and the feed ? So as to clear up any misconceptions ?
AD++ says:
July 9th, 2008 at 6:34 am
Also in the list of lessons (on the website) an icon for beginner s3 (season 3) and beginner s4 (season 4) might be handy. Of course, I understand there’s not much space there, but this would be good and necessary.
David says:
July 9th, 2008 at 8:04 am
I have heard a variety of responses by Japanese parents.
My case I was well received (after the third trip to Japan over the course of 2 years-They had never met a foreigner in person before) Parents tend to be nervous of foreigners.
I have had other friends who on first meeting the girlfriends parents were asked when they planned to get married. (esp those whose daughters were now getting past their mid twenties)
maxiewawa says:
July 9th, 2008 at 8:48 am
I met my Japanese girlfriend’s parents for the first time the other week. 楽しかったよ。
watermen says:
July 9th, 2008 at 10:19 am
This lesson looks good. But I don’t know if it is worth Jpod101 time to repeat all the material again? It has already been covered in other beginner lessons.
Ｓｉｎｄｙシンディー says:
July 9th, 2008 at 11:13 am
JP101/Mina-san!
I’m happy that Beginner S4 began! 
I’m the type of person that need repetion over, over and over again so I can get it in my head, Great job keep it up! 
S_R_C
markystar says:
July 9th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
プチクレアさん and AD++さん、
some changes are coming to the structure of japanesepod101.com and the way the lessons are organized. as you know we’ve evolved over time and organization of the site reflects that . but in the very near future, we’ll have a new way to standardize the site and organize lessons better. so i ask for your patience as we (perhaps awkwardly) make our transition to the new system. because the site has been operating since 2005 and has sooooooooo much content (nearly 1000 lessons!), making technical changes is not easy.
but, soon the lessons will become easier to navigate! 
AD++さん、
as for a list of lessons on the site, do you mean something like this?
http://www.japanesepod101.com/help-center/the-courses/
watermenさん、
there are always new users coming to the site so we have to keep things fresh for them. (we can’t just say, sorry guys, we’re on season four, go back to newbie season 1 and let us know when you catch up!) also, we’ve never had a linear series that went from zero to intermediate before, so it’s something we’ve been wanting to try. as you know, after you reach beginner season 2, everything becomes non-linear. so many people have requested a series that advances, in a consistent way from newbie to upper levels. and now with the My Feed option, those listeners can follow just that course if they choose.
Ｓｉｎｄｙシンディーさん、
you’re not the only one!
most of our listeners do not live in japan, so they have very little exposure to the language outside of our site, so repetition is important.
as for meeting the parents…
all i have to say is, bring gifts for everyone. bring something nice for the home for the mother, bring expensive sake for the father, and delicious sweets for the younger brothers/sisters. つまらないものですがタイム、awwww yeah! 
Spidey says:
July 9th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
You asked–Has anyone any misconstrued assumptions when meeting the parents?
Well,…my Spidey senses really started tingling when I saw both parents swinging samurai swords at me.
Now I realize they just wanted… … …???
Wait I’m still confused! Hmmm…?
s
Jason ジェイソン says:
July 9th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Minna-san & JPod101,
I’m excited when I saw the title Beginner #1!! I’ve missed out on all the fun so far and plan to strictly follow this new series. Thank you Naomi sensei and Peter-san for starting this new series. JPod Beginner listeners, isshoni ganbarimasho ne! (I hope thats the right thing to say LOL). See ya!
Phil says:
July 9th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Is Rebecca gone now? I hope not, she seemed like such a sweet girl!
And Peter goes to church? Was this an out of interest see Japan type visit are is he going to get all crazy on us?
Naomi says:
July 9th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Mina-san
Konnichiwa
コメントありがとうございます。
Komento arigatou gozaimasu.
Thank you for all the comments.
皆さんの出身はどこですか。
Mina-san no shusshin wa doko desu ka?
sTeVe aUsTiN says:
July 9th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
LOL @ Phil!!!!
I was thinking the same thing! Boy that would be scary!!
tony says:
July 10th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Thanks! I am really excited by this structured continuation of Nihongo Doujo. I kinda lost track of the Beginners after the first series so now I feel like I can keep up.
出身はオオストラリアのメルボルンです。
よろしくお願いします。
ーTony
Jan says:
July 10th, 2008 at 1:23 am
I wonder if this new beginner season is supposed to build up on the just finished newbie season 3.
A slight hint might be that the new beginner season is also named Nihongo Dôjo, but it would be great if my guess would be confirmed 
Angie says:
July 10th, 2008 at 1:27 am
I felt a bit alone, following past lessons, just because I am still at Beginners Season 1. I am still climbing the mountain!!
Peter-san you are amazing as always!!!!
Take-san I am glad you still are with the group, as I’ve already said in a past post, I your voice!!!!! Can’t describe how much I felt happy to hear it
Naomi Sensei, konnichiwa. 私のしゅっしｎは イタリアのトレヴィソ です。 ヴェネジアに とても ちかい です. と particle works only with cities as '’私のしゅっしｎは トレヴィソとポレガンジオル です'’ . I just can’t use it between country and hometown, right?
*Markystar when you said : “(we can’t just say, sorry guys, we’re on season four, go back to newbie season 1 and let us know when you catch up!)”.
I thought: Oh boy. That’s exactly what I am doing. Am I strange?
That’s also why season 4 scared me a bit. When I saw the email I thought: okay, now it’s over. So over. Definetly, I am never going to catch them.
Well… I think maybe I should follow these new lesson together to the past ones.
As always, thanks for your *great* *amazing* job!
Jiashen says:
July 10th, 2008 at 1:29 am
Rebecca’s voice is so awesome. Her intonation really makes her stands out from the other female hosts and voice actresses.
Good Intentions says:
July 10th, 2008 at 1:31 am
My girlfriend is going to stay with me in the US for 3 months this fall and she thought it would be a good idea for me to meet the parents to offer assurance that I’m not dangerous. The mother stared me down and asked point blank how much money I make and what I expect her daughter to do the rest of her life. It turned into an argument then cry fest amongst the daughter and mother while the father poured himself another beer and tried to stay out of it. Then the drunk uncle jumped in to try to sooth things over but only made things worse. My advice: 1.) Don’t meet the parents until your relationship is veeeery serious or you plan to get married. 2.) Don’t take alcohol as a gift as it sometimes brings out the worst in good people, and 3.) Be prepared for the worst and hope for the best. Whew! By the way, we’re meeting the parents again next week.
Phil from Montreal says:
July 10th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Just wrote a big post and had it wiped out when I forgot to input my email… sucks!
So instead you will just get a small post…
…does this mean season 3 is over? Or will there be overlap such as when season 2 started and season 1 was not yet finished?
markystar says:
July 10th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Angieさん、you’re not strange at all!
and you don’t have to go in a straight line either! for example, beginner season 2 and season 3 (and the other upper levels) do not go in a linear fashion. so you have the freedom to skip around (which i recommend to reinforce your listening and vocab, especially using the review tracks!)
Phil from Montrealさん、
sorry to hear that! something similar happened to me on another site the other day! 
beginner season 3 is done.
we finally figured out what we want to do with “seasons” and decided that a “season” is 25 episodes (half a year).
markystar says:
July 10th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Janさん、
as peter said at the beginning of the lesson, this continues (grammatically speaking, and in terms of vocab) where the newbie lessons ended. you can’t stay a newbie forever, right?
also, for those of you who still feel comfortable at the newbie level…
we still have 80 newbie lessons archived.
AND
a new newbie series is coming up on saturday.
Abrassart says:
July 10th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Where is Rebecca now? And is some of the Newbie series caracters coming back in this new beginner serie? I hope so. Doesn’t have to be Fabrizio, but just the “Style you team”. I’ll miss them if they don’t come back. 
maxiewawa says:
July 11th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29V7e1JSq7o
Here’s my version of today’s dialogue. 宜しくお願いします！
JapanesePod101.com says:
July 11th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
great video maxさん！
everybody should make a video introduction of themselves!
marky
ヒョヌ(Hyunwoo) says:
July 11th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Hahahaha, Max 
Great video! ^^ I was surprised at the end … haha. I’ll make a reply soon!
Naomi says:
July 11th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
maxiewawa-san
Wow! Great video!!! Thank you sooooooo much!!
Hyunwoo-san
I’m looking forward!!! 楽しみにしています。
バロン says:
July 15th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
It’s taken me a long time to respond… 
でも、新たなチャンスでうれしいです。一念発起して、日本語勉強し。読書は一寸難しいですね。
If it wasn’t for the kanji input method with my computer, I couldn’t have written the above sentences. 頑張りましょう。 よろしくお願いいたします。
stlsamurai says:
July 16th, 2008 at 1:30 am
I happened to be involved in a meeting last week with some Japanese businessmen so this was a timely refresher on introductions. A lesson sometime on how to properly exchange meishi could be helpful.
Thanks,
Steve from St. Louis
Tess says:
July 29th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I struggled to get to Beginner 130, but I’m feeling totally lost! It’s great to come back to the beginning and “revise”. It’s amazing how much stuff you find you know but didn'’t realise you knew! Does that make sense?
Was it this lesson that talked about the pronunciation of the word “water” in katakana? Perhaps only Americans have that trouble, of trying not to say the strong “r” sound. We Aussies say “wata” anyway!!!!
Jack says:
July 31st, 2008 at 1:06 pm
県はアメリカにありません。
There are no prefectures in America.
私の出身はアメリカのボストンです。
My hometown is Boston.
Todd says:
August 1st, 2008 at 12:52 pm
JPod101 Team great lesson as always. I also started from the beginning and was resigned to the fact I’d never catch up. I’m very happy that the lessons will progress in a linear fashion with season 4.
My experience with meeting my Japanese girlfriend’s (now my wife) parents was very positive. They’ve always treated me very kindly and like one of the family. Everyone is so shocked that my wife’s Father treats me so good!
First time I came to Japan 4 years ago to meet the parents we went to an onsen in Nagano (my first experience). I had only known my wife’s Dad less than 12 hours and we were naked in an onsen! At that point I didn’t know much Japanese and he doesn’t know any English. Was a little awkward at first but easier now that I can speak Japanese a bit more.
Leave a Reply
Subscription Information
Course Information
Technical Information
Feature List
Video Guides
Privacy Statement
Category: Beginner Lessons (S4) |
Grammar: itasu, mōsu, suru | Function: introducing yourself | Topic: self introductions | Politeness Level: Humble, Polite
Share This