Learn about usage of particle -mo
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Lori’s Story 9, how to make friends. Naomi-sensei, please tell me how to make friends. I really need to know. |
| Naomi: You don’t have to know. You have plenty of friends, right? |
| Eric: Naomi-sensei, come on. Alright, so what’s going on today with Lori? |
| Naomi: I think it’s her first day at school. |
| Eric: That’s right and on her way to school, she meets a neighbor. They are probably what, introducing themselves. So today we are going to study |
| Naomi: Self introduction. |
| Eric: That’s right and this conversation between these students is pretty useful because they are going to introduce a lot of phrases that students use like major and you know, university names and all that stuff. So okay let’s listen. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 静 (Shizuka) : 学生ですか。(Gakusei desu ka.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : はい。月大学(つきだいがく)の留学生です。(Hai. Tsuki Daigaku no ryūgakusei desu.) |
| 静 (Shizuka) : うそ？月大(つきだい)？私も 月大(つきだい)の 学生です。(Uso? Tsukidai? Watashi mo Tsukidai no gakusei desu.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : 本当？何年生ですか。(Hontō? Nan-nensei desu ka.) |
| 静 (Shizuka) : 二年生です。専攻は英語学です。私は 火川静(ひかわ しずか)です。よろしく。(Ni-nensei desu. Senkō wa Eigogaku desu. Watashi wa Hikawa Shizuka desu. Yoroshiku.) |
| もう一度、お願いします。今度は、ゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do, onegai shimasu. Kondo wa, yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| 静 (Shizuka) : 学生ですか。(Gakusei desu ka.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : はい。月大学(つきだいがく)の留学生です。(Hai. Tsuki Daigaku no ryūgakusei desu.) |
| 静 (Shizuka) : うそ？月大(つきだい)？私も 月大(つきだい)の 学生です。(Uso? Tsukidai? Watashi mo Tsukidai no gakusei desu.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : 本当？何年生ですか。(Hontō? Nan-nensei desu ka.) |
| 静 (Shizuka) : 二年生です。専攻は英語学です。私は 火川静(ひかわ しずか)です。よろしく。(Ni-nensei desu. Senkō wa Eigogaku desu. Watashi wa Hikawa Shizuka desu. Yoroshiku.) |
| 今度は、英語が入ります。(Kondo wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 静 (Shizuka) : 学生ですか。(Gakusei desu ka.) |
| SHIZUKA: Are you a student? |
| ロリー (Rorī) : はい。月大学(つきだいがく)の留学生です。(Hai. Tsuki Daigaku no ryūgakusei desu.) |
| LORI: Yes. I'm an exchange student at Tsuki University. |
| 静 (Shizuka) : うそ？月大(つきだい)？私も 月大(つきだい)の 学生です。(Uso? Tsukidai? Watashi mo Tsukidai no gakusei desu.) |
| SHIZUKA: You're kidding. Tsuki University? I go to Tsuki University too. |
| ロリー (Rorī) : 本当？何年生ですか。(Hontō? Nan-nensei desu ka.) |
| LORI: Really? What year? |
| 静 (Shizuka) : 二年生です。専攻は英語学です。(Ni-nensei desu. Senkō wa Eigogaku desu.) |
| SHIZUKA: I'm a sophomore and majoring in English. |
| 静 (Shizuka) : 私は 火川静(ひかわ しずか)です。よろしく。(Watashi wa Hikawa Shizuka desu. Yoroshiku.) |
| SHIZUKA: I'm Hikawa Shizuka. Nice to meet you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Hey Naomi-sensei, is 月大 (Tsukidai) a real university? |
| Naomi: No, I just made it up. |
| Eric: It sounds cool, it sounds real. |
| Naomi: あ、本当？(A, hontō?) |
| Eric: I really thought I was like wow! I think I’ve heard of that school but I just didn’t know where it was. |
| Naomi: Yeah we have 日大 (Nichidai) which is 日本大学 (Nihon Daigaku). |
| Eric: All Japanese schools, their names are shortened, right? |
| Naomi: Yeah, most of them. |
| Eric: Most of them like something, something 大学 (daigaku) they are shortened to something 大 (dai). Let’s give some examples. The most famous one, Tokyo University, right? |
| Naomi: Oh yes, 東京大学 (Tōkyō Daigaku) becomes 東大 (Tōdai). |
| Eric: 東大 (Tōdai) and that’s what everyone calls 東京大学 (Tōkyō Daigaku). 東京芸術大学 (Tōkyō Geijutsu Daigaku). That’s a huge super long name. |
| Naomi: That’s your university, right? |
| Eric: What do we call it? |
| Naomi: 芸大 (Geidai) |
| Eric: That’s right. That’s what it’s usually called. |
| Naomi: すっごい短いね。(Suggoi mijikai ne.) That’s very short. |
| Eric: Yeah, it went from what, six characters to two. For those of you out there who are familiar with Japanese government scholarships, what’s the name of that ministry that gives out the scholarship? |
| Naomi: 文部科学省 (Monbu kagakushō) |
| Eric: So it’s what the ministry of literature, science, education, whatever all that stuff, right? |
| Naomi: Yeah we usually call it 文科省 (Monkashō). |
| Eric: Wow, that’s pretty convenient and most of these organizational names or place names have some sort of abbreviation. Not only that, but regular words have abbreviations too. So keep your ears peeled for those. Okay, on to the vocabulary or in our English abbreviation, on to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Okay, what’s the first word? |
| Naomi: 留学生 (ryūgakusei) |
| Eric: Foreign student. |
| Naomi: (slow) りゅうがくせい (ryūgakusei) (natural speed) 留学生 (ryūgakusei) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 学生 (gakusei) |
| Eric: Student. |
| Naomi: (slow) がくせい (gakusei) (natural speed) 学生 (gakusei) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 英語 (Eigo) |
| Eric: English, the English language. |
| Naomi: (slow) えいご (Eigo) (natural speed) 英語 (Eigo) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 専攻 (senkō) |
| Eric: Major. |
| Naomi: (slow) せんこう (senkō) (natural speed) 専攻 (senkō) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 本当 (hontō) |
| Eric: Really, truly, truth, reality. |
| Naomi: (slow) ほんとう (hontō) (natural speed) 本当 (hontō) |
| Eric: The next phrase is |
| Naomi: 何年生 (nan-nensei) |
| Eric: What grade, what year? |
| Naomi: (slow) なんねんせい (nan-nensei) (natural speed) 何年生 (nan-nensei) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 月 (tsuki) |
| Eric: Moon. |
| Naomi: (slow) つき (tsuki) (natural speed) 月 (tsuki) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 大学 (daigaku) |
| Eric: University. |
| Naomi: (slow) だいがく (daigaku) (natural speed) 大学 (daigaku) |
| Eric: You know what I am really liking 月大学 (Tsuki Daigaku), the more I hear it. We should make a school with that name. Alright, so let’s take a closer look at some of these words in the conversation. In the conversation, when Lori met this girl and she told her she was from 月大学 (Tsuki Daigaku), she was surprised. She was like, no way. What did she say? |
| Naomi: うそ？(Uso?) |
| Eric: Which means that’s a lie. |
| Naomi: そう。(Sō.) You kidding? |
| Eric: Exactly so it doesn’t literally mean you are a liar but it’s more you know in English, we say it all the time like no way. Get out of here. Stuff like that. うそ！(Uso!) Right? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: And then 静 (Shizuka) told Lori that she is a 月大 (Tsukidai) student too and then Lori was surprised and she said |
| Naomi: 本当？(Hontō?) |
| Eric: Really? These two phrases are really used all the time. |
| Naomi: All the time. |
| Eric: Because people say unbelievable things all the time right, right Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: I think people use them as an interjection. |
| Eric: I see. |
| Naomi: 本当？うそ？(Hontō? Uso?) |
| Eric: うそ？ (Uso?) So 本当 (hontō) means really in this case because there she is asking a question because the intonation goes up at the end but in terms of pronunciation, this word is pretty flexible. What’s the correct standard pronunciation for this word? |
| Naomi: (slow) ほんとう (hontō) (natural speed) 本当 (hontō) |
| Eric: 本当。(Hontō.) There is an う (u) at the end. |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: When you write it in hiragana right but some people don’t pronounce it. They say ほんと？(honto?) |
| Naomi: そうですね (sō desu ne), right. In a casual situation, ほんと？(honto?) |
| Eric: Another word here was major like university major. |
| Naomi: 専攻 (senkō) |
| Eric: That’s right and 静 (Shizuka) told Lori what her major was but she didn’t say I. She just said major is, |
| Naomi: Right. She omitted 私の (watashi no). |
| Eric: Right because it’s pretty obvious. She is not going to tell Lori what Lori’s major is, right? Still wouldn’t make sense and as we said so many times before, you can always omit the subject if it’s clear okay when you are talking about your major, when you are talking about something that obviously relates to you, don’t say 私の (watashi no). It’s less natural. So just say 専攻は日本語です (senkō wa Nihon-go desu). |
| Naomi: 専攻は英語です。(Senkō wa Eigo desu.) |
| Eric: My major is Japanese, my major is English. It’s clear that it’s about you. So on to the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: All right. So let’s talk about today’s grammar point. |
| Naomi: も (mo). The particle も (mo) is today’s topic. |
| Eric: That’s right, も (mo). It’s a particle and it connects nouns. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: What does it do? What does it mean? |
| Naomi: It adds the meaning too or also. |
| Eric: If I were to say 私は人間です (watashi wa ningen desu), I am a human, what would you say, Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: 私も人間です。(Watashi mo ningen desu.) |
| Eric: うそ～？(Usō?) There you go. I am also a human. All right, so why don’t we breakdown the sentence as 静 (Shizuka) said? |
| Naomi: 私も月大の学生です。(Watashi mo Tsukidai no gakusei desu.) |
| Eric: I am also a 月大 (Tsukidai) student. All right, let’s break it down. |
| Naomi: 私 (watashi) |
| Eric: I, me. |
| Naomi: も (mo) |
| Eric: Also. |
| Naomi: 月大 (Tsukidai) |
| Eric: Tsuki University. |
| Naomi: の (no) |
| Eric: The possessive particle. |
| Naomi: 学生 (gakusei) |
| Eric: Student. |
| Naomi: です (desu) |
| Eric: Copula, equivalent to is. In the examples we’ve given so far, we’ve used only the noun 私 (watashi). The subject 私 (watashi), okay me. So something also about you but can you use it for other things? |
| Naomi: Of course. |
| Eric: Okay, so we have some medicine here. We would say this is medicine. |
| Naomi: これは薬です。(Kore wa kusuri desu.) |
| Eric: And then I would take out my medicine and I would say, this is also medicine. |
| Naomi: これも薬です。(Kore mo kusuri desu.) |
| Eric: That’s right use これ (kore) this and it could mean this is also. You could also use it not only for これ (kore) but それ (sore), あれ (are). All the ones we’ve learned before that mean that are the general this and that and that one over there. It’s pretty free. So you guys out there, if you want to practice, just look around you and see stuff that are similar like pens. If you have more than one, say これはペンです (kore wa pen desu) pens and the other one over there. |
| Naomi: あれもペンです。(Are mo pen desu.) Just replace は (wa) with も (mo). |
| Eric: All right. Also in this conversation, Lori asked 静 (Shizuka) what year she is? What grade she is in. |
| Naomi: 何年生ですか。(Nan-nensei desu ka.) |
| Eric: It’s right. What year are you in and 年生 (nensei) of course as you already know なん (nan) is short for なに (nani) which is what and 年生 (nensei) is the counter which means year, student. |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: Literally, all right and since we learned numbers in the previous episode. Hey no matter how many times you fail, you can say what year you are all right. No problem for any of you out there who is like a 10th year student. So hey, let’s practice. I am a freshman, I am a first year student. |
| Naomi: 一年生 (ichi-nensei) |
| Eric: I am a sophomore. |
| Naomi: 二年生 (ni-nensei) |
| Eric: I am a junior. |
| Naomi: 三年生 (san-nensei) |
| Eric: I am a senior. |
| Naomi: 四年生 (yo-nensei), and the question would be 何年生ですか (nan-nensei desu ka). |
| Eric: Pretty straightforward. Okay Naomi-sensei, let’s practice. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: Okay, you meet someone for the first time, a person that’s really young. You think they might be a student. So the conversation starts with |
| Naomi: 学生ですか。(Gakusei desu ka.) |
| Eric: Are you a student? It’s kind of weird. |
| Naomi: Are you a student? |
| Eric: Without even saying hello, you don’t even say hello. Hey, are you a student? And then, but the person doesn’t care. They don’t think it’s unnatural at all. They say |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| Eric: Yes, that’s right. And then you want to know a little bit more just because you really care. You want to know what year they are in. |
| Naomi: 何年生ですか。(Nan-nensei desu ka.) |
| Eric: What year are you and then the person replied |
| Naomi: 大学三年生です。(Daigaku san-nensei desu.) |
| Eric: I am a 3rd year university student but then you are just a little bit noisy and you really want to know a little bit more, what else would you ask? |
| Naomi: 専攻は何ですか。(Senkō wa nan desu ka.) |
| Eric: What’s your major and then it turns out her major is |
| Naomi: 英語。英語です。(Eigo. Eigo desu.) |
| Eric: Oh that means you can speak to her in English, Naomi-sensei. |
| Naomi: Lucky you. |
| Eric: Lucky you! |
Outro |
| Eric: All right, it’s right about time for me to talk more with my newly made friend that I found out their major is English. So I will see you guys next time. |
| Naomi: じゃ、また。(Ja, mata.) |
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