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Imagine that you’re lost and running late for your big job interview in Japan. You stop and ask for directions. Someone might say, “Turn right at the next traffic signal” or “It’s by the convenience store on the corner.” One problem: you can’t understand what they are saying! Understanding simple, common directions is your key to getting around.

The beginner Japanese lesson will help you find your way! Master Japanese phrases such as sanbanme no kōsaten (the third intersection) and Massugu itte kudasai (please go straight). This JapanesePod101.com lesson introduces you to the critical Japanese phrases you need to get around.

Drive in Japan



This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Beginner Season 4 . 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.

32 Responses to “Beginner Lesson S4 #11 - Three’s A Crowd”

JapanesePod101.com says:

Mina-san, Do you like driving?

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Chiller says:

うんてんするのがきらいです。だからにほんへいくとJRPassをかうつもりです。

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Angie says:

うんてんする事が大好きですが、右と左は少し まぎらわしい ですけど。
I love driving but left and right are a bit confusing to me :lol: (also in my native language I mean :lol: )

Peterさん  :cool: , Naomi先生  :dogeza: , Jun  :grin:  I’m glad you’re still with the group (I am listening the 3 years ago lessons)

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Angie says:

Ps. Now I know how to reach you all :mrgreen:
uah, :nihon: へ行きたいです!

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プチクレア says:

実は運転ができません…. :oops:

I don’t recommend for 雷三さん to try and get into the car navigation business… He’s not the friendliest guide I’ve heard…

I can’t wait for next week and, hopefully, 雪男さん’s reaction to the “blind date” :mrgreen: !

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Angie says:

:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: does 雪男 really means what I think it means? :shock: X°D

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MAi says:

Great!!!

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Joao Paulo says:

unten suru no ga suki desu ka!

demo, shitsumon ga arimasu.

What’s the difference between “me” and “dai” in the formation of ordinal numbers?

Is ichi me and dai ichi interchangeable? Can they be used together (dai ichi me)??

Thank you in advance!!! :hachimaki:

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rufus709 says:

Can someone please explain to me why “wo” is used instead of “de”? How would one say “turn the intersection” instead of “turn at the intersection”?

I guess I’m struggling with it too just like Peter did. Thanks in advance; I really appreciate it.

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maxiewawa says:

Rufus-san, there’s no reason. It’s just one of those things about Japanese you have to remember.

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Hiroko says:

Chiller さん> とくに、とうきょうで うんてん するのは たいへんですね  :shock:

Angieさん>わたし は なんどか アメリカで みぎ と ひだり を まちがえて うんてんしていました  :oops:  (In the States, sometimes I drove on the right side of the road and got in trouble!)

プチクレアさん>フランスでは くるまに のる人と でんしゃに のる人は どっちが おおいですか?(In France, which transportation is more popular, cars or trains?)

Joao Paulo san> Usually when ichi and me are used together, you need to add particles such as ban = number or nichi = day between them to show orders: ichi ban me =first ichi nichi me first day, day one, ni kai me= second time
If you use hitotsu you can just add me and say hitotsu me

ex: hitotsu me no shingo o migi ni magaru
ichiban me no shingo o migi ni magaru

dai comes in front of the ordinal numbers, such as dai ichi sousha =First runner
while me comes followed by the numbers, such as ichi ban me no sousha =First runner

And yes, me and dai can be used together, following the rules I just stated above.
dai ikkai me but in the sentence either dai or me is used instead of those two together even though it still makes sense.

Hope this didn’t cause more confusion :dogeza:

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giovanni says:

Hello. Though I thoroughly enjoy most lessons. There are a few recurrent issues that trouble me. One is about the so called “literal'’ translations you seem to love so much. Another, is the claim that grammar precedes the spoken language. What is apparent in this lesson is the problem of insisting to consider “no” as possessive, instead of a generic noun modifier, and forcing what you call a “literal'’ interpretation. Why is a “literal'’ translation such as “the next’s intersection” of any use? The intersection belongs to next? Here it’s more like a descriptive relationship. This supposedly “literal” interpretation can lead to meaningless statements or worse: completely wrong ones. In fact, often it can result in wrong interpretations. Once you used the same “literal” device for “Tonari no totoro.” The neighbor’s totoro? Even the “convenience store’s corner” supposedly helpful interpretation is actually not a possessive case. I do not think that perpetrating this approach, now also in the PDF files, even at the beginner’s level, is of any benefit to anyone learning the language.

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Joao Paulo says:

Hiroko-san

Hontou ni arigatou gozaimasu!

That was a very nice explanation. I always wondered why the ordinal numbers where formed in two different ways. Thank you for helping me out.

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rufus709 says:

Maxiewawa, what I mean is it seems more intuitive that “de” would go there since its describing what in English would be a prepositional noun phrase, as opposed to the object; that is, being used exactly as I expect “de’ to be used. This is exactly why I want to know how to say “to turn an intersection.”

Anyone have something more constructive and specific than “just something I have to remember?” Are there instances where “de” and “wo” are interchangeable?

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トム says:

Is there any difference between 二番目の信号 (nibanme no shingou) and 二つ目の信号 (futatsume no shingou)?

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Hiroko says:

rufus709 san> Woops! I meant to reply to your message :shock:
As introduced in this lesson and NihongoDojo Style you 22, for indicating locations you use de.
You may use de in this case too: tsugi no shingō de migi ni magari masu. 

My explanation for the differences of the usage would be like this: Even though de is commonly used to indicate locations, for showing directions on the street, o is more commonly used, such as tsugi no shingo o migi ni magaru“turn right at the next light” or koko o massugu itte kudasai“please go straight here”. So, both “turn right at the next intersection” and “turn the next intersection to the right” can be tsugi no kōsaten o migi ni magaru, and as I mentioned above, using o sounds more natural when talking about directions on the street.
Therefore, o and de are not interchangeable in other cases such as hirugohan o kōen de taberu “I eat lunch in(at) the park”, you can’t say hirugohan o kōen o taberu.

It sounds complicated, but did that help you? :dogeza:

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Hiroko says:

トムさん>二番目の信号 and 二つ目の信号 are the same :grin: Maybe my explanation above will help you understand the usage of those two a bit more :dogeza:

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Hiroko says:

giovanni san> Thanks for the insight! It’s added to JPod101 Idea bank! :dogeza:
With that, let me explain a little about what you mentioned for those who may be confused with this “possessive” description of no.
no has more functions such as “for”, “to”, “of”, “on”, “in” etc. as case particles. :dogeza: in today’s dialogue it was used as case particles for showing location/ordinal number.

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rufus709 says:

Hiroko-san, thank you so much for the reply. Yes, that explanation was exactly what I was looking for. No worries, I understand you must be very busy. Thank you for all your hard work - otsukaresama deshita

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Kobukuro says:

Dear JPod-Team,

the review-file doesn’t work :sad: !

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JKid says:

Kobukuro-san,
The review file is playing for me. Please try to play the file again. If it still does not work please try pressing Shift + F5 and then trying a third time. If you are still having problems please let me know. Thanks. :)

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Mikeydo says:

Hello, I’ve learned that the word “tomaru” is to stop etc.
but in this podcast I heard “tomEru”
can someone explain the discrepancy between these? Did I learn this wrong? or maybe there is a subtle difference? or maybe just a conjucation I’m not understanding?
Any help would be appreciated. I’m a little confused about the difference.

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Naomi says:

Mikeydo-san
Tomaru is an intransitive verb whereas tomeru is a transitive verb.
Both tomaru and tomeru can be translated as “to stop” in English. However the usage of Japanese Tomaru and Tomeru are different.

Tomaru means “to stop” as in “The car stops”-Kuruma ga tomaru. Who did stopped the car is not mentioned. It’s just stating the fact the car stopped. The thing stopped is marked by particle “ga”.

Tomeru, on the other hand, is a transitive verb. So you need an object.
Watashi wa kuruma o tometa. Please notice that the subject is marked by wa and object is marked by o.

We haven’t introduced “intransitive verb” and its usage in this series yet.
The difference between transitive and intransitive verb will be explained in beginner series season 5 lesson 18. :wink:

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Mikeydo says:

Thank you Naomi-san, that’s very helpful :smile:

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Sebastian says:

I’ve been practicing the -て forms of all the verbs I know. If I understood correctly,
行く (iku) becomes 行って (itte), and
言う (iu) becomes 言って (itte).

Is that right? They’re both pronounced the same? (And does that ever get confusing? :) )

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Motoko says:

Sebastian-san,
Yes, 言って and 行って are correct.
Actually, people are sometimes/often confused 行って and 言って but we can understand the difference by the context :grin:

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Sebastian says:

ありがとうございました、Motokoさん

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Jack says:

This question has been bugging me for a while, and I noticed it again in this audio. It seems to me, that for some native Japanese speakers, the “g” sound sounds like an “n” (or at least is very soft)? The first word in this audio, 次 (つぎ) doesn’t sound like “tsu”-”gi” to me. More like “tsu”-”ni”. I noticed it again in the vocabulary when Naomi pronounced “ma-ga-ru” slowly it sounds more like “ma-na-ru”. Or do I just need to get my ears checked? :)

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Motoko says:

Jack-san,
You have a really good ear. :grin:
Actually we pronounce g-sounds after other sounds like between /g/ and /n/.
When g-sound comes at the beginning of a word, it doesn’t happen.
ex)学校 gakko
小学校 Sho”ga”kko
but recently this differences is disappearing and /ga/ is taking up initiative.

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亀井 says:

はい、私は運転すろは大好きです。私はフオルドF−250が持ちます。

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Motoko says:

亀井さん
運転するのが好きですか。 いいですね~!
We say ~を持っています as “to have/possess something.”
This series Lesson#13&14 covers this grammar pattern :wink:

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亀井 says:

素子さん、

はい、as in “I have and am continuing to have.”

よし、わたくしは運転するのが大好きです。私はフォルドF−250を持っています。楽しくて、強くて、大きなトラックですよ。

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