Learn about Japanese currency system; yen
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Lori’s Story 16. How to count money. Naomi-sensei, what are we doing today? |
| Naomi: 今日は (kyō wa), we are studying numbers again. Bigger numbers. |
| Eric: Well we just learned how to count up to 999. |
| Naomi: Today we are going to learn 1000s and millions and trillions... |
| Eric: Wait trillions? Can you imagine a trillion things? |
| Naomi: Stars. |
| Eric: Wow! You have a vast imagination. That’s good, Naomi-sensei. So Naomi-sensei, I miss Lori. |
| Naomi: Sorry, she won’t appear in today’s conversation. |
| Eric: She is not back yet? |
| Naomi: She is still in the shoe shop and choosing a nice pair. |
| Eric: Wait! So she is still trying to get those Alligator Skin pumps that I told you about? |
| Naomi: I don’t know. |
| Eric: Unbelievable, well so what happens this week? |
| Naomi: Mr. Mizuki and foreigner student are talking at 留学センター (ryūgaku sentā) and Mr. Mizuki is showing Japanese currency, 円 (en). |
| Eric: 円 (en) or in English Yen. All right, let’s see how much money he has. |
| DIALOGUE |
| (留学センター) (ryūgaku sentā) |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : これは、一円。一円玉。これは五円。五円玉。十円。十円玉。五十円。五十円玉。百円。百円玉。五百円。五百円玉。(Kore wa, ichi-en. Ichi-endama. Kore wa go-en. Go-endama. Jū-en. Jū-endama. Go-jū-en. Go-jū-endama. Hyaku-en. Hyaku-endama. Go-hyaku-en. Go-hyaku-endama.) |
| 留学生 (ryūgakusei) : はい。一、五、十、五十、百、五百。(Hai. Ichi, go, jū, go-jū, hyaku, go-hyaku.) |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : そうです。これは千円。千円札。二千円。二千円札。五千円。五千円札。それから、これは一万円。一万円札。(Sō desu. Kore wa sen-en. Sen-en satsu. Ni-sen-en. Ni-sen-en satsu. Go-sen-en. Go-sen-en satsu. Sorekara, kore wa ichi-man-en. Ichi-man-en satsu.) |
| 留学生 (ryūgakusei) : 千、二千、五千、一万。(Sen, ni-sen, go-sen, ichi-man.) |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : そうそう。(Sō sō.) |
| 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.) |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : これは、一円。一円玉。これは五円。五円玉。十円。十円玉。五十円。五十円玉。百円。百円玉。五百円。五百円玉。(Kore wa, ichi-en. Ichi-endama. Kore wa go-en. Go-endama. Jū-en. Jū-endama. Go-jū-en. Go-jū-endama. Hyaku-en. Hyaku-endama. Go-hyaku-en. Go-hyaku-endama.) |
| 留学生 (ryūgakusei) : はい。一、五、十、五十、百、五百。(Hai. Ichi, go, jū, go-jū, hyaku, go-hyaku.) |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : そうです。これは千円。千円札。二千円。二千円札。五千円。五千円札。それから、これは一万円。一万円札。(Sō desu. Kore wa sen-en. Sen-en satsu. Ni-sen-en. Ni-sen-en satsu. Go-sen-en. Go-sen-en satsu. Sorekara, kore wa ichi-man-en. Ichi-man-en satsu.) |
| 留学生 (ryūgakusei) : 千、二千、五千、一万。(Sen, ni-sen, go-sen, ichi-man.) |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : そうそう。(Sō sō.) |
| 今度は、英語が入ります。(Kondo wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| (留学センター) (ryūgaku sentā) |
| (Exchange Student Office) |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : これは、一円。一円玉。これは五円。五円玉。十円。十円玉。五十円。五十円玉。百円。百円玉。五百円。五百円玉。(Kore wa, ichi-en. Ichi-endama. Kore wa go-en. Go-endama. Jū-en. Jū-endama. Go-jū-en. Go-jū-endama. Hyaku-en. Hyaku-endama. Go-hyaku-en. Go-hyaku-endama.) |
| MIZUKI: This is one yen, a one yen coin. This is five yen, a five yen coin. Ten yen, a ten yen coin. Fifty yen, a fifty yen coin. One hundred yen, a hundred yen coin. Five hundred yen, a five hundred yen coin. |
| 留学生 (ryūgakusei) : はい。一、五、十、五十、百、五百。(Hai. Ichi, go, jū, go-jū, hyaku, go-hyaku.) |
| EXCHANGE STUDENT: Okay. One, five, ten, fifty, one hundred, five hundred. |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : そうです。これは千円。千円札。二千円。二千円札。五千円。五千円札。それから、これは一万円。一万円札。(Sō desu. Kore wa sen-en. Sen-en satsu. Ni-sen-en. Ni-sen-en satsu. Go-sen-en. Go-sen-en satsu. Sorekara, kore wa ichi-man-en. Ichi-man-en satsu.) |
| MIZUKI: That's right. This is one thousand yen, a thousand yen bill. Two thousand yen, a two thousand yen bill. Five thousand yen, a five thousand yen bill. And then, ten thousand yen, a ten thousand yen bill. |
| 留学生 (ryūgakusei) : 千、二千、五千、一万。(Sen, ni-sen, go-sen, ichi-man.) |
| EXCHANGE STUDENT: One thousand, two thousand, five thousand, ten thousand. |
| 水木 (Mizuki) : そうそう。(Sō sō.) |
| MIZUKI: There you go! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Naomi: Eric-san, I think the Japanese currency system is quite simple compared with dollars and… |
| Eric: Yeah, you think so? |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Eric: Well actually that’s true. You know, there is no sense. So there is no decimal point. For me, that’s the most convenient point about it. |
| Naomi: そう。(Sō.) |
| Eric: But it’s sort of like you are counting in pennies. Once you get the hang of it, then you don’t need a decimal point right because the numbers seem way bigger when you are coming from dollars but if you think of each yen almost as a penny, then it starts to make sense, more or less. It is pretty simple. It’s pretty simple numerically but physically you are going to have a big fat pocket full of coins eventually, right? |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Right. |
| Eric: Right, because like if you are dealing with dollars, when you have change, when you have coins in your pocket, those are negligible. You could throw them away or you can give them away and it’s not a big deal but in Japanese yen, you can be holding like $50 in your pocket in change, just in change, right? |
| Naomi: うん、うん、うん。(Un, un, un.) |
| Eric: And it won’t even weigh you down that much. |
| Naomi: Ah, because we have ¥500 coin, ¥100 coin and ¥500 coin. |
| Eric: That’s right and you could think about the ¥100 coin almost as the gold dollar with a dollar coin. |
| Naomi: Ah, $5 coins ってことだもんね (tte koto da mon ne). |
| Eric: Right and the ¥500 is like, it’s almost like a $5 coin, right? |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Eric: So you can be carrying serious money just in your loose change pocket. |
| Naomi: なるほどね。次は単語です。(Naruhodo ne. Tsugi wa tango desu.) |
| Eric: On to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Naomi: 円 (en) |
| Eric: Yen. |
| Naomi: (slow) えん (en) (natural speed) 円 (en) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 玉 (tama) |
| Eric: Ball, coin. |
| Naomi: (slow) たま (tama) (natural speed) 玉 (tama) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 千 (sen) |
| Eric: Thousand. |
| Naomi: (slow) せん (sen) (natural speed) 千 (sen) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 一万 (ichi-man) |
| Eric: Ten thousand. |
| Naomi: (slow) いちまん (ichi-man) (natural speed) 一万 (ichi-man) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 札 (satsu) |
| Eric: Bill. |
| Naomi: (slow) さつ (satsu) (natural speed) 札 (satsu) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: それから (sorekara) |
| Eric: And then, after that, and. |
| Naomi: (slow) それから (sorekara) (natural speed) それから (sorekara) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eric: Okay Naomi-sensei, let’s take a closer look at some of these words. What was our first word today? |
| Naomi: 玉 (tama) |
| Eric: 玉 (tama), it usually means ball, right? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: Or something round? |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Eric: But in this case, we want it to mean something different. |
| Naomi: In today’s dialogue, it meant coin. |
| Eric: Now is that common to call a coin 玉 (tama)? |
| Naomi: 玉 (tama) cannot be used by itself to mean in a sense of coin. |
| Eric: So I can’t say この玉 (kono tama), this this 玉 (tama), this coin? |
| Naomi: You can’t say that. You should say この硬貨 (kono kōka). |
| Eric: 硬貨 (kōka) which means hard money. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: Okay, which means physical hard coins? |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: Okay. So how do you use 玉 (tama)? |
| Naomi: For example, ¥1 coin would be 一円玉 (ichi-endama). |
| Eric: I see so you use, you add 玉 (tama) to the end of the denomination that you want to talk about. Alright, so for a ¥1 coin, it’s |
| Naomi: 一円玉 (ichi-endama) |
| Eric: And the word 玉 (tama) by itself is たま (tama) with the T right, but when you add it to the end of a word, it becomes |
| Naomi: だま (dama) |
| Eric: With a D. |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: Okay. How about a ¥5 coin? Your favorite. |
| Naomi: 五円玉 (go-endama) |
| Eric: And how about my favorite, the ¥100 coin? |
| Naomi: 百円玉 (hyaku-endama), and I think Japanese people pronounce as 円 (en) not yen. |
| Eric: That’s right. Why do we even pronounce it Yen in English? |
| Naomi: そう。なんで？(Sō. Nande?) |
| Eric: Yeah ey..Good question, right? Actually this yen in Japanese, it’s 円 (en) right, because the Chinese character, the kanji for it is pronounced 円 (en). |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: But it comes from China right and in China, it’s pronounced well okay I am no expert in Chinese but I think it’s pronounced Yuan or Yuen or something similar to that and possibly the English came from there. |
| Naomi: へえ～、知らなかった！(Heē, shiranakatta!) I didn’t know that. Wow! |
| Eric: Yeah and since they use the same character to mean their money, the 元 (gen), well, they use this character and a different character also for 元 (gen) but I think that might be where it came from because it’s kind of strange to call 円 (en), yen. |
| Naomi: そうね。(Sō ne.) |
| Eric: And it almost doesn’t make sense but you know what also doesn’t make sense? |
| Naomi: 何？(Nani?) |
| Eric: This is completely unrelated but it’s related to the Y at the beginning of a word like yen. Yebisu beer. Yebisu beer on the bottle, it has a Y like Yebisu. Nobody says that right like Ebisu and Yebisu. I mean, but anyway that has nothing to do with money. So we’ve only been talking about chump change up till now hah, just pocket change but anyway, let’s talk about bills. |
| Naomi: 札 (satsu) |
| Eric: All right. So what does that mean 札 (satsu)? |
| Naomi: Bills. Bank note. |
| Eric: That’s right bank notes, stuff that you usually put in your wallet rectangular piece of paper. |
| Naomi: I think I usually say お札 (o-satsu) instead of 札 (satsu). |
| Eric: Wait, wait but that you are talking about only when you use that word by itself, right? |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: Do you ever actually use it by itself? |
| Naomi: お札？あ～、使わないか。(O-satsu? Ā, tsukawanai ka.) |
| Eric: Not really not that much? |
| Naomi: Not really. |
| Eric: Right. I mean, that’s what I imagined. You don’t really have to use the word お札 (o-satsu) just by itself right because just like in 玉 (tama), we are going to add it to the end of the denomination that you talk about what type of money you want, right? So what kind of bills do you have in Japanese? |
| Naomi: 千円札 (sen-en satsu) |
| Eric: ¥1000. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: What’s the next bill that you have? |
| Naomi: 二千円札 (ni-sen-en satsu) |
| Eric: Okay, ¥2000. |
| Naomi: Yeah but nobody likes it though. |
| Eric: Really? Is it that nobody likes it or it’s just rare? It’s not in circulation. |
| Naomi: Nobody uses it. |
| Eric: Right, I mean I like it. No, it's nice. Maybe it’s nice just because it’s rare and then you get to the store and then you bust it out and everybody is like hey! Wow, hey that’s a ¥2000 note you got there. You know, it’s like having a $2 bill. |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Eric: Well I mean in America, $20 is the most common bill that you have but like a $2 bill, who has that? |
| Naomi: あ～、そっかそっかそっか。(Ā, sokka sokka sokka.) |
| Eric: I mean everybody has one they fold it up for good luck but nobody actually takes it out and uses it. So what’s the next bill that we have? |
| Naomi: 五千円札 (go-sen-en satsu) |
| Eric: The ¥5000 note. |
| Naomi: And finally the biggest bill in Japan is 一万円札 (ichi-man-en satsu). |
| Eric: The ¥10,000 note. And that’s the one I was talking about earlier. Right, hey to have your pocket full of those, feel like a king. |
| Naomi: It’s like having $100 in your pocket. |
| Eric: Yes, many pieces of $100 hah! And that’s actually very common. |
| Naomi: そうね。(Sō ne.) |
| Eric: At least in my personal experience, it’s not very common to see people walking around with tons of $100 bills but here in Japan, everyone mostly uses cash like you see everyone walking around with tons of ¥10,000 notes. |
| Naomi: 次は文法、じゃない。数字です。(Tsugi wa bunpō, janai. Sūji desu.) |
| Eric: Uhh…Naomi-sensei, throwing us a curveball. Next is not grammar but numbers. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: Okay, what kind of numbers do we have today? |
| Naomi: 千 (sen), 万 (man) |
| Eric: Uhh, alright. So let’s start with those 1000. |
| Naomi: 千 (sen) |
| Eric: Okay, so let’s count the thousands. 1000. |
| Naomi: 千 (sen) |
| Eric: So this number 千 (sen) is kind of like 100 百 (hyaku), right? |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: Where you don’t say 一百 (ichi-hyaku). |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Usually we don’t say 一千 (issen) for 1000. |
| Eric: Usually, okay I see. So when we talk about larger numbers that have to do with 千 (sen), you might say 一千 (issen). |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Or if you want to be more clear, you probably have to say 一千 (issen) sometimes. |
| Eric: Okay, so it’s not prohibited? |
| Naomi: No. |
| Eric: Because 一百 (ichi-hyaku) is absolutely nowhere, right? |
| Naomi: Prohibited. |
| Eric: Got it. So 2000. |
| Naomi: 二千 (ni-sen) |
| Eric: 3000. |
| Naomi: 三千 (san-zen) |
| Eric: Okay, pay attention here. The 千 (sen) which is usually SEN became |
| Naomi: ぜん (zen) |
| Eric: With a Z. 4000. |
| Naomi: 四千 (yon-sen) |
| Eric: 5000. |
| Naomi: 五千 (go-sen) |
| Eric: 6000. |
| Naomi: 六千 (roku-sen) |
| Eric: 7000. |
| Naomi: 七千 (nana-sen) |
| Eric: 8000. |
| Naomi: 八千 (hassen) |
| Eric: Okay, so in this case, the eight is not はち (hachi), it’s not はちせん (hachi-sen). |
| Naomi: No. |
| Eric: It becomes |
| Naomi: はっせん (hassen) |
| Eric: Okay. So it’s stretched out with a little つ (tsu). |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: はっせん (hassen). Okay and 9000? |
| Naomi: 九千 (kyū-sen) |
| Eric: So we just went through all the thousands and the only one that changed the word sen was 3000, right? |
| Naomi: はい。三千。(Hai. San-zen.) |
| Eric: There are no more zens. Good that’s pretty easy to remember. |
| Naomi: But be careful. You can’t say 十千 (jussen) for 10,000. |
| Eric: Because it has its own |
| Naomi: Word. |
| Eric: Word for it. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: It is its own little denomination. Okay, now on to that, what is that? |
| Naomi: 一万 (ichi-man) |
| Eric: 10,000. Okay, so any of the 10,000s will be counted as 万 (man). |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Eric: So how about 20,000? |
| Naomi: We say 2 of 10,000s. So 二万 (ni-man). |
| Eric: So what about 30,000? |
| Naomi: 三万 (san-man) |
| Eric: 40,000. |
| Naomi: 四万 (yon-man) |
| Eric: 50,000. |
| Naomi: 五万 (go-man) |
| Eric: 60,000. |
| Naomi: 六万 (roku-man) |
| Eric: 70,000. |
| Naomi: 七万 (nana-man) |
| Eric: 80,000. |
| Naomi: 八万 (hachi-man) |
| Eric: 90,000. |
| Naomi: 九万 (kyū-man) |
| Eric: You know, even though these numbers are pretty big, I think the 万 (man) were the easiest ones that you have done so far. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) There is no exceptions at all. |
| Eric: Right no exceptions. It doesn’t change. The numbers are straightforward. How about なな (nana) 7, 七万 (nana-man)? |
| Naomi: 七万 (nana-man) |
| Eric: Can you say しちまん (shichi-man)? |
| Naomi: しちまん (shichi-man), is fine but I think people would say ななまん (nana-man). |
| Eric: It’s easier to say right? |
| Naomi: はい。 (Hai.) |
| Eric: It’s just all us. So we went up to 90,000 but what if I wanted to say 91,000? |
| Naomi: ９万千 or ９万１千 (kyū-man sen) or (kyū-man issen) |
| Eric: Wow! That’s really easy. So you just say 90000 and then 1000 right after with no pause, no break, nothing in between. So how about 25000? |
| Naomi: ２万５千 (ni-man go-sen) |
| Eric: That’s pretty straightforward. So let’s take it up a notch. Alright, so how about 47320? |
| Naomi: ４万７千３百２０ (yon-man nana-sen san-byaku ni-jū) |
| Eric: So you start with the biggest number and work your way down to the smallest one in terms of the level of digits, right? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: The place numbers. So I want to make this clear for all of the people who are used to the English system of numbers right where the places are different. The places are the ones placed at 10ths place, the hundreds, thousands, then the next one would be million right and everything else is a compound of each other and so you get to billion and a new place comes after each comma. It doesn’t work the same way in Japanese. |
| Naomi: そうね。カンマがね、違うよね。(Sō ne. Kanma ga ne, chigau yo ne.) |
| Eric: Right. |
| Naomi: The place for the comma is different. |
| Eric: Exactly. The places for the commas are different and the places are different. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: Okay. So we have the 1s place, so to review, we have the 1s place. The 10s place, the 100s place, the 1000s place and the 10,000s place. And then after 10,000 the next place would be 100 million. |
| Naomi: あ～、１億。 (Ā, ichi-oku.) |
| Eric: １億 (ichi-oku) and everything in between are just compounds of each other. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) For example, 100,000 is 10万 (jū-man). |
| Eric: Ten 10,000s. |
| Naomi: One million is １００万 (hyaku-man) |
| Eric: One Hundred 10,000s. |
| Naomi: Ten million is １千万 (issen-man) |
| Eric: One Thousand 10,000s. |
| Naomi: Then we have １億 (ichi-oku) |
| Eric: And which is 100 million. Alright, I know that sounds complicated right now and it is, right? I mean it is pretty complicated because it’s a whole change in the paradigm and the way that you think about numbers but when you are counting things just by yourself or home or wherever and you are counting money, try to count it in Japanese and use the Japanese places in denomination to count whatever you are counting especially when you are dealing with big numbers. Alright, so with that in mind, why don’t we practice? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: So Naomi-sensei is going to say a number in Japanese. You pause this. We will give you some time, you think about it, you press play and I will say the answer. We will do that for five problems and then we will switch. |
| Naomi: 三千 (san-zen) |
| Eric: 3000. |
| Naomi: 八千 (hassen) |
| Eric: 8000. |
| Naomi: 四千 (yon-sen) |
| Eric: 4000. |
| Naomi: 九万 (kyū-man) |
| Eric: 90000. |
| Naomi: 二十万 (ni-jū man) |
| Eric: 200,000. |
| 2000. |
| Naomi: 二千 (ni-sen) |
| Eric: 3333. |
| Naomi: 三千三百三十三 (san-zen san-byaku san-jū san) |
| Eric: 9874. |
| Naomi: 九千八百七十四 (kyū-sen happyaku nana-jū yon) |
| Eric: 100,000. |
| Naomi: 十万 (jū-man) |
| Eric: 420,000. |
| Naomi: 四十二万 (yon-jū ni-man) |
| Eric: 3 million. |
| Naomi: 三百万 (san-byaku-man) |
| Eric: Well how was that Naomi-sensei, are you sweating? |
| Naomi: ねぇ。(Nee.) |
| Eric: Yeah, that was tough ha! But there are still a lot of numbers and a lot of combinations of numbers that we haven’t mentioned at all. For example, you know 10s of millions, 100s of millions, even billions that you can say by combining all the numbers we just learned, right? |
| Naomi: Right. |
Outro |
| Eric: All right and with that in mind, I will see you guys later. |
| Naomi: じゃ、また。(Ja, mata.) |
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