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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Your friends say they are going to introduce you to one of the great Japanese cultural events. But they won’t tell you where you’re going until you get there. You trust your Japanese friends, so you know it won’t be awful. But still, you’re getting a little nervous. What if they’ve arranged for a trip to a traditional Japanese bathhouse. You don’t think you could do that. However, as you get off the train, you see lots of people streaming into a building, so it looks to be okay. There couldn’t be that many people taking a bath all at once. Your friends hand you a ticket and announce you’re going to see a Japanese sumo wrestling match. “No way,” you exclaim in Japanese. At least you had the presence to say it in Japanese. “Yes,” they tell you in Japanese, “You’ll love it.” After you get to your seat, you see two enormous Japanese men staring at one another and you notice a small ring between them. You think the ring can’t be big enough to hold the two of them at once, much less allow them to wrestle. The gigantic Japanese men stretch and limber up. They each toss something—you know not what—over a shoulder and start to place themselves in the ring. The official checks each man. The two fighters tense and grimace. The official suddenly signals the start of the match. The giants catapult themselves at each other on thighs thicker than telephone poles. And it’s over in less than three seconds. “Wow, amazing!” you say in Japanese! But your friends stare in amazement at you because you have gotten the Japanese phrases correct all night!

Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Basic Japanese video lesson introduces you to three of the informal or casual Japanese phrases you will likely hear native Japanese speakers use frequently. It’s important to be formal and polite on the correct occasions in Japan, but it’s also important to know when to be informal or casual. 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!



This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Basic Japanese . 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.

36 Responses to “Basic Japanese #8 - Hiroko’s Top 3 Casual Japanese Expressions”

JapanesePod101.com says:

Hi mina-san! Which of Hiroko’s 3 casual expressions did you like the best? :kokoro: What other casual expressions do you like? :hachimaki:

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herbol says:

sugoi!!!! Hiroko wa kawaii desu! :smile:

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Prem says:

uso :twisted:

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Skasska says:

I just absolutely love the last part, when Hiroko-san acts ))) Great job, 皆-さん! ))) :razz:

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Totoro says:

博子さんん わ とても かわいい です。 :mrgreen:

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Horace Moning says:

Dear Sirs:I”am glad to be apart of your lesson and any other information i can get reguards.

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Dave Boyer aka 「ビッピー」 says:

2010.2.26

Konnichi wa, Hiroko san, Genki? Genki ippai desu.
The “u so!” comment was new to me. I wish to practice that a few different ways.

My fav casual expressions are….

Honto? Hontoni?!? (What?, Really? Are you kidding me?)
So so so! (Like, “Yep, I am listening to you. Maybe agreeing too).
Eetoo… (”I am thinking now. Collecting my thoughts. Like of like “Umm…” in english).
Ikemashoo! (Let’s go now! Let’s get going! Come on… let’s go together!).
Mizukashi. (That may be very difficult to do. That is difficult or complicated).
Omoshiroi! (That’s very interesting.)
Ohasashiburi. (Long time no see).
Tadaima! (I am home. I have just arrived home.) I have traveled to Japan 10 times since 1999. When my tomodachi meet me at Narita airport, I say, “Tadaima!” That helps them smile every time.

The ones I would like to learn are for these meanings……
This next idea is very important….
I’m a little tired.
The answer to “Tadaima!”
The expression to say to a friend when they leave. Is it “keotsukete”?
“I don’t know!” “I don’t really know.” “I have no clue!”
I remember.
I forgot.

That’s it for now. I really enjoyed this special lesson. Gambare.. Gambare!
Anatano tomodachi,
Dave Bippy Boyer :smile:

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Tim says:

:wink:
Hiroko san, first, your lesson is “Su-go i”!!!
second, your facial expression is very “Ga-wa i~~~~~~~~~~!”
third, this lesson is too short so, I would say, “U-so!!”
Last, I will never forget those three expressions - U-so, Ga-wa i-, and Su-go i.
Very well done, Hiroko sensei~~~! :razz:

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peter says:

sugoi!

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riyo says:

:shock:
konnichi wa!
hiroki san genki desu ka?
anata wa kawaii desu ne!
nagai kaiwa ga aru no ga hoshi desu ne !
arigato gozai masu yo!

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Cherish says:

I like two : Kawaii and Sugoi

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Dave "Bippy" Boyer says:

May I add two more fav Japanese expressions…

Daijoobu daijoobu desu (You’re fine. Everything is okay. No problem. No worries.).

Gambare, gambare! (Push forward with the strength & courage of a Samurai. You can say this to a friend who has yet to complete a difficult task. Or is about to take a final exam.).

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Score says:

@Cherish - Actually, I don’t like “kawaii” and “sugoi” - purely because they’re overused. You can’t go to any remotely-anime-related video on youtube without someone with a character from that anime in their username commenting “OMG soo kawaii sugoi desu ne~”… and making a fool of themselves multiple times per page.

On a separate note, if I couldn’t find my wallet, “uso” wouldn’t be my word of choice… but it’d be close enough ;)

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Jessi says:

Thanks for all of the comments, everyone! Glad you liked these casual Japanese expressions :mrgreen: :kokoro:

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Cherish says:

@Score

Ah I see, well for me these were the only two that seem to be familiar to me and I tend to use them alot. However I do agree with you that these two expression are overused.

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Mike says:

I think they forgot ‘Jouzu’ 上手

When you’re a Gaijin, if you use chopsticks, you’ll hear Jouzu desu ne! Speak a little Japanese, you’ll hear 日本語上手!!! I was there in the eighties, maybe things have changed, but the Japanese then really knew how to build a Gaijin’s self esteem with the Jouzu praise… :lol:

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Mike says:

I remember calling a Japanese girl ‘kowai’ (fearful) meaning to complement her, but I should have said kawai (cute)…I watch some anime…they like to say ‘chikushou’ alot…which has some kind of vulgar meaning?

I remember some of my Japanese friends would come up to me and say ’sit’, ’sit’, they where trying to be cool cursing in English, but left off the h…

Also had found memories of riding the Nambu line where they had a stop before Kawasaki Eki called ‘Shitte’, one of my English friends would pronounce it as ‘Shitteh’, which would make me laugh, I always thought it should have been pronounced as ‘Sshhtte’, the silent ‘i’ making it sound clean to the English speaking ear too. :mrgreen:

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Mike says:

南武-3, Shitte 尻手 (JR南武線)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbyLm0fUAmo

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Naomi says:

Mike-san
畜生 (ちくしょう or ちきしょう) means “beast”. It’s a pretty strong slang expresses the speaker’s anger irritation and so on.
I know it’s used a lot in Anime, Manga or Japanese drama, but I personally think in a real life situation, people use it in a joke manner.

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Hiroko says:

One other casual expression I use frequently is “Maji-de!?”-really!? it’s a casual form of “Honto-ni!?”-really!? :mrgreen:

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Mike says:

なぉみさん どぅも ぁりがと ござぃます :smile:

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tony says:

su go i thats amazing how u taught that way but thank you

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Jessi says:

tonyさん,
We’re glad you liked the lesson! Thanks!!

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Angry Katie says:

私の一番好きなのは”マジ”と”マジで?”

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etooo says:

ano… i want to see more of hiroko’s videos :sad: but I can’t seem to find them I only went up to 9 is that all the ones you made hiroko?! :cry: USOOO!

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Yosefu says:

what no more hiroko?!

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Daniel says:

すごい!! Hirokoさんはかわいーです

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Gorkem says:

すごい! Japanesepod101 はすごく かわい です!

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Alvin B. says:

I thought I had heard that すごい was perhaps used more by women than men. As a male, would I bought thought of as a girly-man for using these terms or are they gender neutral?

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Rorenu-san says:

my favorite word was KAWAII!!! :mrgreen:

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Ace.Beebs says:

Sugoi!! Great lesson and very entertaining! But i disagree, that jacket is not kawai-!

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Unlimit says:

Just to ask, how do we know when to write the sentence in Hiragana or in Kanji ?

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Motoko says:

Alvin B.-san,
I think it is neutral. But in casual conversation, males are tend to use すげぇ, which is really/super casual form of すごい.
Grown up males use すごい and it doesn’t mean he is girly-man.

Unlimit-san
Basically it depends.
Somebody who likes using kanji as much as they can, they probably write with lots of kanji, even if some of them are quite difficult to read.
We usualy use appropriate amount of kanji on writing because writing only in hiragana nor with too many kanji unable you to read easily.
The major kanjis are usually in the list of 常用漢字 joyokanji, which the ministry set up as a guideline. That means Japanese are supposed at least to read those kanji.
Lower Intermediate Season6 Lesson21 covers joyokanji. If you like, please check this out.

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Unlimit says:

Arigato goizaimasu !

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megumi says:

hiroko-sensei… kawaii!

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Varl says:

Hiroko-chan ^^

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