Archive for May, 2010 
Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Your significant other calls you at your office and tells you in Japanese, “Let’s go to lunch today.” Focused on responding to an e-mail on your computer, you respond in Japanese, “Uh-huh.” Your significant other continues in Japanese, “Let’s meet at the new place a few blocks from your office that serves sushi. Do you know the name of the place I’m talking about? What’s it called?” You respond in Japanese, “Uh-huh.” Your significant other then asks you in Japanese, “What did I just say to you?” You reply in Japanese, “Uh-huh.” Your significant other yells at you through the phone in Japanese, “Are you working while I’m talking to you? Put down that computer and meet me in front of the train station in ten minutes!”
Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Japanese Beginner lesson will show you how to say what something is named or called in Japanese. We’ll also teach you how to introduce a quotation and set a time to meet in Japanese. 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!
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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! You hear your friend creeping up on you, and suddenly he lets out a shriek. You turn around, and he is aiming for your leg with his foot. You ask him in Japanese, “What the heck is it that you think you’re doing?” He replies in Japanese, “Oh, I’m just practicing for my martial arts class tonight.” You respond in Japanese, “Have you lost your mind? You could have broken my leg!” He tells you in Japanese, “Well, no, not really. I’m not that good yet. But my teacher could! He’s so intimidating…sometimes I feel as if he could snap me into two pieces just by staring me down.” You tell him in Japanese, “Well, he sounds like a great instructor, but you just look ridiculous. Maybe you need to practice more!”
Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Japanese Culture Class lesson will tell you about an exciting form of martial arts that we call “Shorinji Kempo” in Japanese. We’ll tell you about the purpose and philosophy of this Japanese martial art, and we’ll also even show you some moves! Grab your “dogi” and “obi” (and you’ll have to tune in to figure out what these Japanese words mean), and let’s go! 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!
Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! You’re not sure how it happened, but you’ve become separated from your friends in Japan. The shopping area where you’ve been doing some shopping is huge. You can’t hope to find them in this enormous crowd. You decide to make your way back to the car and wait for them there. But just because it’s sensible, doesn’t make it easy. All the signs are in Japanese. You’ll have to ask for help. So preparing to use your best Japanese, you ask a lady standing nearby, “Excuse me, where is the exit?” She replies in Japanese, “It’s over there.” So you make your way to the exit, and as you get outside, you realize it’s not the same exit where you entered. Now you need more help. Well, at least you’ve had some practice now. So you ask in Japanese again, “Excuse me, where is the parking lot?” A man standing nearby answers in Japanese, “I don’t know, I came by train.” You try again with another person. “Excuse me, where is the parking lot?” “It’s over there,” he answers. Hopefully, once you get to the parking lot, you can find your friend’s car. You don’t think asking a stranger in Japanese, “Where is my friend’s car?” is going to get you far!
Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Basic Japanese video lesson is about not getting lost. It’s easy to get lost, even in your own home city. But in Japan, it’s even easier. So you must know how to ask where things are in Japanese. 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!
Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Your friend asks you in Japanese, “What do you think of the idea?” Your answer, in Japanese, is tentative and slightly irritated, although not at your friend. “I don’t know. It seems simple enough. The students make their own lunches five times during the year. Why the hassle? It doesn’t make sense to me. How many days a year are the students in school?” Your friend offers an uncertain Japanese answer, “I’m not sure, maybe 180?” You correct him in your irritated Japanese, “Not really, more like 210 days. For them to make their own lunches only five days in all that time is less than one time in two months. Surely this is a trivial thing.” Your Japanese friend begins to understand why your attitude is different than that of others. He explains in Japanese, “Ah, maybe you don’t quite understand the cultural thing. Traditions here go back thousands of years. We don’t change things easily or quickly. Having our kids make their own lunches five times a year might seem like nothing to you, but it makes Japanese households very stressful five times a year. Do you understand?” You’ve studied enough Japanese language and culture to understand what your friend is saying. “Yes, I can see that. Thank you for making me understand…now you just have a few more households all over Japan to go.”
Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Japanese Lower Intermediate lesson reviews the Japanese causative that you’ve been studying for the past few lessons. You’ll have a deeper understanding of the Japanese permissive, coercive, and the emotional forms of the Japanese causative. 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!
Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! You’ve heard this jibe so many times before, but never in Japanese. Your friend taunts in Japanese, “Why do you call it ‘football’ when everyone handles the ball with his hands?” No matter, it’s always the same effort to get your goat, regardless if it’s in Japanese or not. So you give the standard answer in Japanese, “Not true, actually. The kickers kick the ball on punts, kickoffs, field goals, and points after. And there are ways to kick the ball you’ve never even heard of. Besides, why do you call it football when players can touch the ball with their legs, backs, butts, chests, even their heads, and the goalie grabs the ball with his hands almost every time?” Said in Japanese or not, that generally slows them down for a while as they take it all in. Then you continue the onslaught, and to their surprise, in Japanese, “And don’t get me started on difficulty. How hard can it be to kick a round ball. You know exactly where it’s going to go, exactly how it will roll. The only thing you can do is put some spin on it. Try kicking a prolate spheroid and see if you can tell where it’s going to go, but guys in college can kick an American football for fifty meters and put it within vertical poles only four meters apart and three meters off the ground. I haven’t even mentioned the brutal tackling that’s a normal part of every play. Where is that in soccer?” Your Japanese friends look at you in wonder. How could you get all that out in Japanese? They admit defeat, sort of, with their rebuttal in Japanese, “Let’s talk baseball.”
Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Japanese Particle lesson is about wa, one of the most common Japanese particles, and its various uses. Learn how its use conveys a subtle interest in something other than the subject at hand. 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!
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