Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! You tell your colleague in Japanese, “I think I just said the wrong thing to our boss.” Your colleague replies in Japanese, “Oh no! What did you say?” You answer in Japanese, “I think I indirectly insulted his wife!” Your colleague asks in Japanese, “What do you mean?” You explain in Japanese, “Well, I think I said something about her family’s company. I didn’t know she was related to the people who own that company, and I made a disparaging comment about the company’s leadership. After all, it has been losing money for quite some time.” Your colleague says in Japanese, “Well, at least you didn’t insult the boss or his wife directly.” You nervously shift your weight from one foot to the other and ask in Japanese, “I guess…but what would you recommend I do to save face? I need to keep my job!”
Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Japanese Upper Intermediate lesson will teach you colloquial expressions using the Japanese word meaning “face.” We’ll explain you how to use it in many informal and formal Japanese sayings. 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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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Upper Intermediate Lessons (S4) . 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.
19 Responses to “Upper Intermediate Lesson S4 #14 - I Made a Mistake While Speaking Japanese, So I Need to Save Face!”
Tuesday at 6:30 pm
皆さん、こんにちは！
In this lesson, we introduce a lot of phrases that use the word 顔 (face). Are there any that stood out as interesting to you?
Can you think of any others, either in Japanese or in your native language?
Tuesday at 8:23 pm
こんばんは、みなさん。
ちょっと質問があるので、今日のレッスンと関係ないですから、答えてくれないかな。。。
どこかで見た二つのフレーズ：
「ついてるな」と「ついてるね」。訳は”lucky me” “lucky you”ずつです。よく分らないです。どうしてだろう。
教えていただけませんか？
Wednesday at 7:55 am
I know this song that’s called “Jyu-ku-sai” and in one of the lines the singer (I forget his name/band name) says 「だいきらいなかお十九才」 and I totally thought of it when I saw “face”.
Wednesday at 9:50 am
Alexis-san
The translation of ついてるな and ついてるね could be either “lucky me” or “lucky you”. It totally depends on the context.
Wednesday at 10:25 am
Kiki -san
I think that musician would be スガシカオ. He’s a well known singer.
Wednesday at 10:56 am
Naomi-sensei
omg I totally thought it was something like that! Being interested in music from different languages at a young age DOES help! . That song helped me remember the word daikirai.
Sunday at 10:00 am
会話に「俺の大事なお客さん＊に＊」という文章は “(among) my important clients” の翻訳があれのです。私は「俺の大事なお客さん＊で＊」という文章の方が良かったと思いましたのに、どちらの助詞でも良いでしょうか？
Sunday at 10:20 am
So if 顔が立つ means to ’save face’, how do you say ‘gain face’ and ‘lose face’?
Monday at 1:19 pm
Robert-san
どちらの助詞でもいいと思います。
「お客さん（のなか）に」ということなので、英語のamong my important clientsで全く問題ないと思います。
Monday at 1:33 pm
Jason-san
gain face＝「面目（めんもく）をたもつ」
lose face=「面目をうしなう」
Wednesday at 11:30 pm
im confused trying to figure out the meaning of:
神田さんがお世話になった
Wednesday at 11:40 pm
Thursday at 11:19 am
alejandro-san
Actually it’s a really good question!
●世話になる[ sewa ni naru]
＝ to be taken into care(by someone), to be indebted to..
●世話(を)する[ sewa (o) suru]
＝ to take care of (someone), to do assistance(literal translation)
As you can see from the translation, “sewa ni naru” has somewhat passive nuance. So the sentence structure is
[subjetc] wa/ga [someone] ni sewa ni naru.
=[Subject] is indebted to [someone]
This “ni” often replaced with “no”.
ex) 犬 は/が ハナコ に/の 世話になる。
The dog is taken into care by Hanako.(=Hanako helps the dog.)
I think “sewa o suru” is not that hard.
[Subject] wa [someone] no sewa o suru.
=[Subject] takes care of [someone]
(literal translation; [subject] do [someone]’s assistance.=subject helps someone)
ex) ハナコは 犬の 世話をする。
Hanako takes care of the dog.
I hope this helps.
Thursday at 11:39 am
I once wrote a followup letter to a Japanese person who had been my guide, and it went something like this:
私は二年前にお世話になったアメリカじんです。
Did I use osewa ni naru correctly in that sentence?
Thursday at 11:45 am
Robert-san
Yes.It’s a correct sentence.
If you write じん in Kanji like 人, it will be perfect.
Friday at 9:58 am
相変わらずすばらしくてわかりやすい説明してくれました.
that-s just the explanation i requested. thx
Thursday at 12:49 am
In English… not exactly an idiom, but there is the expression “poker face”, which means not showing any facial expression at all. It comes from the card game, Poker, which involves betting on the hand you have. You don’t want others to guess how good or bad your hand is. You can use this expression outside the context of Poker.
“He was poker-faced throughout the trial,” for example.
Thursday at 10:43 am
タネ-san
ありがとうございます！Thank you for the comment.
英語の勉強になりました！
日本語でも、ポーカーフェイスは時々使います。
In Japanese, we also say pookaa feisu.
For example, kare wa itsumo pookaa feisu da. “He always puts on his poker face.”
Friday at 12:41 am
Hello !
I enjoyed the lesson but I wish there was more grammar !
I failed JLPT 2 last time and I know I need to learn many more grammar patterns to have any chance this year.
Having words with ‘kao’ is not really a grammar point I’m afraid - it’s just a convenient way to learn some vocabulary !
Keep up the good work! David
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