Learn how to understand simple school announcements
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to JapanesePod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 12 - Is Your Japanese Class Cancelled? I’m Becky. |
| Natsuko: こんにちは。 なつこです。 |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use some sentence structures to express that there is or isn't a class at a certain time. The announcement takes place in a classroom. |
| Natsuko: The announcement is made by a teacher. |
| Becky: The speaker is making an announcement and using formal Japanese. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 先生:みなさん、あしたの午後は、じゅぎょうがありません。先生たちのかいぎがあります。 |
| : 午前中のじゅぎょうのあと、すぐにかえってください。 |
| : それから、あしたの１じかん目も、さんすうのじゅぎょうがありません。 |
| : とくべつじゅぎょうがあります。みんなでえいがをみます。 |
| : あしたの１じかん目は、ホールにあつまってください。 |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| 先生:みなさん、あしたの午後は、じゅぎょうがありません。先生たちのかいぎがあります。 |
| : 午前中のじゅぎょうのあと、すぐにかえってください。 |
| : それから、あしたの１じかん目も、さんすうのじゅぎょうがありません。 |
| : とくべつじゅぎょうがあります。みんなでえいがをみます。 |
| : あしたの１じかん目は、ホールにあつまってください。 |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Teacher: Everyone, there will be no class tomorrow afternoon. There will be a meeting for the teachers. |
| : So please go home right after classes in the morning. |
| : Also, you will not have mathematics in first period tomorrow. |
| : There will be a special class instead. We will watch a movie together. |
| : So, please come to the hall during first period tomorrow. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Natsuko: This announcement reminds me of when I had this kind of cancellation notice when I was in the 2nd year of high school. |
| Becky: The 2nd year of high school means.. 11th grade? |
| Natsuko: That’s right. As some of our listeners might already know, the Japanese educational system is a 6-3-3 system. |
| Becky: That’s six years of elementary school, three years of junior high school and three years of senior high school, right? |
| Natsuko: That’s right. So you might hear Japanese students say 高校２年生. This means that they are in their 2nd year of senior high school. |
| Becky: What about Junior high school? How do they say the 1st year of Junior high? |
| Natsuko: ちゅうがっこう is the word for “junior high school” so a first year student in Junior high would be ちゅうがっこう１年生。In the same way, you can say しょうがっこう3年生 to mean “the third year of elementary school.” |
| Becky: For reference, Japanese schools start their academic years in April. So, come April, many Japanese people get into the mood to learn or start something new, even if they graduated school many years ago. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Natsuko: じゅぎょう [natural native speed] |
| Becky: class |
| Natsuko: じゅぎょう[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: じゅぎょう [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: たち [natural native speed] |
| Becky: pluralizing suffix |
| Natsuko: たち[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: たち [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: すぐに [natural native speed] |
| Becky: instantly, immediately |
| Natsuko: すぐに[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: すぐに [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: かえる [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to go home |
| Natsuko: かえる[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: かえる [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: さんすう [natural native speed] |
| Becky: mathematics |
| Natsuko: さんすう[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: さんすう [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: とくべつ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: special |
| Natsuko: とくべつ[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: とくべつ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: ホール [natural native speed] |
| Becky: hall |
| Natsuko: ホール[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: ホール [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: あつまる [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to gather |
| Natsuko: あつまる[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: あつまる [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: め [natural native speed] |
| Becky: ordinal number suffix |
| Natsuko: め [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: め [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last.. |
| Natsuko: あと [natural native speed] |
| Becky: after |
| Natsuko: あと[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: あと [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Natsuko: 先生たち |
| Becky: meaning "teachers" in plural. |
| Natsuko: 先生(sensei) is a noun meaning "teacher" and it’s followed by the word たち。 たち is a suffix which is attached to personal pronouns or human proper nouns and makes the preceding noun plural. |
| Becky: So “teachers” in Japanese is..? |
| Natsuko: 先生たち。Just 先生 can definitely be used to mean “teachers” too, but you can use たち to specifically say that there is more than one teacher. |
| Becky: And what if we want to say "teachers" more politely to express your respect to teachers? |
| Natsuko: For a more polite way, you say 先生がた (sensei-gata) instead of 先生たち (tachi.) |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Natsuko: Sure. For example, if someone asks 先生たちは、どこにいますか。 |
| Becky: “Where are the teachers?” |
| Natsuko: You can reply by saying.. 先生たちは、かいぎをしています。 |
| Becky: “They have a meeting." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Natsuko: １じかん目 |
| Becky: meaning "first period" |
| Natsuko: As we saw in the vocab list, 目 (me) is the suffix used to make ordinal numbers. じかん (jikan) basically means "period of time" and when it's used for a school time schedule, じかん means "class period." So, いちじかん目(ichi-jikan-me) means "the first period." |
| Becky: Okay. So basically this word refers to the first class of the day in a school timetable. |
| Natsuko: That’s right. In Japanese schools, there are six or seven classes a day. When you want to say the first class of the day, you can say １じかん目 |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Natsuko: Sure... 一じかん目は、英語のじゅぎょうです。 |
| Becky: "The first period is English class." Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn the sentence structure you can use to say that there is or isn't a class at a certain time. |
| Natsuko: First, let’s review two verbs that indicate existence. あります |
| Becky: This means “to have” or “there is.” |
| Natsuko: ありません |
| Becky: “not to have” or “there is not.” |
| Natsuko: You’ll often hear あります and ありません during an announcement such as the one in the dialogue. |
| Becky: So Natsuko, using these words, how can we say “There are no classes.”? |
| Natsuko: じゅぎょうがありません。 じゅぎょう is the word meaning “classes.”, が is the subject-marking particle, and it’s followed by ありません meaning “not to have.” じゅぎょうがありません。 |
| Becky: And of course, these kinds of announcements usually need to mention the time period they are talking about, such as “there are no classes tomorrow.” |
| Natsuko: That’s right. So, to mean “there are no classes tomorrow”, you can add the time expression, in this case, あした、at the beginning, and say あしたは、じゅぎょうがありません。 |
| Becky: Please note that the time expression is marked by the topic marking particle, |
| Natusko: は |
| Becky: So, the sentence structure to say “there is or isn’t a class at a certain time,” is, |
| Natsuko: [Time expression] は、じゅぎょうがあります。 or [Time expression] は、じゅぎょうがありません。 |
| Becky: Okay. What about “next week?” |
| Natsuko: “Next week” in Japanese is らいしゅう so you can start with らいしゅう followed by the topic marking particle, は. So it will be らいしゅうは、じゅぎょうがありません。 |
| Becky: This sentence formation can be used with words other than “class”, such as “singing practice” |
| Natsuko: うたのれんしゅう |
| Becky: “Tomorrow, there will be singing practice.” would be, |
| Natsuko: あしたは、うたのれんしゅうがあります。 |
| Becky: Okay. What about “next week?” |
| Natsuko: らいしゅうは、うたのれんしゅうがあります。 |
| Becky: “Next week, there will be singing practice.” Alright, that seems clear, but listeners, if anything is unclear to you, you can always check out the lesson notes for more examples! |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Natsuko: またねー |
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