Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! You’re on your way to meet your new host family in Japan, and you’re nervous about meeting them. In fact, you’re fidgeting so much your taxi driver asks you in Japanese, “Are you feeling okay?” You assure him in Japanese, “Yes, I’m fine, just let me decompress from my travels,” but really, your mind is going a million miles a minute. You’ve heard other positive stories about staying in Japan from your friends who have done it before, and they all tell you they learned a ton of Japanese and made some great Japanese friends. You’re definitely looking forward to those two things-especially since your Japanese grade could use a little bit of help. However, you’re also worried about some cultural differences with the Japanese. You’re wondering whether your host family is going to take you to one of the Japanese public baths. It’s not like anything you’ve ever been to back home and the idea kind of creeps you out even though you know the Japanese are very meticulous and polite people. Oh well, you’re here at your Japanese host family’s house! You pay the cab driver, spring out of the cab, and knock on the front door…

Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Japanese Lower Intermediate lesson will describe several ways you can construct causative sentences in Japanese. We’ll also give you tips on which Japanese particle you should use depending on the sentence construction. 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! 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!

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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! How does he do it, you wonder. You have seen him time and again penetrate right to the heart of any situation and then say the perfect thing in Japanese. If the situation is tense, his lighthearted jokes in Japanese will make everyone relax without embarrassing anyone. If someone is embarrassed, he knows just how to phrase his Japanese so as to make them feel as if the moment never happened. When people are sad, his words make them feel better right away. You have seen him diffuse the angry mood in a room with just a couple of well-spoken Japanese phrases. Sometimes this worries you. He seems to have such power and influence over the people around him that you fear his intentions. Could he be using such dominion for ill? Has he unduly influenced your decisions, especially your decisions about him? Are his intentions benign or is he a modern day, in-the-flesh Svengali?

Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Japanese Lower Intermediate lesson continues the discussion of the Japanese causative form, but with a twist. This lesson focuses on a special form of the Japanese causative that describes making a person feel emotions. It’s called the Japanese emotional response 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!

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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! It’s been a whirlwind time in Japan. Your work for the transnational company went really well because you learned your Japanese lessons quite well. You made many Japanese friends. And you found a truly wonderful Japanese girl that you want to marry. Now, the crisis is upon you. Just a little while after you proposed to your Japanese girlfriend, your company announced they are promoting you and transferring you back home. You never expected that, and now it’s time to face the most fearful thing you’ve ever encountered. And you must face it with the most audacious request imaginable. In absolutely perfect Japanese, you must ask the man you nicknamed Jurassic-San to let you take his Japanese daughter thousands of miles away. This episode will test your Japanese listening and speaking abilities as well as your courage.

Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Japanese Lower Intermediate lesson continues the discussion of the Japanese causative form. In the previous Japanese lesson, you learned about the Japanese causative form and the coercive version of it. This Japanese lesson will teach you about the Japanese permissive causative version. Study carefully; you never know when you’ll be in the position of our audacious Japanese hero. 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’re thankful there’s a dog café nearby the dog park. Who would have guessed there are dog cafés in Japan, but you’re glad it’s there. You were starting to run out of things to say to the pretty Japanese girl with the Chihuahua. Now you have more to talk about. “Have you been to the dog café before?” you ask in Japanese. “No,” she replies in Japanese, “This is the first time I’ve come here, although I’ve been to the dog park many times.” You’re glad for the chance to talk to her and for the chance to practice your Japanese. Nothing helps your Japanese more than speaking with a beautiful woman. Somehow, your brain seems to work better. Good thing. Being tongue-tied would make you look silly, but being tongue-tied in Japanese in front of her would be so embarrassing. So you explain in Japanese, “Well, let me show you all of the things they have for dogs here. It’s amazing.” “Wow, look at that!” she says in Japanese, “They have special foods depending on the type of dog you have. I wonder how they came up with that?” Luck is on your side again. You can explain. “Well, depending on the size of the dog and its age, the dog has different nutritional needs. Some Japanese companies came up with the idea. I try to make my dog eat the foods that are the best for it, but I’m not always successful. Sometimes my dog just won’t eat what’s good for it.” “That sounds like me,” she jokes in Japanese with a smile. It’s going to be a good day.

Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Japanese Lower Intermediate lesson covers a grammatical idea called the causative form. It’s about making someone or something do something - and we’ll show you how to take advantage of the causative form 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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