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!

・

Premium Members 
Review | Play | Popup
Dialog | Play | Popup
Grammar | Play | Popup
Premium Learning Center
Premium Lesson Checklist

Basic Members 
Audio | Play | Popup
Lesson Notes
Kanji Close-Up
Lesson Notes Lite
Basic Lesson Checklist

Free Content 

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!

・

Premium Members 
Review | Play | Popup
Dialog | Play | Popup
Grammar | Play | Popup
Premium Learning Center
Premium Lesson Checklist

Basic Members 
Audio | Play | Popup
Lesson Notes
Kanji Close-Up
Lesson Notes Lite
Basic Lesson Checklist

Free Content 

Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Talking with the manager today didn’t make you feel any better, did it? Managers don’t understand all the stress they put on us, and in Japan, it is no different. Every day you will find yourself ready to drop from all the work, not to mention the fact that you are learning to speak Japanese at the same time! Your boss seems concerned though. He asks in Japanese every day, “Are you all right? Do you feel okay?” You have all sorts of symptoms of disease…but again, you are still learning to speak Japanese. How do you even begin to tell him in Japanese, “I have a pounding headache, my eyes are puffy, my ears are ringing, and my throat is sore!” That’s just the beginning, too! Even your skin is prickling. Maybe you’ve started to pick up allergies? Come to think of it…it all started when that new person came into your little department in the Japanese firm. Do you suppose you’re allergic to him? That would be too bad…he’s cute.

Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Japanese lesson is all about Japanese onomatopoetic words of the symptoms of disease. You’ll learn how to say how you feel in the head, the eyes, the ears, the throat, the stomach, even how your skin feels 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!

・

Premium Members 
Review | Play | Popup
Dialog | Play | Popup
Premium Learning Center
Premium Lesson Checklist

Basic Members 
Audio | Play | Popup
Lesson Notes
Kanji Close-Up
Lesson Notes Lite
Basic Lesson Checklist

Free Content 

Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! “We don’t know whether you’ll like it…” If you’re not sure if your friend will like the gift you bring to his new apartment in Japan…and you never would have guessed a year ago that you would be partying with the locals in Japan. So, if you’re not sure about the gift, better to ask questions or compliment him on the fine new place using your new Japanese speaking skills. “You’re new place is huge.” “Fabulous jumbo-tron television you have.” If all else fails, it’s always good to bring food or drink to any housewarming party. You could try telling them in Japanese, “I didn’t know whether to bring curry or wine, so I brought both.” And don’t forget to bring some glasses, too! Then, when you feel the uncomfortable silence set in, start to pour, and ask everyone to, “I think it’s a good time to raise your glasses,” in a toast to your friend’s new Japanese abode. Take a moment to tell him what a great place he’s found and get ready for the hard work of moving him in.

Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Japanese Lower Intermediate lesson is a review of the last two lessons as well as two other lessons. In this Japanese Lower Intermediate lesson, you’ll learn more about Japanese Yes/No and WH- embedded questions as well as expressing your opinion in Japanese and reporting what someone else has said. 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!

・

Premium Members 
Review | Play | Popup
Dialog | Play | Popup
Grammar | Play | Popup
Premium Learning Center
Premium Lesson Checklist

Basic Members 
Audio | Play | Popup
Lesson Notes
Kanji Close-Up
Lesson Notes Lite
Basic Lesson Checklist

Free Content 

Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! From ancient Greek plays to campfire stories, to modern movies, the ghost story is eternal. Charon ferried the souls of the dead across the River Styx. Confederate soldiers still march through Charleston, South Carolina, and Bill Murray busts ghosts on the big screen. Every culture has its ghost stories. Japanese culture has it that during a few days in August, the ghosts of the dead rise up to haunt the homes they had when they were alive. What do you think happens when the ghosts find their old houses have been razed to be replaced by an office tower or skyscraper? Do you think they’re piqued or infuriated? If so, how do ghosts take their revenge? What would you do if you were trapped in a stairwell at three in the morning during ghost week with your co-workers and you started to hear strange voices and noises? It would be worse if you smelled big piles of pigeon manure. Read this Premium lesson to find out what happened. What’s the scariest thing about ghost stories? The unknown.

Learning Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is the most fun and effective way to learn Japanese! This Premium Japanese lesson is all about a bit of Japanese culture, O-bon. It’s all about the spirits of your ancestors returning to their homes for a few days in August. It’s actually a sort of Buddhist religious holiday to honor one’s ancestors, but as with many religious traditions, the fun of scary ghost stories has crept into the limelight. Read this story, and imagine what you’d do in the same circumstances. 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!

・

Premium Members 
Audio | Play | Popup
Lesson Notes | Play | Popup
Kanji Close-Up | Play | Popup
Lesson Notes Lite | Play | Popup
Premium Learning Center | Play | Popup
Premium Lesson Checklist

Basic Members 
Basic Lesson Checklist

Free Content