Learn about referring to the time when some action occurs or when some state exists, either in the past, present, or future
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yoshi: おはよう、キャンベラ。ヨシです。(Ohayō, Kyanbera. Yoshi desu.) |
| Take: おはよう、キャンベラ。タケです。(Ohyayō, Kyanbera. Take desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Beginner lesson #116. Take-san, it’s been a while since you’ve been on a beginner lesson. お久しぶりです。(O-hisashiburi desu.) |
| Take: はい。久しぶりですね。(Hai. Hisashiburi desu ne.) |
| Peter: お元気ですか。(O-genki desu ka.) |
| Take: はい。暑いけど元気です。(Hai. Atsui kedo genki desu.) |
| Peter: All right. Yoshi-san is here with us, too. Yoshi-san, how are you doing? |
| Yoshi: 暑いけど元気です！(Atsui kedo genki desu!) |
| Peter: Copying Take-san. Well today, we are continuing on with our informal series. This informal series is geared to get your ear used to hearing informal Japanese showing you the situations where it’s appropriate to use this and trying to get you a better feel because as when we first introduced this, it’s used very often in everyday Japanese. Informal Japanese is used a lot. When you make a friend and you become closer, usually you switch to informal Japanese. Not always the case but the majority of the cases. Also you will hear it around you. You will hear it in TV shows. Again we went through all the reasons. Today we are not only going to introduce a grammar point, we are also going to work on the flow of the language. Now Japanese working fast. You’ve been with us a while. So you know particles. They get cut out. Subjects, they get cut out. Even some words get merged together. Now we are going to work on how some syllables get dropped out, too. And an important thing to get your ear used to, please listen to today’s conversation. As always, we are going to give it to you one time full speed, one time slow and then we are going to give you the English and then break it down from there. With that said, let’s get into today’s conversation between two good friends. Again we stress this. They are speaking informal Japanese. So they are close friends. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| よし (Yoshi) : 最近、ジムへ行ってる？(Saikin, jimu e itte ru?) |
| たけ (Take) : いや、あまり行ってない。最近、公園と砂浜でジョギングしてる。外で運動する時、すごくいい気分だ。(Iya, amari itte nai. Saikin, kōen to sunahama de jogingu shite ru. Soto de undō suru toki, sugoku ii kibun da.) |
| よし (Yoshi) : そう？僕はジムがいい。田舎に住んでいた時によくジョギングしていたけど、やっぱり筋トレが一番だ。(Sō? Boku wa jimu ga ii. Inaka ni sunde ita toki ni yoku jogingu shite ita kedo, yappari kintore ga ichi-ban da.) |
| Take: もう一度、お願いします。ゆっくり、お願いします。(Mō ichi-do, onegai shimasu. Yukkuri, onegai shimasu.) |
| よし (Yoshi) : 最近、ジムへ行ってる？(Saikin, jimu e itte ru?) |
| たけ (Take) : いや、あまり行ってない。最近、公園と砂浜でジョギングしてる。外で運動する時、すごくいい気分だ。(Iya, amari itte nai. Saikin, kōen to sunahama de jogingu shite ru. Soto de undō suru toki, sugoku ii kibun da.) |
| よし (Yoshi) : そう？僕はジムがいい。田舎に住んでいた時によくジョギングしていたけど、やっぱり筋トレが一番だ。(Sō? Boku wa jimu ga ii. Inaka ni sunde ita toki ni yoku jogingu shite ita kedo, yappari kintore ga ichi-ban da.) |
| Yoshi: 今度は、ピーターさんの英語が入ります。(Kondo wa, Pītā-san no Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| よし (Yoshi) : 最近、ジムへ行ってる？(Saikin, jimu e itte ru?) |
| YOSHI: Have you been going to the gym recently? |
| たけ (Take) : いや、あまり行ってない。(Iya, amari itte nai.) |
| TAKE: Nah, I haven't really been going. |
| たけ (Take) : 最近、公園と砂浜でジョギングしてる。(Saikin, kōen to sunahama de jogingu shite ru.) |
| TAKE: Recently, I've been jogging on the beach and in the park. |
| たけ (Take) : 外で運動する時、すごくいい気分だ。(Soto de undō suru toki, sugoku ii kibun da.) |
| TAKE: When I exercise outside, I feel really great. |
| よし (Yoshi) : そう？(Sō?) |
| YOSHI: Really? |
| よし (Yoshi) : 僕はジムがいい。(Boku wa jimu ga ii.) |
| YOSHI: The gym is good for me. |
| よし (Yoshi) : 田舎に住んでいた時によくジョギングしていたけど、(Inaka ni sunde ita toki ni yoku jogingu shite ita kedo,) |
| YOSHI: When I lived in the countryside, I often jogged, but, |
| よし (Yoshi) : やっぱり筋トレが一番だ。(yappari kintore ga ichi-ban da.) |
| YOSHI: as expected, lifting weights is number one. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: All right, Yoshi-san, let’s ask Take-san what he thought of today’s conversation. |
| Yoshi: タケさん、今日の会話はどうでしたか。(Take-san, kyō no kaiwa wa dō deshita ka.) |
| Take: 僕も、でも、外で運動するのが好きだなぁ。(Boku mo, demo, soto de undō suru no ga suki da nā.) |
| Peter: Translation, please. |
| Yoshi: Take-san also likes to exercise outside. Me too. |
| Peter: Me three. Let’s ask him where he likes to exercise. |
| Yoshi: たけさんはどこでよく運動しますか。(Take-san wa doko de yoku undō shimasu ka.) |
| Take: 僕は… (Boku wa…) |
| Peter: Take-san, we are waiting. |
| Take: あんまり運動してませんね。(Anmari undō shite masen ne.) |
| Peter: Translation, please. |
| Yoshi: The – he doesn’t exercise much. |
| Peter: Well I can sympathize. I can sympathize. 最近私も。(Saikin watashi mo.) I haven’t really been exercising. ヨシさんは？(Yoshi-san wa?) |
| Yoshi: もう、バリバリですよ。(Mō, baribari desu yo.) |
| Peter: バリバリ, can you explain what that means to everybody? |
| Yoshi: I have been exercising unbelievably. |
| Peter: All right. The problem is not with the translation. The problem is with the fact underlying your statement. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: All right. With that said, let’s move on to the vocabulary. Yoshi-san, let’s ask Natsuko-san what she thinks of today’s lesson. |
| Yoshi: ナツコさん、今日の会話はどうでしたか。(Natsuko-san, kyō no kaiwa wa dō deshita ka.) |
| Natsuko: いやぁ、私も最近あんまりジムに行ってないんですよね。(Iyā, watashi mo saikin anmari jimu ni itte nai n desu yo ne.) |
| Peter: English, please. |
| Natsuko: I also haven’t been really going to the gym lately. |
| Peter: Natsuko-san… |
| Natsuko: Ah… |
| Peter: It’s okay. Yoshi-san is making up for both of us. |
| Natsuko: Really? |
| Peter: You look good, Yoshi-san. |
| Yoshi: After eating the whole bowl of curry and rice twice. |
| Natsuko: Twice! |
| Peter: Ah that’s right. Now Yoshi-san, you said yesterday, the reason your stomach was protruding a bit was the fact that you had well, it was the rice from the All You Can Eat but I don’t think it takes a day to digest. |
| Yoshi: Right. |
| Peter: Explain the belly today. Explain it. |
| Yoshi: It’s all gone, see? |
| Peter: Natsuko, in Japanese, how do we say, your belly is sticking out? |
| Natsuko: お腹が出ている。(Onaka ga dete iru.) |
| Peter: ヨシさん、お腹が出てるよ。(Yoshi-san, onaka ga dete ru yo.) |
| Yoshi: 最初のキーワードは、ジムです。(Saisho no kīwādo wa, jimu desu.) |
| Peter: Give us that word, one more time. |
| Yoshi: ジム (jimu) |
| Peter: Gym as in sports center, a place to work out. Physically exercise. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Break it down. |
| Yoshi: (slow)ジム (jimu) (natural speed) ジム (jimu) |
| Peter: Natsuko-san, example sentence please. Are you ready everybody because this is something special. Umm, this is a Yoshi-san special. Let us know if you like this. If you like these types of example sentences, Yoshi-san will be happy, more than happy to give you more. Here we go. |
| Natsuko: ジムはジムでジムナスティックをしてから事務所で事務をした。(Jimu wa jimu de jimunasutikku o shite kara jimusho de jimu o shita.) It’s like tongue twisting. |
| Peter: Oh yeah. Could you give it one more time, nice and slow? |
| Natsuko: Really? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Natsuko: ジムはジムでジムナスティックをしてから事務所で事務をした。 (Jimu wa jimu de jimunasutikku o shite kara jimusho de jimu o shita.) |
| Peter: After Jim did Gymnastics at the sports center, he worked at the office. Yoshi-san, let’s break this sentence down. First we have |
| Natsuko: ジムは (Jimu wa) |
| Peter: We have the person’s name Jim marked by the topic particle |
| Natsuko: は (wa) |
| Peter: Next we have |
| Natsuko: ジムで (jimu de) |
| Peter: Sports center. The word for sports center which is the key word |
| Natsuko: ジム (jimu) |
| Peter: Marked by the particle |
| Natsuko: で (de) |
| Peter: Used to mark where an action takes place followed by |
| Natsuko: ジムナスティックをしてから (jimunasutikku o shite kara) |
| Peter: Gymnastics. |
| Natsuko: ジムナスティック (jimunasutikku) |
| Peter: Marked by |
| Natsuko: を (o) |
| Peter: Object marker followed by |
| Natsuko: して (shite) |
| Peter: Te-form, する (suru) and finally |
| Natsuko: から (kara) |
| Peter: And this is the てから(te kara) after an action. |
| Natsuko: 事務所で (jimusho de) |
| Peter: Again we have the particle で (de) showing where the action takes place and here we have – can you give us that word, one more time? |
| Natsuko: 事務所 (jimusho) |
| Peter: Office where work would take place. |
| Natsuko: Usually clerical work. |
| Peter: Thank you. |
| Natsuko: 事務をした (jimu o shita) |
| Peter: Did office work. Jim did office work after doing gymnastics at the sports center. What an example sentence! Yoshi… |
| Natsuko: You can’t figure it out with kanji. |
| Peter: I know, Yoshi-san, we gave you that one. Now let’s take a look at what we had in the dialogue. |
| Natsuko: 最近、ジムへ行ってる？(Saikin, jimu e itte ru?) |
| Peter: Again no subject here. Subject is inferred. Literal translation, recently going to the gym. The you is inferred. After recently, we have |
| Natsuko: ジムへ (jimu e) |
| Peter: To the gym, followed by |
| Natsuko: 行ってる (itte ru) |
| Peter: Natsuko-san, can you give it to us, one more time nice and slow? |
| Natsuko: 行ってる (itte ru) |
| Peter: Now Yoshi-san is going to say the same phrase but see if you can pick up. There is going to be a difference. He is going to say it slowly and with an extra syllable. Yoshi-san, |
| Yoshi: 行っている (itte iru) |
| Peter: Natsuko-san, how was it in the dialogue? |
| Natsuko: 行ってる (itte ru) |
| Peter: Yoshi-san |
| Yoshi: 行っている (itte iru) |
| Peter: Natsuko-san |
| Natsuko: 行ってる (itte ru) |
| Peter: Notice how in informal Japanese, the speed picks up and |
| Yoshi: ている (te iru) |
| Peter: Is reduced to |
| Natsuko: てる (te ru) |
| Peter: The い (i) is dropped. This is quite common and you will hear it often, the more you are immersed in Japanese drama, anime talking with intimate friends. You will hear that the い (i) gets dropped. It’s kind of passed over and we have lots of this in English where syllables are merged together or left out completely. Also we want to point out. Again the intonation indicates the question in the first line. Next we have |
| Natsuko: いや (iya) |
| Peter: No. |
| Natsuko: (slow)いや (iya) (natural speed) いや (iya) |
| Peter: Yoshi-san, what do we have in the dialogue? |
| Yoshi: いや、あまり行ってない。(Iya, amari itte nai.) |
| Peter: Nah, I haven’t really been going. Again, in the negative present progressive, noticed how the い (i) was dropped. Yoshi-san, can you give us the verb in the negative present progressive? |
| Yoshi: 行ってない (itte nai) |
| Peter: Compare it to |
| Yoshi: 行っていない (itte inai) |
| Peter: Again the い (i) gets dropped. Here we have あまり (amari) indicating not really but the point in the sentence is |
| Natsuko: いや (iya) |
| Peter: Now this is different from another word, meaning don’t like and this has to do with context. When you are answering a question, a yes/no question and you use |
| Natsuko: いや (iya) |
| Peter: It comes after the equivalent of English, nah. Again for informal situations, you don’t want to bring any of this into a Japanese business meeting or when speaking with someone with a higher social status. Yoshi-san and Natsuko-san, can you give us an example? |
| Natsuko: お腹すいてる？(Onaka suite ru?) |
| Yoshi: いや、すいてない。(Iya, suite nai) |
| Peter: One more time. |
| Natsuko: お腹すいてる？(Onaka suite ru?) |
| Peter: Are you hungry but here it’s literally, is your stomach empty? Interpreted again as are you hungry? Then we have. |
| Yoshi: いや (iya) |
| Peter: Nope. |
| Yoshi: すいてない (suite nai) |
| Peter: Not empty, not hungry. Let’s move on. Next up |
| Yoshi: 砂浜 (sunahama) |
| Peter: Sandy beach. |
| Yoshi: (slow)すなはま (sunahama) (natural speed) 砂浜 (sunahama) |
| Peter: The two characters in this word are, first character, Natsuko-san, |
| Natsuko: 砂 (suna) |
| Peter: Sand. Second character |
| Natsuko: 浜 (hama) |
| Peter: Seashore. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Beach. |
| Natsuko: Kind of like that. |
| Peter: So it’s pretty straightforward. Sand beach. Next we have |
| Natsuko: ジョギング (jogingu) |
| Peter: Jogging. |
| Natsuko: (slow)ジョギング (jogingu) (natural speed) ジョギング (jogingu) |
| Peter: And how do we turn this into a verb? |
| Natsuko: ジョギングする (jogingu suru) |
| Peter: Again we can categorize this as a する (suru) verb. Yoshi-san, example sentence, please. |
| Yoshi: 私は毎朝ジョギングする。(Watashi wa maiasa jogingu suru.) |
| Peter: I jog every morning. Next we have |
| Yoshi: 運動 (undō) |
| Peter: Exercise. |
| Yoshi: (slow)うんどう (undō) (natural speed) 運動 (undō) |
| Peter: Yoshi-san, how do we turn this into a verb? |
| Yoshi: 運動する (undō suru) |
| Peter: So this too, we can categorize as a する (suru) verb. |
| Yoshi: Right. |
| Peter: Let’s take a look at these characters. Natsuko-san, what’s the first character? |
| Natsuko: 運 (un) |
| Peter: Which means to carry. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: First character, carry. Second character |
| Natsuko: 動 (dō) |
| Peter: Move. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Carry, move. So maybe you can put the connection together, carry, move your body. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: That’s what I should remember… |
| Natsuko: Yes, right. |
| Peter: You really don’t want to do it but yet carrying, you are moving your body. Ah who wants to do that, Natsuko-san? Who? Who wants to do this? |
| Natsuko: I enjoy 運動 (undō). |
| Peter: Really? |
| Natsuko: Yes, not in very humid seasons but usually. |
| Peter: But it’s humid all year here. |
| Natsuko: No way. |
| Peter: Okay, on to the next word. |
| Natsuko: 田舎 (inaka) |
| Peter: Rural, suburb. |
| Natsuko: (slow)いなか (inaka) (natural speed) 田舎 (inaka) |
| Peter: Now let’s take a look at beach jogging and exercise in the dialogue. |
| Natsuko: 最近、公園と砂浜でジョギングしてる。(Saikin, kōen to sunahama de jogingu shite ru.) |
| Peter: Again a closer look at this sentence shows the subject is not there. It’s inferred. If it was there, Natsuko, how would it go? |
| Natsuko: 最近、私は公園と砂浜でジョギングをしている。(Saikin, watashi wa kōen to sunahama de jogingu o shite iru.) |
| Peter: But as it’s a two person conversation, the subject is inferred. He is speaking about himself. So it’s inferred. So in this case, he can actually leave it out. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Then we have, we start off with, again, recently. |
| Natsuko: 最近 (saikin) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Natsuko: 公園と砂浜で (kōen to sunahama de) |
| Peter: Again we have the particle で (de) marking where an action takes place and where is it taking place, the beach and the park. This is followed by |
| Natsuko: ジョギングしてる (jogingu shite ru) |
| Peter: Again い (i) gets dropped from the present progressive. So rather than |
| Natsuko: ジョギングしている (jogingu shite iru) |
| Peter: It becomes |
| Natsuko: ジョギングしてる (jogingu shite ru) |
| Peter: This is followed by |
| Natsuko: 外で運動する時 (soto de undō suru toki) |
| Peter: Finally we are here. When I exercise outside – again in the sentence, the subject is inferred. So we start off with the location where |
| Natsuko: 外 (soto) |
| Peter: Marked by |
| Natsuko: で (de) |
| Peter: Because that’s where the action is taking place. This is followed by |
| Natsuko: 運動する (undō suru) |
| Peter: To exercise in the plain non-past. Then we have |
| Natsuko: 時 (toki) |
| Peter: Here is today’s point. When you want to talk about when you did something, when I was, when, when, when we use |
| Natsuko: 時 (toki) |
| Peter: And it’s modified. In English, we start with when and we could go on. So in this case, when I exercise outside, notice how the when comes first but in Japanese, the when is modified by words preceding it, which is quite unique. |
| Natsuko: Yes, but I think it's very understandable. |
| Peter: Very understandable, very, very understandable and the reason we had to wait until we did informal Japanese is because what comes before 時 (toki) when, actually time but here it’s inferred as when is in the plain form. |
| Natsuko: 運動する時 (undō suru toki) |
| Peter: Can we say 運動します時 (undō shimasu toki)？ |
| Natsuko: No. |
| Peter: No. That’s why we had to wait until we introduced informal to show you this grammatical structure. So some of you might be wondering, I can only use 時 (toki) when – when I am talking in informal situations and the answer to that is no. What determines the politeness level of the sentence is the last verb in the sentence. All right, the rest of the sentence, |
| Natsuko: すごくいい気分だ。(Sugoku ii kibun da.) |
| Peter: Really good feeling and we are running a bit short on time. So we are going to have to rush through the end of this. Next we have |
| Yoshi: 筋トレ (kintore) |
| Peter: Muscle training. |
| Yoshi: (slow)きんとれ (kintore) (natural speed) 筋トレ (kintore) |
| Peter: Now this is an abbreviation of two words. |
| Yoshi: 筋力 (kinryoku) |
| Peter: Muscle power and |
| Yoshi: トレーニング (torēningu) |
| Peter: Training, but it gets reduced to |
| Yoshi: 筋トレ (kintore) |
| Peter: All right. Now one more thing we want to point out. In this sentence, how did the male speaker refer to himself? |
| Yoshi: 僕 (boku) |
| Peter: There are three usual ways a man refers to himself. There are many but usually three for younger men. Some older men might even throw in |
| Yoshi: 私 (watakushi) |
| Peter: But for the most part, central ways to refer to oneself. What we gave you today is |
| Yoshi: 僕 (boku) |
| Peter: And this is still polite but as Natsuko explained, usually used by younger people to refer to themselves. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So Natsuko-san, judging by this conversation, how old would you say these two good friends are? |
| Natsuko: Maybe in the twenties. |
| Peter: Co-workers. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: All right, that’s going to do for today. |
| Natsuko: じゃあ、また明日ね。(Jā, mata ashita ne.) |
| Yoshi: またね。(Mata ne.) |
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