Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Natsuko: こんにちは。ナツコです。 (Konnichiwa. Natsuko desu.)
Naomi: ナオミです。 (Naomi desu.)
Peter: Peter here. School Cafeteria どうでしょうね (dō deshou ne) School Cafeteria.
Natsuko: Umm. I remember a lot about the school cafeteria when I was in university.
Peter: Good memories or bad memories?
Natsuko: Both.
Peter: Okay. First let’s just establish how do we say a school cafeteria in Japanese?
Natsuko: 学食 (gakushoku). That’s an abbreviation for 学生食堂 (gakusei shokudō)
Peter: Which is ‘student’s cafeteria’?
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: Or “dining hall.” It could also be an interpretation.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: All right. So today’s conversation will be taking place there.
Natsuko: 学食 (gakushoku)
Peter: Now Naomi-sensei, today’s conversation is between who?
Natsuko: 大学生 (daigakusei)
Peter: University students.
Natsuko: 2人いますね。 (futari imasu ne.)
Peter: Yeah.
Natsuko: There are two 大学生です。はい。 (Daigakusei desu. Hai.)
Peter: Two of them.
Natsuko: それから店員。 (Sorekara ten'in.)
Peter: And one of them will be speaking with a person working there. So we want to notice the switch from casual Japanese to polite Japanese. When the friends are talking, when the two students are talking, they are obviously friends because they are speaking casual Japanese but when they address the person working at the cafeteria, they are going to switch the person speaking. The speaker will switch to polite Japanese. So pay attention to that switch. All right, but that said, here we go.
DIALOGUE
大学生1:もう1時だよ。おなか空いたね。
Daigakusei 1: Mō 1 ji da yo. O-naka suita ne.
大学生2:うん。学食でランチしようか。
Daigakusei 2: Un. Gakushoku de ranchi shiyō ka.
大学生1:今日は、Aランチが鳥の唐揚げで、Bランチが豚の生姜焼きだって。
Daigakusei 1: Kyō wa, A ranchi ga Tori no Kara-Age de, B ranchi ga Buta no Shōga Yaki da tte.
大学生2:どっちにしようかな。
Daigakusei 2: Docchi ni shiyō ka na.
大学生1;すいません。Aランチはいくらですか?
Daigakusei 1: Suimasen. A ranchi wa ikura desu ka?
店員:Aランチは390円です。
Tenin: A ranchi wa 390 en desu.
大学生1:じゃあ、Aランチを下さい。
Daigakusei 1: Ja, A ranchi o kudasai.
大学生2:すいません。僕も、それを下さい。
Daigakusei 2: Suimasen. Boku mo, sore o kudasai.
もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。
(Mōichido onegaishimasu. Yukkuri onegaishimasu.)
大学生1:もう1時だよ。おなか空いたね。
Daigakusei 1: Mō 1 ji da yo. O-naka suita ne.
大学生2:うん。学食でランチしようか。
Daigakusei 2: Un. Gakushoku de ranchi shiyō ka.
大学生1:今日は、Aランチが鳥の唐揚げで、Bランチが豚の生姜焼きだって。
Daigakusei 1: Kyō wa, A ranchi ga Tori no Kara-Age de, B ranchi ga Buta no Shōga Yaki da tte.
大学生2:どっちにしようかな。
Daigakusei 2: Docchi ni shiyō ka na.
大学生1;すいません。Aランチはいくらですか?
Daigakusei 1: Suimasen. A ranchi wa ikura desu ka?
店員:Aランチは390円です。
Tenin: A ranchi wa 390 en desu.
大学生1:じゃあ、Aランチを下さい。
Daigakusei 1: Ja, A ranchi o kudasai.
大学生2:すいません。僕も、それを下さい。
Daigakusei 2: Suimasen. Boku mo, sore o kudasai.
今度は英語が入ります。
(Kondo wa eigo ga hairimasu.)
大学生1:もう1時だよ。お腹空いたね。
Daigakusei 1: Mō 1 ji da yo. O-naka suita ne.
University Student 1: It's already 1 o'clock. I'm hungry.
大学生2:うん。学食でランチしようか。
Daigakusei 2: Un. Gakushoku de ranchi shiyō ka.
University Student 2: Yeah. Let's go to the school cafeteria.
大学生1:今日は、Aランチが鳥の唐揚げで、Bランチが豚の生姜焼きだって。
Daigakusei 1: Kyō wa, A ranchi ga Tori no Kara-Age de, B ranchi ga Buta no Shōga Yaki da tte.
University Student 1: Today, lunch set A is fried chicken and lunch set B is ginger pork.
大学生2:どっちにしようかな。
Daigakusei 2: Docchi ni shiyō ka na.
University Student 2: I wonder which should I get?
大学生1;すいません。Aランチはいくらですか?
Daigakusei 1: Suimasen. A ranchi wa ikura desu ka?
University Student 1: Excuse me. How much is lunch set A?
店員:Aランチは390円です。
Tenin: A ranchi wa 390 en desu.
Store Clerk: Lunch set A is 390 yen.
大学生1:じゃあ、Aランチを下さい。
Daigakusei 1: Ja, A ranchi o kudasai.
University Student 1: Okay. Lunch set A, please.
大学生2:すいません。僕も、それを下さい。
Daigakusei 2: Suimasen. Boku mo, sore o kudasai.
University Student 2: I'll have that one too.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Peter: Naomi-sensei, let’s ask Natsuko-san what she thought of today’s lesson?
Naomi: 今日のダイアログ、どう思いましたか? (Kyō no daiarogu, dō omoimashita ka?)
Natsuko: 懐かしいなあ。Aランチ、390円でした。 (Natsukashī nā. A ranchi, 390-en deshita.)
Naomi: あ、そんなに安かったんですか。 (A, son nani yasukatta n desu ka.)
Natsuko:安かったですね。 (Yasukatta desu ne.)
Peter: So a little bit nostalgic because of the cheap price, just 390 yen for lunch.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: You know I think one thing we should tell everybody out there is that university cafeterias or university dining halls are extremely cheap.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: 非常に安いです。 (Hijō ni yasui desu.)
Natsuko: とても安いですね。 (Totemo yasui desu ne.)
Naomi: 安いですね。 (Yasui desu ne.)
Peter: たまに信じられないほどですね。 (Tamani shinji rarenai hodo desu ne.) Sometimes like you can’t even believe how cheap it is.
Natsuko: Yes. おなかいっぱになるんですよね。 (Onaka ippani naru n desu yo ne.)
Peter: “You can eat till you get full.” And you know, sometimes people actually like it when you just graduate university or traveling students actually take pride in going to other university’s cafeterias and eating.
Natsuko: そうですね。 (Sō desu ne.) Try something different.
Peter: And sometimes I even see elderly people in there from…
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: Yeah I mean 教えてください (oshiete kudasai) what’s this all about?
Natsuko: You know, I see a lot of faculty members. Well they are not students but you know they are also eating at the student’s cafeteria.
Peter: Yeah.
Natsuko: I think you know that’s maybe because it’s cheap but also like you know talking with students or maybe just for communication or just for fun and the cafeteria at my university, we are open to the public.
Peter: Yeah I think that’s one of the key points.
Natsuko: Aha it’s not only for students there but other people can just go in and have lunch there too.
Peter: Yeah 公衆食道 (kōshū shokudō)
Natsuko: Never heard of.
Peter: “Public cafeteria.” So that’s what I meant by like sometimes elderly people are in there eating. So it’s quite interesting. Okay, so with that said, Naomi-sensei, first word 願いします (negai shimasu).
VOCAB LIST
Naomi: おなか (onaka)
Peter: Stomach.
Naomi: お・な・か「おなか」 (o na ka `onaka')
Peter: And again we go over this over and over. This consists of the honorific prefix o and the word for
Natsuko: Middle area.
Peter: Yeah, of the body. So it’s not really the stomach. It’s kind of like the belly.
Natsuko: Uhoo…
Peter: Then we have
Natsuko: 学食 (gakushoku)
Peter: School cafeteria.
Natsuko: が・く・しょ・く「学食」 (Ga ku sho ku `gakushoku')
Peter: Followed by
Naomi: 大学生 (daigakusei)
Peter: University student, college student. Next we have
Natsuko: 鶏の唐揚げ (tori no o desu)
Peter: Fried chicken.
Natsuko: と・り・の・か・ら・あ・げ「鶏の唐揚げ」 (Tori no ka-ra a-ge `tori no o desu')
Peter: Sounds so good.
Natsuko: The very popular dish in Izakaya right?
Peter: Yes. And you kind of sometimes maybe need to specify the animal because they also have squid. So 唐揚げ (karaage) is a type of cooking.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: And what’s cooked up but it’s kind of like chicken is so common. It’s more natural to assume if you’d hear 唐揚げ (karaage)
Natsuko: It’s usually chicken.
Peter: Yeah. Next we have
Naomi: 豚の生姜焼き (Buta no shōga-yaki)
Peter: Ginger pork, fried ginger pork.
Naomi: ぶ・た・の・しょ・う・が・や・き「豚の生姜焼き」 (Buta no sho u ga yaki `buta no shōga-yaki')
Peter: So yeah this sounds like a very typical 学食メニュー (gakushoku menyū) menu, two choices.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: 唐揚げ (karaage) and 生姜焼き (shōga-yaki)
Natsuko: Not much vegetables.
Peter: Yeah. Rarely vegetables.
Natsuko: I think this comes in a form of 定食 (teishoku) which means that not only the fried chicken or ginger pork comes but also there is a bowl of rice, maybe miso soup or some kind of soup and maybe a little pickles or salad or something. So the main dish is 鶏の唐揚げ (tori no karaage desu) or 豚の生姜焼き (buta no shōga-yaki) but there is a set of side dishes.
Peter: I think that’s an excellent point and I think sitting here, we all kind of assume that but yeah we should really mention that this really cheap price also includes those other things.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: The A lunch and B lunch means 定食 (teishoku)
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: All right. Okay let’s take a look at this conversation. First we have the two students talking. What do we have first?

Lesson focus

Naomi: もう1時だよ (Mō ichi-ji da yo)
Peter: “It’s already 1” and this is もう (mō) a long vowel.
Naomi: もう1時だよ (mō ichi-ji da yo)
Peter: “It’s already 1” followed by
Naomi: おなか空いたね。 (Onaka suita ne.)
Peter: “I am hungry.” Literally “my stomach is empty. I am hungry.” This is followed by
Natsuko: うん、学食でランチしようか。 (Un, gakushoku de ranchi shiyou ka.)
Peter: Here で (de) is marking the place where the action will take place and that action is
Natsuko: ランチしようか。 (Ranchi shiyou ka.)
Peter: “Let’s have lunch.” Literally “let’s do lunch.”
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: And – but the thing is, that works in English too.
Natsuko: Really?
Peter: Yeah let’s do lunch.
Natsuko: Oh really?
Peter: Yeah let’s do lunch.
Natsuko: So it’s kind of the same nuance.
Peter: Yeah. So we also have the Japanese word for lunch which is?
Natsuko: 昼ご飯 (Hiru gohan)
Peter: But also as you can see here and we are using this dialogue, they also use lunch.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: Which is?
Natsuko: ランチ (ranchi)
Peter: Break it down?
Natsuko: ら・ん・ち「ランチ」 (Ra n chi `ranchi')
Peter: Yeah kind of the ち (chi) at the end ランチ (ranchi) kind of a cute word. Now this is actually a する (suru) verb. So ランチする (ranchi suru) “to do lunch.”
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: And then here we have the casual, the informal volitional which is しよう (shiyou). So “let’s do lunch.” Then the か (ka) indicates the question. So “shall we do lunch at the school cafeteria?” So do you decide to go there, scene changes, then we have
Naomi: 今日はAランチが鶏の唐揚げで、Bランチが豚の生姜焼きだって。 (Kyō wa A ranchi ga tori noo desu de, B ranchi ga buta no shōga-yaki datte.)
Peter: Great sentence for several reasons. We are going to go over a point we discussed in a previous lesson about this だって (datte). The speaker getting direct information and then relaying that information to another speaker and that’s the case you use this だって (datte). So this speaker we can tell by this usage that the speaker is the one reading and relaying this information to the second speaker. First we have
Naomi: 今日は (kyō wa)
Peter: “Today.” This is the topic, today.
Naomi: Aランチが鶏の唐揚げで (A ranchi ga tori no karaage desu de)
Peter: “A lunch is fried chicken.” Next is the key point. What do we have next?
Naomi: で (de)
Peter: This is the conjunctive form of the copula, desu. When you first started out in Japanese, we’d stop here, put in です (desu) and then follow it with a period and this would break what we are talking about into two sentences, but here we are using the conjunctive form of the copula which is very easy to remember because you just dropped the す (su), stick with で (de) and then this acts as end. We move on to the next one. So “A lunch is fried chicken” and
Naomi: Bランチが (B ranchi ga)
Peter: B lunch is
Naomi: 豚の生姜焼き (buta no shōga-yaki)
Peter: Fried ginger pork
Naomi: だって (datte)
Peter: “It says.” So “today it says so on and so on”. This is followed by
Natsuko: どっちにしようかな。 (Dotchi ni shiyou ka na.)
Peter: “I wonder which one I should get.” So here the person is kind of talking to themselves どっち (dotchi) is short of course for
Natsuko: どちら (dochira)
Peter: Then we follow this with the particle
Natsuko: に (ni)
Peter: Followed by
Natsuko: しようかな (shiyou ka na)
Peter: Literally “which shall do I wonder?” Let’s start from the back. “I wonder” かな (ka na) used to indicate, the speaker is not sure what to do. Kana, “I wonder.” Let’s work our way back from しよう (shiyou) the informal volitional of
Natsuko: する (suru)
Peter: “To do.” So “I wonder to do” particle に (ni) “which,” “which to do.” When using the ~にする (~ ni suru), it’s usually used in a structure, noun plus ~にする (~ Ni suru) which means “to decide on” the noun. So what comes before the ~にする (~ ni suru) is what you are deciding on.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: And it’s used all the time when you are sitting down to eat. Now ~にする (~ ni suru) or how can we ask which will you get which is also really common if you are out to eat with someone
Natsuko: どっちにする? (Dotchi ni suru?)
Peter: Which will you get?
Natsuko: Or 何にする? (Nani ni suru?)
Peter: “What will you get” and whatever you are going to get precedes that followed by ~にする (~ ni suru) suru and if it’s a polite situation, you use ~にします (~ ni shimasu). Next we have
Natsuko: すいません。Aランチはいくらですか? (Suimasen. A ranchi wa ikura desu ka?)
Peter: “Excuse me, how much is A lunch” and this is followed by
Naomi: Aランチは390円です。 (A ranchi wa 390-en desu.)
Peter: “A lunch is 390 yen” and then we have
Naomi: じゃ、Aランチを下さい。 (Ja, A ranchi o kudasai.)
Peter: Okay. “A lunch please.” Here we have the object marking particle. So Aランチを下さい (A ranchi o kudasai) but in spoken Japanese, would it be okay to drop this?
Naomi: Sure Aランチ下さい (A ranchi kudasai).
Peter: So it’s inferred. Shorten that down because that を (o) in there kind of can cause you to slow down what you are talking about. Then finally we have.
Natsuko: すいません。僕もそれを下さい。 (Suimasen. Boku mo sore o kudasai.)
Peter: Okay. So here we have a really useful phrase, “I will have that too.” This you can use if you are out to eat with some Japanese friends and you want what that other person is getting, you can just say this too. Well, if you are a guy, you can say this.
Natsuko: 僕もそれを下さい。 (Boku mo sore o kudasai.)
Peter: Or you could just say
Natsuko: 同じのお願いします。 (Onaji no onegaishimasu.)

Outro

Peter: All right. That’s going to do it for today. Now, in today’s PDF, we have a really, really nice write-up on ~にする (~ ni suru) and how to use this. That’s going to do it for today.
Natsuko: それじゃ、またね! (Sore ja, mata ne!)
Naomi: お疲れさまです。 (Otsukaresama desu.)

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