Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Eric: Lori’s story 13. Read this if you don’t want to get lost in Japan. Okay, Naomi-sensei.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Eric: What’s going on today?
Naomi: Lori went shopping to a department store.
Eric: Uhh she must be loaded. You know those department store prices, right?
Naomi: ね~、高いですよね。(Nē, takai desu yo ne.) Expensive.
Eric: Pretty expensive. So what is she looking for?
Naomi: She is looking for shoes, a nice pair of shoes.
Eric: Oh she is definitely going to find a nice pair in the department store. All right, let’s listen and see what type of shoes she gets.
DIALOGUE
(デパート) (depāto)
店員 (ten’in) : いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.)
ロリー (Rorī) : すみません。靴は どこですか。(Sumimasen. Kutsu wa doko desu ka.)
店員 (ten’in) : 靴...ですか。靴売り場は 4階です。(Kutsu... desu ka. Kutsu uriba wa yon-kai desu.)
ロリー (Rorī) : 4階ですか。ありがとうございます。(Yon-kai desu ka. Arigatō gozaimasu.)
(エレベーター) (erebētā)
客 (kyaku) : あ、何階ですか。(A, nan-kai desu ka.)
ロリー (Rorī) : 4階、お願いします。(Yon-kai, onegai shimasu.)
もう一度、お願いします。今度は、ゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do, onegai shimasu. Kondo wa, yukkuri onegai shimasu.)
店員 (ten’in) : いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.)
ロリー (Rorī) : すみません。靴は どこですか。(Sumimasen. Kutsu wa doko desu ka.)
店員 (ten’in) : 靴...ですか。靴売り場は 4階です。(Kutsu... desu ka. Kutsu uriba wa yon-kai desu.)
ロリー (Rorī) : 4階ですか。ありがとうございます。(Yon-kai desu ka. Arigatō gozaimasu.)
客 (kyaku) : あ、何階ですか。(A, nan-kai desu ka.)
ロリー (Rorī) : 4階、お願いします。(Yon-kai, onegai shimasu.)
今度は、英語が入ります。(Kondo wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.)
(デパート) (depāto)
(At a department store)
店員 (ten’in) : いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.)
CLERK: Hello. May I help you?
ロリー (Rorī) : すみません。靴は どこですか。(Sumimasen. Kutsu wa doko desu ka.)
LORI: Excuse me. Where can I buy shoes?
店員 (ten’in) : 靴...ですか。靴売り場は 4階です。(Kutsu... desu ka. Kutsu uriba wa yon-kai desu.)
CLERK: Shoes...? The shoe department is on the 4th floor.
ロリー (Rorī) : 4階ですか。ありがとうございます。(Yon-kai desu ka. Arigatō gozaimasu.)
LORI: On the 4th floor? Thank you so much.
(エレベーター) (erebētā)
(In the elevator)
客 (kyaku) : あ、何階ですか。(A, nan-kai desu ka.)
CUSTOMER: Which floor are you going to?
ロリー (Rorī) : 4階、お願いします。(Yon-kai, onegai shimasu.)
LORI: 4th floor, please.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Eric: So Naomi-sensei, what type of shoes do you think she got?
Naomi: We will find out in our next lesson.
Eric: Are you serious? I can’t wait.
Naomi: I don’t know. I am just saying.
Eric: Naomi-sensei, now you said that you have to write that in. You have to put it in the next lesson because if not, I am going to be disappointed. Okay but anyway, so she is looking for shoes.
Naomi: Right.
Eric: On what floor?
Naomi: 4階。(Yon-kai.)
Eric: The fourth floor.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Eric: Right so basically just said the number four.
Naomi: よん (yon)
Eric: And you added the word 階 (kai).
Naomi: Right.
Eric: Which means
Naomi: Floor.
Eric: You added the little th there.
Naomi: Right.
Eric: But what if it’s three?
Naomi: Third floor.
Eric: Ae there is no th there.
Naomi: ごめん。(Gomen.)
Eric: Oh, oh got you but it is okay because this is not englishpod101. This is japanesepod101 and basically you get the number, any number in Japanese and then you add 階 (kai), floor to the end of it.
Naomi: I would like to mention the phrase いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase). Do you respond to this phrase usually?
Eric: No but I might take a look at the people who said it and I might give a little imperceptible nod or I might smile or I might you know – it depends who they are and what they are saying.
Naomi: Who they are!
Eric: If they are really happy about welcoming me, then you know I will acknowledge it but if they are robotic about it and they are folding clothes while saying いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase), then I won’t do anything but いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase) means just welcome.
Naomi: Right.
Eric: But in Japan, it’s not like just a regular welcome where people welcome you in. Everybody who works at the store will say that nearly at the same time. If one person says it, it’s like a tidal wave of いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase)s coming.
Naomi: そうね。いらっしゃいませの津波ですね。(Sō ne. Irasshaimase no tsunami desu ne.)
Eric: That’s right. A Tsunami of いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase)s.
Naomi: いらっしゃいませ~。いらっしゃいませ~。いらっしゃいませ~…。(Irasshaimasē. Irasshaimasē. Irasshaimasē…)
Eric: That’s exactly what it’s like, exactly. So let’s go on to the vocabulary.
Naomi: 次は単語です。(Tsugi wa tango desu.)
VOCAB LIST
Eric: The first word is
Naomi: デパート (depāto)
Eric: Department store.
Naomi: (slow) デパート (depāto) (natural speed) デパート (depāto)
Eric: The next word is
Naomi: 靴 (kutsu)
Eric: Shoes, footwear.
Naomi: (slow) くつ (kutsu) (natural speed) 靴 (kutsu)
Eric: The next word is
Naomi: 売り場 (uriba)
Eric: A place where things are sold, a market.
Naomi: (slow) うりば (uriba) (natural speed) 売り場 (uriba)
Eric: The next word is
Naomi: 4階 (yon-kai)
Eric: The 4th floor.
Naomi: (slow) よんかい (yon-kai) (natural speed) 4階 (yon-kai)
Eric: And the last word is
Naomi: 何階 (nan-kai)
Eric: Which floor.
Naomi: (slow) なんかい (nan-kai) (natural speed) 何階 (nan-kai)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Eric: Okay Naomi-sensei, so let’s talk about the word of the day, shoes.
Naomi: 靴 (kutsu)
Eric: That’s right. So in Japanese, it’s 靴 (kutsu), right? Okay, so does 靴 (kutsu) apply to every type of shoe there is or every type of footwear like not only covered shoes but you know like sandals and flip-flops.
Naomi: For flip-flops and sandals, we say サンダル (sandaru).
Eric: Oh so it’s basically just taking the English word sandals and putting it into katakana?
Naomi: Right and boots too. ブーツ (būtsu)
Eric: Okay, so there seems to be a trend of a lot of English footwear words being turned into just katakana words.
Naomi: Right.
Eric: So we have boots.
Naomi: ブーツ (būtsu)
Eric: Sandals.
Naomi: サンダル (sandaru)
Eric: Sneakers.
Naomi: スニーカー (sunīkā)
Eric: Loafers.
Naomi: ローファー (rōfā)
Eric: High heels.
Naomi: ハイヒール (haihīru)
Eric: And slippers.
Naomi: スリッパ (surippa)
Eric: Wow. So does that mean that Japan didn’t have any of these types of shoes before they were introduced, I don’t know, by English people I guess? English speaking people because all of these words are – it seems like they are from English.
Naomi: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah because we are wearing Japanese style 下駄 (geta) or 草履 (zōri).
Eric: 下駄 (geta) or 草履 (zōri).
Naomi: 下駄 (geta) is for summer and rainy days and 草履 (zōri) is for regular use.
Eric: And a lot of 草履 (zōri) are made out of straw, right?
Naomi: That’s right.
Eric: Yeah but anyway we aren’t here to talk about straw shoes or wooden shoes. We are here to talk about the shoes that they have in the department store, right?
Naomi: Right.
Eric: You know personally I think that Lori got a pair of some alligator skin pumps, what do you think?
Naomi: うーん。私はスニーカーかなと思ってたんだけど。(Ūn. Watashi wa sunīkā ka na to omotte ta n da kedo.)
Eric: You think she went to a department store just to get sneakers?
Naomi: Maybe sandals.
Eric: Do people do that? Do they get sneakers at a department store?
Naomi: No, I go to ABC-MART.
Eric: Yeah, yeah right. Of course, right. That’s where you go, ABC-MART. That’s a pretty good shop for shoes. Anyway, my predictions aside, she needed to go to the shoe department to find shoes because they don’t just have shoes everywhere in the whole building. She went to the
Naomi: 靴売り場 (kutsu uriba)
Eric: 靴売り場 (kutsu uriba). You basically connected these two words to me and I am sure to other people it probably sounded like just one word. So can you say it again?
Naomi: 靴売り場 (kutsu uriba)
Eric: Okay, you see Naomi-sensei just connected the 靴売り場 (kutsu uriba) into one word and it basically means a shoe department or the shoe market or the shoe area but since we are talking about it, we are in a department store, so it’s just a shoe department and basically you can put any word to indicate the department where that is sold, right? For example, I am looking for a new bag, I need to go to the bag department, right?
Naomi: バッグ売り場 (baggu uriba) or かばん売り場 (kaban uriba)
Eric: That’s right. A bag could be バッグ (baggu) or かばん (kaban). How about the umbrella department?
Naomi: 傘 (kasa) is umbrella. So 傘売り場 (kasa uriba).
Eric: Okay, and I want to make a point here about the pronunciation because we are learning new words all the time and I am always telling all of you pronunciation, pronunciation. Learn it, learn the words and learn how to say it and right now, we just learned umbrella.
Naomi: 傘 (kasa)
Eric: And then we also learned, umbrella department.
Naomi: 傘売り場 (kasa uriba)
Eric: Okay, the word umbrella is 傘 (kasa) and it goes from high to low かさ (kasa) but the umbrella department because it’s connected with another word, it goes from low to high and back to low at the end かさうりば (kasa uriba).
Naomi: 傘売り場 (kasa uriba)
Eric: This is the regular most normal pattern for words that you combine together, no matter what their pronunciation is before you say it. When you connect them, it starts low, goes high and then ends low again and if you don’t know the pronunciation of for these words, just take that as a rule of thumb. Of course there are going to be exceptions and there are going to be different situations but this is the general rule. So keep that in mind.
Naomi: 次は文法です。(Tsugi wa bunpō desu.)
Eric: Okay, on to the grammar.

Lesson focus

Eric: What’s our target phrase today, Naomi-sensei?
Naomi: 何階ですか。(Nan-kai desu ka.)
Eric: What floor is it? Let’s break that down.
Naomi: 何 (nan)
Eric: What.
Naomi: 階 (kai)
Eric: The counter of floors.
Naomi: です (desu)
Eric: The copula.
Naomi: か (ka)
Eric: The question marker.
Naomi: 何階ですか。(Nan-kai desu ka.)
Eric: What floor is it on? Alright, so in the previous lesson, we learned how to count up to 12.
Naomi: Right.
Eric: So hey let’s imagine a building that has 12 floors. Let’s count every floor. First floor.
Naomi: But when you say the first floor, it really depends on the country. Depends on where you are from.
Eric: Oh you mean the differences between the lobby and then the upper floors like in Britain?
Naomi: Yeah and I have never been to Britain. So I am not sure but I think they call it ground floor.
Eric: You mean like they have entrance, the ground level floor, it will be called the
Naomi: Ground floor.
Eric: The ground floor.
Naomi: In the states, you call it the first floor, right?
Eric: Yeah or the lobby.
Naomi: So 1階 (ikkai) in Japanese is the first floor in American English and the ground floor in British English I think.
Eric: Okay, got it. So usually wherever the entrance is or the main entrance of the ground level, that would be considered the Japanese
Naomi: 1階 (ikkai)
Eric: Okay, so let’s start there. Let’s start at the ground floor, at the lobby, at the first floor.
Naomi: いっかい (ikkai)
Eric: The second floor.
Naomi: にかい (ni-kai)
Eric: Third floor.
Naomi: さんかい (san-kai) or さんがい (san-gai)
Eric: The fourth floor.
Naomi: よんかい (yon-kai)
Eric: The fifth floor.
Naomi: ごかい (go-kai)
Eric: The sixth floor.
Naomi: ろっかい (rokkai)
Eric: The seventh floor.
Naomi: ななかい (nana-kai)
Eric: The eighth floor.
Naomi: はちかい (hachi-kai) or はっかい (hakkai)
Eric: The ninth floor.
Naomi: きゅうかい (kyū-kai)
Eric: The tenth floor.
Naomi: じゅっかい (jukkai)
Eric: The 11th floor.
Naomi: じゅういっかい (jū ikkai)
Eric: The 12th floor.
Naomi: じゅうにかい (jū ni-kai)
Eric: Which floor?
Naomi: なんかい (nan-kai) or なんがい (nan-gai)
Eric: Okay, so let’s give some examples.
Naomi: ワイン売り場は8階です。(Wain uriba wa hachi-kai desu.)
Eric: The wine shop is on the 8th floor.
Naomi: 靴売り場は6階です。(Kutsu uriba wa rokkai desu.)
Eric: The shoe department is on the 6th floor.
Naomi: ここは何階ですか。(Koko wa nan-kai desu ka.)
Eric: What floor is this? Okay Naomi-sensei, let’s practice.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Eric: Okay, you just found out you are going on vacation to Australia but you don’t have a suitcase big enough to fit all your stuff that you are going to need to take to Australia, all your outback camping gear. All your stuff to take down under, right? So you go to the department store, go to the receptionist and then you ask
Naomi: すみません。スーツケース売り場は何階ですか。(Sumimasen. Sūtsukēsu uriba wa nan-kai desu ka.)
Eric: Excuse me, where can I get a suitcase and then the receptionist replies?
Naomi: 3階です。(San-kai desu.)
Eric: On the 3rd floor. So then you rush to the escalator. You go up but you know what, the escalator is too packed, you decide to go to the elevator. You go up, then you get off and then you look around and you don’t see any suitcases anywhere and you are wondering what’s going on. So you go to the clerk over there and you ask
Naomi: ここは何階ですか。(Koko wa nan-kai desu ka.)
Eric: What floor is this? And then the clerk responds
Naomi: 地下1階です。(Chika ikkai desu.)
Eric: Ah a new word, 地下 (chika), underground, the basement level.
Naomi: Right.
Eric: So it's the basement first floor.
Naomi: B1っていうやつですね。(Bī wan tte iu yatsu desu ne.)
Eric: B1. Yeah, there you go again B1. So you realize you were going down instead of up in the elevator. So this time you decide to take the stairs because you know you are going to get there for sure. You finally find the 3rd floor, find the suitcase you want and pack all your boomerangs and you are a happy camper.
Naomi: ありがとう。(Arigatō.)

Outro

Eric: Okay, it’s almost time for me to help Naomi-sensei pack for her trip to Australia. I will see you next time.
Naomi: じゃ、また。(Ja, mata.)

Kanji

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