Learn how to ask what something is
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| Introduction |
| Jessi: What is This Delicious Japanese Dish? ジェシーです。(Jeshii desu.)Jessi here! |
| Naomi: こんにちは！なおみです。(Kon'nichi wa! Naomi desu.) Hi everyone, Naomi here! |
| Jessi: Thanks for joining us in this Absolute Beginner series. In the last lesson, we learned how to say that something belongs to someone. |
| Naomi: Yes! For example, わたしのいえ (watashi no ie) |
| Jessi: “My house.” |
| Naomi: And in this lesson, you’ll learn to ask what something is. |
| Jessi: Yes. Basically, you’ll be able to ask “What’s this?” and “What’s that?” So when someone puts a Japanese dish in front of you that you’ve never seen before… |
| Naomi: You’ll be able to ask what it is. |
| Jessi: Exactly! Okay, so speaking of food, in this conversation, Taylor, Masato, and Kaori are all sitting down to eat! |
| Naomi: Yes, Taylor has cooked them dinner. |
| Jessi: Mmm… sounds good. Let’s listen in to the conversation! |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| (timer goes off) |
| テイラー:はい、どうぞ！ (Hai, dōzo!) |
| かおり:うわ～ すごーい！(Uwā sugo~i!) |
| かおり＆まさと:いただきます。(Itadakimasu.) |
| まさと:(munch munch munch) うーん。おいしい！(ūn. Oishii!) |
| テイラーさん、これは、なんですか？(Teirā-san, kore wa, nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Let's listen to the conversation again slowly. |
| テイラー:はい、どうぞ！ (Hai, dōzo!) |
| かおり:うわ～ すごーい！(Uwā sugo~i!) |
| かおり＆まさと:いただきます。(Itadakimasu.) |
| まさと:（(munch munch munch)うーん。おいしい！(ūn. Oishii!) |
| テイラーさん、これは、なんですか？(Teirā-san, kore wa, nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Now let’s listen to it with the translation. |
| テイラー:はい、どうぞ！ (Hai, dōzo!) |
| Jessi: Okay, here you go! |
| かおり:うわ～ すごーい！(Uwā sugo~i!) |
| Jessi: Oh, wow! |
| かおり＆まさと:いただきます。(Itadakimasu.) |
| Jessi: Let's eat! (Literally, We are about to receive this meal.) |
| まさと: (munch munch munch)うーん。おいしい！(ūn. Oishii!) |
| Jessi: (munch munch munch) Mmm. This is great! |
| テイラーさん、これは、なんですか？(Teirā-san, kore wa, nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Taylor, what is this? |
| Post conversation banter |
| Jessi: Well Naomi, we actually had a lot of new words and phrases in this conversation! |
| Naomi: We sure did. |
| Jessi: The first one was...? |
| Naomi: すごい！(sugoi!) |
| Jessi: Can we hear one more time slowly? |
| Naomi: すごい。(sugoi.) |
| Jessi: And again at natural speed? |
| Naomi: すごい。(sugoi.) |
| Jessi: すごい！(Sugoi!) Meaning "wow", "great", or "amazing". Basically, you can use this anytime you are impressed by something. |
| Naomi: When Taylor placed the food in front of them, Kaori said すごい！(sugoi!) |
| Jessi: Like "Oh, wow!" She was really impressed by the food. It probably looked really good! |
| Naomi: Yes, it also was something she wasn't used to. |
| Jessi: Okay. So now the food has been placed before them. Now on to our next word. What did Masato and Kaori say before they ate? |
| Naomi: いただきます！(Itadakimasu!) |
| Jessi: Can we hear one more time slowly? |
| Naomi: いただきます。(Itadakimasu.) |
| Jessi: いただきます！ And this a phrase that you say before eating. |
| Naomi: Right. You are giving thanks for the meal you are about to have. |
| Jessi: It's a good phrase to use anytime you eat, but especially if someone has cooked something for you. |
| Naomi: Yes! Saying いただきます (Itadakimasu) is a way to show appreciation. |
| Jessi: So in the dialogue, Masato and Kaori said いただきます！ (Itadakimasu!) before eating the dinner that Taylor had made for them. |
| Naomi: If you visit someone's house and they make dinner for you, please try saying いただきます (Itadakimasu) before you eat! |
| Jessi: Okay Naomi, and the last word is...? |
| Naomi: おいしい (Oishii) |
| Jessi: Can we hear one more time slowly? |
| Naomi: おいしい (Oishii) |
| Jessi: おいしい (Oishii), meaning "good" or "delicious" when talking about food. |
| Naomi: Masato starts eating the food and says うーん、おいしい！(ūn. Oishii!) |
| Jessi: "Mmm, this is great!" If someone makes food for you and you want to tell them that it's good, you can use this word. おいしい！(Oishii!) |
| Jessi: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask what something is. |
| Naomi: Do you remember Lesson 9, where we learned how to make a question? |
| Jessi: We took our AはBです (A wa B desu) pattern, and added か (ka) at the end. AはBですか？ (A wa B desu ka?) “Is A B?” |
| Naomi: Right. We'll be using this structure to ask what something is. |
| Jessi: Okay, so let's get started. In the dialogue, Masato took a bite of his meal, said "Wow" This is great!" and then asked "What is this?" |
| Naomi: AFTER he ate it. |
| Jessi: Right, after he ate it. He just dug right in. So first, let's learn how to say "What is this?" |
| Naomi: As you may remember, "this" is これ (kore). The word for "what" in this case is なん (nan). |
| Jessi: So if we put those in place of A and B in our sentence structure we mentioned earlier, we get... |
| Naomi: これはなんですか？(Kore wa nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: これはなんですか？(Kore wa nan desu ka?) One more time slowly? |
| Naomi: これは なんですか？ |
| Jessi: And one more time regular speed. |
| Naomi: これはなんですか？(Kore wa nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: And that means "What is this?" Listeners, repeat after Naomi. |
| Naomi: これはなんですか？(Kore wa nan desu ka?) |
| [Pause] - これはなんですか？(Kore wa nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Great! Now, remember that これ (kore) means "this", so when we ask this question, we're talking about something that we have, or something that is close to us. |
| Naomi: Exactly. If you want to talk about something that someone else has... |
| Jessi: Like "what's THAT?", then you would use それ (sore) in place of これ (kore). |
| Naomi: As you may have guessed, それ (sore) means "that". |
| Jessi: So to sum it up, we have... |
| Naomi: これ (kore) |
| Jessi: This, and... |
| Naomi: それ (sore) |
| Jessi: That. So how would we sa, "What's that?" |
| Naomi: それはなんですか。(Sore wa nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: それはなんですか？(Sore wa nan desu ka?) One more time slowly? |
| Naomi: それは なんですか？(Sore wa nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: And again at normal speed. |
| Naomi: それはなんですか？(Sore wa nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: And that means, "What is that?" Listeners, repeat after Naomi. |
| Naomi: それはなんですか？(Sore wa nan desu ka?) |
| [Pause] - それはなんですか？(Sore wa nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Okay, great! Now you're equipped with two ways to ask what something is - what is this? and what is that? |
| Naomi: これはなんですか？(Kore wa nan desu ka?) and それはなんですか？(Sore wa nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Now, let's use them in a role-play situation! Let's say that Naomi is an acquaintance of yours, and she is giving you a gift. Ask her "what is this?" Here's a hint, remember that "this" is これ。 |
| Naomi: はい、どうぞ！ おみやげです。(Hai, dōzo! Omiyage desu.) |
| [Pause] - これはなんですか？(Kore wa nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Okay! If you said... |
| Naomi: これはなんですか？(Kore wa nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Then great job! How about one more? You see Naomi eating something, some kind of food you haven't seen before. Ask her "what is that?" Here's a hint, remember that the word for "that" is それ (sore). |
| Naomi: (Eating) う～ん、おいしい！(ūn. Oishii!) |
| [Pause] |
| Jessi: If you said... |
| Naomi: それはなんですか？(Sore wa nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Excellent job!! Naomi, what was it, by the way? That looks good!! |
| Naomi: ようかんです。(Yōkan desu.) |
| Jessi: See you all next time! |
| Naomi: じゃまた！(Ja mata!) |
Lesson conversation |
| (timer goes off) |
| テイラー:はい、どうぞ！ (Hai, dōzo!) |
| かおり:うわ～ すごーい！(Uwā sugo~i!) |
| かおり＆まさと:いただきます。(Itadakimasu.) |
| まさと:（(munch munch munch)うーん。おいしい！(ūn. Oishii!) |
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