Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

Introduction
Jessi: Can You Eat This Japanese Meatloaf? 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.) Hello everyone, Naomi here!
Jessi: Thanks again for joining us for our Absolute Beginner series! In the last lesson, we learned how to ask what something is.
Naomi: Yes! For example…これは何ですか?(Kore wa nan desu ka?)
Jessi: "What's this?" Very useful for figuring out what something is.
Naomi: And in this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask if someone or something is okay.
Jessi: That's right. Basically, you’ll be able to ask “Are you okay?”, and “Is this okay with you?", things like that. I promise you, this is going to be one of the most useful things to know in Japanese!
Naomi: I agree. You can use this in SO many situations.
Jessi: Yup! Let's take a look at the setting for our conversation. Taylor, Kaori, and Masato are still at the dinner table.
Naomi: They're in the middle of eating dinner.
Jessi: We'll find out what they're having. Now let’s listen in to the conversation!

Lesson conversation

まさと:これはなんですか?(Kore wa nan desu ka?)
テイラー:それはミートローフです。(Sore wa mīto rōfu desu.)
かおり:ミートローフ (Mīto rōfu)
テイラー:はい。にくです。(Hai. Niku desu.)
:・・・にくはだいじょうぶですか?(Niku wa daijōbu desu ka?)
かおり:はい!(Hai!) (munch munch munch)うーん。おいしい!(Uun. Oishii!)
English Host: Let's listen to the conversation again slowly.
まさと:これはなんですか?(Kore wa nan desu ka?)
テイラー:それはミートローフです。(Sore wa mīto rōfu desu.)
かおり:ミートローフ (Mīto rōfu)
テイラー:はい。にくです。(Hai. Niku desu.)
:・・・にくはだいじょうぶですか?(Niku wa daijōbu desu ka?)
かおり:はい!(Hai!) (munch munch munch)うーん。おいしい!(Uun. Oishii!)
English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation.
まさと:これはなんですか?(Kore wa nan desu ka?)
Jessi: What's this?
テイラー:それはミートローフです。(Sore wa mīto rōfu desu.)
Jessi: That's meatloaf.
かおり:ミートローフ (Mīto rōfu)
Jessi: Meatloaf...?
テイラー:はい。にくです。(Hai. Niku desu.)
Jessi: Yes. It's meat.
:・・・にくはだいじょうぶですか?(Niku wa daijōbu desu ka?)
Jessi: Is meat okay? (Can you eat meat?)
かおり:はい!(Hai!) (munch munch munch)うーん。おいしい!(Uun. Oishii!)
Jessi: Yes! (munch munch munch) Mmm, it's good!
Post conversation banter
Jessi: So Naomi, it looks like they're having meatloaf! Is meatloaf well known in Japan? I don't know if I've seen it here...
Naomi: Hmm, well most people might know it by name. But I don't think a lot of families make it... although it really depends on the family.
Jessi: Yeah, I think Japanese families tend not to use ovens as much for cooking as in the West.
Naomi: Right. But most people might be familiar with it.
Jessi: I'm guessing Masato didn't recognize it, though, since he asked - what is this? これは何ですか?(Kore wa nan desu ka?)
Naomi: And Taylor answered, それはミートローフです。(Sore wa mīto rōfu desu.)
Jessi: "That's meatloaf." But wait! There's a new word in here besides "meatloaf" that is(笑)
Naomi: Oh, you mean それ (sore)? It means "that", as in "that is meatloaf".
Jessi: Yes, up until now we've been using これ (kore), meaning "this", to say "this is A", "this is B". But now we can talk about "that".
Naomi: それ (sore).
Jessi: And our next word?
Naomi: 肉 (niku)
Jessi: Which is "meat", as in the food. This is the word that Taylor used to explain what meatloaf was.
Naomi: He simply said 肉です (niku desu), "It's meat."
Jessi: This is a good word to know if you want to ask if something is made of meat, or has meat in it, for example, if you're a vegetarian and can't eat meat, for example.
Naomi: Right or you want to ask someone else if they can eat it.
Jessi: And we'll cover that in the next section. In this lesson you'll learn how to ask if someone or something is okay using the phrase…
Naomi: 大丈夫ですか?(daijōbu desu ka?) I think this is one of the most important phrases to know in Japanese.
Jessi: Definitely! It's VERY versatile. It can cover a lot of different meanings. Okay Naomi, can you give us our sentence pattern?
Naomi: Sure. It's... Aは、大丈夫ですか?(A wa, daijōbu desu ka?)
Jessi: Aは、大丈夫ですか?(A wa, daijōbu desu ka?) The word that's new in the middle here is 大丈夫 (daijōbu), which means "all right" or "okay". For A, we put the person or item we are asking about. First, let's look at how it was used in the dialogue. Masato and Kaori weren't really sure what meatloaf was, so Taylor told them it was 肉 (niku), or “meat.” He wanted to make sure that there weren't any problems with that, so he asked...
Naomi: 肉は大丈夫ですか。(Niku wa daijōbu desu ka?)
Jessi: Literally - is meat okay? Naomi, when we ask in Japanese if a certain type of food is 大丈夫ですか (daijōbu desu ka?), is it okay, what are really asking?
Naomi: Well, usually this means "Are you able to eat it? Is it okay with you?", that kind of thing.
Jessi: Ah, like making sure you aren't allergic to it, or making sure you don't hate it, things like that.
Naomi: Yeah exactly.
Jessi: In the case of meat, for example, like we mentioned earlier there are some people who are vegetarian, so this would be a good way to ask.
Naomi: Yes. The sentence pattern is "[item] plus 大丈夫ですか?" (daijōbu desu ka?)
Jessi: So one more time, the sentence "Is meat okay? Can you eat meat?" is...?
Naomi: 肉は大丈夫ですか。(Niku wa daijōbu desu ka?)
Jessi: One more time slowly?
Naomi: 肉・は・大丈夫・です・か。(Niku wa daijōbu desu ka?)
Jessi: Again in natural speed?
Naomi: 肉は大丈夫ですか。(Niku wa daijōbu desu ka?)
Jessi: Repeat after Naomi. "Is meat okay? Can you eat meat?"
Naomi: 肉は大丈夫ですか。(Niku wa daijōbu desu ka?)
[pause]
Jessi: Great! Let's ask about something different now. How about... hmm... alcohol?
Naomi: Oh, this is a good thing to know, if someone can drink alcohol or not.
Jessi: Right. And so alcohol is...?
Naomi: お酒 (o-sake).
Jessi: We learned this in Lesson 8 - お酒 (o-sake). So to ask if someone can drink alcohol, we'd say...?
Naomi: お酒・は大丈夫ですか。(O-sake wa daijōbu desu ka?)
Jessi: "Is alcohol okay? Can you drink alcohol?" One more time slowly?
Naomi: お酒・は・大丈夫・です・か。(O-sake wa daijōbu desu ka?)
Jessi: Can we hear it in natural speed?
Naomi: お酒は大丈夫ですか?(O-sake wa daijōbu desu ka?)
Jessi: Now, repeat after Naomi. "Is alcohol okay? Can you drink alcohol?"
Naomi: お酒は大丈夫ですか。(O-sake wa daijōbu desu ka?)
[pause]
Jessi: Great! Now, like we mentioned before, this pattern is very helpful. Instead of trying to figure out how to say "Can you eat this?" or "Can you drink that?" in Japanese, all you really need to ask is a simple - "Is this okay?" Very useful! By the way, Naomi.. お酒は大丈夫ですか?(O-sake wa daijōbu desu ka?) If it's okay, how can we answer this?
Naomi: You can say はい、大丈夫です。(Hai, daijōbu desu.), which means "Yes, it's fine". Or just はい (hai) is also fine.
Jessi: So, if you can't drink any alcohol, can we say いいえ (iie)?
Naomi: Right. ジェシーさん、お酒は大丈夫ですか? (Jeshii-san, o-sake wa daijōbu desu ka?)
Jessi: はい、大丈夫です。(Hai, daijōbu desu.) “Yes, alcohol is okay.” “I can drink alcohol.” Okay, Naomi, here's a question, instead of talking about items, what if you want to ask someone directly if they're okay? Like if something happened to them, maybe they are sick of something, what should we say then?
Naomi: Good question. In that case, if it's obvious that you are talking to the person, you can simply ask 大丈夫ですか?(daijōbu desu ka?) Meaning, “are you okay?”
Jessi: Ah, so you just leave off the [Aは(wa)] part...
Naomi: Yes, that is a key to sounding natural in Japanese.
Jessi: Leaving out information that is already known. If it's obvious that you're asking someone about themself, you don't need to include their name or anything like that. Just a simple 大丈夫ですか?(daijōbu desu ka?)
Naomi: はい!(Hai!) Right. You know what, I actually used this phrase this morning.
Jessi: Just this morning! What happened?
Naomi: I was on the train. The train was so crowded and I stepped on somebody's foot by accident. Can you guess what I said?
Jessi: Hmm, I'll take a guess. You probably said something like...すみません。大丈夫ですか。(Sumimasen. Daijōbu desu ka?)
Naomi: That's exactly the phrase I used! すみません (Sumimasen).
Jessi: I'm sorry 大丈夫ですか?(daijōbu desu ka?) Are you okay? So there you have it - real-life Japanese in a real-life situation!
Jessi: And with that, it's time for the listeners to practice! Listeners, here's the situation, you are serving drinks at a party at your house. Please ask Naomi if she's okay with alcohol, if she can drink alcohol.
Naomi: Remember that alcohol is お酒 (o-sake).
[pause]
Jessi: If you said...
Naomi: お酒は大丈夫ですか? (O-sake wa daijōbu desu ka?)
Jessi: ...then excellent job!
Naomi: Okay, well, that's all for this lesson!
Jessi: Yup, that's going to do it this time. Thanks as always for listening, and we'll see you all next time!
Naomi: じゃまた。(Ja mata.)

Lesson conversation

まさと:これはなんですか?(Kore wa nan desu ka?)
テイラー:それはミートローフです。(Sore wa mīto rōfu desu.)
かおり:ミートローフ (Mīto rōfu)
テイラー:はい。にくです。(Hai. Niku desu.)
:・・・にくはだいじょうぶですか?(Niku wa daijōbu desu ka?)
かおり:はい!(Hai!) (munch munch munch)うーん。おいしい!(Uun. Oishii!)

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