Learn how to ask where something is
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| Introduction |
| Jessi: Where's The Party in Japan. 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: Welcome back to our Absolute Beginner series! In the last lesson, we learned how to ask if someone or something is okay. |
| Naomi: Yes! Using... 大丈夫ですか？ (Daijōbu desu ka?) |
| Jessi: 大丈夫ですか？ (Daijōbu desu ka?) Are you okay? Is it okay? We saw how this phrase took on a lot of different meanings. |
| Naomi: Right, and in this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask where something is. |
| Jessi: One of the most important things you can learn in any language! Once you know this, you'll be able to ask "where's the bathroom?" "where's the train station?", even just, "where's the trash can?" You'll be able to locate anything. |
| Naomi: Yes, it's really useful. |
| Jessi: Definitely. Okay, what's our setting this time? |
| Naomi: Kaori, Masato, and Taylor have just finished eating dinner. |
| Jessi: Listen closely to the question that Masato asks. And with that, on to the conversation! |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| まさと＆かおり:ごちそうさまでした！(Gochisō-sama deshita!) |
| まさと:（stomach rumbling）あの・・・すみません。トイレはどこですか？(Ano... sumimasen. Toire wa doko desu ka?) |
| テイラー:トイレはあそこです。(Toire wa asoko desu.) |
| まさと:あそこ？どうも。(Asoko? Dōmo.)（runs off） |
| English Host: Let's listen to conversation again slowly. |
| まさと＆かおり:ごちそうさまでした！(Gochisō-sama deshita!) |
| まさと:（stomach rumbling）あの・・・すみません。トイレはどこですか？(Ano... sumimasen. Toire wa doko desu ka?) |
| テイラー:トイレはあそこです。(Toire wa asoko desu.) |
| まさと:あそこ？どうも。(Asoko? Dōmo.)（runs off） |
| English Host: Now let’s listen to it with the English translation. |
| まさと＆かおり:ごちそうさまでした！(Gochisō-sama deshita!) |
| Jessi: Thank you for the meal! |
| まさと:（stomach rumbling）あの・・・すみません。トイレはどこですか？(Ano... sumimasen. Toire wa doko desu ka?) |
| Jessi: (stomach rumbling) Umm, excuse me. Where's the bathroom? |
| テイラー:トイレはあそこです。(Toire wa asoko desu.) |
| Jessi: The bathroom is over there. |
| まさと:あそこ？どうも。(Asoko? Dōmo.)（runs off） |
| Jessi: Over there? Thanks. (runs off) |
| Post conversation banter |
| Jessi: Okay! So they have finished eating dinner. Naomi, how do we know that they have just finished? |
| Naomi: Good question. We know because of the phrase they said - ごちそうさまでした。 (Gochisō-sama deshita) |
| Jessi: And that will be our first phrase! Can we hear it again? |
| Naomi: (slowly) ごちそう・さま・でした。 (Gochisō-sama deshita) |
| Jessi: ごちそうさまでした。 (Gochisō-sama deshita) |
| Naomi: Right. Remember how we heard the phrase いただきます (Itadakimasu) 2 lessons ago? |
| Jessi: Yes! They all said いただきます (Itadakimasu) before they were about to eat. It's a custom to say this before eating as a way for showing thanks for the food. |
| Naomi: Right and ごちそうさまでした (Gochisō-sama deshita) is the matching phrase you say AFTER you finish eating your meal. |
| Jessi: It's another way to show thanks. It's basically just like saying "Thank you for the meal!" |
| Naomi: Exactly. So it would be good to remember these as a pair. |
| Jessi: Before eating, you say...? |
| Naomi: いただきます (Itadakimasu) |
| Jessi: And after eating...? |
| Naomi: ごちそうさまでした (Gochisō-sama deshita) |
| Jessi: So that's how we know they finished eating. After that, Masato asked where the bathroom was. Maybe the food didn't sit well with him, or maybe he ate too fast. (笑) Anyway, what is the word for bathroom or restroom? |
| Naomi: トイレ (toire) |
| Jessi: トイレ (toire). Now, as you may be able to guess, this word comes from the word "toilet" in English. |
| Naomi: But you don't usually ask for the toilet in English, do you? |
| Jessi: Hmm, well it depends on where you're from actually. In some English-speaking countries it's perfectly fine to ask for the toilet, although in the US we would normally ask for the bathroom or restroom. |
| But in Japanese, the actual word "toilet" is used, so you're literally just asking "where's the toilet?" |
| Naomi: We'll learn how to ask this question later on in the lesson. |
| Jessi: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask where something is in Japanese, such as "Where's the restroom?", "Where's the garbage can?" etc. |
| Naomi: Like you said in the beginning of the lesson, this is a very important thing to know! |
| Jessi: Definitely. I mean, naturally when you travel to another country you'll want to know how to ask where things are, but not only that. Even just for asking others about everyday items, it's very useful. Okay, Naomi, can we hear our sentence pattern for asking where something is? |
| Naomi: Sure. Aはどこですか。(A wa doko desu ka?) |
| Naomi: So if you want to ask "where is the restroom?" you'd say...トイレはどこですか。(Toire wa doko desu ka?) |
| Jessi: So did you notice that we're still working with the original A はBです (A wa B desu) [A is B] pattern here? Just replace A with the item or place you are looking for and replace B with a question word どこ (doko) meaning where. Naomi, can we hear the sentence again? |
| Naomi: トイレはどこですか？(Toire wa doko desu ka?) |
| Jessi: トイレはどこですか？ (Toire wa doko desu ka?) One more time slowly? |
| Naomi: (slowly) トイレ・は・どこ・です・か？(Toire wa doko desu ka?) |
| Jessi: And again, at natural speed. |
| Naomi: トイレはどこですか？(Toire wa doko desu ka?) |
| Jessi: And this is exactly the phrase that Masato used in the conversation, isn't it? |
| Naomi: Right. He said あの・・・すみません。トイレはどこですか？(Ano... sumimasen. Toire wa doko desu ka?) |
| Jessi: "Umm, excuse me. Where's the bathroom?" Listeners, repeat after Naomi and ask where the bathroom is. |
| Naomi: トイレはどこですか？(Toire wa doko desu ka?) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: Great, now in place of トイレ (toire) we can put any word we want. Let's toss some other words in there for fun. |
| Naomi: How about tissue? |
| Jessi: Good one. The weather is getting colder, and if you catch a cold, you'll want to ask for this! |
| Naomi: Tissue is ティッシュ (Tisshu) in Japanese. |
| Jessi: So "where's the tissue?" would be? |
| Naomi: ティッシュはどこですか？(Tisshu wa doko desu ka?) |
| Jessi: ティッシュはどこですか？(Tisshu wa doko desu ka?) "Where's the tissue?" Okay, so now you want to throw away the tissue you used, what's trashcan in Japanese? |
| Naomi: ごみばこ (Gomibako) |
| Jessi: ごみばこ (Gomibako). So "where's the trash can" would be...? No, wait, let's ask the listeners! |
| Naomi: Listeners, please ask "Where's the trash can?" Again, trashcan is ごみばこ (Gomibako). |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: Okay, if you said... |
| Naomi: ごみばこはどこですか？(Gomibako wa doko desu ka?) |
| Jessi: then I think you've got it down! We have a lot more examples of words you can use in this pattern in the Lesson Notes, so please make sure to read those. |
| Naomi: Okay, so up until now, we have learned 2 question words. 何 (nan), meaning "what", as in これは何ですか？ (kore wa nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: "What is this?" |
| Naomi: And どこ(doko), meaning "where", which we just learned in this lesson, as in, トイレはどこですか。 (toire wa doko desu ka?) |
| Jessi: "Where's the bathroom?" Now if you notice, the question words are both in the same location in the sentence where B goes in our AはBです (A wa B desu) structure. We can put other question words in place of these too, and make all sorts of questions! |
| Naomi: Yes! We put a chart of question words in the PDF. |
| Jessi: Be sure to read the PDF and find out how to say "when" and "how" in Japanese. Okay. So let's practice that one last time before we have to go. Naomi, can you give us a situation to practice with? |
| Naomi: Okay! How about you're traveling in Japan, and want to go to the restroom. Please ask me where it is. |
| Jessi: Okay, sounds good! Listeners ask Naomi where the restroom is. |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: Okay, if you said... |
| Naomi: トイレはどこですか (toire wa doko desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Then you'll have no trouble finding that restroom. |
| Naomi: And here's a little tip, if you're asking someone you don't know, you can start by saying "excuse me". |
| Jessi: Ah, our listeners should remember this, すみません (sumimasen). |
| Naomi: Yes, so you could ask - すみません、トイレはどこですか。(Sumimasen, toire wa doko desu ka?) |
| Jessi: すみません、トイレはどこですか。(Sumimasen, toire wa doko desu ka?) |
| That would be a perfect sentence to use! Okay everyone, how'd it go? Thanks for joining us for this lesson! |
| Naomi: Make sure to join us next time too. |
| Jessi: See you then! |
| Naomi: じゃまた！(Ja mata!) |
Lesson conversation |
| まさと＆かおり:ごちそうさまでした！(Gochisō-sama deshita!) |
| まさと:（stomach rumbling）あの・・・すみません。トイレはどこですか？(Ano... sumimasen. Toire wa doko desu ka?) |
| テイラー:トイレはあそこです。(Toire wa asoko desu.) |
| まさと:あそこ？どうも。(Asoko? Dōmo.)（runs off） |
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