Learn how to identify things, give someone things, and say some polite Japanese phrases
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| Introduction |
| Jessi: This is a Japanese Gift For You. 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.) Naomi here! |
| Jessi: Thanks as always for joining us! Naomi, could you remind us what we learned in the last lesson, Lesson 7? |
| Naomi: Sure! In the last lesson, we learned our first sentence pattern - AはBです。(A wa B desu). |
| Jessi: That's right. We used it to say our names, as in...? |
| Naomi: わたしはなおみです。(Watashi wa Naomi desu.) |
| Jessi: And in this lesson, we're going to practice using it to make different sentences. First, we'll listen to the conversation. |
| Naomi; It continues from the last lesson. |
| Jessi: Yes, Taylor has met Masato and Kaori at the airport, and they are still talking. And with that, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| かおり:テイラーさん、これはおみやげです。どうぞ。(Teirā-san, kore wa omiyage desu. Dōzo.) |
| テイラー:ありがとうございます！(Arigatō gozaimasu!) |
| かおり:いえいえ。(Ie ie.) |
| English Host: Let’s listen to the conversation again slowly. |
| かおり:テイラーさん、これはおみやげです。どうぞ。(Teirā-san, kore wa omiyage desu. Dōzo.) |
| テイラー:ありがとうございます！(Arigatō gozaimasu!) |
| かおり:いえいえ。(Ie ie.) |
| English Host: Now let's listen to it with the translation. |
| かおり:テイラーさん、これはおみやげです。どうぞ。(Teirā-san, kore wa omiyage desu. Dōzo.) |
| Jessi: Taylor, this is a little something for you. |
| テイラー:ありがとうございます！(Arigatō gozaimasu!) |
| Jessi: Thank you very much! |
| かおり:いえいえ。(Ie ie.) |
| Jessi: Don't mention it. |
| Post conversation banter |
| Jessi: Taylor sounds really thankful for something! He said ありがとうございます！(Arigatō gozaimasu!) What was it? |
| Naomi: Well, Kaori gave him some omiyage. |
| Jessi: If you remember from Lesson 3, おみやげ (omiyage) is a small gift given to someone. For example, if you go on a trip, or are visiting from somewhere, a gift you bring from that area is referred to as おみやげ (omiyage). |
| Naomi: It's an important part of Japanese culture. We love giving and receiving おみやげ (omiyage). |
| Jessi: It's a really fun custom, I think! By the way, listeners, do you remember how to say "You're welcome"? Naomi? Can you remind us? |
| Naomi: It's どういたしまして。(Dō itashimashite.) |
| Jessi: どういたしまして。(Dō itashimashite.) But Kaori said something different this time. What did Kaori say in return when Taylor said ありがとうございます(Arigatō gozaimasu) ? |
| Naomi: She said いえいえ～ (ie ie~)。 |
| Jessi: いえいえ～ (ie ie~)。 Another way to say "You're welcome?" |
| Naomi: Exactly! いいえ actually means "no," so when you say いえいえ～ (ie ie~), it's like "no~ don't worry about it" |
| Jessi: Like, "Oh, it's nothing!" "No problem!" |
| Naomi: That's right. |
| Jessi: If you can't remember the original phrase we learned, どういたしまして... (Dō itashimashite...) then this one should be much easier. |
| Naomi: Yeah, I agree. |
| Jessi: And there was one more new word, which was...? |
| Naomi: どうぞ。(Dōzo.) |
| Jessi: Here you are, or here you go. |
| Naomi: She said this when handing over the gift. |
| Jessi: Yes, you can use it when you give something to someone. And not only that, it can also be used to mean "go ahead" as well. |
| Naomi: Yes, like if you want someone to go ahead of you, you can say, どうぞ～ (Dōzo~) |
| Jessi: Okay, let's move onto the lesson focus. |
| Jessi: In this lesson, we are going to review our first sentence pattern, A is B. |
| Naomi: AはBです。(A wa B desu.) Listeners, do you remember this pattern? |
| Jessi: Basically, AはBです (A wa B desu.) means "A is B." We can insert words for A and B to create simple sentences. A is what we're talking about, and B is what we're identifying it as. Last time, we used it to talk about ourselves. For example...? |
| Naomi: わたしはなおみです。(Watashi wa Naomi desu.) |
| Jessi: "I am Naomi." We just insert the words わたし, which means I, and your name into the pattern. We can also put an occupation in place of our name, too. For example? |
| Naomi: わたしはパイロットです。(Watashi wa pairotto desu.) |
| Jessi: "I'm a pilot." Okay, and now we're going to use this sentence pattern to talk about things other than ourselves. As much as everyone loves to talk about themselves… |
| Naomi: You'll learn another useful way to use this pattern! |
| Jessi: Okay, let's look at how it was used in the dialogue. Kaori said.... |
| Naomi: これはおみやげです。(Kore wa omiyage desu.) |
| Jessi: これは...おみやげです...(Kore wa... omiyage desu...) There's a は (wa), and there's a です (desu)... so this is our "A is B" pattern, isn't it. |
| Naomi: That's right! |
| Jessi: So let's take a look at the words that replace A and B in this sentence. The first one is...? |
| Naomi: これ (Kore) |
| Jessi: これ (Kore), and this means...? |
| Naomi: "This"! |
| Jessi: So the sentence starts with これ (kore), "this". And then we have は (wa). And the word after that? |
| Naomi: おみやげ (omiyage) |
| Jessi: After おみやげ (omiyage), we had the word です to finish the pattern. Can we hear the whole sentence again? |
| Naomi: これはおみやげです。(Kore wa omiyage desu.) |
| Jessi: Literally, this is a small gift. We translated it as "This is a little something for you". Can we hear it one more time? |
| Naomi: (Slowly) これ は おみやげ です。 (Kore wa omiyage desu.) |
| Jessi: これはおみやげです。 (Kore wa omiyage desu.) Repeat after Naomi. "This is a small gift." |
| Naomi: これはおみやげです。 (Kore wa omiyage desu.) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: This is a good one to remember if you are giving someone a gift from your home country or some place that you've visited. |
| Naomi: Let's try another one. |
| Jessi: What word can we use? How about... |
| Naomi: 水！(Mizu!) |
| Jessi: Ah, 水 (mizu)！ Listeners, do you remember this word? It means "water." So how would we say "This is water"? |
| Naomi: これは水です。(Kore wa mizu desu.) |
| Jessi: Let's break it down. |
| Naomi: これ (kore) “this”, は (wa), 水 (mizu) “water”, です (desu) |
| Jessi: One more time? |
| Naomi: これは水です。(Kore wa mizu desu.) |
| Jessi: Okay listeners, repeat after Naomi. This is water. |
| Naomi: これは水です。(Kore wa mizu desu.) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: Great! So between the first sample sentence and the second, the only thing that changed was part B of the pattern, right? |
| Naomi: Yes! これは おみやげ です (kore wa omiyage desu) and これは 水 です (kore wa mizu desu). |
| Jessi: So now you can go around identifying things in Japanese! Let's practice it a bit now, shall we? |
| Naomi: Why not! |
| Jessi: Let's use a new word, something simple. |
| Naomi: Okay! Since we used water, this time, how about alcohol? |
| Jessi: Good word choice! Maybe that drink that looks like water actually isn't! We wouldn't want to get the two confused. Okay, so how would we say alcohol? |
| Naomi: お酒 (o-sake) |
| Jessi: お酒 (o-sake). Now, we have this word in English! In English, it's pronounced "sake." But it's important to know, this word means different things in both languages! "Sake" in English refers to a particular drink - Japanese rice wine. |
| Naomi: Right. But when you say お酒 (o-sake) in Japanese, this refers to alcohol in GENERAL. |
| Jessi: Yes! So technically, beer, wine, cocktails, rice wine, it all falls under お酒 (o-sake). So just something to keep in mind! Okay, so back to our sentence pattern. How would you say, this is alcohol? |
| Naomi: Here's a hint. Remember that the pattern was これはBです。(Kore wa B desu.) |
| [Pause] |
| Jessi: Okay, and the answer is? |
| Naomi: これはお酒です (Kore wa o-sake desu). |
| Jessi: これはお酒です (Kore wa o-sake desu), meaning "This is alcohol." Good for warning your guests. |
| Naomi: So now with this AはBです (A wa B desu) structure, you can introduce yourself AND say what something is! |
| Jessi: And really, that's only the beginning of what you can do with this pattern, so please commit it to memory! Thanks for listening, and see you next time! |
| Naomi: Bye, everyone! じゃまた。(Ja mata.) |
Lesson conversation |
| かおり:テイラーさん、これはおみやげです。どうぞ。(Teirā-san, kore wa omiyage desu. Dōzo.) |
| テイラー:ありがとうございます！(Arigatō gozaimasu!) |
| かおり:いえいえ。(Ie ie.) |
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