Learn how to ask what something is
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Intro |
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| Jessi: Hey everyone, ジェシーです (Jeshī desu)。Jessi here! |
| Motoko: こんにちは (Kon'nichiwa) 、 Motoko です (desu)。 |
| Jessi: One of These Things is Not Like the Other One in Japan. Thanks for joining us for this lesson. In the last lesson, we learned how to ask when someone is going somewhere. |
| Motoko: Yes, for example, いつ日本に行きますか (itsu Nihon ni ikimasu ka) ？ When are you going to Japan? |
| Jessi: That's right. And in this lesson, we'll learn how to ask what something is. For example, what's this? And what's that? |
| Motoko: Yes. Jessi, what's happening in the conversation? |
| Jessi: Taylor is at the airport in Japan, where he is passing through customs. The customs officer will be asking him some questions. |
| Motoko: Okay! Let's listen to the conversation. |
| Dialogue |
| (At customs) |
| Officer: パスポート おねがいします。それ は なんですか。 |
| Officer: Pasupōto onegaishimasu. Sore wa nan desu ka. |
| テイラー: これ は おみやげです。メキシコ の アルコールです。 |
| Taylor: Kore wa omiyage desu. Mekishiko no arukōru desu. |
| Officer: テキーラ？ |
| Officer: Tekīra? |
| テイラー: はい。 |
| Taylor: Hai. |
| Officer: これ は なんですか。 |
| Officer: Kore wa nan desu ka. |
| テイラー: それ は、サラ の Diaperです。 |
| Taylor: Sore wa, Sara no Diaper desu. |
| Officer: Diaper？Diaper は なんですか。 |
| Officer: Diaper? Diaper wa nan desu ka. |
| Jessi: Let’s listen to the conversation again slowly. |
| (At customs) |
| Officer: パスポート おねがいします。それ は なんですか。 |
| Officer: Pasupōto onegaishimasu. Sore wa nan desu ka. |
| テイラー: これ は おみやげです。メキシコ の アルコールです。 |
| Taylor: Kore wa omiyage desu. Mekishiko no arukōru desu. |
| Officer: テキーラ？ |
| Officer: Tekīra? |
| テイラー: はい。 |
| Taylor: Hai. |
| Officer: これ は なんですか。 |
| Officer: Kore wa nan desu ka. |
| テイラー: それ は、サラ の Diaperです。 |
| Taylor: Sore wa, Sara no Diaper desu. |
| Officer: Diaper？Diaper は なんですか。 |
| Officer: Diaper? Diaper wa nan desu ka. |
| Jessi: Now let’s listen to it with the translation. |
| (At customs) |
| Officer: パスポート おねがいします。 |
| Officer: Pasupōto onegaishimasu. |
| Jessi: Passport, please. |
| Officer: それ は なんですか。 |
| Officer: Sore wa nan desu ka. |
| Jessi: What is that? |
| テイラー: これ は おみやげです。 |
| Taylor: Kore wa omiyage desu. |
| Jessi: This is a souvenir. |
| テイラー: メキシコ の アルコールです。 |
| Taylor: Mekishiko no arukōru desu. |
| Jessi: It's Mexican alcohol. |
| Officer: テキーラ？ |
| Officer: Tekīra? |
| Jessi: Tequila? |
| テイラー: はい。 |
| Taylor: Hai. |
| Jessi: Yes. |
| Officer: これ は なんですか。 |
| Officer: Kore wa nan desu ka. |
| Jessi: What is this? |
| テイラー: それ は、サラ の Diaperです。 |
| Taylor:Sore wa, Sara no Diaper desu. |
| Jessi: Those are Sara’s diapers. |
| Officer: Diaper？Diaper は なんですか |
| Officer: Diaper? Diaper wa nan desu ka. |
| Jessi: Diaper? What are diapers? |
| Vocabulary and Phrase Usage |
| Jessi: So, Taylor is going through customs at the airport. |
| Motoko: Yes. The officer is asking lots of questions... |
| Jessi: He is! Well, he's gotta make sure that he knows what Taylor is bringing in. |
| Motoko: That's true. |
| Jessi: By the way, there was a Japanese word that Taylor didn't know. |
| Motoko: Oh, diaper? |
| Jessi: Right. He didn't know the word for diapers. How DO you say diapers? |
| Motoko: Diaper is おむつ (omutsu) in Japanese. |
| Jessi: おむつ. (Omutsu.) |
| Motoko: Yes. Some people also say おしめ (oshime). |
| Jessi: おしめ. (Oshime.) Hmm, that's a new one for me. So, it could be おむつ (omutsu) or おしめ (oshime)? |
| Motoko: Right. |
| Jessi: Okay, let's look at some other vocab words. Most of them we saw in Season 1. |
| Motoko: Right. Like おみやげ (omiyage) |
| Jessi: souvenir, or gift |
| Motoko: アルコール (arukōru) |
| Jessi: alcohol, or alcoholic drink |
| Motoko: おさけ (o-sake) is another way to say alcohol. |
| Jessi: Right, おさけ (o-sake). While we're on the subject of drinks... let's review how to say the names of other common drinks. |
| Motoko: Sure! There's みず (mizu) |
| Jessi: Water |
| Motoko: ジュース (jūsu) |
| Jessi: juice |
| Motoko: おちゃ (o-cha) |
| Jessi: tea |
| Motoko: コーヒー (kōhī) |
| Jessi: coffee. You'll notice that some of them sound similar to the English words, like ジュース (jūsu) and コーヒー (kōhī). |
| Motoko: Right. There are many words like this in Japanese. |
| Jessi: Yes, loanwords that come from different languages. It makes remembering some vocabulary words easier, but watch out for the pronunciation. |
| Motoko: Yes, it can be quite different sometimes. |
| Jessi: Let's practice a few. Listener, please repeat. Alcohol. |
| Motoko: アルコール (arukōru) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: Next one is... juice. |
| Motoko: ジュース (jūsu) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: And last one is... coffee. |
| Motoko: コーヒー (kōhī) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: Great! Let's move on to the lesson focus. |
| Grammar Point |
| Jessi: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask what something is. Motoko, can you let us know our pattern? |
| Motoko: Sure. It is Aはなんですか (A wa nan desu ka)。 |
| Jessi: [slowly] Aはなんですか。 (A wa nan desu ka.) And that is, What is A? In this lesson, we'll practice substituting in different words for A. |
| Motoko: Yes, the words "this" and "that". |
| Jessi: Let's review the words "this" and "that" in Japanese. |
| Motoko: "This" is これ (kore). |
| Jessi: これ. (Kore.) Please repeat. "This". |
| Motoko: これ (kore) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: This is used when talking about that is close to you, or something that you're holding. |
| Motoko: Right. これ. (Kore.) |
| Jessi: Now, how do you say "that"? |
| Motoko: "That" is それ (sore) |
| Jessi: それ. (Sore.) Please repeat. "That". |
| Motoko: それ (sore) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: This is used when talking about that not close to you, but close to the listeners, the person you're speaking to. |
| Motoko: Yes. それ. (Sore.) |
| Jessi: So now, let's put these two words into our pattern. |
| Motoko: Okay. First, with これ (kore)、 meaning this: これは何ですか (Kore wa nan desu ka)。 |
| Jessi: [slowly] これは何ですか。 (Kore wa nan desu ka.) What is this? If you ever want to ask what something is, whether it be an item, food or drink, you can use these phrases! |
| Motoko: Yes. Please repeat. これは何ですか。 (Kore wa nan desu ka.) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: Great, now let's use the word それ (sore). |
| Motoko: それは何ですか。 (Sore wa nan desu ka.) |
| Jessi: [slowly] それは何ですか。 (Sore wa nan desu ka.) What is that? |
| Motoko: Yes. Please repeat. それは何ですか。 (Sore wa nan desu ka.) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: All right! Sounding good. Now, let's take a look at how these phrases are used in the dialogue. |
| Motoko: The customs officer asks Taylor それはなんですか。 (Sore wa nan desu ka.) |
| Jessi: What's that? |
| Motoko: And Taylor says これはおみやげです (kore wa omiyage desu)。 |
| Jessi: This is a souvenir. So as you can see, the customs officer uses それ (sore), because he is referring to something that is away from him, that Taylor has. |
| Motoko: Exactly. |
| Jessi: But when Taylor responds, he uses これ (kore), since he is talking about something he has, something that is close to him. |
| Motoko: It's like English, actually. |
| Jessi: Right, it's the same. For example, "What's that? Oh, this is such-and-such." |
| Motoko: Let's look at another example. |
| Jessi: Okay! |
| Motoko: The customs officer asks Taylor これはなんですか (kore wa nan desu ka)？ |
| Jessi: "What's this?" We can assume he is standing next to it, and pointing to it, or something like that. |
| Motoko: Then Taylor says それはサラのDiaperです (sore wa sara no Diaper desu)。 |
| Jessi: "That is Sara’s diaper" or "Those are Sara’s diapers." Taylor answers with それ (sore). |
| Motoko: そうです (Sō desu), that's right. |
| Jessi: Okay. And, there's one more word that we can use in place of これ (kore) and それ (sore). We didn't have it in the dialogue, but the word is... あれ (are)。 |
| Motoko: あれ。 (Are.) |
| Jessi: This also means "that", but it's used when you're talking about something that is far from the speaker AND the listener. |
| Motoko: Yes. Let's give an example. |
| Jessi: Sure, for example... Let's say I'm talking to Motoko, and I see something at a distance. I'm not sure what it is, so I can ask Motoko あれはなんですか (are wa nan desu ka) ？ "What's that over there?" |
| Motoko: OK. Please repeat. あれはなんですか？ (Are wa nan desu ka?) |
| [pause] |
| Jessi: Great. So, to recap we have |
| Motoko: これ (kore) |
| Jessi: this, referring to something close to the speaker |
| Motoko: それ (sore) |
| Jessi: that, something far from the speaker, but close to the listener. And the last is... |
| Motoko: あれ (are) |
| Jessi: that, something far from both the speaker and the listener. |
Outro |
| Motoko: Good job everyone! |
| Jessi: Yes, was that a lot of information? Remember, you can always check the Lesson Notes for review. |
| Motoko: We highly recommend it. |
| Jessi: All right; well, that's going to do it for this lesson! |
| Motoko: Thank you for listening. |
| Jessi: See you next time! |
| Motoko: じゃあ、また。 (Jā, mata.) |
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