Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Natsuko: こんにちは。ナツコです。 (Konnichiwa. Natsuko desu.)
Peter: Peter here. What To Wear To? Natsuko-san,
Natsuko: はい。 (Hai.)
Peter: Welcome to today’s lesson. Last week, it was actually Sakura and myself.
Natsuko: Yes, I wasn’t here.
Peter: Yes and this is a continuation. So we are going to have to bring you up to speed. Last week again, Kinoshita was shopping. We don’t know if it’s the same Kinoshita or we don’t know…
Natsuko: Which Kinoshita is this?
Peter: Which one is we don’t know but a man named Kinoshita was shopping for clothes at a department store.
Natsuko: Okay.
Peter: And he met a savvy salesman. Now the salesman was trying to tell him how good he looked, really playing it up.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: So what we are going to do is continue on. The focus of today’s lesson is on wearing clothes and in Japanese depending on the article clothing, the verb you use can change.
Natsuko: Yes, sure.
Peter: So we want to pay attention to that. Now again polite Japanese and actually very polite Japanese. The sales clerk gets politer and politer as the sale starts to go right. So typical salesman. Are you ready, Natsuko-san?
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: All right, here we go.
DIALOGUE
(続き デパートにて)(tsuduki depāto nite)
店員:こちらの靴下をはいてみてはいかがでしょうか。ズボンとばっちり合うと思いますよ。(Tenin: Kochira no kutsushita o, haite mite wa ikaga deshō ka. Zubon to, bacchiri au to omoimasu yo.)
木ノ下:はあ。
(Kinoshita: Hā.)
(木ノ下、靴下をはく)
(Kinoshita, kutsushita o haku)
店員:素晴らしい。なんとお客様の足にフィットすることでしょう。
(Tenin: Subarashii. Nanto o-kyaku-sama no ashi ni fitto suru koto deshō.)
木ノ下:はあ…。
Kinoshita: Hā...
店員:この帽子もかぶってみてはいかがですか。
(Tenin: Kono bōshi mo kabutte mite wa ikaga desu ka.)
(木ノ下、帽子をかぶる)
(Kinoshita, bōshi o kaburu)
店員:これまた素晴らしい。なんて素敵なんでしょう。
(Tenin: Kore mata subarashii. Nante suteki na n deshō.)
木ノ下:はあ…。
(Kinoshita:Hā…)
もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。 (Mōichido onegaishimasu. Yukkuri onegaishimasu.)
(続き デパートにて)(tsuduki depāto nite)
店員:こちらの靴下をはいてみてはいかがでしょうか。ズボンとばっちり合うと思いますよ。(Tenin: Kochira no kutsushita o, haite mite wa ikaga deshō ka. Zubon to, bacchiri au to omoimasu yo.)
木ノ下:はあ。
(Kinoshita: Hā.)
(木ノ下、靴下をはく)
(Kinoshita, kutsushita o haku)
店員:素晴らしい。なんとお客様の足にフィットすることでしょう。
(Tenin: subarashii. Nanto o-kyaku-sama no ashi ni fitto suru koto deshō.)
木ノ下:はあ…。
(Kinoshita: Hā…)
店員:この帽子もかぶってみてはいかがですか。
(Tenin: Kono bōshi mo kabutte mite wa ikaga desu ka.)
(木ノ下、帽子をかぶる)
(Kinoshita, bōshi o kaburu)
店員:これまた素晴らしい。なんて素敵なんでしょう。
(Tenin: Kore mata subarashii. Nante suteki na n deshō.)
木ノ下:はあ…。
(Kinoshita:Hā…)
次は英語が入ります。 (Tsugi wa eigo ga hairimasu.)
With the English translation.
(続き デパートにて)
(tsuduki depāto nite)
(still in the department store)
店員:こちらの靴下をはいてみてはいかがでしょうか。ズボンとばっちり合うと思いますよ。(Tenin: Kochira no kutsushita o, haite mite wa ikaga deshō ka. Zubon to, bacchiri au to omoimasu yo.)
Clerk: How would you like to try on these socks? I think they would look perfect with your pants.
木ノ下:はあ。
Kinoshita: Hā.
Kinoshita: Uh...OK
(木ノ下、靴下をはく)
(Kinoshita, kutsushita o haku)
(Kinoshita tries on the socks)
店員:素晴らしい。なんとお客様の足にフィットすることでしょう。
(Tenin: subarashii. Nanto o-kyaku-sama no ashi ni fitto suru koto deshō.)
Clerk: Wonderful! They fit perfectly on your feet.
木ノ下:はあ…。
(Kinoshita: Hā…)
Kinoshita: Uh...OK
店員:この帽子もかぶってみてはいかがですか。
(Tenin: Kono bōshi mo kabutte mite wa ikaga desu ka.)
Clerk: How would you like to try on this hat, too?
(木ノ下、帽子をかぶる)
(Kinoshita, bōshi o kaburu)
(Kinoshita tries on the hat)
店員:これまた素晴らしい。なんて素敵なんでしょう。
(Tenin: Kore mata subarashii. Nante suteki na n deshō.)
Clerk: This is wonderful. How nice! Right?
木ノ下:はあ…。
(Kinoshita:Hā…)
Kinoshita: Uh...OK
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Peter:ナツコさん、きょうの会話、どう思いましたか? (Natsukosan, kyō no kaiwa, dō omoimashita ka?)
Natsuko: 優秀なセールスマンですね。 (Yūshū na sērusuman desu ne.)
Peter: Yeah this is a pretty talented top notch salesman.
Natsuko: But it sounds like Kinoshita is a little taken aback.
Peter: Yeah I think so. Maybe it’s the first time he is really shopping for some nice clothing in a nice place.
Natsuko: First time?
Peter: I don’t know but like the salesperson is just so complimentary. So I don’t know. I haven’t had any experiences like this.
Natsuko: Me neither.
Peter: And I think it’s – where we shop Natsuko-san.
Natsuko: Oh that’s right.
Peter: So that’s why I am saying because it’s the first time he is getting something really nice.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: And with that high price comes...
Natsuko: Compliments like this.
Peter: Yes. And how do we say that in Japanese?
Natsuko: ほめ言葉 (homekotoba)
Peter: To say something flattering.
Natsuko: It has more strong nuance to flattering but maybe お世辞 (oseji)
Peter: Ah kissing up and unless you are up top or in higher management, yes you will be doing a lot of this. So let’s get everyone familiar with this word one more time.
Natsuko: お世辞 (oseji)
Peter: Yeah. And there is actually a gesture for this.
Natsuko: Oh yes ごますり (goma suri)
Peter: Yes and this has to do – you open your hand and on top of your hand, you put a fist and then you circle it around and around and if you see this, it means someone in the room is kissing up. Now yeah, we really need a picture of that. I mean, this is one video which will come in so handy. Right, Natsuko-san? You’ve always been pulling for the video. You want to do this all in video?
Natsuko: Me?
Peter: Yeah.
Natsuko: No, not me.
Peter: Okay. So we will try to get some image of that but again it’s just an open hand, open palm and on the palm you put a hand and you go round and round and this comes from crushing the ゴマ (goma) the sesame seeds which we did last week at しゃぶしゃぶ (shabushabu)
Natsuko: I see.
Peter: All right. Natsuko-san, can we get back on track here. What do we have first? First vocab word?
VOCAB LIST
Natsuko: 素敵 (suteki)
Peter: Lovely, dreamy, beautiful, great, cool and so on.
Natsuko: So on…On and on.
Peter: We could do a lot with this word. Can we get a break down?
Natsuko: す・て・き「素敵」 (Suteki `suteki')
Peter: Now a few things about this word. It is a NA adjective. So when placed in front of the nouns, we would say for example in the case of a car which is 車(くるま) (kuruma)
Natsuko: 素敵な車。 (Suteki na kuruma.)
Peter: Nice looking car. I think nice looking really kind of covers 90% of the meaning of this word or a context of when this word is used. Usually when something looks good, if you show up in new clothes, someone might say...
Natsuko: 素敵! (Suteki!)
Peter: Wow, nice outfit like ‘it looks good, you look good.’
Natsuko: Yeah.
Peter: Clothes look good or maybe just the clothes are thin. Anyway you should get the point. Looks good, good looking.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: Then we have
Natsuko: 帽子 (bōshi)
Peter: Hat.
Natsuko: ぼ・う・し「帽子」 (Bo u shi `bōshi')
Peter: I never quite got the kanji, the characters that make up this word.
Natsuko: Really?
Peter: Which is the first one?
Natsuko: The first one means hat or cap, what you wear on your head.
Peter: Oh all right. Thank you Natsuko-san.
Natsuko: I don’t know whether it includes Bandana or Scarves but it’s a hat…
Peter: Something…
Natsuko: Yeah.
Peter: Yeah that goes on the hat. And the second character is?
Natsuko: Child.
Peter: Yeah. So ‘hat child.’ For me, I always used it in the U.S. Everybody wears baseball caps to school.
Natsuko: Oh yeah.
Peter: So that’s how – that’s a little mnemonic that I use. Basically you have the hat and the kid.
Natsuko: Yeah.
Peter: So when you see these two together.
Natsuko: Yeah.
Peter: It’s?
Natsuko: 帽子 (bōshi)
Peter: Hat. That word for me when I was learning kanji but I don’t know. As an American, I am quite used to this. I mean, we had all the sports teams and all the kids would wear hats to school. So this was quite common for us.
Natsuko: Yeah maybe or maybe school uniform hats.
Peter: In Japan, they have the little yellow fisherman hats.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: We are going to need a lot of images for this lesson.
Natsuko: Right.
Peter: All right, next we have?
Natsuko: 足 (ashi)
Peter: Foot.
Natsuko: あ・し「足」 (a shi `ashi')
Peter: Now, where does this cover up to?
Natsuko: Below your knee I think or maybe below your ankle.
Peter: Big difference there though. Is it below the ankle or is it the lower part?
Natsuko: Yeah. Sometimes it includes the lower part.
Peter: Yes.
Natsuko: But usually it’s below your ankle.
Peter: Yeah but there is that case where it can be used like that. So I just wanted to give you a heads up about that. In English, we have “foot” and “leg.”
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: So it’s that distinct difference. I am feeling I am going to get emailed about that but umm, but yeah in Japanese, あし (ashi) can include up to the knee sometimes.
Natsuko: Yes and sometimes it might include your whole leg but in that case, you usually use different kanji.
Peter: Which is?
Natsuko: It reads the same あし (ashi)
Peter: But just the kanji is different?
Natsuko: Yes usually.
Peter: Same word, different kanji.
Natsuko: Uhoo…
Peter: Interesting. All right, next we have...
Natsuko: 靴下 (kutsushita)
Peter: Socks.
Natsuko: く・つ・し・た「靴下」 (kutsu shita `kutsushita')
Peter: Now the characters in this word are very interesting.
Natsuko: You are right.
Peter: First we have...
Natsuko: 靴 (kutsu)
Peter: Which means “shoes”. Then we have...
Natsuko: 下 (shita)
Peter: Which means “below.”
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: So it’s very easy. Below the shoes, we have the socks!
Natsuko: You have your socks. Right.
Peter: Now the character for “shoes,” that’s a little tricky. So you definitely want to stop by JapanesePod101.com and check out the kanji.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: Because this one, at first it seems daunting but it’s again once you get this kanji under your belt that’s just so – it’s amazing to recognize them and be able to read everything. Really exciting. Next we have?
Natsuko: 思う (omou)
Peter: To think, to feel.
Natsuko: お・も・う「思う」 (o mou `omou')
Peter: And class 1 verb.
Natsuko: Yes.

Lesson focus

Peter: Okay. So today, we are going to take a look at this salesperson and we are going to pick up some good lines. We start off with...
Natsuko: こちらの靴下をはいてみてはいかがでしょうか。 (Kochira no kutsushita o haite mite wa ikaga deshou ka.)
Peter: How about trying on these socks? Now the pattern...
Natsuko: みてはいかがでしょうか (Mite wa ikaga deshou ka)
Peter: While this might seem really challenging, last week we had みてはどうですか (Mite wa dōdesu ka)
Natsuko: Oh.
Peter: And it’s the same thing.
Natsuko: Yes, almost the same.
Peter: Yes. The politeness level in today’s dialogue has been increased. So it is much politer.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: But the barebones, the meaning is the same. Okay let’s just take it from the top. First we have...
Natsuko: こちらの (kochira no)
Peter: These here. Now again in Japanese, there is no plural. So you have to kind of make that assessment from what’s being talked about and we are talking about?
Natsuko: 靴下 (kutsushita)
Peter: Socks. So these socks.
Natsuko: を (o)
Peter: If it was plain Japanese, if it wasn’t very polite Japanese, for these socks, you could easily say?
Natsuko: この靴下 (kono kutsushita)
Peter: Yes, but as we increased the politeness level, it’s こちらの靴下 (kochira no kutsushita)
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: Then we have the object marker
Natsuko: を (o)
Peter: Followed by
Natsuko: 履いて (haite)
Peter: Now this comes from the verb
Natsuko: 履く (haku)
Peter: And again when we have that pulling motion, for putting on clothing, we use the verb haku. Now, last week we used this for pants.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: We are also going to use this for socks because we are pulling them on our legs. Now again the te-form, we had this last week, the te-form is
Natsuko: はいて (haite)
Peter: When it’s followed by
Natsuko: みる (miru)
Peter: It means to try to do something. So to try to put them on and we have the te-form again followed by
Natsuko: ~はいかがでしょうか (~ Wa ikaga deshou ka)
Peter: Okay. So up until the は, we have
Natsuko: はいてみては (haite mite wa)
Peter: To try on. So literally to this point, we have these socks try on.
Natsuko: いかがでしょうか (Ikaga deshou ka)
Peter: How about. Now last week again, we had どうですか.「いかが」 (Dōdesu ka. `Ikaga') is the polite form of
Natsuko: いかが (ikaga)
Peter: Meaning “how.”
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: And it’s….
Natsuko: Very polite word.
Peter: Very polite, いかがですか (ikaga desu ka) “How is it?” At a restaurant, if you are eating something, maybe the waiter may check on you and will come over and say...?
Natsuko: いかがですか (ikaga desu ka)
Peter: “How are things?” “How is everything?” “How” followed by
Natsuko: でしょうか (deshou ka)
Peter: Again just to increase the politeness level. Here it’s not a probability thing. It’s the politeness level.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: So this phrase いかがですか (ikaga desu ka) or いかがでしょうか (Ikaga deshou ka), you will hear over and over again.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: While you are a customer shopping around for something trying on something, eating at a restaurant over and over again, you will hear this very, very polite Japanese. You should translate it in your mind as どうですか (dō desu ka) because that’s probably what you are more familiar with at this stage.
Natsuko: Yes, right.
Peter: So when you hear this, key in your mind that, okay, this is what it means.
Natsuko: It’s the same thing.
Peter: Then we have?
Natsuko: ズボンとバッチリ合うと思いますよ。 (Zubon to batchiri au to omoimasu yo.)
Peter: I think they go perfectly with your pants. First we have
Natsuko: ズボンと (zubon to)
Peter: “Pants with.” Notice the particle と (to) in there meaning with followed by
Natsuko: バッチリ (batchiri)
Peter: “Perfect.” Followed by
Natsuko: 合う (au)
Peter: “Go with.” “Pants with perfectly go.”
Natsuko: ~と思いますよ (~ To omoimasu yo)
Peter: “I think.” Again we want to stress the particle と (to). This often precedes the verbs.
Natsuko: 思う (omou)
Peter: “To think” and the verb “to say.”
Natsuko: 言う (iu)
Peter: It’s usually used to mark.
Natsuko: Yes, the subject.
Peter: Will come before…
Natsuko: Or the content.
Peter: Yes. Okay then, we are going to skip by Kinoshita because we already went through that and again, we are on to more complimentary things. If you really want to learn how to お世辞 (oseji), “kissing up,” this is the lesson for you. Then we have
Natsuko: 素晴らしい! (Subarashii!)
Peter: Amazing.
Natsuko: なんとお客様の足にフィットすることでしょう (Nanto okyakusama no ashi ni fitto suru kotodeshou)
Peter: Okay. We are going to stress here, wow, what a perfect fit to your foot!
Natsuko: フィットしない靴下ってあるんですかね? (Fitto shinai kutsushita tte aru ndesu ka ne?)
Peter: Yeah I think they are going to fit any way you cut it but it’s all about sales.
Natsuko: Okay, okay.
Peter: And here we have a pretty good – we should get him for JapanesePod101.com. Okay we want to focus here on the phrase
Natsuko: なんと (nanto)
Peter: Meaning “how” as in how beautiful. Natsuko-san, なんと (nanto) All right, I was just going to stop right now, yeah. All right but you can follow that with adjectives that can really impress some people, not the staff that I work with but some people. So this is really, really good and you are going to – this will come a bit later なんと (nanto) and なんて (nante). These two really add emphasis to the adjective you are talking about.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: Another interesting point is this verb フィット (fitto)
Natsuko: フィットする (fitto suru)
Peter: Can you help us out here? What does this mean?
Natsuko: Fit.
Peter: “Fit,” yes. As in “fits nice.”
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: But the interesting thing here is, it’s a verb, “to fit.”
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: So, wow, what a fit! And then he is kind of getting really leery now “umm”. Then again, we have the pattern we discussed above. The only difference is the verb.
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: Natsuko-san, can we get that?
Natsuko: この帽子もかぶってみてはいかがですか。 (Kono bōshi mo kabutte mite wa ikaga desu ka.)
Peter: “How about trying on this hat.” Now it’s the same pattern as above. Very polite いかがですか (ikaga desu ka) very polite, “how about.” Then we have the みて (mite) which means “to try something” but here instead of the はく (haku) or the te-form はいて (haite) we have
Natsuko: かぶって (kabutte)
Peter: Which is the te-form of
Natsuko: かぶる (kaburu)
Peter: Now when pulling something down on to your body, we use the verb
Natsuko: かぶる (kaburu)
Peter: Okay. So let’s just stop here and go over this one more time. While putting things on your body, we use
Natsuko: 着る (kiru)
Peter: When pulling things onto your body, lower waist
Natsuko: はく (haku)
Peter: Then, when putting things onto your head
Natsuko: かぶる (kaburu)
Peter: And then to really confuse you, we also have the verb する for accessories or other things.
Natsuko: かける (kakeru) for メガネ (megane) “eyeglasses.”
Peter: Yes oh boy! So we have five different.. and probably a few more that we are not covering.
Natsuko: はめる (hameru)
Peter: Okay…
Natsuko: Oh okay, okay, okay, okay…
Peter: Natsuko-san, did you learn anything from the conversation in the dialogue, this is marketing?
Natsuko: Hahaha, sure. There are plenty of stocks here. Which one do you want to use?
Peter: That’s what I am talking about 素晴らしい (Subarashii) and なんて素晴らしい (nante Subarashii)
Natsuko: Yes.
Peter: How amazing! How incredible! Okay that about covers all the points we really wanted to go over today. Right, Natsuko-san?
Natsuko: Yes I think so.

Outro

Peter: So that’s going to do for today.
Natsuko: それじゃあ、また今度。 (Sore jā, mata kondo.)
Peter: See you tomorrow.

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