Learn how to ask for clarification
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| Hi, everyone! I'm Alisha. |
| 皆さん、こんにちは。Alisha です。 (Mina-san, kon'nichiwa. Alisha desu.) |
| Welcome to another Whiteboard Lesson! |
| In this lesson, you'll learn how to talk about asking for clarification. |
| Let's get started! |
| Okay, let's start by looking at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word is もういちど (mō ichi-do). |
| もういちど (mō ichi-do) |
| もういちど (mō ichi-do) [enunciated] |
| もういちど (mō ichi-do), which means “again” |
| もういちど (mō ichi-do) “again” |
| In today’s lesson, we’ll understand this to mean “(say that) again,” もういちど (mō ichi-do). |
| Okay. The next word is ゆっくり (yukkuri). |
| ゆっくり (yukkuri) |
| ゆっくり (yukkuri) [enunciated] |
| Notice the small っ (tsu) here. This means we need to make a stop before the く (ku) sound. So, not ゆくり (yukuri), but ゆっくり (yukkuri), ゆっくり (yukkuri). This means “slowly,” slowly. |
| ゆっくり (yukkuri) |
| In today’s lesson, we’ll understand this to mean “(say that) slowly.” |
| ゆっくり (yukkuri) |
| ゆっくり (yukkuri) |
| Okay. The next vocabulary is おおきなこえで (ōkina koe de). |
| おおきなこえで (ōkina koe de) |
| おおきなこえで (ōkina koe de) [enunciated] |
| Which means “in a loud voice,” in a loud voice. |
| おおきなこえで (ōkina koe de) |
| To break this down, we have the word for “big” or “large” here, おおき (ōki), おおきな (ōkina), and then, こえ (koe), which means “voice,” and で (de), which marks the manner in which we do something. So, this literally translates to “in a big voice,” but in natural English, this means “in a loud voice.” So, おおきなこえで (ōkina koe de) means “in a loud voice.” |
| In today’s lesson, we’ll understand this as “(say that) in a loud voice.” |
| おおきなこえで (ōkina koe de) |
| Okay. The last one is えいごで (Eigo de). |
| えいごで (Eigo de) |
| えいごで (Eigo de) [enunciated] |
| えいごで (Eigo de), which means “in English,” in English. |
| えいごで (Eigo de) |
| So, in this lesson, えいごで (Eigo de), we’ll understand as meaning “(say that) in English.” |
| えいごで (Eigo de) |
| Okay. So, with these vocabulary words in mind, let’s take a look at some dialogue sentences. |
| Okay, let’s take a look at the dialogue for this lesson. |
| First, we start with this sentence… |
| はじめまして。(Hajimemashite.) |
| はじめまして。いしかわ です。(Hajimemashite. Ishikawa desu.) |
| いしかわ です。 (Ishikawa desu.) |
| はじめまして。いしかわ です。(Hajimemashite. Ishikawa desu.) |
| The response is… |
| すみません。もういちど おねがいします。 (Sumimasen. Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu.) |
| すみません。もういちど おねがいします。 (Sumimasen. Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu.) |
| The response to this is… |
| い・し・か・わ です。(I SHI KA WA desu.) |
| い・し・か・わ です。(I SHI KA WA desu.) |
| So, what does this mean? |
| This first sentence, はじめまして (hajimemashite) means “Nice to meet you.” |
| はじめまして。(Hajimemashite.) “Nice to meet you.” |
| We follow this with いしかわ です (Ishikawa desu) “I’m Ishikawa.” |
| いしかわ です。 (Ishikawa desu.) |
| “Ishikawa” is the person’s name. We follow this with です (desu) to mean “I am.” |
| “Nice to meet you. I’m Ishikawa.” |
| The response to this is… |
| すみません。 (Sumimasen) “I’m sorry” or “Excuse me.” |
| もういちど おねがいします。 (Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu.) |
| もういちど おねがいします (Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu), which means “Say that again, please,” say that again, please. |
| もういちど おねがいします。 (Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu.) |
| So like I couldn’t hear you. Can you say that again, please? |
| And the response to that is… |
| い・し・か・わ です。(I SHI KA WA desu.) |
| い・し・か・わ です。(I SHI KA WA desu.) |
| So, Ishikawa-San breaks down the name into syllables. |
| い・し・か・わ です。(I SHI KA WA desu.) “I’m Ishikawa.” |
| Okay, let's take a look at some more examples of this kind of pattern. |
| Okay, great! Now, let’s take a look at some examples of some other ways that you can ask for clarification. |
| The first one is this: |
| すみません。ゆっくり おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| すみません。ゆっくり おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| This means "I'm sorry. (Say that) slowly, please." |
| すみません。ゆっくり おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| In this pattern, we have ゆっくり (yukkuri), the word “slowly.” So, “slowly” is just slowly, yes, but in this context, we understand that it means “(say that) slowly” because we’re having a conversation, in this case, an introductory conversation. So, although it’s just “slowly” in a direct translation to English, we understand that it means “(say that) slowly” or repeat that slowly, please. |
| すみません。ゆっくり おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| The next one is… |
| すみません。えいごで おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Eigo de onegai shimasu.) |
| すみません。えいごで おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Eigo de onegai shimasu.) |
| This means "I'm sorry. (Say that) in English, please." |
| すみません。えいごで おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Eigo de onegai shimasu.) |
| In this pattern, we have えいごで (Eigo de) which means “in English.” |
| Again, from context, we understand that えいごで (Eigo de) “in English,” means say that in English, please. |
| So… |
| すみません。えいごで おねがいします。(Sumimasen. Eigo de onegai shimasu.) |
| Great! So, now that we have these examples in our mind as well, let’s take a look at the basic sentence pattern you can use to ask for clarification yourself. |
| Okay, great! Let’s take a look at the basic sentence pattern for this lesson. |
| We start with すみません (sumimasen), すみません (sumimasen). |
| Then [phrase] おねがいします (onegai shimasu). |
| すみません。[Phrase] おねがいします。(Sumimasen. [Phrase] onegai shimasu.) |
| Which means “I'm sorry / Excuse me plus the [phrase] and please.” |
| すみません。[Phrase] おねがいします。(Sumimasen. [Phrase] onegai shimasu.) |
| So, in this pattern, you can substitute one of the words that we practiced earlier; ゆっくり (yukkuri) or もういちど (mō ichi-do) or えいごで おねがいします (Eigo de onegai shimasu) to ask for the kind of clarification you need. |
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