Learn how to say where you're from
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| Hi, everyone! I'm Alisha. |
| みなさん、こんにちは。Alisha です。 (Mina-san, kon'nichiwa. Alisha desu.) |
| Welcome to another Whiteboard video! |
| In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to say where you're from in Japanese. |
| Let’s get started! |
| Okay, let’s take a look at the dialogue for this lesson. |
| The first line in the dialogue is the key question for this lesson. |
| しゅっしんは どこですか。(Shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| しゅっしんは どこですか。(Shusshin wa doko desu ka.) which means “Where is your hometown?” |
| しゅっしんは どこですか。(Shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| And the answer in the dialogue is… |
| しゅっしんは フロリダです。(Shusshin wa Furorida desu.) |
| しゅっしんは フロリダです。(Shusshin wa Furorida desu.) |
| So, this means "My hometown is Florida." |
| しゅっしんは フロリダです。(Shusshin wa Furorida desu.) |
| So, in this sentence, in this situation, we have this word しゅっしん (shusshin). |
| しゅっしん (shusshin) |
| This means “hometown.” |
| So, in this sense, of course, Florida is not a town, but we use (shusshin) to refer to where we’re from or the place that we originally came from. You can use a specific town or, of course, a state as well if that’s more familiar for the listener. |
| Let’s break down a couple of keypoints in the sentences. |
| So, first in the question, we have しゅっしんは (shusshin wa), and in this (shusshin), we have this small stop, this small っ (tsu). So not (shusshin), but (shu-sshin), (shu-sshin), so make sure tha you have that small stop in your speech. So not (shusshin wa), that’s incorrect. |
| しゅっしんは (shusshin wa) |
| So, “hometown.” |
| And then we have the question word, どこ (doko). |
| しゅっしんは どこですか。(Shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| So, “Where is your hometown?” |
| Or another way to understand this is “Where are you from?” |
| And in the response, we have the same keyword, しゅっしんは (shusshin wa) |
| So again, しゅっしん (shusshin). |
| しゅっしんは フロリダです (Shusshin wa Furorida desu), in this case. |
| So we end it with a simple to-be verb. |
| So, “My hometown is Florida.” |
| Let’s take a look at some other examples, some other ways that you can respond to the question, “Where is your hometown?” |
| Okay, let’s take a look at some more example responses for ways to answer the question: |
| しゅっしんは どこですか。(Shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| So, the next example sentence is… |
| しゅっしんは とうきょうです。(Shusshin wa Tōkyō desu.) |
| しゅっしんは とうきょうです。(Shusshin wa Tōkyō desu.) |
| This means "My hometown is Tokyo." |
| しゅっしんは とうきょうです。(Shusshin wa Tōkyō desu.) |
| So again, we have (shusshin) at the beginning, so “hometown.” |
| And in red here, we have the location, (Tōkyō), (Tōkyō). |
| Notice, this is not (Tokyo), but [enunciated] (Tōkyō). So there’s a long /o/ sound in both parts of this word. |
| とうきょうです。(Tōkyō desu.) |
| しゅっしんは とうきょうです。(Shusshin wa Tōkyō desu.) |
| “My hometown is Tokyo” or “I’m from Tokyo.” |
| Let’s take a look at the second example sentence. |
| The second example response is… |
| しゅっしんは ペキンです。(Shusshin wa Pekin desu.) |
| しゅっしんは ペキンです。(Shusshin wa Pekin desu.) |
| So, the vocabulary word here is [enunciated] ペキン (Pekin). |
| ペキン (Pekin) which means “Beijing.” |
| "My hometown is Beijing." |
| しゅっしんは ペキンです。 |
| (Shusshin wa Pekin desu.) |
| "My hometown is Beijing." |
| Okay, let's take a look at the key vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The vocabulary for this lesson is a bunch of different locations that you can use to express where you’re from. Let’s go one by one with some major places from around the world. |
| So, the first vocabulary word is… |
| フロリダ (Furorida) |
| フロリダ (Furorida) which means "Florida." |
| So, [enunciated] フロリダ (Furorida) |
| [normal]フロリダ (Furorida) “Florida” |
| The next one is… |
| ペキン (Pekin) |
| ペキン (Pekin) |
| [enunciated] ペキン (Pekin) |
| [normal] ペキン (Pekin) which means "Beijing" |
| “Beijing” so ペキン (Pekin). |
| Next is… |
| ソウル (Sōru) |
| ソウル (Sōru) "Seoul" |
| So, [enunciated] ソウル (Sōru). |
| There’s a long /o/ sound there. |
| Not (Soru), but ソウル (Sōru) which means "Seoul." |
| ソウル (Sōru) |
| Next, we have… |
| パリ (Pari) |
| パリ (Pari) |
| パリ (Pari) means "Paris." |
| パリ (Pari) |
| Next, we have… |
| ロンドン (Rondon) |
| ロンドン (Rondon) which means "London." |
| So, [enunciated] ロンドン (Rondon) “London” |
| [normal] ロンドン (Rondon) |
| The next word is… |
| シドニー (Shidonī) |
| シドニー (Shidonī) |
| So you’ll notice, in this word, we have a long /i/ sound at the end of (Shidonī). |
| So, シドニー (Shidonī) is "Sydney" |
| "Sydney" |
| シドニー (Shidonī) |
| And finally, we have… |
| リオデジャネイロ (Rio de Janeiro) |
| リオデジャネイロ (Rio de Janeiro) which means "Rio de Janeiro." |
| "Rio de Janeiro" |
| リオデジャネイロ (Rio de Janeiro) |
| So, these are locations from around the world. |
| Next, let’s take a look at some major cities inside Japan and take a look at how to pronounce them correctly. |
| So, starting up north, we have… |
| さっぽろ (Sapporo) |
| さっぽろ (Sapporo) "Sapporo" |
| So, note in Japanese, there’s this small stop, there’s a small っ (tsu) here. So not (Sapporo) but (Sap-poro), (Sap-poro). |
| So there’s that very, very short stop before the /p/ sound, so さっぽろ (Sapporo). |
| さっぽろ (Sapporo) is "Sapporo," okay. |
| The next one, the biggest city is とうきょう (Tōkyō) |
| So, とうきょう (Tōkyō), there’s this long /o/ sound, とうきょう (Tōkyō). |
| とうきょう (Tōkyō) which is "Tokyo." |
| とうきょう (Tōkyō) |
| Moving on this side of the map, we have two major cities next to each other. |
| So, this one is きょうと (Kyōto). |
| きょうと (Kyōto) |
| So, again, we have a long /o/ sound here, just like in とうきょう (Tōkyō). We have the same (-o) after (Kyō). |
| So, きょうと (Kyōto) |
| [enunciated] きょうと (Kyōto) |
| [normal] きょうと (Kyōto) |
| きょうと (Kyōto) |
| Next to Kyoto, we have… |
| おおさか (Ōsaka) |
| おおさか (Ōsaka) |
| There’s two /o/s after another. |
| おおさか (Ōsaka) |
| So not (Osaka) but おおさか (Ōsaka). |
| おおさか (Ōsaka) |
| This is “Osaka.” |
| And finally, over here, on this island, we have… |
| ふくおか（Fukuoka) |
| ふくおか（Fukuoka) |
| [enunciated] ふくおか（Fukuoka) |
| [normal] ふくおか（Fukuoka) |
| This is "Fukuoka." |
| So, these are some major cities within Japan. |
| Next, let’s take a look at the sentence pattern that you can use to express your own hometown with one of these locations or with your own hometown. |
| Okay, let’s take a look at the sentence pattern for this lesson. You can use this pattern to express your own hometown. |
| So, the pattern is… |
| しゅっしんは [hometown]です。 |
| (Shusshin wa [hometown] desu.) |
| しゅっしんは [hometown]です。 |
| (Shusshin wa [hometown] desu.) |
| So this means "My hometown is [your hometown]." |
| So, this red part can be replaced with the city or if it’s appropriate, the State or region that you’re from. |
| しゅっしんは [hometown]です。 |
| (Shusshin wa [hometown] desu.) |
| Remember, as I said before this, (Shusshin) needs a stop in the middle of it, so not (Shusshin), but (Shusshin wa [hometown] desu.) |
| So you can use any of the vocabulary words we talked about today or you can use your own hometown to practice this pattern. |
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