Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to JapanesePod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 23 - What's Wrong With Your Japanese Curry? Becky here.
Natsuko: こんにちは。 なつこです。
Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make a simple complaint about food. The conversation takes place at a restaurant.
Natsuko: It's between Lucy and her co-worker, Mr. Tanaka.
Becky: The speakers are co-workers; so, they'll be using formal Japanese. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.

Lesson conversation

ルーシー:田中さんのカレーは、どうですか。
田中:う~ん、あまりおいしくないです。
ルーシー:それは、ざんねんですね。
田中: ぜんぜん、からくないです。
ルーシー:からくない?!それは、カレーじゃないですね。
田中:そうですよね。。。それに、ぜんぜん、あつくないです。
ルーシー:え!お店の人に言いますか。
田中:そうですね。言います。すみません、このカレー、ぜんぜん、からくないです。
ルーシー:それに、ぬるいです。
Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly.
ルーシー:田中さんのカレーは、どうですか。
田中:う~ん、あまりおいしくないです。
ルーシー:それは、ざんねんですね。
田中: ぜんぜん、からくないです。
ルーシー:からくない?!それは、カレーじゃないですね。
田中:そうですよね。。。それに、ぜんぜん、あつくないです。
ルーシー:え!お店の人に言いますか。
田中:そうですね。言います。すみません、このカレー、ぜんぜん、からくないです。
ルーシー:それに、ぬるいです。
Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation.
Lucy: How is your curry, Mr. Tanaka?
Tanaka: ummmm.. it’s not very tasty.
Lucy: Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.
Tanaka: Not spicy at all.
Lucy: Not spicy?! Then it isn’t curry, is it?
Tanaka: No it isn’t…. and this is not hot at all.
Lucy: Really? Would you like to tell the restaurant staff?
Tanaka: Maybe I should. Excuse me, this curry is not spicy at all…
Lucy: and it is not hot enough….
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Becky: It seems like curry rice is a very popular food in Japan.
Natsuko:That's right. It’s one of the favorite foods among children.
Becky: Is it related to Indian curry?
Natsuko: I believe so. I heard that Japanese curry originated from Indian curry, but has since been developed into a uniquely Japanese style dish. It’s thicker and has a milder flavor than Indian curry.
Becky: When you travel around Japan, you’ll see Curry on a lot of menus. People also enjoy it when they are camping and cooking outside, because it's easy to cook and is delicious.
Natsuko: If you’re not in Japan, you should be able to get instant Japanese curry from a nearby Asian supermarket, so try it out!
Becky: Okay, now onto the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is..
Natsuko: カレー [natural native speed]
Becky: curry
Natsuko: カレー[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Natsuko: カレー [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have..
Natsuko: ざんねん [natural native speed]
Becky: shame
Natsuko: ざんねん[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Natsuko: ざんねん [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have..
Natsuko: ぜんぜん [natural native speed]
Becky: not... at all
Natsuko: ぜんぜん[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Natsuko: ぜんぜん [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have..
Natsuko: あつい [natural native speed]
Becky: hot
Natsuko: あつい[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Natsuko: あつい [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have..
Natsuko: 店 [natural native speed]
Becky: store, shop
Natsuko: 店[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Natsuko: 店 [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have..
Natsuko: それに [natural native speed]
Becky: besides, moreover
Natsuko: それに[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Natsuko: それに [natural native speed]
Becky: Last we have..
Natsuko: ぬるい [natural native speed]
Becky: lukewarm
Natsuko: ぬるい[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Natsuko: ぬるい [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. In this lesson, we have..
Natsuko: ぜんぜん~ない
Becky: meaning “not at all”, or “absolutely not”. You can use this phrase to emphasize the negative meaning of a word.
Natsuko: Right. ぜんぜん is an adverb that means something like “at all” as in “not at all”. When you want to say "absolutely not.", you can use this adverb.
Becky: For example, if you ask your Japanese friend if this food is spicy, you will hear..
Natsuko: ぜんぜんからくないです
Becky: It means “It’s not spicy at all.”
Natsuko: Even though からくないです still means the same and makes sense, people usually say ぜんぜんからくないです using ぜんぜん. ぜんぜんからくないです
Becky: “It’s not spicy at all.” Can you give us another example?
Natsuko: Well.. if someone asks me in December, 東京は、あついですか。
Becky: “Is it hot in Tokyo?”
Natsuko: I will say.. ぜんぜんあつくないです。
Becky: It's not hot at all." Listeners, here's something to note. ぜんぜん can be used only with a negative sentence.
Natsuko: So you cannot say ぜんぜん with a positive sentence, for example.. ぜんぜんあついです。
Becky: It’s a no no! Okay, now onto the lesson focus.

Lesson focus

Becky: In this lesson, you will learn how to make simple complaints about food.
Natsuko: In the dialogue, Mr. Tanaka said あまりおいしくないです。ぜんぜん、からくないです。
Becky: meaning “It’s not very tasty. This is not hot at all.”
Natsuko: We’ve already learned about the ぜんぜん~ない form, which means “not at all”. And also we have あまり~ない, which means “not very”. You can make complaints using these.
Becky: Okay. Let's talk about the first one. How do you say “it is not so delicious”?
Natsuko:  ”Delicious” in Japanese is 美味しい. First, you need to make it negative, so it becomes おいしくない.
Becky: “It’s not delicious.”
Natsuko: To add the meaning of “not very” you can add あまり which means “not very.” あまりおいしくないです。
Becky: “It’s not so delicious.” What about “It is not so sweet?”
Natsuko: あまい is the adjective meaning “sweet” and the negative form is あまくない. あまくない
Becky: “It’s not sweet.”
Natsuko: Here, you can add あまり and say あまりおいしくないです。
Becky: “it is not so sweet”. Okay, now let’s think about a worse case. What about “It's not delicious at all”?
Natsuko: In that case, you can use ぜんぜん instead. Everything else stays the same.
Becky: So altogether we will have..
Natsuko: ぜんぜん おいしくないです。
Becky: “It's not delicious at all” . What about “it's not sweet at all”?
Natsuko: Following the same pattern, it is ぜんぜん 甘くないです。
Becky: And for beer, how do you say, “It’s not cold at all.” ?
Natsuko: “Cold” in Japanese is つめたい. So, you can say ぜんぜんつめたくないです
Becky: “It’s not cold at all.”

Outro

Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye!
Natsuko: またねー

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