Learn about talking about plans using the days of the week and words for today, tomorrow, etc
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: こんにちは、ナツコです。(Kon’nichiwa. Natsuko desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Natsuko-san, we have a really great lesson for you today. |
| Natsuko: What? |
| Peter: Well, why don’t you tell us the word in Japanese because this word is a word that I think everybody wants to know. |
| Natsuko: Really, are you sure? |
| Peter: We will find out in the comments but what are we talking about today? |
| Natsuko: 昏睡状態 (konsui jōtai) |
| Peter: Which in English is “comatose state.” |
| Natsuko: Wow! |
| Peter: What other newbie class would give you these kinds of words. So you could find out more about this inside the PDF but for now let’s just talk about the setting for today’s conversation. And Natsuko-san, where are we? |
| Natsuko: In a hospital. |
| Peter: And what’s going on? |
| Natsuko: We can’t tell you that. |
| Peter: We have to wait for the conversation but we can tell you it is between two people who are speaking polite Japanese. It is going to review most of the interrogatives we’ve been covering where it’s used for questions. So this is going to be a really great review lesson. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| (病院で昏睡状態になっていた人が起きる。) (Byōin de konsui jōtai ni natte ita hito ga okiru.) |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : 起きた！(Okita!) |
| さとし (Satoshi) : ここはどこですか。(Koko wa doko desu ka.) |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : ここは東京病院ですよ。(Koko wa Tōkyō byōin desu yo.) |
| さとし (Satoshi) : あなたは誰ですか。(Anata wa dare desu ka.) |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : 鈴木です。看護婦です。(Suzuki desu. Kangofu desu.) |
| さとし (Satoshi) : いつから私はここにいるんですか。(Itsu kara watashi wa koko ni iru n desu ka.) |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : 去年からですよ。(Kyonen kara desu yo.) |
| さとし (Satoshi) : 何でここにいるんですか。(Nande koko ni iru n desu ka.) |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : それは。。。(Sore wa…) |
| もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : 起きた！(Okita!) |
| さとし (Satoshi) : ここはどこですか。(Koko wa doko desu ka.) |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : ここは東京病院ですよ。(Koko wa Tōkyō byōin desu yo.) |
| さとし (Satoshi) : あなたは誰ですか。(Anata wa dare desu ka.) |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : 鈴木です。看護婦です。(Suzuki desu. Kangofu desu.) |
| さとし (Satoshi) : いつから私はここにいるんですか。(Itsu kara watashi wa koko ni iru n desu ka.) |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : 去年からですよ。(Kyonen kara desu yo.) |
| さとし (Satoshi) : 何でここにいるんですか。(Nande koko ni iru n desu ka.) |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : それは。。。(Sore wa…) |
| 次は英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| (病院で昏睡状態になっていた人が起きる。) (Byōin de konsui jōtai ni natte ita hito ga okiru.) |
| (At a hospital, a person wakes up from a coma.) |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : 起きた！(Okita!) |
| NURSE: He woke up! |
| さとし (Satoshi) : ここはどこですか。(Koko wa doko desu ka.) |
| SATOSHI: Where is this placeI? |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : ここは東京病院ですよ。(Koko wa Tōkyō byōin desu yo.) |
| NURSE: This is Tokyo hospital. |
| さとし (Satoshi) : あなたは誰ですか。(Anata wa dare desu ka.) |
| SATOSHI: Who are you? |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : 鈴木です。看護婦です。(Suzuki desu. Kangofu desu.) |
| NURSE: I'm Suzuki. I'm a nurse. |
| さとし (Satoshi) : いつから私はここにいるんですか。(Itsu kara watashi wa koko ni iru n desu ka.) |
| SATOSHI: How long have I been here? |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : 去年からですよ。(Kyonen kara desu yo.) |
| NURSE: Since last year. |
| さとし (Satoshi) : 何でここにいるんですか。(Nande koko ni iru n desu ka.) |
| SATOSHI: Why am I here? |
| 看護婦 (kangofu) : それは。。。(Sore wa…) |
| NURSE: Because.... |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: And the verdict is, what do you think, Natsuko-san? |
| Natsuko: Why was he hospitalized? We can’t find that out. |
| Peter: それは...。(Sore wa…) Yes, we are going to have to wait. Well that’s like the cliffhanger, you know? |
| Natsuko: Stay tuned. |
| Peter: Stay tuned, which in Japanese is...? |
| Natsuko: また来週。(Mata raishū.) |
| Peter: また来週 (mata raishū) sounds like one of our plugs. |
| Natsuko: You are right. |
| Peter: What about 続き (tsuzuki)? |
| Natsuko: 続きます。(Tsuzukimasu.) |
| Peter: 続きます (tsuzukimasu), will continue. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, to be continued. |
| Peter: To be continued. So I would like to find out but I think the issue we are going to have is how can we really describe what happened in a newbie lesson. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: So I think this is really an incentive for you to get really good at Japanese to check out the other lessons which will incorporate this. |
| Natsuko: Oh really? |
| Peter: Yes, but enough about that. What we are going to do now is check out the vocab. Natsuko-san, take us away. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natsuko: 病院 (byōin) |
| Peter: Hospital. |
| Natsuko: (slow) びょういん (byōin) (natural speed) 病院 (byōin) |
| Peter: Again I like to point this out every single time the difference between hospital and hair salon. Hospital is |
| Natsuko: 病院 (byōin) |
| Peter: Notice the long vowel in there. びょう (byō) like you are holding the お (o) sound in there 病院 (byōin) and hair salon. |
| Natsuko: 美容院 (biyōin) |
| Peter: So we have the び (bi) and the よう (yō) then the 美容院 (biyōin) for hair salon. One more time, side by side. First we are going to have a “hospital.” |
| Natsuko: 病院 (byōin) |
| Peter: Hair salon. |
| Natsuko: 美容院 (biyōin) |
| Peter: Shift up a lot. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: Yeah, I had an issue once when I said to my friend, yeah I got some medicine at the hair salon. |
| Natsuko: I think you just pay attention to the accent and the syllables びょう (byō) is one syllable for びょういん (byōin), but びよういん (biyōin), びよ(biyo) that’s two syllables, びよういん (biyōin). |
| Peter: Yeah, but when Japanese starts coming at you at light speed, it’s kind of hard to pick up the difference. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, right. |
| Peter: But that’s why Natsuko-san is here. |
| Natsuko: Really? |
| Peter: Yes all right, next we have |
| Natsuko: どこ (doko) |
| Peter: Where. |
| Natsuko: (slow) どこ (doko) (natural speed) どこ (doko) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Natsuko: 誰 (dare) |
| Peter: Who. |
| Natsuko: (slow) だれ (dare) (natural speed) 誰 (dare) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Natsuko: 看護婦 (kangofu) |
| Peter: Nurse and female nurse. |
| Natsuko: (slow) かんごふ (kangofu) (natural speed) 看護婦 (kangofu) |
| Peter: Didn’t we cover this in an intermediate level lesson, the difference between female nurse and male nurse? |
| Natsuko: Really? |
| Peter: Wasn’t there a kanji difference? |
| Natsuko: Yeah, actually we are starting to use different words which are kind of neutral, used for both men and women. |
| Peter: And that is |
| Natsuko: 看護師 (kangoshi) and I think that was the word used for men. You know male nurses but we are becoming used to it for both to be neutral. |
| Peter: Political correctness catching up with Japan. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Natsuko: から (kara) |
| Peter: From. |
| Natsuko: (slow) から (kara) (natural speed) から (kara) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Natsuko: いる (iru) |
| Peter: To exist. |
| Natsuko: (slow) いる (iru) (natural speed) いる (iru) |
| Peter: I get to tell my story. |
| Natsuko: What? |
| Peter: Wow! What intonation there! |
| Natsuko: Go ahead. |
| Peter: I was watching TV last week and we have gone over this いる (iru) and ある (aru) many times. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: The difference between いる (iru) is used for animate things and ある (aru) is used for inanimate things. And we were talking about the issue that would happen with robots. It wasn’t an issue when the Japanese language evolved but now since robots are moving on their own and doing things on their own. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: It’s becoming this issue. Now they are making the switch to |
| Natsuko: いる (iru) |
| Peter: Yes. |
| Natsuko: Wow! |
| Peter: I was watching TV and they had something about the Albert Einstein Robot built in Korea. |
| Natsuko: What? Korea? |
| Peter: Yeah, Korea. At a famous university in Korea, they built a robot and as its head, they put an Albert Einstein head on it. |
| Natsuko: You mean you know the features? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Natsuko: It looks like him? |
| Peter: Yes, exactly like him. |
| Natsuko: That’s queer. |
| Peter: Queer? |
| Natsuko: I mean that’s strange. I don’t know why they did that. |
| Peter: Ah your use of the word queer right now is priceless. |
| Natsuko: But you know, is he as smart as him? |
| Peter: Well I don’t know. They didn’t really cover it but what was interesting for me was when the robot finally appeared, the narrator said いた (ita). |
| Natsuko: I see. |
| Peter: Which is the – you will get to this in a later lesson but the plain past of the verb いる (iru) to exist for animate things. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, right. |
| Peter: Usually living. So I wasn’t sure if it was because it was featured like Albert Einstein or it was moving on its own because it walked out and introduced itself with Ein. |
| Natsuko: Wow! |
| Peter: Don’t even ask who programmed it but maybe you could tell us a little about Ein. |
| Natsuko: It will go too far. |
| Peter: Okay, but yes that’s the greeting he gave and then the narrator said, いた (ita). So I found that very, very interesting and I wasn’t sure if it was the facial features, the movement on its own or what it was but yes the verb いる (iru) was applied to this robot. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: So I got to tell my story, what did you think, Natsuko-san? |
| Natsuko: But that’s really interesting. You know language application will change. |
| Peter: Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, so in the future I think we are going to use this word for moving things. |
| Peter: Yeah, I don’t know. What about if they freeze you, Natsuko-san? |
| Natsuko: What? |
| Peter: Like to preserve the bodies, they can revive you 1000 years later. おばあさんはいるよ。 (O-bā-san wa iru yo.) Grandma is…. |
| Natsuko: Uhh pretty hard. She is there? |
| Peter: Grandma. |
| Natsuko: Frozen? |
| Peter: Frozen. Yeah, so lots of things for linguistics people to work out. |
| Natsuko: Quite an issue. |
| Peter: Quite an issue. Okay, then we have. |
| Natsuko: 去年 (kyonen) |
| Peter: Last year. |
| Natsuko: (slow) きょねん (kyonen) (natural speed) 去年 (kyonen) |
| Peter: I want to point out here that it’s a short vowel. It’s 去年 (kyonen) not a long vowel. In the past, I sometimes made mistake of saying きょうねん (kyōnen). |
| Natsuko: But that’s a different word. |
| Peter: Yes, and what does that word mean? |
| Natsuko: The age at which one passed on. |
| Peter: Yeah, so if you are talking about something you did last year, it wouldn’t really make sense. So short vowels here. |
| Natsuko: 去年 (kyonen) |
| Peter: And finally we have. |
| Natsuko: 何で (nande) |
| Peter: Why. |
| Natsuko: (slow) なんで (nande) (natural speed) 何で (nande) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: All right, on to today’s conversation. We started off with the nurse realizing that the patient has just woken up. |
| Natsuko: 起きた！(Okita!) |
| Peter: Now grammar here beyond the point in this lesson. This is the plain past of the class II verb, 起きる (okiru) which becomes 起きた (okita), he woke and what’s interesting here is that this is not addressed at the person who woke up because it would be rude. Now what she is doing here is showing her surprise and she is not speaking directly to the person who just woke up. So she realizes this. He wakes up, he is kind of getting his bearings. He starts with |
| Natsuko: ここはどこですか。(Koko wa doko desu ka.) |
| Peter: Where is this place? Literally we have |
| Natsuko: ここ (koko) |
| Peter: Here. |
| Natsuko: は (wa) |
| Peter: Topic marking particle. |
| Natsuko: どこ (doko) |
| Peter: Where. |
| Natsuko: ですか (desu ka) |
| Peter: Is. Here where is. If we start after the particle, the は (wa) particle where is and go back here. Literally where is here? But in English, we would say, where is this place? Followed by |
| Natsuko: ここは東京病院ですよ。(Koko wa Tōkyō byōin desu yo.) |
| Peter: This is Tokyo hospital. Literally we have |
| Natsuko: ここ (koko) |
| Peter: Here |
| Natsuko: は (wa) |
| Peter: Topic marking particle. |
| Natsuko: 東京病院 (Tōkyō byōin) |
| Peter: Tokyo hospital. |
| Natsuko: ですよ (desu yo) |
| Peter: Is. Literally here Tokyo hospital is here. Translated, this is Tokyo hospital. Now in Japanese, it’s literally here, this place but in English, we say this. |
| Natsuko: More general. |
| Peter: Yeah. Now the naming convention for the hospital. The name comes before the hospital at the end. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Very similar to English. The よ (yo) at the end. What are we doing here with this sentence ending particle, よ (yo)? |
| Natsuko: It’s emphasizing the statement and it’s also like emphasizing that you are talking to someone. |
| Peter: So here she is emphasizing that this is the hospital. |
| Natsuko: Yes, and she wants to express that she is, you know, addressing the patient. |
| Peter: This is followed by |
| Natsuko: あなたは誰ですか。(Anata wa dare desu ka.) |
| Peter: Who are you? Literally you who are, but again we translate who are you? Couple of things here. あなたは誰ですか (anata wa dare desu ka), we went over this previously. It’s a bit impolite. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, it’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it? |
| Peter: Yeah. Usually it’s not asked this way. You usually ask someone’s name お名前はなんですか (o-namae wa nan desu ka). |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: What’s your name or something along those lines but this situation would allow for it. He has just woken up after a coma. He wants some answers right away kind of. |
| Natsuko: Isn’t it the same with English? You know, you don’t usually ask someone who are you? |
| Peter: I do. |
| Natsuko: Really? |
| Peter: No yeah, excellent point. It’s kind of a context. You should feel it out and you are or something along these lines. |
| Natsuko: May I have your name? |
| Peter: Yeah. Well those are phrases with manners. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, you are right. |
| Peter: This is followed by the answer. |
| Natsuko: 鈴木です。(Suzuki desu.) |
| Peter: I am Suzuki. |
| Natsuko: 看護婦です。(Kangofu desu.) |
| Peter: I am a nurse. Notice the use of です (desu) here. The polite form of the copula, copula being the rough equivalent of the English verb to be. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Literally Suzuki I am. Nurse I am. This is all you need to start forming sentences. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: ピーターです。(Pītā desu.) That’s good enough to say my name. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: This is something everyone should have in their toolbox. |
| Natsuko: And you don’t actually need to say 私は (watashi wa) here. |
| Peter: Yes. |
| Natsuko: It’s omitted. |
| Peter: Because it’s inferred. Then we have |
| Natsuko: いつから私はここにいるんですか。(Itsu kara watashi wa koko ni iru n desu ka.) |
| Peter: How long have I been here? Literally since when have I been here? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: I have been here since when, but how long have I been here? Let's take a look at this sentence. |
| Natsuko: いつ (itsu) |
| Peter: When. |
| Natsuko: から (kara) |
| Peter: From, when from. |
| Natsuko: 私 (watashi) |
| Peter: I. |
| Natsuko: は (wa) |
| Peter: Topic marking particle because talking about himself. |
| Natsuko: ここ (koko) |
| Peter: Here. |
| Natsuko: に (ni) |
| Peter: This particle に (ni) here is marking his existence in this place followed by |
| Natsuko: いる (iru) |
| Peter: To exist for animate things. |
| Natsuko: んですか (n desu ka) |
| Peter: Here the ん (n) is a contraction of |
| Natsuko: の (no) |
| Peter: Which is emphasizing and also asking for feedback from the listener. So when の (no) is used, you want some kind of input from the person or the people or the listening parties. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: So if this was informal Japanese, it would be いつから私はここにいるの (itsu kara watashi wa koko ni iru no)? |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Meaning since when have I been here but since this is a person who is not familiar, we have to make it polite and that’s where this ですか (desu ka) comes in. The function of this is only to make this sentence polite and we need it because we have the ん (n) there. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Since when have I been here? How long have I been here? Literally when from I here exist and of course, that is how long have I been here or since when have I been here. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: The answer is |
| Natsuko: 去年からですよ。(Kyonen kara desu yo.) |
| Peter: From last year. Literally we have |
| Natsuko: 去年 (kyonen) |
| Peter: Last year. |
| Natsuko: から (kara) |
| Peter: From. |
| Natsuko: ですよ (desu yo) |
| Peter: Here too the です (desu) is acting to make it polite. So from last year, followed by |
| Natsuko: 何でここにいるんですか。(Nande koko ni iru n desu ka.) |
| Peter: Again we have the んですか (n desu ka), asking for feedback why. Some kind of response from the listening party. Why here am I is the sentence literally translated but why am I here? Then we have |
| Natsuko: それは… (Sore wa…) |
| Peter: That’s because and then it finishes. |
| Natsuko: Why, why is he there? |
| Peter: Natsuko-san, why don’t you tell us? |
| Natsuko: I want to find out. |
| Peter: Okay Natsuko-san, why don’t you imagine? Why do you think he is here? |
| Natsuko: Mm, maybe he had a traffic accident. |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: Well we are going to have to wait to find out. |
| Natsuko: Oh… Oh boy! This will continue. |
| Peter: This will continue. All right, that is going to do it for today. |
| Natsuko: じゃ、また今度。(Ja, mata kondo.) |
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