Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Jessi: Time and Traffic Wait for No One in Japan!
Naomi: ナオミです。(Naomi desu.)
Peter: Peter here. Naomi-sensei, what are we talking about today?
Naomi: We are talking about time.
Peter: That’s right. This lesson focuses on telling a taxi driver where you want to go and as it turns out by a certain time. Now the function of this lesson is giving a destination and asking for the time.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Peter: The conversation takes place in
Naomi: A taxi.
Peter: And as the conversation is between the driver and the customer, the conversation will be in
Naomi: Polite Japanese. Driver is 運転手 (untenshu) and customer is as you know, お客さん (o-kyaku-san).
Peter: So polite Japanese. Now before we jump in, just a reminder about the speech recording software available in the premium learning center on the line-by-line page. Now you definitely want to try to utilize this tool to help your pronunciation because you can hear the native speakers, then record your own voice. And hearing it and then recording your voice will really help you bring it altogether when it comes to your pronunciation. So with that said, are we ready, Naomi-sensei?
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Peter: Here we go.
DIALOGUE
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 横浜ホテルまで。(Yokohama Hoteru made.)
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : はい。(Hai.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : すみません。今 何時ですか。(Sumimasen. Ima nan-ji desu ka.)
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : 6時です。(Roku-ji desu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 6時ですか。どうも。(Roku-ji desu ka. Dōmo.)
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : うわー。お客さん、渋滞ですよ。(Uwā. O-kyaku-san, jūtai desu yo.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 渋滞ですか・・・。すみません。今 何時ですか。(Jūtai desu ka... Sumimasen. Ima nan-ji desu ka.)
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : えっと、6時半です。(Etto, roku-ji han desu.)
もう一度お願いします。今度はゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu. Kondo wa yukkuri onegai shimasu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 横浜ホテルまで。(Yokohama Hoteru made.)
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : はい。(Hai.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : すみません。今 何時ですか。(Sumimasen. Ima nan-ji desu ka.)
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : 6時です。(Roku-ji desu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 6時ですか。どうも。(Roku-ji desu ka. Dōmo.)
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : うわー。お客さん、渋滞ですよ。(Uwā. O-kyaku-san, jūtai desu yo.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 渋滞ですか・・・。すみません。今 何時ですか。(Jūtai desu ka... Sumimasen. Ima nan-ji desu ka.)
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : えっと、6時半です。(Etto, roku-ji han desu.)
今度は、英語が入ります。(Kondo wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 横浜ホテルまで。(Yokohama Hoteru made.)
NATSUMI MINAMI: To the Yokohama hotel.
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : はい。(Hai.)
TAXI DRIVER: Certainly.
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : すみません。今 何時ですか。(Sumimasen. Ima nan-ji desu ka.)
NATSUMI MINAMI: Excuse me. What time is it now?
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : 6時です。(Roku-ji desu.)
TAXI DRIVER: It's six.
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 6時ですか。どうも。(Roku-ji desu ka. Dōmo.)
NATSUMI MINAMI: Six o'clock? Thanks.
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : うわー。お客さん、渋滞ですよ。(Uwā. O-kyaku-san, jūtai desu yo.)
TAXI DRIVER: Ugh. It's a traffic jam, ma'am.
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 渋滞ですか・・・。すみません。今 何時ですか。(Jūtai desu ka... Sumimasen. Ima nan-ji desu ka.)
NATSUMI MINAMI: A traffic jam? Excuse me. What time is it now?
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : えっと、6時半です。(Etto, roku-ji han desu.)
TAXI DRIVER: Well, it's half past six.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Peter: ナオミ先生、渋滞ですね。(Naomi-sensei, jūtai desu ne.)
Naomi: 渋滞ですね。(Jūtai desu ne.)
Peter: Traffic.
Naomi: Every day 東京はすごい渋滞ですね (Tōkyō wa sugoi jūtai desu ne).
Peter: Yes, Tokyo has some severe traffic. Yeah, some really crowded roads.
Naomi: 渋滞 (jūtai)
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Peter: So now let’s take a look at some vocab. Naomi-sensei, what do we have first?
Naomi: 運転手 (untenshu)
Peter: Driver.
Naomi: (slow) うんてんしゅ (untenshu) (natural speed) 運転手 (untenshu)
Peter: Rising on the ん (n) coming back down after て (te) and staying low.
Naomi: 運転手 (untenshu)
Peter: Next.
Naomi: お客さん (o-kyaku-san)
Peter: Customer.
Naomi: (slow) おきゃくさん (o-kyaku-san) (natural speed) お客さん (o-kyaku-san)
Peter: Starts low, rises on きゃ (kya) stays high.
Naomi: お客さん (o-kyaku-san)
Peter: Next.
Naomi: 渋滞 (jūtai)
Peter: Traffic.
Naomi: (slow) じゅうたい (jūtai) (natural speed) 渋滞 (jūtai)
Peter: Starts out low, rises on う (u) and stays high.
Naomi: 渋滞 (jūtai)
Peter: Next.
Naomi: 何時 (nan-ji)
Peter: What time?
Naomi: (slow) なんじ (nan-ji) (natural speed) 何時 (nan-ji)
Peter: Starts high, drops on ん (n) stays low.
Naomi: 何時 (nan-ji)
Peter: Next.
Naomi: 今 (ima)
Peter: Now.
Naomi: (slow) いま (ima) (natural speed) 今 (ima)
Peter: Starts high, ends low.
Naomi: 今 (ima)
Peter: Next.
Naomi: すみません (sumimasen)
Peter: Excuse me.
Naomi: (slow) すみません (sumimasen) (natural speed) すみません (sumimasen)
Peter: Starts low, rises on み (mi), drops at the end.
Naomi: すみません (sumimasen)
Peter: Next.
Naomi: タクシー (takushī)
Peter: Taxi.
Naomi: (slow) たくしー (takushī) (natural speed) タクシー (takushī)
Peter: Starts high, drops second syllable ク (ku) stays low.
Naomi: タクシー (takushī)
Peter: Next.
Naomi: 横浜 (Yokohama)
Peter: Yokohama, the city.
Naomi: (slow) よこはま (Yokohama) (natural speed) 横浜 (Yokohama)
Peter: Starts low, rises on the second syllable こ (ko) stays high.
Naomi: 横浜 (Yokohama)
Peter: Next.
Naomi: 半 (han)
Peter: Half.
Naomi: (slow) はん (han) (natural speed) 半 (han)
Peter: Starts high, ends low.
Naomi: 半 (han)
Peter: Next.
Naomi: ホテル (hoteru)
Peter: Hotel.
Naomi: (slow) ほてる (hoteru) (natural speed) ホテル (hoteru)
Peter: Starts high, drops on the second syllable テ (te) stays low.
Naomi: ホテル (hoteru)
Peter: Okay, let’s take a look at some useful expressions from the conversation. The first expression we will look at is
Naomi: 横浜ホテルまで。(Yokohama Hoteru made.)
Peter: To Yokohama hotel. First we have the destination followed by
Naomi: まで (made)
Peter: Which means to and in this case, to the destination.
Naomi: まで (made)
Peter: Is extremely useful for giving directions to a taxi driver as you simply say your destination and follow it with
Naomi: まで (made)
Peter: For example, if you wanted to go to Tokyo Station,
Naomi: 東京駅まで (Tōkyō Eki made)
Peter: To Tokyo station. Now of course you can add お願いします (onegai shimasu) to increase the politeness level.
Naomi: 東京駅までお願いします。(Tōkyō Eki made onegai shimasu.)
Peter: But まで (made) alone is perfectly fine. Actually if you are in a rush, that would be probably more appropriate.
Naomi: 東京駅まで (Tōkyō Eki made)
Peter: And the お願いします (onegai shimasu) is optional just to increase that politeness level. Now let’s take a look at some of the vocabulary and expressions from the conversation and actually we will take a look at a word we covered in a previous newbie lesson. So the words we will take a look at are
Naomi: すみません (sumimasen)
Peter: Excuse me and
Naomi: お客さん (o-kyaku-san)
Peter: And the word from the previous lesson which is
Naomi: 忘れ物 (wasuremono)
Peter: And we are going to use these words and expressions to put together a sentence you may hear if you leave something behind in a taxi. ナオミ先生、お願いします。(Naomi-sensei, onegai shimasu.)
Naomi: すみません、お客さん。忘れ物です。(Sumimasen, okyaku-san. Wasuremono desu.)
Peter: Excuse me sir, you left something. Excuse me ma’am, you left something. Other options here are, you left something behind. Okay, let’s just take a quick look at this. First we had
Naomi: すみません (sumimasen)
Peter: Excuse me, followed by
Naomi: お客さん (o-kyaku-san)
Peter: Customer but in English, we wouldn’t translate it this way. So it’s sir or ma’am, a very respectful way to refer to a customer. Then we have
Naomi: 忘れ物です。(Wasuremono desu.)
Peter: Something forgotten is or in this case, something you forgot.
Naomi: When I went to a police station, I was very, very surprised because a police officer called me お客さん (o-kyaku-san).
Peter: Really?
Naomi: Yeah, he did.
Peter: Do you go there often?
Naomi: No. I am not that regular customer there but I think he just simply didn’t know how to call me because he didn’t know my name and it will be rude to call me like お姉さん (o-nee-san) or 女の人 (onna no hito) or whatever. He chose the word お客さん (o-kyaku-san) by accident.
Peter: Very polite of him. All right, お客さん (o-kyaku-san).

Lesson focus

Peter: Now let’s take a look at the focus of this lesson. This lesson focuses on the expression
Naomi: 今何時ですか。(Ima nan-ji desu ka.)
Peter: What time is it now? Let’s take a closer look. First we have
Naomi: 今 (ima)
Peter: Now, followed by
Naomi: 何時 (nan-ji)
Peter: What time, followed by
Naomi: です (desu)
Peter: Is.
Naomi: か (ka)
Peter: Question. Now what time is, is what we have literally. Of course what time is it now?
Naomi: Of course you can drop 今 (ima) and say 何時ですか (nan-ji desu ka).
Peter: What time is it? So let’s go back to where this appeared in the conversation. Can you repeat the answer to this question?
Naomi: 6時です。(Roku-ji desu.)
Peter: It’s 6 – it’s 6 o'clock is how we translate it but let’s take a closer look at what’s going on here. First we have in this sentence as is
Naomi: 6時 (roku-ji)
Peter: 6 o'clock.
Naomi: です (desu)
Peter: Is. 6 o'clock is. It’s 6 o'clock. Now of course, there is something inferred here. Naomi Sensei, if we reveal what’s inferred here, this sentence reads
Naomi: 今6時です。(Ima roku-ji desu.)
Peter: Now it’s 6 o'clock. Okay, so that’s inferred here. What you want to notice here is you take the hour and just follow it simply by です (desu). That’s all. So if it was 7 o'clock, ナオミ先生、今何時ですか。(Naomi-sensei, ima nan-ji desu ka.)
Naomi: 7時です。(Shichi-ji desu.)
Peter: It’s 7 o'clock. If it’s 8 o'clock,
Naomi: 8時です。(Hachi-ji desu.)
Peter: Now jumping back to our conversation, of course the taxi gets caught in traffic and quite a bit of time passes. Now when the passenger finally asks for the time again, what happens this time?
Naomi: 6時半です。(Roku-ji han desu.)
Peter: It’s 6:30. So 30 minutes have passed in traffic, in the 渋滞 (jūtai). So not good for him but good for us because we get another time expression. So same as before, everything is same as the previous sentence except for one thing
Naomi: 半 (han)
Peter: We add 半 (han) in there. 半 (han) literally means
Naomi: Half.
Peter: So we have literally start from the beginning of the sentence.
Naomi: 6時 (roku-ji)
Peter: 6.
Naomi: 半 (han)
Peter: Half.
Naomi: です (desu)
Peter: Is. It’s half past 6. It’s 6:30. Now if we wanted to say 7:30?
Naomi: 7時半です。(Shichi-ji han desu.)
Peter: You get the pattern. 7 o'clock followed by
Naomi: 半 (han)
Peter: 8:30.
Naomi: 8時半です。(Hachi-ji han desu.)
Peter: So the pattern stays the same.
Naomi: And notice the pronunciation. 6 o'clock is (slow) ろくじ (roku-ji)
く (ku) is high but half past six is 6時半 (roku-ji han). So (slow) ろくじはん (roku-ji han)
goes up at く (ku) and stays high and drop at ん (n).
Peter: So low to high, back down to low.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Peter: When there is 半 (han). Okay, Naomi-sensei. 今日もありがとうございます。(Kyō mo arigatō gozaimasu.)
Naomi: こちらこそ、ありがとうございます。(Kochirakoso, arigatō gozaimasu.)

Outro

Peter: That’s going to do for today.
Naomi: じゃあ、また。(Jā, mata.)
DIALOGUE
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 横浜ホテルまで。(Yokohama Hoteru made.)
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : はい。(Hai.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : すみません。今 何時ですか。(Sumimasen. Ima nan-ji desu ka.)
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : 6時です。(Roku-ji desu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 6時ですか。どうも。(Roku-ji desu ka. Dōmo.)
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : うわー。お客さん、渋滞ですよ。(Uwā. O-kyaku-san, jūtai desu yo.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : 渋滞ですか・・・。すみません。今 何時ですか。(Jūtai desu ka... Sumimasen. Ima nan-ji desu ka.)
タクシーの運転手 (Takushī no untenshu) : えっと、6時半です。(Etto, roku-ji han desu.)

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