Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Jessi: Money Makes the World Go Round in Japan.
Naomi: ナオミです。(Naomi desu.)
Akihiro: アキヒロです。(Akihiro desu.)
Peter: Peter here. ナオミ先生、こんにちは。(Naomi-sensei, kon’nichiwa.)
Naomi: こんにちは、ピーターさん。こんにちは、アキヒロさん。(Kon’nichiwa, Pītā-san. Kon’nichiwa, Akihiro-san.)
Akihiro: こんにちは。(Kon’nichiwa.)
Peter: That’s right. Akihiro-san is joining us today for this lesson. And Naomi-san, what are we talking about today?
Naomi: 今日は (kyō wa) numbers and prices.
Peter: Numbers and prices and in Japan, prices can get to a very big number quickly because there is no decimal point. 何ででしょうね。(Nande deshō ne.) Why don’t you guys like the decimal point but we will figure all that out at a different time but right now, today we are going to go over numbers and about 100, 200 in that area?
Naomi: はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.)
Peter: All right. Where does today’s lesson take place?
Naomi: The conversation takes place at a 100円ショップ (hyaku-en shoppu).
Peter: ¥100 shop. So the conversation is between?
Naomi: The shopping clerk and Minami-san.
Peter: So we will have polite Japanese.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.) And Minami-san is going to buy something and when you listen to the audio, please calculate price.
Peter: Good luck. Again after you hear this, stop by JapanesePod101.com, the PDFs have been reborn. Naomi-sensei has really added a lot to them. In addition, inside the learning center, things to bring everything together. So with that said, here we go.
DIALOGUE
店員 (ten’in) : いらっしゃいませー。いらっしゃいませー。(Irasshaimasē! Irasshaimasē!)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : すみません、これはいくらですか。(Sumimasen, kore wa ikura desu ka.)
店員 (ten’in) : 100円です。(Hyaku-en desu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : じゃ、これはいくらですか。(Ja, kore wa ikura desu ka.)
店員 (ten’in) : ・・・お客さん、ここは100円ショップです。これも100円。それも100円。あれも100円です。(... O-kyaku-san, koko wa hyaku-en shoppu desu. Kore mo hyaku-en. Sore mo hyaku-en. Are mo hyaku-en desu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : あ、そうですか。すみません。じゃ、これとこれください。(A, sō desu ka. Sumimasen. Ja, kore to kore kudasai.)
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.)
店員 (ten’in) : いらっしゃいませー。いらっしゃいませー。(Irasshaimasē! Irasshaimasē!)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : すみません、これはいくらですか。(Sumimasen, kore wa ikura desu ka.)
店員 (ten’in) : 100円です。(Hyaku-en desu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : じゃ、これはいくらですか。(Ja, kore wa ikura desu ka.)
店員 (ten’in) : ・・・お客さん、ここは100円ショップです。これも100円。それも100円。あれも100円です。(... O-kyaku-san, koko wa hyaku-en shoppu desu. Kore mo hyaku-en. Sore mo hyaku-en. Are mo hyaku-en desu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : あ、そうですか。すみません。じゃ、これとこれください。(A, sō desu ka. Sumimasen. Ja, kore to kore kudasai.)
次は、英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.)
店員 (ten’in) : いらっしゃいませー。いらっしゃいませー。(Irasshaimasē! Irasshaimasē!)
SHOPPING CLERK: Hello. May I help you?
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : すみません、これはいくらですか。(Sumimasen, kore wa ikura desu ka.)
NATSUMI MINAMI: Excuse me. How much is this?
店員 (ten’in) : 100円です。(Hyaku-en desu.)
SHOPPING CLERK: It's a hundred yen.
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : じゃ、これはいくらですか。(Ja, kore wa ikura desu ka.)
NATSUMI MINAMI: And how much is this?
店員 (ten’in) : ・・・お客さん、ここは100円ショップです。これも100円。それも100円。あれも100円です。(... O-kyaku-san, koko wa hyaku-en shoppu desu. Kore mo hyaku-en. Sore mo hyaku-en. Are mo hyaku-en desu.)
SHOPPING CLERK: ...Sir/Ma'am, this shop is a 100yen shop. This one is 100yen. That one near you is also 100 yen. That one over there is also 100yen!
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : あ、そうですか。すみません。じゃ、これとこれください。(A, sō desu ka. Sumimasen. Ja, kore to kore kudasai.)
NATSUMI MINAMI: Oh, I see. I'm sorry. I'll take this and this.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Naomi Sensei, what do you think of today’s lesson?
Naomi: Actually this dialogue is based on my real experience.
Peter: Real life experience as the shopping clerk?
Naomi: No. As a customer.
Peter: Oh! Say it isn’t so. Akihiro-san, what do you think of today’s conversation?
Akihiro: このお客さん、面白い人ですね。(Kono o-kyaku-san, omoshiroi hito desu ne.)
Peter: Yeah, this customer is a pretty interesting person which makes Naomi-sensei a pretty interesting person. Sorry.
Naomi: I didn’t know that was a 100円ショップ (hyaku-en shoppu).
Peter: Yes, the big ¥100 sign is very hard to miss.
Akihiro: But there is only one price for asking, いくらですか (ikura desu ka)?
Naomi: あのね。(Ano ne.) There is a 100円ショップ (hyaku-en shoppu), called Natural Kitchen and it’s a 100円ショップ (hyaku-en shoppu), but it doesn’t say the price and it looks like a decent shop like a nice shop.
Akihiro: だそうです。(Da sō desu.)
Naomi: It doesn’t ….
Peter: But I think it’s like it would make for a good comedy skit, someone going to the store and asking repeatedly over and over. Really good practice for your Japanese. Okay, let’s take a look at the vocab because we are getting little carried away.
VOCAB LIST
Peter: What do we have first? アキヒロさん、お願いします。(Akihiro-san, onegai shimasu.)
Akihiro: いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase)
Peter: Welcome. May I help you?
Akihiro: (slow) いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase) (natural speed) いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase)
Peter: Next we have
Naomi: いくら (ikura)
Peter: How much.
Naomi: (slow) いくら (ikura) (natural speed) いくら (ikura)
Peter: I heard this funny story. My Japanese student who is studying English once told me. He is like, there was a famous foreign comedian and he made a joke using this いくら (ikura). The joke was that he was at a Sushi restaurant and…
Naomi: あ、わかった。(A, wakatta.)
Peter: So he wanted to get the check. So he raised his hand and he said いくら (ikura) and you know, the joke was that the guy in the Sushi restaurant はい、いくら一丁 (hai, ikura icchō), like 1 Salmon eggs.
Naomi: Salmon eggs.
Peter: And he is like all right, all right how much and so the guy said, はい、はまち一丁 (hai, hamachi icchō). So the whole thing was he was trying to get out of the Sushi restaurant but…
Akihiro: He was keep ordering.
Peter: Yeah, he kept ordering. So easy way to remember this is Salmon eggs which in Japanese is?
Naomi: いくら (ikura)
Peter: And then we have
Akihiro: お客さん (o-kyaku-san)
Peter: Customer, a very polite way to refer to a customer.
Akihiro: (slow) おきゃくさん (o-kyaku-san) (natural speed) お客さん (o-kyaku-san)
Peter: This has the honorific prefix お (o) and the honorific suffix さん (san). Base we have
Naomi: 客 (kyaku)
Peter: Customer which is
Naomi: (slow) きゃく (kyaku) (natural speed) 客 (kyaku)
Peter: And this can also be guessed. This is followed by
Akihiro: ここ (koko)
Peter: Here.
Akihiro: (slow) ここ (koko) (natural speed) ここ (koko)
Peter: Next we have
Naomi: 円 (en)
Peter: Japanese yen.
Naomi: (slow) えん (en) (natural speed) 円 (en)
Peter: English, we say yen. Japanese it’s 円 (en), no why. The kanji for this is quite interesting. What is the kanji here?
Naomi: It means circle.
Peter: Yeah.
Naomi: So we use coins and the coins are circle.
Peter: So that’s where it derives from.
Naomi: はい。と、思います。(Hai. To, omoimasu.)
Peter: 円 (en)
Akihiro: Yeah. I heard it comes from this Japanese gesture. How to describe this?
Peter: Where in English, it would be the okay sign. Your thumb and your pointer finger curled... bent together into a circle and the other three fingers are flailing away.
Akihiro: So that’s a circle.
Peter: And that also mean that’s also the gesture in Japanese for money 円 (en). Then we have
Akihiro: ショップ (shoppu)
Peter: Shop.
Akihiro: (slow) しょっぷ (shoppu) (natural speed) ショップ (shoppu)
Peter: Next we have
Naomi: ください (kudasai)
Peter: Please as in please give me.
Naomi: (slow) ください (kudasai) (natural speed) ください (kudasai)
Peter: And finally.
Akihiro: 店員 (ten’in)
Peter: Clerk.
Akihiro: (slow) てんいん (ten’in) (natural speed) 店員 (ten’in)
Peter: Okay, let’s take a look at this conversation.

Lesson focus

Peter: Naomi-sensei, what do we have first?
Naomi: いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.)
Peter: Welcome.
Naomi: いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.)
Peter: Uh, Two times, welcome. So maybe two people are entering. It’s kind of like one per person. So maybe at the same time, two people are entering and something along those lines. Then we have.
Akihiro: すみません、これはいくらですか。(Sumimasen, kore wa ikura desu ka.)
Peter: Excuse me, how much is this and let’s take a closer look at the sentence. First we have, one more time.
Akihiro: すみません (sumimasen)
Peter: Excuse me, followed by
Akihiro: これ (kore)
Peter: This, followed by
Akihiro: は (wa)
Peter: Topic marking particle.
Akihiro: いくら (ikura)
Peter: How much.
Akihiro: です (desu)
Peter: Is question mark. So literally, excuse me, this how much is question mark. Again in Japanese, the か (ka) indicates a question in formal Japanese. Now in spoken casual Japanese, this can be also indicated by intonation. So we have how much is this? This is followed by the answer.
Naomi: 100円です。(Hyaku-en desu.)
Peter: ¥100. Now first we have
Naomi: 100 (hyaku)
Peter: 100
Naomi: 円 (en)
Peter: Yen.
Naomi: です (desu)
Peter: Is. Literally ¥100 is. What happened to the subject, it? If this was a textbook, what will we find?
Naomi: それは100円です。(Sore wa hyaku-en desu.)
Peter: That is ¥100 and that indicates that the object is close to the speaker, close to the person who asked the question, not the speaker, the responding person. That is in deferred here because we already know what we are talking about. So we can leave that out, drop it altogether and just 100円です (hyaku-en desu). This is followed by
Akihiro: じゃ、これはいくらですか。(Ja, kore wa ikura desu ka.)
Peter: Hmm okay umm.. How much is this? So it’s not the same this. It’s something else nearby. The じゃ (ja) indicates that the speaker, the person asking this question wants to bite a little bit of time. Hmm..Let’s look around that’s maybe too much for her, the ¥100 or maybe too little or maybe she wants to find out what something else is. So hmm, じゃ (ja), same pattern. How much is this? Literally this how much is, translated how much is this, followed by
Naomi: お客さん、ここは100円ショップです。(O-kyaku-san, koko wa hyaku-en shoppu desu.)
Peter: Sir, ma’am, this is a ¥100 shop, meaning everything is ¥100. So what do we have first?
Naomi: お客さん (o-kyaku-san)
Peter: Literally customer, but when we translate and we make it into English, the clerk in the store would say sir or ma’am. Then we have?
Naomi: ここ (koko)
Peter: Here.
Naomi: は (wa)
Peter: Topic marking particle.
Naomi: 100円ショップ (hyaku-en shoppu)
Peter: ¥100 shop.
Naomi: です (desu)
Peter: Is. Literally here ¥100 shop is. And here is a ¥100 store. To translate, it would be, here is a dollar store but the ¥100 shops in Japan are really nice.
Naomi: とてもいいです。(Totemo ii desu.) Very good quality.
Peter: Yeah. I mean when you move and in Japan, people move quite often, this is the first place you go. You got to restock, stock up on everything. Next we have
Naomi: これも100円 (kore mo hyaku-en)
Peter: This is also ¥100. Let’s go through it. What do we have first?
Naomi: これ (kore)
Peter: This, followed by
Naomi: も (mo)
Peter: Particle indicating also, too.
Naomi: 100円 (hyaku-en)
Peter: ¥100, this too ¥100 it, but where's です (desu)?
Naomi: です (desu) is missing in the sentence, because he is a bit upset. So…
Peter: Yeah, this happened 20 times today so…
Naomi: Yeah.
Peter: The shopkeeper is at their limit.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.) So he just dropped です (desu) in the next sentence, too.
Peter: Yeah, but the is inferred here.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Peter: This too ¥100 is. This also is ¥100. Then we have
Naomi: それも100円 (sore mo hyaku-en)
Peter: That’s also ¥100. Finally…
Naomi: あれも100円 (are mo hyaku-en)
Peter: That over there is also ¥100.
Naomi: And finally he put です (desu) at the end of the sentence.
Peter: So yeah, I think he’s been polite. Maybe that’s something to do with the これ (kore), それ (sore), あれ (are), the three in a row. So this です (desu) maybe would apply to all of them because これ (kore), それ (sore), あれ (are) are a set. Notice the similarity between this and here. Both start with
Naomi: こ (ko)
Peter: This is
Naomi: これ (kore)
Peter: Here is
Naomi: ここ (koko)
Peter: So things located near or when indicating location, things located nearby to the person speaking start usually with
Naomi: こ (ko)
Peter: Further away.
Naomi: そ (so)
Peter: And way over there?
Naomi: あ (a)
Peter: So we don’t want to get too much into it but this here, this is
Naomi: これ (kore)
Peter: That over there is
Naomi: それ (sore)
Peter: And that way over there is
Naomi: あれ (are)
Peter: Now let’s see if the same holds true for here. Here is
Naomi: ここ (koko)
Peter: There.
Naomi: そこ (soko)
Peter: And way over there should start with あ (a).
Naomi: あそこ (asoko)
Peter: So it kind of holds true. Again more about this inside the PDF. Finally we have
Akihiro: あ、そうですか。すみません。じゃ、これとこれをください。(A, sō desu ka. Sumimasen. Ja, kore to kore o kudasai.)
Peter: あ、そうですか。(A, sō desu ka.) I see. Now this can be used in many contexts. If someone – again it depends on the intonation. Here the person is making a mistake. So they are saying, is that so but the way they are saying it is like ah I see. Now when someone is telling you something a fact, sometimes people will put this in as kind of a filler as the person speaking will continue to go on. あ、そうですか。あ、そうですか。(A, sō desu ka. A, sō desu ka.) Not so much as like oh is that so. Just kind of interjecting to keep…
Naomi: Yeah, kind of like aaha!
Peter: What do we call that in Japanese?
Naomi: 相槌 (aizuchi)
Peter: 相槌 (aizuci) and we are going to have a whole lesson on this but one of the listeners commented on a previous lesson that Naomi-sensei’s interjections were quite frequent but in Japanese, this is common practice. When someone is speaking to add these, one more time, what are they called?
Naomi: 相槌 (aizuchi)
Peter: Such as はい (hai) or ああ (ā) or そうですか (sō desu ka) to acknowledge that you are listening to the speaker where in English, it’s the opposite, the complete opposite. You sit there quiet.
Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) If you are talking in Japanese, if you are not doing any 相槌 (aizuchi) that would be considered as rude.
Peter: Yeah, so a whole another lesson. We should have a Japanese culture class on this. So with that said, let’s just jump back. What do we have next?
Akihiro: すみません (sumimasen)
Peter: Excuse me followed by
Akihiro: じゃ、これとこれをください (ja, kore to kore o kudasai)
Peter: Okay, I will take this and this. Literally this and this please. これ (kore) this, と (to) this particle means and. It could also be with but here it’s followed by another this. So this and this. They are both marked by the object marking particle を (o) and then we follow this with ください (kudasai). This and this please. Okay.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Peter: Quite a useful lesson.
Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) I have a question for you, Peter-san. If you are a shopping clerk, in the next line, what would you say?
Peter: I would say 210円です (ni-hyaku jū-en desu).
Naomi: You cheated.
Peter: ¥210.
Akihiro: 消費税が入るから。(Shōhizei ga hairu kara.)
Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.)
Peter: What is that Naomi-sensei?
Naomi: 消費税は (shōhizei wa) consumption tax.
Peter: Yeah, and my answer was ¥210, not ¥200 because there is tax in Japan. 5% on all sales, so it maybe like a sales tax but the point here is that we got to go over the numbers. So in today’s lesson, we are going to go from 11 to 100 and we actually gave you 200 which is a little bit of a trick question. So we will go all the way to 200 and actually 210. Naomi-sensei, it never ends. What shall we start with?
(Note: The consumption tax in Japan was 5% in 2007 when this lesson was recorded.)
Naomi: 10 (jū)
Peter: 10
Naomi: (slow) じゅう (jū) (natural speed) 10 (jū)
Peter: Next we have
Naomi: 11 (jū ichi)
Peter: 11
Naomi: (slow) じゅういち (jū ichi) (natural speed) 11 (jū ichi)
Peter: So this is very straightforward. We have the word for 10 followed by the word for 1, literally 10 1. In English, it changes. 12
Naomi: 12 (jū ni)
Peter: 12, literally 10 2
Naomi: (slow) じゅうに (jū ni) (natural speed) 12 (jū ni)
Peter: What do we have next, Akihiro-san?
Akihiro: 13 (jū san)
Peter: 13. Literally 10 3. See how logical it is.
Akihiro: (slow) じゅうさん (jū san) (natural speed) 13 (jū san)
Peter: Followed by
Naomi: 14 (jū yon)
Peter: 14
Naomi: Or 14 (jū shi) (slow) じゅうよん (jū yon) (natural speed) 14 (jū yon)
Peter: Next
Akihiro: 15 (jū go)
Peter: 15
Akihiro: (slow) じゅうご (jū go) (natural speed) 15 (jū go)
Peter: Followed by
Naomi: 16 (jū roku)
Peter: 16
Naomi: (slow) じゅうろく (jū roku) (natural speed) 16 (jū roku)
Peter: Next we have
Akihiro: 17 (jū nana)
Peter: 17
Akihiro: (slow) じゅうなな (jū nana) (natural speed) 17 (jū nana)
Naomi: 18 (jū hachi)
Peter: 18
Naomi: (slow) じゅうはち (jū hachi) (natural speed) 18 (jū hachi)
Peter: Followed by
Akihiro: 19 (jū kyū)
Peter: 19
Akihiro: (slow) じゅうきゅう (jū kyū) (natural speed) 19 (jū kyū)
Peter: Or
Akihiro: (slow) じゅうく (jū ku) (natural speed) 19 (jū ku)
Peter: So here is the million dollar question. We started with 11 which is in Japanese literally 10 1, 12 10 2, 10 3, 10 4, 10 5, 10 6, 10 7, 10 8, 10 9. What do you think 20 is going to be?
Naomi: Two 10s.
Peter: There it is, which in Japanese is
Naomi: (slow) にじゅう (ni-jū) (natural speed) 20 (ni-jū)
Peter: 21 would be
Naomi: にじゅういち (ni-jū ichi)
Peter: 2 10 1. So with this, you have the tools now to count all the way up to 99 and then finally we have
Naomi: ひゃく (hyaku)
Peter: 100. Okay Naomi-sensei, are we going to stop here? We have to go to 200.
Naomi: にひゃく (ni-hyaku)
Peter: Again very logical. Once you have the number for the bigger denomination, you use the other ones in combination. So literally 200.
Naomi: Yeah.
Peter: Straightforward.
Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) 100s are not too bad but there are three exceptions which you have to remember.
Peter: Okay, what are those exceptions?
Naomi: 300 (san-byaku)
Peter: 300
Naomi: (slow) さんびゃく (san-byaku) (natural speed) 300 (san-byaku)
Peter: So ひゃく (hyaku) becomes
Naomi: びゃく (byaku)
Peter: Then we have
Naomi: ろっぴゃく (roppyaku)
Peter: Next we have
Naomi: よんひゃく (yon-hyaku)
Peter: So you want to stick to the よん (yon) here, よんひゃく (yon-hyaku).
Naomi: (slow) よんひゃく (yon-hyaku) (natural speed) 400 (yon-hyaku)
Peter: Followed by
Naomi: 500 (go-hyaku)
Peter: 500
Naomi: (slow) ごひゃく (go-hyaku) (natural speed) 500 (go-hyaku)
Peter: Next we have
Naomi: That’s a tricky one, 600 (roppyaku)
Peter: “P” sound, “p”. ろっぴゃく (roppyaku)
Naomi: ろっぴゃく (roppyaku)
Peter: Then we have
Naomi: 700 (nana-hyaku)
Peter: 700
Naomi: (slow) ななひゃく (nana-hyaku) (natural speed) 700 (nana-hyaku)
Peter: Then we have
Naomi: That’s a tricky one, too. 800 (happyaku)
Peter: Another “p”. はっぴゃく (happyaku)
Naomi: はっぴゃく (happyaku)
Peter: 800
Naomi: 900 (kyū-hyaku)
Peter: 900
Naomi: (slow) きゅうひゃく (kyū-hyaku) (natural speed) 900 (kyū-hyaku)

Outro

Peter: All right. So what a lesson! Another long one, a lot of really great information there. Okay, learn the kanji for the numbers. That would really help when you are in Japan or you go to a Japanese restaurant, you can actually read the Japanese menu. So today is definitely a lesson you want to check out. That’s going to do it for today.
Naomi: じゃあ、また。(Jā, mata.)
Akihiro: お疲れ様。(Otsukare-sama.)
DIALOGUE
店員 (ten’in) : いらっしゃいませー。いらっしゃいませー。(Irasshaimasē! Irasshaimasē!)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : すみません、これはいくらですか。(Sumimasen, kore wa ikura desu ka.)
店員 (ten’in) : 100円です。(Hyaku-en desu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : じゃ、これはいくらですか。(Ja, kore wa ikura desu ka.)
店員 (ten’in) : ・・・お客さん、ここは100円ショップです。これも100円。それも100円。あれも100円です。(... O-kyaku-san, koko wa hyaku-en shoppu desu. Kore mo hyaku-en. Sore mo hyaku-en. Are mo hyaku-en desu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : あ、そうですか。すみません。じゃ、これとこれください。(A, sō desu ka. Sumimasen. Ja, kore to kore kudasai.)

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