Learn about non-past polite
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: I am Sorry Where is the Japanese Food I Can Eat?! |
| Peter: Peter here. |
| Naomi: ナオミです。(Naomi desu.) |
| Peter: ナオミ先生。(Naomi-sensei.) |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: こんにちは。(Kon’nichiwa.) |
| Naomi: こんにちは、ピーターさん。(Kon’nichiwa, Pītā-san.) |
| Peter: So today we have another great lesson and today we are going to be talking about food. |
| Naomi: Yes, my favorite topic. |
| Peter: So can you give us a bit of background here. Where does the conversation take place? |
| Naomi: ビアガーデン (bia gāden) |
| Peter: Beer garden. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: So the conversation takes place at a beer garden which is a place where people go to drink and eat. |
| Naomi: Yes. |
| Peter: So you can get dinner and of course you can get |
| Naomi: Beer, ビール (bīru). |
| Peter: And for this one, you want to hold it, one more time? |
| Naomi: ビール (bīru) |
| Peter: Because the short version, ビル (biru) is what? |
| Naomi: Building. |
| Peter: Yeah so you don’t want to get a building when you go out to eat. |
| Naomi: You can’t drink ビル (biru), ね(ne). |
| Peter: Yeah, so that’s one important thing. One of the many important things we are going to cover today. So now that we have the location, where does – well, who is this conversation between? Who is talking here? |
| Naomi: Fabrizio. |
| Peter: Fabrizio. |
| Naomi: ウエイター (weitā) or ウェイトレス (weitoresu). |
| Peter: The waiter or the waitress. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: So it's formal, very polite Japanese. |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) Right. |
| Peter: Okay, with that said, are you ready? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Part 3, here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 乾杯！(Kanpai!) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : すみません。これは肉ですか。(Sumimasen. Kore wa niku desu ka.) |
| ウエイトレス (weitoresu) : いいえ。肉ではありません。魚です。サーモンです。(Iie. Niku de wa arimasen. Sakana desu. Sāmon desu.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : そうですか。えっと、これは肉ですか。(Sō desu ka. Etto, kore wa niku desu ka.) |
| ウエイトレス (weitoresu) : はい、そうです。とり肉です。(Hai, sō desu. Toriniku desu.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : これは肉ですか。(Kore wa niku desu ka.) |
| ウエイトレス (weitoresu) : いえいえ、肉じゃないです。野菜と豆です。(Ie ie, niku ja nai desu. Yasai to mame desu.) |
| 夏見 (Natsumi) : ファブリツィオさんは、ベジタリアンですか。(Faburitsio-san wa, bejitarian desu ka.) |
| 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.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : すみません。これは肉ですか。(Sumimasen. Kore wa niku desu ka.) |
| ウエイトレス (weitoresu) : いいえ。肉ではありません。魚です。サーモンです。(Iie. Niku de wa arimasen. Sakana desu. Sāmon desu.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : そうですか。えっと、これは肉ですか。(Sō desu ka. Etto, kore wa niku desu ka.) |
| ウエイトレス (weitoresu) : はい、そうです。とり肉です。(Hai, sō desu. Toriniku desu.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : これは肉ですか。(Kore wa niku desu ka.) |
| ウエイトレス (weitoresu) : いえいえ、肉じゃないです。野菜と豆です。(Ie ie, niku ja nai desu. Yasai to mame desu.) |
| 夏見 (Natsumi) : ファブリツィオさんは、ベジタリアンですか。(Faburitsio-san wa, bejitarian desu ka.) |
| 次は、英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 乾杯！(Kanpai!) |
| Cheers! |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : すみません。これは肉ですか。(Sumimasen. Kore wa niku desu ka.) |
| FABRIZIO: Excuse me. Is this meat? |
| ウエイトレス (weitoresu) : いいえ。肉ではありません。魚です。サーモンです。(Iie. Niku de wa arimasen. Sakana desu. Sāmon desu.) |
| WAITRESS: No. It isn't meat. It's fish. It's salmon. |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : そうですか。えっと、これは肉ですか。(Sō desu ka. Etto, kore wa niku desu ka.) |
| FABRIZIO: Is that so? Hmm, is this meat? |
| ウエイトレス (weitoresu) : はい、そうです。とり肉です。(Hai, sō desu. Toriniku desu.) |
| WAITRESS: Yes, that's right. It's chicken. |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : これは肉ですか。(Kore wa niku desu ka.) |
| FABRIZIO: Is this meat? |
| ウエイトレス (weitoresu) : いえいえ、肉じゃないです。野菜と豆です。(Ie ie, niku ja nai desu. Yasai to mame desu.) |
| WAITRESS: No, no. It's not meat. That's salad and beans. |
| 夏見 (Natsumi) : ファブリツィオさんは、ベジタリアンですか。(Faburitsio-san wa, bejitarian desu ka.) |
| NATSUMI: Fabrizio, are you a vegetarian? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Naomi-sensei, |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: What did you think of today’s conversation? |
| Naomi: I really like the first phrase. |
| Peter: Which was |
| Naomi: 乾杯！(Kanpai!) This is so useful phrase, you got to know. |
| Peter: All right. Let’s just slow down and let’s bring everybody up to speed. |
| Naomi: Okay. |
| Peter: What is this word? Can we have the word, one more time? |
| Naomi: 乾杯 (kanpai) |
| Peter: Cheers. |
| Naomi: Yes. |
| Peter: Now can you break this down for us? |
| Naomi: (slow) かんぱい (kanpai) (natural speed) 乾杯 (kanpai) |
| Peter: I said word but this is actually a phrase. Now what I find the most interesting about this is the meaning of the kanji. |
| Naomi: Oh yes. |
| Peter: The first character means |
| Naomi: Dry. |
| Peter: The second one means |
| Naomi: Glass. |
| Peter: So you can figure it out. You put your glass up and it’s your responsibility to make it a dry glass. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: So you got to drink it all. Naomi-san, can you give us some situations where you’d hear this phrase? |
| Naomi: At the beginning of the party. |
| Peter: Yes. So almost any occasion, if you are going out with friends, even if just two people. |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Peter: Any case that you would use cheers in English. Any time you’d toast in English, that’s where you would use this. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Okay. So they are all toasting. So today we want to take a closer look at this conversation but before that, let’s take a look at the vocab. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: Naomi-san, what do we have first? |
| Naomi: ベジタリアン (bejitarian) |
| Peter: Vegetarian. |
| Naomi: (slow) べじたりあん (bejitarian) (natural speed) ベジタリアン (bejitarian) |
| Peter: Now this means vegetarian but how could I say I am a vegetarian? |
| Naomi: 私はベジタリアンです。(Watashi wa bejitarian desu.) |
| Peter: So again it is that 私は (watashi wa) something, something, something です (desu) construction. |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| Peter: In casual situations, just drop the 私は (watashi wa). So to say, I am a vegetarian, you could just say |
| Naomi: ベジタリアンです。(Bejitarian desu.) |
| Peter: So for all of you travelers out there or all of you vegetarians living in Japan, if you go to a restaurant, you can just say |
| Naomi: ベジタリアンです。(Bejitarian desu.) |
| Peter: And they will know that you are a vegetarian. |
| Naomi: But I think you should be very careful because even if they know you are a vegetarian, they still serve some meat or fish because we don’t have many vegetarians in Japan. So they don’t understand the idea of vegetarian. |
| Peter: What about the Buddhists? |
| Naomi: Ah Buddhists? |
| Peter: Got you. |
| Naomi: すみません。そうですね。(Sumimasen. Sō desu ne.) You are right. You are so right, but I don’t think Buddhist monks go to beer garden. |
| Peter: Excellent point. You got me. Okay, too shay. Can I – In this case, can I say こちらこそ (kochirakoso), like you got me too? What would be the appropriate phrase saying – letting you know that I admitting that you got me? |
| Naomi: 引き分け (hikiwake) |
| Peter: Ah, so it’s a draw. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Okay, I got it. So I was up one, now you are up one. |
| Naomi: はい。引き分けです。(Hai. Hikiwake desu.) |
| Peter: You got one back so. One more time? |
| Naomi: (slow) ひきわけ (hikiwake) |
| Peter: 引き分けです。(Hikiwake desu.) |
| Naomi: はい。引き分けですね。(Hai. Hikiwake desu ne.) |
| Peter: All right. |
| Naomi: This time I will win. |
| Peter: We still have more time in this lesson. So let’s see how things work out. All right, moving on, next we have. |
| Naomi: ウエイトレス (weitoresu) |
| Peter: Waitress. |
| Naomi: (slow) うえいとれす (weitoresu) (natural speed) ウエイトレス (weitoresu) |
| Peter: And of course, this is taken from the English word, waitress. |
| Naomi: そうです、はい。(Sō desu, hai.) |
| Peter: And for waiter, we have |
| Naomi: ウエイター (weitā) |
| Peter: Again take it from the English. Just break this down. |
| Naomi: (slow) うえいたー (weitā) (natural speed) ウエイター (weitā) |
| Peter: You want to hold at the end, ウエイター (weitā). How was that, pitch accent, okay? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) Perfect. |
| Peter: All right. I really like these newbie lessons. So can you just give us the pronunciation one more time because again these katakana words, even though it’s just – I am so naturally inclined to say waiter, but sometimes ウ (u) in the beginning ウエイター (weitā) it’s a little difficult to hit. So one more time, nice and slow. |
| Naomi: はい。ウエイター。(Hai. Weitā.) |
| Peter: ウエイター (weitā) |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: There is an ウ (u) in there in the beginning. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: ウエイター (weitā) |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Naomi: ウエイトレス (weitoresu) |
| Peter: And is there an ウ (u) there, too? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: ウエイトレス (weitoresu) |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: And the accent is going up down. What’s going on here? |
| Naomi: ウエイトレス (weitoresu) |
| Peter: So kind of it goes up a bit and then comes back down. One more time. |
| Naomi: ウエイトレス (weitoresu) |
| Peter: ウエイトレス (weitoresu) |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Rising and then back down. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Oh pitch accent. It’s really exciting. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Okay, can’t get too worked up. Next we have |
| Naomi: 肉 (niku) |
| Peter: Meat. |
| Naomi: (slow) にく (niku) (natural speed) 肉 (niku) |
| Peter: Now is the perfect time to really get into kanji. I think you should really get in right from the start. |
| Naomi: Yeah. If you take a look at the kanji for 肉 (niku), you can see nice six pack there. |
| Peter: Are you talking about abdominal muscles? |
| Naomi: Hahaha! はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: ナオミ先生、申し訳ございません。(Naomi-sensei, mōshiwake gozaimasen.) I am really sorry but I can’t see the six-pack in 肉 (niku). |
| Naomi: Ey! 1, 2, 3, 4 yeah, six pack there. You can’t see it? |
| Peter: Okay, we are going to need some help from you listeners. Check out the PDF or check out the kanji for 肉 (niku) and I got to know if you see a six-pack. See what I see is inside and then a person. |
| Naomi: ああ。(Ā.) |
| Peter: And the meat winds up inside the person. Sorry vegetarians, but the meat winds up inside the person. So that’s why it's logical. |
| Naomi: ああ、でも。(Ā, demo.) Six pack is also logical, too. Anyway… |
| Peter: Yes, okay so we will leave that to the comment board. Again stop by, leave us a post. Please, please leave us a post. Naomi-sensei, what do we have next? |
| Naomi: 魚 (sakana) |
| Peter: Fish. |
| Naomi: (slow) さかな (sakana) (natural speed) 魚 (sakana) |
| Peter: This is followed by |
| Naomi: サーモン (sāmon) |
| Peter: Salmon. |
| Naomi: (slow) さーもん (sāmon) (natural speed) サーモン (sāmon) |
| Peter: Long vowel here and what about the pitch accent? |
| Naomi: サーモン (sāmon) |
| Peter: So flat and high, then dropping, サーモン (sāmon). |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: サーモン (sāmon) |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: This is I go on and on about it but you know for me, I have a lot of ingrained problems with my Japanese that you know I just would never correct it or I never had the time to learn. So going over these basics and especially this pitch accent is, I am really excited about it. One more time, let me say it. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: サーモン (sāmon) |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: 楽しいです (tanoshii desu), it’s fun. Japanese is so fun, especially when you could say it right. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Okay, next we have |
| Naomi: とり (tori) |
| Peter: Bird. |
| Naomi: (slow) とり (tori) (natural speed) とり (tori) |
| Peter: Now let’s see first, birds in general. |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| Peter: The reason I am pointing this out is we have our next word |
| Naomi: とり肉 (toriniku) |
| Peter: Which is chicken. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Break it down. |
| Naomi: (slow) とりにく (toriniku) (natural speed) とり肉 (toriniku) |
| Peter: And I guess this is pretty logical because in most of the world, we usually eat one main bird. |
| Naomi: Yeah, chicken. |
| Peter: Yeah, so the bird meat which is the literal translation, bird meat is chicken. |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。とり肉。(Hai, sō desu. Toriniku.) |
| Peter: Okay, what do we have next? |
| Naomi: 野菜 (yasai) |
| Peter: Vegetables. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) (slow) やさい (yasai) (natural speed) 野菜 (yasai) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Naomi: 豆 (mame) |
| Peter: Beans. |
| Naomi: (slow) まめ (mame) (natural speed) 豆 (mame) |
| Peter: I am going to have to do it but the interesting here is the word tofu which you are probably already familiar with in English. Let’s take a look at what that literally means. We have the kanji for Beans. |
| Naomi: Beans. |
| Peter: This is followed by the kanji for |
| Naomi: Fermented. |
| Peter: Yeah, or simply rotting. So rotting beans or actually beans rotting but rotting beans. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: But I think that’s an excellent point. I probably should think of it as fermentation as it’s much more – makes the appetite that much better, more appetizing way of putting it. A nice marketing word fermentation. |
| Naomi: Fermentation, そうですね (sō desu ne). |
| Peter: Okay, next we have |
| Naomi: と (to) |
| Peter: The particle and, with. |
| Naomi: 乾杯 (kanpai) |
| Peter: Cheers and we already covered this one. Okay, so let’s take a look at this conversation. Shall we? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Are you ready? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Here we go. What do we have first? |
| Naomi: 乾杯 (kanpai) |
| Peter: And we had everybody saying this together. So this is quite a common scene again. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: At get-togethers. Start off with the 乾杯 (kanpai). |
| Naomi: はい、乾杯。(Hai, kanpai.) |
| Peter: Now I want to take a look at the pronunciation here a little bit because actually かんぱい (kanpai), but when you say it, it kind of sounds like an “m” sound. |
| Naomi: うん、そうですね。(Un, sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: As opposed to the hard “n”. So more than かんぱい (kanpai), it sounds more like |
| Naomi: かんぱい (kampai), it’s actually “m” sound. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Naomi: Because “p” is your lips are together at the ぱ (pa) sound, right? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Naomi: So we use “m” which is umm sound instead of ん (n) which is “n” sound. |
| Peter: And this is – the reason we are pointing this out is because you are going to come across this quite a bit, かんぱい (kampai). |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Another one I could think of is newspaper. What’s the word for newspaper? |
| Naomi: 新聞 (shinbun) |
| Peter: And again it’s more of an “m” sound. If we break it down, it’s actually しんぶん (shinbun). There is an “n” in there but again with that “b” sound, we get that transitioned to an “m” sound and we have |
| Naomi: 新聞 (shimbun) |
| Peter: So I just wanted to point this out here. So when you hear it, it’s going to sound like 乾杯 (kampai). So now they have had their toast, they had had their sips of whatever they are drinking and now they are ready to eat. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: But Fibritzio has a little bit of a problem. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: So he gets someone’s attention with |
| Naomi: すみません。(Sumimasen.) |
| Peter: Excuse me, followed by |
| Naomi: これは肉ですか。(Kore wa niku desu ka.) |
| Peter: Is this meat, is our translation. So literally we have this meat is, question, this meat is. The は (wa) establishes the topic here. So the item they are talking about is located close by. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: So probably he is even gesturing to it. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Is this meat, pointing like at something specific inside what he is about to eat and the interesting thing here is this question marking particle. Can we take a look at this without the か (ka)? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: We have |
| Naomi: これは肉です (kore wa niku desu) |
| Peter: This is meat. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: And this is closer to the English. Let’s just take a look at the elements again. We have |
| Naomi: これ (kore) |
| Peter: This. |
| Naomi: は (wa) |
| Peter: Topic marking particle. |
| Naomi: 肉 (niku) |
| Peter: Meat. |
| Naomi: です (desu) |
| Peter: Is. So literally this meat is. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: We just have to reverse the order of the verb and meat. So this is meat. It’s there. So what happens when we attach the question marking particle か (ka) is that just by doing that, we now have a question, is this meat. When we have です (desu), just adding a か (ka) will make the whole thing into a question. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: The order stays the same. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: In English, we have to reverse the word order and move things around but not the case in Japanese. |
| Naomi: Japanese is easier in this case, just add か (ka) at the end of the sentence. |
| Peter: We will give you the perfect example. Naomi-san, can you introduce yourself? |
| Naomi: ナオミです。(Naomi desu.) |
| Peter: あ、すみません。ナオミですか。(A, sumimasen. Naomi desu ka.) It is just that’s it. |
| Naomi: はい、そうですね。(Hai, sō desu ne.) Right. |
| Peter: Are you Naomi? Are you Naomi? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: In English, we have all this word order and things moving around. Japanese is much easier in this case. One more time, nice and slow. |
| Naomi: はい。ナオミです。(Hai. Naomi desu.) |
| Peter: ナオミですか。(Naomi desu ka.) And then you would answer that with? |
| Naomi: ナオミです。(Naomi desu.) |
| Peter: Ah very, very useful. Okay, then on we go. |
| Naomi: いいえ (iie) |
| Peter: No. |
| Naomi: 肉ではありません。(Niku de wa arimasen.) |
| Peter: It’s not meat. |
| Naomi: 魚です。(Sakana desu.) |
| Peter: It’s fish. |
| Naomi: サーモンです。(Sāmon desu.) |
| Peter: It’s salmon. Okay, so this is the main focus of today’s lesson. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: ナオミ先生、お願いします。(Naomi-sensei, onegai shimasu.) |
| Naomi: はい。肉ではありません。(Hai. Niku de wa arimasen.) |
| Peter: So Naomi-sensei, |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Let’s start with the word for no, which is |
| Naomi: いいえ (iie) |
| Peter: And you want to hold the first part because it’s a long vowel in there. If you say いえ (ie), that’s a house. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Give it just one more time. |
| Naomi: いいえ (iie) |
| Peter: Long vowel in there. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: This is followed by |
| Naomi: 肉 (niku) |
| Peter: Meat. |
| Naomi: ではありません (de wa arimasen) |
| Peter: Meat isn’t. So literally we have meat isn’t. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) Originally, これは (kore wa) was there but since it’s obvious they are talking about this, they dropped これは (kore wa) part. |
| Peter: Perfect explanation. In a textbook conversation, you would see the これは (kore wa) and it would sound like this. |
| Naomi: これは肉ではありません。(Kore wa niku de wa arimasen.) |
| Peter: But as Naomi-sensei pointed out, this is inferred from the previous question that they are talking about this. So it gets dropped. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: So literally we have meat isn’t. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: But the translation is |
| Naomi: It isn’t meat. |
| Peter: Yeah, it… |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) And ではありません (de wa arimasen) sounds very formal. I’d like to introduce more casual expression. |
| Peter: Yeah, before we jump into that though, right now at this particular point in time, just remember ではありません (de wa arimasen) as a set phrase. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: And don’t worry about the conjugation. We will get into that later but ではありません (de wa arimasen) can be attached to nouns and na-adjectives. We will get into it a little bit later but just for now. So right now, set phrase that’s attached to a noun follows right after noun in the case that it’s not that thing. |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: That made sense. Okay Naomi-san, what is the casual expression you want to introduce? |
| Naomi: じゃないです (ja nai desu) |
| Peter: Same meaning and please remember this too as a set phrase for now. |
| Naomi: (slow) じゃないです (ja nai desu) (natural speed) じゃないです (ja nai desu) |
| Peter: So how we say it isn’t meat? |
| Naomi: 肉じゃないです。(Niku ja nai desu.) |
| Peter: Again similar to ではありません (de wa arimasen), it’s attached directly to the noun. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: So we have it isn’t meat. This is followed by |
| Naomi: 魚です。(Sakana desu.) |
| Peter: It’s fish literally though, fish is. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Again we don’t have the it, we don’t have the this. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: But it’s inferred from the conversation. So it’s fish. |
| Naomi: サーモンです。(Sāmon desu.) |
| Peter: It’s Salmon. That’s where Japanese is really great. A lot’s inferred. So even if you know these words, you can use です (desu). In so many cases, you even have conversations. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Naomi: そうですか。(Sō desu ka.) |
| Peter: Is that so? |
| Naomi: If this expression is said in a rising tone, it is a question. |
| Peter: So, そうですか。(Sō desu ka.) |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Is the question. |
| Naomi: はい (hai), and そうですか (sō desu ka) is kind of like he is talking to himself like confirming. |
| Peter: Like a rhetorical question. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: He doesn’t want an answer to it. He is just – is that so ah… |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: So the rising one is where you are asking a question and the falling intonation is the rhetorical question. |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: Got it. Moving on. |
| Naomi: えっと、これは肉ですか。(Etto, kore wa niku desu ka.) |
| Peter: Umm is this meat? And again, we covered this in a previous lesson, the えっと (etto) filler. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: This is followed by |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| Peter: Yes, that’s right. |
| Naomi: とり肉です。(Toriniku desu.) |
| Peter: It is chicken again literally chicken is. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: But it is inferred. It’s chicken. |
| Naomi: これは、肉ですか。(Kore wa, niku desu ka.) |
| Peter: Is this meat? |
| Naomi: いえいえ。(Ie ie.) |
| Peter: No. |
| Naomi: 肉じゃないです。(Niku ja nai desu.) |
| Peter: It isn’t meat. |
| Naomi: いえ (ie) is no, right like short version of いいえ (iie), but いえいえ (ie ie), like no, no. |
| Peter: No, no. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: So I think well what comes next will tell you why this person used いえいえ (ie ie). What do we have next? |
| Naomi: 肉じゃないです。(Niku ja nai desu.) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Naomi: 野菜と豆です。(Yasai to mame desu.) |
| Peter: So because he is asking if salad and beans are meat, that’s why the waitress was kind of like いえいえいえ (ie ie ie), no. She was – got a little bit excited about answering you know quickly. |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| Peter: And then finally we have |
| Naomi: ファブリツィオさんは、ベジタリアンですか。(Faburitsio-san wa, bejitarian desu ka.) |
| Peter: Are you a vegetarian, Fabrizio? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: I think this sentence exemplifies how to approach the topic marking particle at this stage. This is very similar to English. Fabrizio pause, are you a vegetarian because if you cut out Fabrizio and you just have ベジタリアンですか (bejitarian desu ka), are you a vegetarian because the person you are asking is inferred are you a vegetarian, textbook we would say あなたは (anata wa) |
| Naomi: ベジタリアンですか。(bejitarian desu ka.) |
| Peter: Are you a vegetarian, but here we establish the topic with は (wa), ファブリツィオさん (Faburitsio-san). So Fabrizio pause, are you a vegetarian and this is similar to how some people even speak in English. Naomi, |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Do you like pizza or something along these lines? |
| Naomi: ああ、そうですね。(Ā, sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Rather do you like pizza Naomi, you know. Sometimes, so if you think about it this way, it may help you kind of comprehend what is meant by this topic marking particle. Establish a topic and then go on to talk about it. |
| Naomi: 面白い、そうですね。(Omoshiroi, sō desu ne.) |
Outro |
| Peter: Naomi-sensei, our lessons are so long. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: But I think there is so much in there and the pitch accent. |
| Naomi: ああ、はい。(Ā, hai.) |
| Peter: It doesn’t get any better. All right, I think that’s going to do it for today. |
| Naomi: はい、じゃあまた。(Hai, jā mata.) |
| Peter: See you next week. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 乾杯！(Kanpai!) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : すみません。これは肉ですか。(Sumimasen. Kore wa niku desu ka.) |
| ウエイトレス (weitoresu) : いいえ。肉ではありません。魚です。サーモンです。(Iie. Niku de wa arimasen. Sakana desu. Sāmon desu.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : そうですか。えっと、これは肉ですか。(Sō desu ka. Etto, kore wa niku desu ka.) |
| ウエイトレス (weitoresu) : はい、そうです。とり肉です。(Hai, sō desu. Toriniku desu.) |
| ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : これは肉ですか。(Kore wa niku desu ka.) |
| ウエイトレス (weitoresu) : いえいえ、肉じゃないです。野菜と豆です。(Ie ie, niku ja nai desu. Yasai to mame desu.) |
| 夏見 (Natsumi) : ファブリツィオさんは、ベジタリアンですか。(Faburitsio-san wa, bejitarian desu ka.) |
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