Dialogue

Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Jessi: Style versus Function in Japan. Whose umbrella is that?!
Naomi: ナオミです。(Naomi desu.)
Akihiro: アキヒロです。(Akihiro desu.)
Peter: Peter here. Naomi-sensei,
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Peter: We are back and again I think the topic or the center of attention in this lesson too is, of course,
Naomi: 傘 (kasa)
Peter: 誰の? (Dare no?) Whose?
Naomi: ファブリツィオの傘。(Faburitsio no kasa.)
Peter: Yes, Fabrizio’s umbrella. So we are back umm. The conversation is taking place at Style You and the conversation is between two co-workers. In this case, they will be using formal Japanese.
Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.)
Peter: Polite Japanese. Okay, with that said, again we are going to be talking about possessive today and we are going to expand a little bit on what we did last week. Okay, so are we ready to go?
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Akihiro: はい。(Hai.)
Peter: Okay, here we go.
DIALOGUE
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : それはファブリツィオさんの傘ですか。(Sore wa Faburitsio-san no kasa desu ka.)
ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : はい。イタリアの傘です。イタリアのデザイナーの傘です。(Hai. Itaria no kasa desu. Itaria no dezainā no kasa desu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : へぇー。すごい。(Hē. Sugoi.)
ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : それはどこの傘ですか。(Sore wa doko no kasa desu ka.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : え?私の傘?100円ショップの傘です。(E? Watashi no kasa? Hyaku-en shoppu no kasa 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) : それはファブリツィオさんの傘ですか。(Sore wa Faburitsio-san no kasa desu ka.)
ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : はい。イタリアの傘です。イタリアのデザイナーの傘です。(Hai. Itaria no kasa desu. Itaria no dezainā no kasa desu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : へぇー。すごい。(Hē. Sugoi.)
ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : それはどこの傘ですか。(Sore wa doko no kasa desu ka.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : え?私の傘?100円ショップの傘です。(E? Watashi no kasa? Hyaku-en shoppu no kasa desu.)
今度は、英語が入ります。(Kondo wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : それはファブリツィオさんの傘ですか。(Sore wa Faburitsio-san no kasa desu ka.)
NATSUMI MINAMI: Is that your umbrella, Fabrizio?
ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : はい。イタリアの傘です。イタリアのデザイナーの傘です。(Hai. Itaria no kasa desu. Itaria no dezainā no kasa desu.)
FABRIZIO: Yes. It's made by an Italian designer.
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : へぇー。すごい。(Hē. Sugoi.)
NATSUMI MINAMI: Wow, sounds great.
ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : それはどこの傘ですか。(Sore wa doko no kasa desu ka.)
FABRIZIO: Where did you get that umbrella?
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : え?私の傘?100円ショップの傘です。(E? Watashi no kasa? Hyaku-en shoppu no kasa desu.)
NATSUMI MINAMI: Oh, my umbrella? I got this at a hundred yen shop.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Peter: Naomi-sensei, let’s find out what Akihiro-san thought of today’s conversation.
Naomi: アキヒロさん、(Akihiro-san,)
Akihiro: はい。(Hai.)
Naomi: どうですか。(Dō desu ka.)
Akihiro: イタリアのすごい傘と、100円ショップの傘のギャップが面白いですね。(Itaria no sugoi kasa to, hyaku-en shoppu no kasa no gyappu ga omoshiroi desu ne.)
Peter: Yeah, the difference between Italian designer umbrella and the one from a ¥100 shop is pretty interesting or pretty significant.
Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.)
Peter: So we are going to find out a little bit more about this in a minute but first we are going to go through some vocab and again with the vocab, we will give you the pitch accent at the end. While you are listening, please try and pay attention to this. Okay, here we go.
VOCAB LIST
Naomi: イタリア (Itaria)
Peter: Italy.
Naomi: (slow) いたりあ (Itaria) (natural speed) イタリア (Itaria)
Peter: And low to high, right?
Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.)
Peter: イタリア (Itaria)
Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.)
Peter: All right. See, you are starting to get the hang of this. Next we have
Akihiro: デザイナー (dezainā)
Peter: Designer.
Akihiro: (slow) でざいなー (dezainā) (natural speed) デザイナー (dezainā)
Peter: It seems like it fell off towards the end.
Naomi: Actually there are two ways to pronounce this word.
Peter: Help me out here. What two ways?
Naomi: はい。(Hai.) The first one is デザイナー (dezainā).
Peter: Low to high and then back down to low.
Naomi: デザイナー (dezainā), that’s what Akihiro-san said and the other pronunciation is デザイナー (dezainā).
Peter: And there you stay high. Start low and stay high.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.) I think デザイナー (dezainā) is bit new way to pronounce the word. This kind of intonation is popular among young people.
Peter: But again as we know, “old” as you keep inferring.
Akihiro: デザイナー (dezainā), デザイナー (dezainā).
Naomi: This is not what I meant but yeah, like high school girls.
Peter: デザイナー (dezainā)
Naomi: デザイナー (dezainā)
Peter: デザイナー (dezainā)
Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.)
Peter: Next we have
Naomi: へぇー (hē)
Peter: Really, wow, hah!
Naomi: (slow) へぇー (hē) (natural speed) へぇー (hē)
Peter: And I could hear you rising towards the end there.
Naomi: へぇー (hē)
Peter: That’s nice and flat but it’s usually へぇー (hē) , bit going up.
Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Yeah. そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) When you are surprised, へぇー (hē) sounds pretty casual though.
Peter: What about guy speakers?
Akihiro: へぇー (hē)
Peter: So it’s still kind of the going up.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Peter: An interjection expressing surprise. Then we have
Akihiro: すごい (sugoi)
Peter: Great, wonderful, amazing.
Akihiro: (slow) すごい (sugoi) (natural speed) すごい (sugoi)
Peter: And this one starts out low and goes up. Now this word can be used in lots of different situations when I mean the frequency of this word in spoken Japanese is
Naomi: Is すごい (sugoi)
Peter: Meaning incredible, amazing
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Peter: If someone does something amazing,
Naomi: すごーい (sugōi)
Peter: Great, wow or if someone gives you some surprising news
Naomi: すごーい (sugōi)
Peter: Just can be used in so many different situations. And it’s a bit on the casual side but if you attach です (desu) to it, it can be used in kind of more formal situations again not really business Japanese but it can be used in some formal situations and the frequency on this word is just really up there.
Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.)
Peter: Basic greetings of the day.
Naomi: はい。すごいです。(Hai. Sugoi desu.)
Peter: Next we have
Naomi: どこ (doko)
Peter: Where.
Naomi: (slow) どこ (doko) (natural speed) どこ (doko)
Peter: This is followed by
Akihiro: どこの (doko no)
Peter: From where
Akihiro: (slow) どこの (doko no) (natural speed) どこの (doko no)
Peter: And we have the interrogative for where どこ (doko), followed by の (no). So it’s possessive where’s, from where. Okay, so let’s take a look at the conversation and as we go through the conversation, we will break apart the components and then we will take a deeper look into some of the things going on there.

Lesson focus

Peter: First we have…
Naomi: それはファブリツィオさんの傘ですか。(Sore wa Faburitsio-san no kasa desu ka.)
Peter: Is that your umbrella, Fibritzio? Is that Fibritzio’s umbrella is the direct translation but as he is actually talking to Fibritzio, it should be translated as “is that your umbrella, Fibritzio?”
Naomi: Of course she could be said それはあなたの傘ですか (sore wa anata no kasa desu ka), but あなた (anata), as we already covered あなた (anata) is too direct. We don’t use あなた (anata) very often. So ファブリツィオさんの傘ですか (Faburitsio-san no kasa desu ka).
Peter: Yeah. So the first part is
Naomi: それ (sore)
Peter: That.
Naomi: は (wa)
Peter: Topic marking particle.
Naomi: ファブリツィオさん (Faburitsion-san)
Peter: Fibritzio.
Naomi: の (no)
Peter: Attach that possessive s, Fibritzio’s.
Naomi: 傘 (kasa)
Peter: Umbrella.
Naomi: です (desu)
Peter: Is.
Naomi: か (ka)
Peter: Question, that Fibritzio’s umbrella is. Is that Fibritzio’s umbrella but again the person, the speaker is speaking to Fibritzio but we can’t refer to him directly. So これはナオミ先生の傘ですか。(Kore wa Naomi-sensei no kasa desu ka.) Is this Naomi’s umbrella?
Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.)
Peter: But even now I am talking to Naomi.
Naomi: はい、そうです。これはピーターさんの本ですか。(Hai, sō desu. Kore wa Pītā-san no hon desu ka.)
Peter: Is this Peter’s book? いいえ、違います。(Iie, chigaimasu.) It’s different.
Naomi: これはアキヒロさんの本ですか。(Kore wa Akihiro-san no hon desu ka.)
Akihiro: はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.)
Peter: Yes, it is. Again this concept may seem a little foreign at first but the more you get into Japanese, the clearer it will become. This is followed by
Akihiro: はい、イタリアの傘です。(Hai, Itaria no kasa desu.)
Peter: Yes, it’s an Italian made umbrella. Literally though what do we have? We start off with
Akihiro: はい (hai)
Peter: Yes, followed by
Akihiro: イタリア (Itaria)
Peter: Italy.
Akihiro: の (no)
Peter: Italy’s or Italian.
Akihiro: 傘 (kasa)
Peter: Umbrella. Italy’s umbrella, Italian umbrella
Akihiro: です (desu)
Peter: Is. And again it is inferred. Naomi-sensei, if it was a proper sentence, we would have
Naomi: これは、イタリアの傘です。(Kore wa, Itaria no kasa desu.)
Peter: This is Italian umbrella is. This is an Italian umbrella but again that’s inferred because he is holding it and the other person is looking at it or it’s right next to Fibritzio. He just stuck it in the umbrella holder. So they know what’s being talked about here. So it can be omitted because it can easily be inferred. This is followed by
Akihiro: イタリアのデザイナーの傘です。(Itaria no dezainā no kasa desu.)
Peter: It’s an Italian designer umbrella. First we have
Akihiro: イタリア (Itaria)
Peter: Italy.
Akihiro: の (no)
Peter: Possessive, Italy’s.
Akihiro: デザイナー (dezainā)
Peter: Designer.
Akihiro: の (no)
Peter: Now two possessives. Italy’s designer’s. Finally?
Akihiro: 傘 (kasa)
Peter: Umbrella. Italy’s designer’s umbrella. An umbrella of a designer of Italy. So we can also work our way back. So it’s an umbrella of a designer of Italy. It’s an Italian designer umbrella
and this double の (no) usually refers to – it’s commonly used when talking about locations.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Peter: For example.
Naomi: 東京の赤坂の会社です。(Tōkyō no Akasaka no kaisha desu.)
Peter: Company of Akasaka of Tokyo or Tokyo’s Akasaka’s company. Again we will experiment with more and more of this later but this double possessive pattern is not uncommon. So you will come across it quite a bit in Japanese. This is followed by
Naomi: へぇー。すごい。(Hē. Sugoi.)
Peter: Wow! Sounds great or wow, that’s something referring to the umbrella. Next line, we have Fibritzio saying
Akihiro: それはどこの傘ですか。(Sore wa doko no kasa desu ka.)
Peter: Where did you get that umbrella? First we have
Akihiro: それ (sore)
Peter: That followed by
Akihiro: は (wa)
Peter: Topic marking particle, followed by
Akihiro: どこ (doko)
Peter: Where.
Akihiro: の (no)
Peter: Possessive where’s.
Akihiro: 傘 (kasa)
Peter: Where's the umbrella.
Akihiro: です (desu)
Peter: Is.
Akihiro: か (ka)
Peter: Question. So where did you get that umbrella or literally that where's the umbrella is. Where is that umbrella from is what we derive from this. So this どこの傘 (doko no kasa) can refer to many different things. It can refer to the brand, it can refer to the location.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Peter: Where it is bought but the focus here is on the umbrella and some connection of where it came from. So when you hear this, Naomi-sensei when you read this and you saw それはどこの傘ですか (sore wa doko no kasa desu ka), what immediately popped into your mind? What are they talking about here? What does the speaker want to know?
Naomi: Shop or brand or country which made that product.
Peter: Yeah, similar to the information Fibritzio gave when he told Minami about his umbrella. It’s an Italian design umbrella. So in English, it would be now to say, what kind of umbrella but in Japanese, that reverts to where is umbrella and that is a major difference that we want to get you very used to. I think this premise of where, there is so much to this interrogative in Japanese. My major problem was when I used to watch sports out, I would say who is playing who. So when I translate it in my mind and I said it in Japanese, I would have said 誰と誰 (dare to dare), like who and who but it’s incorrect in Japanese. What do we say in Japanese?
Akihiro: どことどこ (doko to doko)
Peter: Where and where. The team from where is playing the team from where.
Naomi: どことどこ (doko to doko) or どこのチームとどこのチーム (doko no chīmu to doko no chīmu)
Peter: Yeah, and this – again the premise here is where did that umbrella originate from and we are going to try and get you more and more attuned to this as we go on. The answer we have here is
Naomi: え?(E?)
Peter: Hah!
Naomi: 私の傘?(Watashi no kasa?)
Peter: My umbrella?
Naomi: 100円ショップの傘です。(Hyaku-en shoppu no kasa desu.)
Peter: I got this at a ¥100 shop or it’s a ¥100 shop’s umbrella. So no brand, real cheap one. So let’s just get back to this どこの (doko no) as referring to you want to find out more about something. So Naomi-sensei,
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Peter: Akihiro-san is quite the dresser.
Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.)
Peter: Look at these shoes!
Akihiro: え、本当ですか。(E, hontō desu ka.)
Peter: 本当ですよ。(Hontō desu yo.) So if we wanted to ask about his nice leather shoes...
Naomi: Leather shoes. It looks like flip-flops to me.
Akihiro: Today I am wearing Japanese sandals. These are called 雪駄 (setta).
Peter: Really?
Akihiro: Yeah.
Peter: I thought they were called ¥100 shops….
Akihiro: No, no, no, no…これはとても夏は涼しいんです。(Kore wa totemo natsu wa suzushii n desu.)
Peter: Tell us about these slippers.
Akihiro: These slippers are made of straws,
Peter: Kind of like Tatami on the bottom.
Akihiro: That’s right.
Peter: And by bottom, I mean the place where the foot, the soul of the foot rests is Tatami.
Akihiro: Right. So when you put on these 雪駄 (setta), you feel like you are walking on Tatami mats.
Naomi: へえ、すごい。(Hee, sugoi.)
Peter: Yeah.
Akihiro: You see what I mean?
Peter: I see.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Peter: But these are really, really cool.
Naomi: はい。そうですね。(Hai, sō desu ne.)
Peter: It’s quite nice to have that feeling. Tatami is so nice. Not those Tatami anymore but…
Naomi: アキヒロさんが。(Akihiro-san ga.)
Peter: But…
Naomi: He is already wore them.
Peter: After the first few weeks, they are probably really nice.
Akihiro: Though I am not going to share this. Don’t worry.
Naomi: どこのサンダルですか。(Doko no sandaru desu ka.)
Akihiro: これは、江の島のサンダルです。(Kore wa, Enoshima no sandaru desu.)
Peter: Now let’s just do this exchange one more time. Naomi-sensei asked about the slippers and Akihiro-san answered about the slippers but pay attention. Try and see if you can get it. One more time we are going to run through this. One more time, ask the question.
Naomi: どこのサンダルですか。(Doko no sandaru desu ka.)
Peter: Whose sandals are those? Where sandals are those?
Akihiro: 江の島のサンダルです。(Enoshima no sandaru desu.)
Peter: Eno island, Enoshima. Enoshima’s sandals. Now this doesn’t really tell us a lot but what is Enoshima? Is it a company or is it a location?
Naomi: Location.
Peter: Location.
Akihiro: When I say 江の島のサンダルです (Enoshima no sandaru desu), which means these are the sandals that I bought in Enoshima.
Peter: I think something just kind of clicked. These aren’t a brand name. They are not something quite nice.
Akihiro: Excuse me! これ結構高いんだから。(Kore kekkō takai n da kara.)
Peter: Oh sorry, they are quite expensive.
Naomi: Quite expensive.
Peter: Okay, let me just take that back. So I would answer this question. Where I bought the product or maybe I would say, this is Chinese made. So I would say, made in China.
Naomi: 中国のシャツです。(Chūgoku no shatsu desu.)
Peter: Right. So that would be a nice combination but if it’s something very high end, you would
answer this question with a brand name.
Naomi: はい。グッチのシャツです。(Hai. Gutchi no shatsu desu.)
Peter: So when you answer this question どこの (doko no), it can refer to where you bought something or it can refer to a brand name or where the product was made and a lot has to be kind of derived from the context of what was said before and what’s going on at that particular point in the conversation but this どこの (doko no) leaves a lot open. There are a variety of answers you can use to respond to this question.

Outro

Peter: Okay, that’s going to do it for today.
Naomi: じゃあ、また。(Jā, mata.)
Akihiro: お疲れ様です。(Otsukare-sama desu.)
DIALOGUE
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : それはファブリツィオさんの傘ですか。(Sore wa Faburitsio-san no kasa desu ka.)
ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : はい。イタリアの傘です。イタリアのデザイナーの傘です。(Hai. Itaria no kasa desu. Itaria no dezainā no kasa desu.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : へぇー。すごい。(Hē. Sugoi.)
ファブリツィオ (Faburitsio) : それはどこの傘ですか。(Sore wa doko no kasa desu ka.)
南 夏見 (Minami Natsumi) : え?私の傘?100円ショップの傘です。(E? Watashi no kasa? Hyaku-en shoppu no kasa desu.)

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