Dialogue

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Jessi: A Golden Anniversary: Looking Back Over Japanese Particles No, Wa, Ga, and O.
Naomi: なおみです。(Naomi desu.)
Jessi: Jessi here. So, we learned the usage of particles が (ga) and の (no) in relative clauses in the last lesson, right?
Naomi: Right. The subject of a relative clause has to be marked by either が (ga) or の (no).
Jessi: Let’s show a quick example. How do you say “The person I saw was a singer.”?
Naomi: 私が見た人は歌手だった。(Watashi ga mita hito wa kashu datta.) Or 私の見た人は歌手だった。(Watashi no mita hito wa kashu datta.)
Jessi: From this lesson, Lesson 21 to Lesson 25, we’re going to review all of the particles we learned in this series. We know we presented you with a lot of information, so here’s where we go back and take a look at each one. Which ones are we going to review in this lesson?
Naomi: In this lesson you'll review the usage of the particles は (wa), が (ga) and を (o).
Jessi: And there are three people in this lesson’s dialogue, right?
Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Right. 佐藤ジュン君とジュン君のおじいさんとおばあさんです。(Satō Jun-kun to Jun-kun no o-jii-san to o-bā-san desu.)
Naomi: So Jun Sato and his grandparents. Where does this conversation take place?
Naomi: うち。(Uchi.)
Jessi: At home. Now let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
おばあさん:おじいさん、良い夢を見ましたよ。(O-jii-san, ii yume o mimashita yo.)
おじいさん:ほう。そうですか。(Hō. Sō desu ka.)
孫(佐藤順):おじいちゃーん、おばあちゃーん。こんにちは。(O-jii-chān, o-bā-chān. Kon’nichiwa.)
: 金婚式、おめでとう。(Kinkonshiki, omedetō.)
おじいさん:おやおや、ありがとう。(Oya oya, arigatō.)
孫:これをあげる。金の傘と、銀の傘。(Kore o ageru. Kin no kasa to, gin no kasa.)
: おじいちゃんには金色の傘。おばあちゃんには銀色の傘。(O-jii-chan ni wa kin’iro no kasa. O-bā-chan ni wa gin’iro no kasa.)
おばあさん:だれが作ったの?(Dare ga tsukutta no?)
孫:僕が、折り紙で作ったんだ。(Boku ga, origami de tsukutta n da.)
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.)
おばあさん:おじいさん、良い夢を見ましたよ。(O-jii-san, ii yume o mimashita yo.)
おじいさん:ほう。そうですか。(Hō. Sō desu ka.)
孫(佐藤順):おじいちゃーん、おばあちゃーん。こんにちは。(O-jii-chān, o-bā-chān. Kon’nichiwa.)
: 金婚式、おめでとう。(Kinkonshiki, omedetō.)
おじいさん:おやおや、ありがとう。(Oya oya, arigatō.)
孫:これをあげる。金の傘と、銀の傘。(Kore o ageru. Kin no kasa to, gin no kasa.)
: おじいちゃんには金色の傘。おばあちゃんには銀色の傘。(O-jii-chan ni wa kin’iro no kasa. O-bā-chan ni wa gin’iro no kasa.)
おばあさん:だれが作ったの?(Dare ga tsukutta no?)
孫:僕が、折り紙で作ったんだ。(Boku ga, origami de tsukutta n da.)
今度は英語が入ります。(Kondo wa Eigo ga hairimasu.)
おばあさん:おじいさん、良い夢を見ましたよ。(O-jii-san, ii yume o mimashita yo.)
Jessi: Gramps, I had a very nice dream!
おじいさん:ほう。そうですか。(Hō. Sō desu ka.)
Jessi: Oh, is that so?
孫(佐藤順):おじいちゃーん、おばあちゃーん。こんにちは。(O-jii-chān, o-bā-chān. Kon’nichiwa.)
Jessi: Grandpa! Grandma! Hi!!
: 金婚式、おめでとう。(Kinkonshiki, omedetō.)
Jessi: Congratulations on your fiftieth anniversary!
おじいさん:おやおや、ありがとう。(Oya oya, arigatō.)
Jessi: Well, thank you!
孫:これをあげる。金の傘と、銀の傘。(Kore o ageru. Kin no kasa to, gin no kasa.)
Jessi: I'll give these to you. A gold umbrella and a silver umbrella!
: おじいちゃんには金色の傘。おばあちゃんには銀色の傘。(O-jii-chan ni wa kin’iro no kasa. O-bā-chan ni wa gin’iro no kasa.)
Jessi: The gold umbrella is for Grandpa, and the silver umbrella is for Grandma.
おばあさん:だれが作ったの?(Dare ga tsukutta no?)
Jessi: Who made these?
孫:僕が、折り紙で作ったんだ。(Boku ga, origami de tsukutta n da.)
Jessi: I made them out of origami!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Naomi: このダイアログは前回の続きです。(Kono daiarogu wa zenkai no tsuzuki desu.) This story continues from the previous episode.
Jessi: You’re right! They’re connected - In the previous lesson, the old lady had a dream. Right?
Naomi: Right. In that dream, a man told the lady あなたは、正直ですね。では、あなたに、銀の傘と 金の傘を あげます。(Anata wa, shōjiki desu ne. Dewa, anata ni, gin no kasa to kin no kasa o agemasu.)
Jessi: “You're very honest, aren't you? Well, I'll give you both the silver and gold umbrellas.” I don’t think this would happen in real life, so it had to be a dream. Based on that famous story we were talking about, right?
Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Yeah.「正直なきこり」(‘Shōjiki na kikori’) “The Honest Woodcutter.”

Lesson focus

Jessi: In this lesson, you'll review the usage of the particles は (wa), が (ga) and を(o).
We’re going to start with the particle は (wa).
The particle は (wa) is used to mark the topic of a sentence or to show contrast in a sentence.
Naomi: We covered particle は (wa) in lesson 1, lesson 11 and 12.
Jessi: In Lesson 1, we learned how は (wa) is used as the topic marking particle. What this means is that this は (wa) tells the listener what you're going to be talking about.
Naomi: は (wa) can be translated as “as for”. For example, 私はエンジニアです。(Watashi wa enjinia desu.)
Jessi: “As for me, an engineer am.” Of course it means “I'm an engineer.”
Naomi: In lesson 11 and 12, we learned that は (wa) is also used to show contrast.
Jessi: Can we hear an example of that?
Naomi: Sure. 牛肉は好きですが、とり肉は好きではありません。(Gyūniku wa suki desu ga, toriniku wa suki de wa arimasen.)
Jessi: I like beef, but I don't like chicken. So the は (wa) here shows the contrast between these two.
Jessi: OK, now on to the next particle が (ga). The particle が (ga) marks the object for certain verbs and adjectives.
Naomi: Right. Verbs or adjectives that express desire, necessity, emotion or ability.
たとえば。(Tatoeba.) For example… ほしい (hoshii) “to want”, 必要 (hitsuyō) “to need”, 好き (suki) “to like”, できる (dekiru) “can”, “be able to” and so on.
Jessi: Do you remember this from Lesson 10? OK, let’s hear some sample sentences.
Naomi: 時間がほしい。(Jikan ga hoshii.) “I want time.” 時間が必要。(Jikan ga hitsuyō.) “I need time.”
Jessi: が (ga) is also used to indicate existence, right?
Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Right. So が (ga) is often used with ある (aru) and いる (iru), meaning “to have“ or “to exist.”
For example, ペットがいる。(Petto ga iru.) “I have a pet.”
Jessi: And Naomi-sensei, I was wondering something. Is it true that some people pronounce が (ga) nasally?
Naomi: Ahh like NGA?
Jessi: Yeah. I’ve heard it before.
Naomi: Yeah, it’s true. But it doesn’t really matter. Both “GA” and “NGA” are acceptable, so don’t worry too much.
Jessi: What else did we learn about が (ga) in this series?
Naomi: There’s more. が (ga) marks WH- questions.
Jessi: So if you remember, when a question word was the nominative, or subject, of the sentence, it had to be marked by が (ga).
Naomi: だれが言いましたか。(Dare ga iimashita ka.) “Who said that?” or どのバスが空港に行きますか。(Dono basu ga kūkō ni ikimasu ka.) “Which bus goes to the airport?”
Jessi: And this was covered in Lesson 9.
For non-native speakers, the difference between は (wa) and が (ga) is extremely difficult. We even touched on this in Lesson 19 right?
Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Right. You learned how to use は (wa) and が (ga) in negative sentences. For example, If someone asks you. 日本食が好きですか。(Nihonshoku ga suki desu ka.)
Jessi: “Do you like Japanese food?”
Naomi: If your answer is No, the object 日本食 (Nihonshoku) in this case, has to be marked by は (wa) not が (ga), like it normally would be.
So, いいえ、日本食は好きじゃありません。(Iie, Nihonshoku wa suki ja arimasen.) “No, I don’t like Japanese food.”
And you need to review one more usage of が (ga).
Jessi: And what is that?
Naomi: が (ga) meaning “but.” Because it’s very common to end sentences with が (ga).
Like 明日は暇ですが...。(Ashita wa hima desu ga…) “I’m free tomorrow, but…” すみませんが…。(Sumimasen ga…) “I’m sorry, but…”
Jessi: This が (ga) is often used to soften a refusal. And by ending a sentence with が (ga), what they’re really doing is leaving off the rest of the sentence; usually something comes after that, like their reason for something or something like that. But instead they’re not going into much detail.
Naomi: When we end a sentence with が (ga), we kind of expect the listener to fill in the blank.
Jessi: So you’re not being explicit with what you’re saying. You’re just implying.
Naomi: そうそうそう。(Sō sō sō.)
Jessi: So let’s show with an example. 直美さん、お昼ご飯に行きませんか。(Naomi-san, o-hirugohan ni ikimasen ka.) “Naomi, do you want to go out for lunch? “
Naomi: あ~~。すみませんが・・・。(Ā. Sumimasen ga…) “Well… I’m sorry but…”
Jessi: Right, so here Naomi is not giving me the rest of the sentence that should be for me to kind of fill in on my own.
Naomi: Right.
Jessi: So if you used this が (ga) meaning “but”, your Japanese would sound even more natural.
Naomi: はい。(Hai.)
Jessi: And now on to the last particle.
Naomi: The object marking particle を (o)
Jessi: Right. を (o) marks the object of an action.
Naomi: In lesson 2 we learned the sentence これをください。(Kore o kudasai.) “Please give me this one.”
Jessi: In lesson 7 you learned that を (o) also marks the place where some movement takes place.
Naomi: For example, 公園を歩く (kōen o aruku) “to walk in the park”, 橋を渡る (hashi o wataru) “to cross the bridge.”
Jessi: And in Lesson 17, you learned that を (o) marks the place that someone leaves or departs from.
Naomi: For example, 家を出る (ie o deru) “‘to leave home”, 電車を降りる (densha o oriru) “to get off the train.”
Jessi: In this lesson you reviewed the usage of particle は (wa), が (ga) and を (o).
Now let’s recap this lesson with a quiz.
Naomi-sensei is going to ask you a question. Your job is to choose the best answer from the choices provided. Are you ready?
Naomi: みなさんは、兄弟がいますか。(Mina-san wa, kyōdai ga imasu ka.)
1. いいえ、兄弟はいません。(Iie, kyōdai wa imasen.)
2. いいえ、兄弟がいません。(Iie, kyōdai ga imasen.)
3. いいえ、兄弟をいません。(Iie, kyōdai o imasen.)
Jessi: Can we hear the question again?
Naomi: みなさんは、兄弟がいますか。(Mina-san wa, kyōdai ga imasu ka.) “So everyone, do you have any brothers or sisters?”
Jessi: And the answer is?
Naomi: 1. いいえ、兄弟はいません。(Iie, kyōdai wa imasen.) “No. I don’t have any brothers and sisters.”
Jessi: So when answering no to a question, the object is usually marked by the particle は (wa).
So that means you have to say いいえ、兄弟「は」いません。(Iie, kyōdai ‘wa’ imasen.)
Let’s look at the other choices. Choice 2 was…
Naomi: いいえ、兄弟がいません。(Iie, kyōdai ga imasen.) Well… It’s not completely wrong. But still… if you’re answering a question in a negative way, it’s more natural to mark the object with は (wa).
Jessi: And Choice 3?
Naomi: いいえ、兄弟をいません。(Iie, kyōdai o imasen.)
Jessi: This is completely wrong, isn’t it? Since います (imasu) is indicating existence, the verb います (imasu), which indicates existence is never paired with the particle を (o).
Naomi: Right. OK. So that’s all for this lesson. それじゃ、また。(Soreja, mata.)
Jessi: See you next time.
DIALOGUE
おばあさん:おじいさん、良い夢を見ましたよ。(O-jii-san, ii yume o mimashita yo.)
おじいさん:ほう。そうですか。(Hō. Sō desu ka.)
孫(佐藤順):おじいちゃーん、おばあちゃーん。こんにちは。(O-jii-chān, o-bā-chān. Kon’nichiwa.)
: 金婚式、おめでとう。(Kinkonshiki, omedetō.)
おじいさん:おやおや、ありがとう。(Oya oya, arigatō.)
孫:これをあげる。金の傘と、銀の傘。(Kore o ageru. Kin no kasa to, gin no kasa.)
: おじいちゃんには金色の傘。おばあちゃんには銀色の傘。(O-jii-chan ni wa kin’iro no kasa. O-bā-chan ni wa gin’iro no kasa.)
おばあさん:だれが作ったの?(Dare ga tsukutta no?)
孫:僕が、折り紙で作ったんだ。(Boku ga, origami de tsukutta n da.)

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