Learn about talking about one's problems
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: As Much as You Study Japanese, Shouldn't You Know Japanese Particles Ka and Mo? |
| Naomi: なおみです。(Naomi desu.) |
| Jessi: Jessi here. |
| Naomi: In the last lesson, we reviewed the usage of の (no) and と (to). |
| Jessi: And what particles are we reviewing in this lesson? |
| Naomi: Well, in this lesson, you'll review the usage of the particles か (ka) and も (mo). |
| Jessi: And who is this conversation between? |
| Naomi: 佐藤けい子さんと鈴木ひろしさん。(Satō Keiko-san to Suzuki Hiroshi-san.) |
| Jessi: Keiko Sato and Hiroshi Suzuki. And where does this conversation take place? |
| Naomi: 家。(Uchi.) |
| Jessi: At home. |
| Naomi: 多分、けい子さんの家だと思います。(Tabun, Keiko-san no uchi da to omoimasu.) I think they are at Keiko’s house. |
| Jessi: OK. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 佐藤けい子:広さんは、大学卒業後、どうするの？(Hiroshi-san wa, daigaku sotsugyō go, dō suru no?) |
| 鈴木広:まだ何をするか決めていません。(Mada nani o suru ka kimete imasen.) |
| : 大学院に行こうかどうか、悩んでいます。(Daigakuin ni ikō ka dō ka, nayande imasu.) |
| 佐藤けい子:大学院か・・・。(Daigakuin ka…) |
| : 私も何度も大学院に行こうと思った。(Watashi mo nan-do mo daigakuin ni ikō to omotta.) |
| : でも、学費が高いから…。(Demo, gakuhi ga takai kara…) |
| 鈴木広:そうですね。一年に２００万円もかかります。(Sō desu ne. Ichi-nen ni ni-hyaku-man-en mo kakarimasu.) |
| 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.) |
| 佐藤けい子:広さんは、大学卒業後、どうするの？(Hiroshi-san wa, daigaku sotsugyō go, dō suru no?) |
| 鈴木広:まだ何をするか決めていません。(Mada nani o suru ka kimete imasen.) |
| : 大学院に行こうかどうか、悩んでいます。(Daigakuin ni ikō ka dō ka, nayande imasu.) |
| 佐藤けい子:大学院か・・・。(Daigakuin ka…) |
| : 私も何度も大学院に行こうと思った。(Watashi mo nan-do mo daigakuin ni ikō to omotta.) |
| : でも、学費が高いから…。(Demo, gakuhi ga takai kara…) |
| 鈴木広:そうですね。一年に２００万円もかかります。(Sō desu ne. Ichi-nen ni ni-hyaku-man-en mo kakarimasu.) |
| 今度は英語が入ります。(Kondo wa Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 佐藤けい子:広さんは、大学卒業後、どうするの？(Hiroshi-san wa, daigaku sotsugyō go, dō suru no?) |
| Jessi: Hiroshi, what are you going to do after you graduate from college? |
| 鈴木広:まだ何をするか決めていません。(Mada nani o suru ka kimete imasen.) |
| Jessi: I haven't decided what I'll do yet. |
| : 大学院に行こうかどうか、悩んでいます。(Daigakuin ni ikō ka dō ka, nayande imasu.) |
| Jessi: I'm debating whether or not I should go to graduate school. |
| 佐藤けい子:大学院か・・・。(Daigakuin ka…) |
| Jessi: Graduate school, huh? |
| : 私も何度も大学院に行こうと思った。(Watashi mo nan-do mo daigakuin ni ikō to omotta.) |
| Jessi: I've thought about going to graduate school many times. |
| : でも、学費が高いから…。(Demo, gakuhi ga takai kara…) |
| Jessi: But, the tuition is so expensive, so… |
| 鈴木広:そうですね。一年に２００万円もかかります。(Sō desu ne. Ichi-nen ni ni-hyaku-man-en mo kakarimasu.) |
| Jessi: Yes it is. It's as much as 2,000,000 yen for one year. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Naomi: 一年に200万もかかる。(Ichi-nen ni ni-hyaku-man mo kakaru.) It costs 2 million yen a year. That’s a lot. |
| Jessi: Right. 2 million yen is roughly $20,000 US dollars and about 15,000 Euros. So that’s quite expensive. |
| Naomi: 学費は高いですよね。(Gakuhi wa takai desu yo ne.) Tuition is expensive. |
| Jessi: It really is. Okay, here I’d like to quickly go over some of the words related to college. |
| Naomi: Good idea. In the dialogue, we have 大学 (daigaku) “college” and 大学院 (daigakuin) “graduate school”, それから、学費 (sorekara, gakuhi) “tuition”, and 卒業 (sotsugyō) “graduation”. |
| Jessi: So these words are really essential when talking about your college life in Japanese. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jessi: In this lesson, you'll review the usage of particles か (ka) and も (mo). |
| Naomi: か (ka) basically is a question marker. |
| Jessi: In Lesson 4 we learned that the particle か (ka) comes at the end of a sentence and turns it into a question. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) For example, 映画に行きます。(Eiga ni ikimasu.) is “I/you/he/she is going to a movie.” If you say 映画に行きますか。(Eiga ni ikimasu ka.) that means… |
| Jessi: “Are you going to a movie?” If you ask this to someone directly, it’s pretty much assumed you are talking about them. |
| Naomi: When the particle か (ka) follows a negative sentence, it’s usually an invitation. |
| For example, 映画に行きませんか。(Eiga ni ikimasen ka.) |
| Jessi: “How about going to a movie?” |
| Naomi: デートをしませんか。(Dēto o shimasen ka.) |
| Jessi: “How about going out on a date?” |
| But, in the dialogue, Keiko said 大学院か・・・。(Daigakuin ka…) This か (ka) doesn’t indicate a question, does it? |
| Naomi: Right. In this case,she was talking to herself. |
| When talking to oneself, the particle か (ka) is sometimes used at the end of a phrase or a sentence. OK. Here’s the situation, if someone told me that today is Friday. I would say…ああ、今日は金曜日か・・・。(Ā, kyō wa kin-yōbi ka…) |
| Jessi: “Oh, so it’s Friday, is it…” So, what you’re doing is just trying to organize your thoughts or confirm something by actually saying it out loud. |
| Naomi: Yeah. That’s a good explanation. |
| Jessi: So Naomi-sensei, in the dialogue, Hiroshi said まだ何をするか決めていません。(Mada nani o suru ka kimete imasen.) ”I haven't decided what I'll do yet.” 大学院に行こうかどうか、悩んでいます。(Daigakuin ni ikō ka dō ka, nayande imasu.) ”I'm debating whether or not I should go to graduate school.” |
| The か (ka) in these sentences is a little different from what we’ve learned so far, right? |
| Naomi: Right. This usage of か (ka) is a bit advanced, actually. |
| So next, allow us to explain how to use か (ka) in an indirect question or embedded question. For example, 車を買うかわかりません。(Kuruma o kau ka wakarimasen.) means… |
| Jessi: “I don’t know if I’ll buy a car.” Let’s break down this sentence. |
| 車を買う (kuruma o kau) “to buy a car”, か (ka) question marker, わかりません (wakarimasen) “I don’t know.” |
| Literally, “Will I buy a car? I don’t know.” In more natural English, “I don’t know whether I will buy a car or not.” |
| Naomi: So the question part is 車を買う？(kuruma o kau?) is marked by か (ka). |
| パーティーに行く (pātī ni iku) is “I’m going to a party.” パーティーに行くかわかりません。(Pātī ni iku ka wakarimasen.) Means? |
| Jessi: “I don’t know if I’ll go to a party.” |
| And also please notice that in an embedded question, か (ka) follows informal speech, so that means that you can not say パーティーに行きますかわかりません。(Pātī ni ikimasu ka wakarimasen.) It must be パーティーに行くかわかりません。(Pātī ni iku ka wakarimasen.) |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) And どうか (dō ka) often comes after か (ka). So you can say パーティーに行くかどうかわかりません。(Pātī ni iku ka dō ka wakarimasen.) |
| Jessi: We covered this grammar point in Lower Intermediate series season 4, so please be sure to check that out. |
| OK. On to the next particle も (mo). |
| Naomi: In Lessons 1 and 12, we learned that も (mo) means "also" or "too" in English. |
| For example, これは百円です。あれも百円です。(Kore wa hyaku-en desu. Are mo hyaku-en desu.) “This is 100 yen. That is also 100 yen.” |
| Jessi: And in this lesson, we’ll introduce you to the “emphatic” usage of も (mo). |
| What that means is that も (mo) is used to emphasize the amount or extent of something. It corresponds to "as many as" or "as much as" in English. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) For example, ケイトは漢字を5000も知っています。(Keito wa kanji o go-sen mo shitte imasu.) “Kate knows as many as 5000 kanji.” |
| Jessi: 5000 kanji is a lot. |
| Naomi: It’s a lot. |
| Jessi: Yes. So the speaker wanted to emphasize how big the number was, so they said 5000も (go-sen mo). |
| Naomi: In the dialogue Hiroshi said…一年に200万もかかります。(Ichi-nen ni ni-hyaku-man mo kakarimasu.) |
| Jessi: “It costs as much as 2,000,000 yen”. Here, he’s emphasizing the amount of money. |
| Naomi: Exactly. Of course he could have said, 一年に200万かかります。(Ichi-nen ni ni-hyaku-man kakarimasu.) ”It costs 2 million yen a year.” But this sentence is just stating the fact that it costs 2 million yen a year. But when he says 200万もかかります (ni-hyaku-man mo kakarimasu), we can tell that he thinks 2 million yen is a lot. |
| Jessi: OK. So can we hear them side by side one more time? |
| Naomi: Sure. 200万かかります。 (Ni-hyaku-man kakarimasu.) |
| Jessi: “It costs 2 million yen” – so this is just a general statement. What’s the other sentence? |
| Naomi: 200万もかかります。(Ni-hyaku-man mo kakarimasu.) |
| Jessi: “It costs as much as 2 million yen.” The speaker emphasizes the amount with も (mo). |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Jessi: OK. Naomi-sensei, the particles か (ka) and も (mo) also come after question words, don’t they? |
| Naomi: What do you mean? |
| Jessi: You know, for example… such as 誰か (dare ka), 誰も (dare mo), 何か (nani ka), 何も (nani mo) … and so on. |
| Naomi: Yeah, that’s right. |
| 何 (nani) is “what”. And 何か (nani ka) is “something”. 何も (nani mo) means “nothing”. |
| 誰 (dare) is “who”. 誰か (dare ka), “someone”, 誰も (dare mo), “no one”. |
| どこ (doko), “where”. どこか (doko ka), “somewhere”. どこも (doko mo), “nowhere”. |
| Jessi: There are a lot of these kinds of words in Japanese, aren’t there? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Jessi: The lesson notes have a detailed chart with all these kinds of words, so please make sure to read them. |
| Naomi: Here’s a sample conversation. ジェシーさん、週末どこか行きましたか。(Jeshī-san, shūmatsu doko ka ikimashita ka.) Jessi, did you go somewhere on the weekend? |
| Jessi: いいえ、どこもいきませんでした。 (Iie, doko mo ikimasen deshita.) No, I didn’t go anywhere. |
| Naomi: どこか (doko ka) and どこも (doko mo). |
| Jessi: OK. In this lesson you reviewed the usage of か (ka) and も (mo). |
| Now let’s recap this lesson with a quiz. |
| I’m going to read an English sentence. Your job is to choose the best Japanese translation from the choices we give you. Are you ready? Here it is. |
| “It takes as long as 2 hours to get to the university.” |
| Naomi: 1. 大学まで2時間かかります。(Daigaku made ni-jikan kakarimasu.) |
| 2. 大学まで2時間もかかります。(Daigaku made ni-jikan mo kakarimasu.) |
| Jessi: Here’s a hint. It’s not a general statement. Instead the speaker wants to emphasize the length of time. Can we hear the choices again? |
| Naomi: Sure. 1. 大学まで2時間かかります。(Daigaku made ni-jikan kakarimasu.) |
| 2. 大学まで2時間もかかります。(Daigaku made ni-jikan mo kakarimasu.) |
| Jessi: And the answer is? |
| Naomi: 2. 大学まで2時間もかかります。 (Daigaku made ni-jikan mo kakarimasu.) |
| Jessi: ”It takes as long as 2 hours to get to the university.” |
| 二時間も (ni-jikan mo). So remember that も (mo) emphasizes the amount or the extent of something. It corresponds to "as many as" or "as much as". So 二時間も (ni-jikan mo) would be “as long as two hours.” And how about choice 1? |
| Naomi: 大学まで2時間かかります。(Daigaku made ni-jikan kakarimasu.) “It takes 2 hours to get to the university.” |
| Jessi: And this is just a general statement, right ? |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) Right. |
| Jessi: All right, well, that’s all for this lesson. |
| Naomi: それじゃあまた。(Sorejā mata.) |
| Jessi: See you next time. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 佐藤けい子:広さんは、大学卒業後、どうするの？(Hiroshi-san wa, daigaku sotsugyō go, dō suru no?) |
| 鈴木広:まだ何をするか決めていません。(Mada nani o suru ka kimete imasen.) |
| : 大学院に行こうかどうか、悩んでいます。(Daigakuin ni ikō ka dō ka, nayande imasu.) |
| 佐藤けい子:大学院か・・・。(Daigakuin ka…) |
| : 私も何度も大学院に行こうと思った。(Watashi mo nan-do mo daigakuin ni ikō to omotta.) |
| : でも、学費が高いから…。(Demo, gakuhi ga takai kara…) |
| 鈴木広:そうですね。一年に２００万円もかかります。(Sō desu ne. Ichi-nen ni ni-hyaku-man-en mo kakarimasu.) |
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