Learn about asking someone to take your picture
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chigusa: おはよう東京。チグサです。 |
| Peter: Peter here, survival phrases #34. |
| Peter: Chigusa san, welcome to survival phrases. |
| Chigusa: It’s good to be here. Thank you for having me. |
| Peter: It’s just us. |
| Chigusa: Again. |
| Peter: Again. Just a few people left at the company. We are a mere shell of ourselves, we usually have a bunch of people there, no-one’s there, but we’re here getting the broadcast out to you. |
| Chigusa: Yes. |
| Peter: Now where is everybody? |
| Chigusa: On Obon holiday. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Yeah, and you know what the funny thing is? Most of them won’t be back all week. Funnier than that is, they told us last Friday! We need some kind of system where people actually come in and tell us beforehand. Scheduling here is a chaos. So, we normally have three people, but today it’s just the two of us and it’s going to be a bit of a makeshift crew for the rest of the week. So よろしくお願いします. |
| Chigusa: よろしくお願いします。 |
| Peter: Now we have a great, great lesson for you today. Now this lesson has been requested over and over and today is the day we’re going to take it. We were waiting for the ideal time and here it is. We have lots of people on vacation, lots of people coming over the world basketball championships. So, lots of tourists and we know for a fact that you’re going to want to ask this question. Chigusa san, what question are we talking about? |
| Chigusa: Please take our picture. |
| Peter: There it is. So many times you have a great shot. But, if one of you has to take it or if you have a family, you don’t want someone missing from that picture. So what we’re going to do today is give you the tools to get everybody you want in that picture. Plus, a couple of extra tools to get innocent bystanders inside your picture. So, it’s a picture taking day. Chigusa san can you give us the first expression/ |
| Chigusa: 写真を撮ってくれますか？ |
| Peter: ‘Can you take our picture?’. ‘can you take my picture?’. Give it to us one more time, nice and slow please. もう一度、お願いします。ゆっくり、お願いします。 |
| Chigusa: しゃしんを、とって、くれますか？ |
| Peter: And, one time fast. |
| Chigusa: 写真を撮ってくれますか？ |
| Peter: Now let’s get in here and dissect this sentence. First we have the word picture, which is? |
| Chigusa: しゃしん |
| Peter: Can you break this down? |
| Chigusa: しゃ・し・ん、写真 |
| Peter: Next we have? |
| Chigusa: を |
| Peter: This is an object marker. One more time please? |
| Chigusa: を |
| Peter: Followed by the verb ‘to take’ in its て form. |
| Chigusa: 撮って |
| Peter: Break it down? |
| Chigusa: とっ・て、撮って |
| Peter: And this is followed by? |
| Chigusa: くれます |
| Peter: The verb, ‘to give’. |
| Chigusa: く・れ・ま・す、くれます |
| Peter: And finally we have? |
| Chigusa: か？ |
| Peter: The is a sentence particle indicating a question, so when you see |
| Chigusa: か |
| Peter: You know it’s a question. When you see か at the end of a sentence of course. Ok, give it to us one more time. |
| Chigusa: 写真を撮ってくれますか？ |
| Peter: Can you take our picture? Now Chigusa san, if you’re on the street and you want someone to take your picture, would you start off with this phrase? Or would you start off with something else? If you see some guy walking by would you just yell this out at him? Or you would start off with? |
| Chigusa: すみません。 |
| Peter: Excuse me. Let’s just pretend you need your picture taken. There’s a guy walking on the street, what would you say to him? |
| Chigusa: すみません、写真を撮ってくれますか？ |
| Peter: ‘Excuse me? Can you take our picture?’, ‘Can you take my picture?’. In this sentence you don’t have to specify that you want your picture taken. When you say this sentence, and the literal translation is ‘can you please take a picture?’. But it’s inferred that you and your party is going to be included in that picture, so you don’t have to specify. We’re cutting it down and making it easy for you. Now this sentence that we just introduced to you may be a bit tough. What we’re going to do is give you an easier way to ask, and if you’ve heard our first survival phrases and if you listen to others you hear us use an expression all the time that comes up in this next phrase. Chigusa-san, お願いします。 |
| Chigusa: 写真をお願いします。 |
| Peter: One more time please? Slowly, please. |
| Chigusa: しゃしんを、おねがいします。 |
| Peter: Now, the first part of this phrase is the same as the previous one. |
| Chigusa: 写真を。 |
| Peter: This is followed by an extremely useful expression. |
| Chigusa: お願いします。 |
| Peter: Meaning please. ‘Picture please’ is a literal translation but it’s obvious that you want your and everybody in your party taken, so again you don’t have to specify, it’s inferred. You can get away just with this. Now, same situation, if you see someone walking down the street you want to start with? |
| Chigusa: すみません。 |
| Peter: Followed by? |
| Chigusa: 写真をお願いします。 |
| Peter: This gets exactly what you want to say across. So now you have the tools to get someone to take your picture. Again, really really useful. So now you were able to get the person to take your picture, you got the picture. Now what you want to do, I know it sounds ungrateful, but, come on it’s your trip, you’re in Japan, you want to make sure that picture is perfect and you don’t want to let them get away unless they get a perfect picture. Is that wrong Chigusa san? |
| Chigusa: It’s totally right. |
| Peter: Thank you. So, after you get the picture, after you get your camera back you’ll probably look at the camera and the person will ask you a question. What’s the question that’s most likely to come? |
| Chigusa: 大丈夫ですか？ |
| Peter: ‘Is it alright?’. Meaning, ‘is the picture ok?’. One more time please? |
| Chigusa: 大丈夫ですか？ |
| Peter: Now, if you like the picture, and you’re happy, you can just say? |
| Chigusa: はい、ありがとうございます。 |
| Peter: ‘Yes, thank you’. But if it’s not, what expression can we use? |
| Chigusa: もう一枚、お願いします。 |
| Peter: Perfect. Now you’ll notice that the latter part is our good old standby. |
| Chigusa: お願いします。 |
| Peter: Just the first part changes. What do we have for the first part? |
| Chigusa: もう一枚。 |
| Peter: ‘One more’. ‘Another one’. Can you give us the whole expression? Nice and slow. |
| Chigusa: もう、いちまい、おねがいします。 |
| Peter: The first word in there is? |
| Chigusa: もう |
| Peter: ‘Another’. |
| Chigusa: も・う、もう |
| Peter: Next we have? |
| Chigusa: 一 |
| Peter: ‘One’. |
| Chigusa: い・ち、一 |
| Peter: Next? |
| Chigusa: 枚 |
| Peter: This is the counter for ‘thin, flat things’. |
| Chigusa: ま・い。枚 |
| Peter: And this is followed by? |
| Chigusa: お願いします |
| Peter: So give us the whole expression? |
| Chigusa: もう一枚、お願いします。 |
| Peter: Ok. Also, not only if the picture is not ok, you can use this just to ask to take another picture. Maybe you want two or three? So now you are well on your way. You have a picture, now you have two maybe? But now you’re walking along the street and you see a person in an amazing costume and you want to take their picture. Chigusa san, can we use the expressions you gave us before? To ask to take someone’s picture? |
| Chigusa: Not quite. |
| Peter: What expression are we going to use? Now what we’re going to ask here is, ‘may I take your picture?’. |
| Chigusa: あなたの写真を撮ってもいいですか？ |
| Peter: One more time? Slowey please. |
| Chigusa: あなたのしゃしんを、とってもいいですか？ |
| Peter: ‘May I take your picture?’. |
| Chigusa: But Peter, you can actually omit the first あなたの and say 写真を撮ってもいいですか. |
| Peter: That makes it really similar to the first expression that you taught us today, which is? |
| Chigusa: 写真を撮ってくれますか？ |
| Peter: Now, what’s the same in this? |
| Chigusa: 写真を撮って |
| Peter: Up to there it’s exactly the same. Now what changes? |
| Chigusa: もいいですか？ |
| Peter: That’s it! Give us the expression one more time. |
| Chigusa: 写真を撮ってもいいですか？ |
| Peter: Now, the word for picture is the same. |
| Chigusa: 写真 |
| Peter: The object marker is the same. |
| Chigusa: を |
| Peter: The verb in its て form is the same. |
| Chigusa: 撮って |
| Peter: Now what we do is we add on. |
| Chigusa: も |
| Peter: Just a short, one syllable. |
| Chigusa: も |
| Peter: Now, what this does grammatically is well beyond the scope of today’s lesson. You just need to know what we put on. |
| Chigusa: も |
| Peter: This is followed by. |
| Chigusa: いいですか？ |
| Peter: What’s the word in there? The first word in there. |
| Chigusa: いい |
| Peter: ‘Good’. So to this point we have, ‘is it good?’, ‘is it good to take a picture?’. That’s the literal translation and when we interpret it, it comes out to ‘may I take a picture?’. So, that’s the sentence up until there, then finally to make it polite, on the end we add? |
| Chigusa: ですか？ |
| Peter: First thing in there is the cupola? |
| Chigusa: です |
| Peter: Followed by? |
| Chigusa: か？ |
| Peter: And we introduced this previously, the か particle indicates that this is a question. So now you have the ability to ask if it’s ok to take a picture. So if you see someone in a great outfit, if you see someone who’s picture you want to take, now you can just ask. And it’s always polite to ask, I mean you can just snap it. But it’s probably better off if you do it this way. Now, for our final phrase today. You’re out and about, you’re having a great time, you meet a really funny persona, you meet a really interesting person. Or, in the same situation, you see someone in a great costume and you want a picture together, Chigusa san, help us out here! How can we ask, ‘may I take a picture together?’ or, if it’s more than one person, ‘may we take a picture together?’. |
| Chigusa: 一緒に写真を撮ってもいいですか？ |
| Peter: One more time, slowly please? もう一度、お願いします。ゆっくり、お願いします。 |
| Chigusa: いっしょに、しゃしんを、とってもいいですか？ |
| Peter: And, one time fast? |
| Chigusa: 一緒に写真を撮ってもいいですか？ |
| Peter: Now, there’s a lot in that sentence similar to the previous one. What’s the same? |
| Chigusa: 写真を撮ってもいいですか？ |
| Peter: What changes? |
| Chigusa: You just add 一緒に in the front. |
| Peter: That’s it? |
| Chigusa: That’s it. |
| Peter: Ok, let’s break this down. |
| Chigusa: 一緒に |
| Peter: Together. |
| Chigusa: いっ・しょ・に、一緒に |
| Peter: We just add this to the sentence, there it is. ‘May I take a picture together?’. For the grand finale, Chigusa san, can we get you to say all the expressions we learned today? |
| Chigusa: Sure! |
| Peter: Alright! お願いします。 |
| Chigusa: 写真を撮ってくれますか？ |
| Peter: ‘Can you take our picture?’, ‘Can you take my picture?’. |
| Chigusa: 写真をお願いします。 |
| Peter: ‘Picture please?’. |
| Chigusa: もう一枚、お願いします。 |
| Peter: ‘One more please?’, ‘One more picture please?’. |
| Chigusa: 写真を撮ってもいいですか？ |
| Peter: ‘May I take your picture?’ or, ‘may I take a picture?’. So you can use this if you want to know if it’s ok to take a picture in a place too. Say you walk into a temple or another place. You’re not sure if you’re allowed to take a picture here, you can ask someone. |
| Chigusa: 写真を撮ってもいいですか？ |
| Peter: And it has the same meaning. ‘May I take a picture?’, it doesn’t mean ‘may I take your picture?’. If you want just that person's picture? |
| Chigusa: あなたの写真を撮ってもいいですか？ |
| Peter: But usually, if it’s just a regular street and someone is dressed up and you’re asking them? |
| Chigusa: 写真を撮ってもいいですか？ |
| Peter: It’s pretty apparent you want to take their picture, so you can omit ‘your’. And finally we have? |
| Chigusa: 一緒に写真を撮ってもいいですか？ |
Outro |
| Peter: ‘May I take a picture together?’. ‘May we take a picture together?’. Alright, that’s going to do for today. |
| Chigusa: またね！ |
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