Learn how to talk about future events in the present tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to JapanesePod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 8 - What Will You Be Doing Later in Japan? I’m Becky. |
| Natsuko: こんにちは。 なつこです. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to describe future events using the present tense of a verb. The conversation takes place at a host family's house. |
| Natsuko: It's between David and his host mother. |
| Becky: The speakers are a student and his host mother. The student will be using formal Japanese with his host mother. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
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| ホストマザー: デービッド、おはよう。きょうは、何時ごろ、かえりますか。 |
| デービット: きょうのよる、友だちと、えいがに行きます。たぶん、１０時ごろ、かえります。 |
| ホストマザー: ゆうごはんは？ |
| デービッド: たぶん、ゆうごはんも、友だちと食べます。 |
| ホストマザー: たぶん？ |
| デービッド: はい、まだわかりません。 |
| ホストマザー: じゃ、あとで、メールしてくださいね。 |
| デービッド: わかりました。 |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| ホストマザー: デービッド、おはよう。きょうは、何時ごろ、かえりますか。 |
| デービット: きょうのよる、友だちと、えいがに行きます。たぶん、１０時ごろ、かえります。 |
| ホストマザー: ゆうごはんは？ |
| デービッド: たぶん、ゆうごはんも、友だちと食べます。 |
| ホストマザー: たぶん？ |
| デービッド: はい、まだわかりません。 |
| ホストマザー: じゃ、あとで、メールしてくださいね。 |
| デービッド: わかりました。 |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| ホストマザー: デービッド、おはよう。きょうは、何時ごろ、かえりますか。 |
| Host Mother: Good morning, David. What time are you going to be home today? |
| デービット: きょうのよる、友だちと、えいがに行きます。たぶん、１０時ごろ、かえります。 |
| David: I’m going to see a movie this evening. Maybe I’ll be home at around 10pm. |
| ホストマザー: ゆうごはんは？ |
| Host Mother: How about your dinner? |
| デービッド: たぶん、ゆうごはんも、友だちと食べます。 |
| David: Maybe I’ll have dinner with my friends too. |
| ホストマザー: たぶん？ |
| Host Mother: Maybe? |
| デービッド: はい、まだわかりません。 |
| David: Yes, I’m not sure yet. |
| ホストマザー: じゃ、あとで、メールしてくださいね。 |
| Host Mother: Would you send me an email later then? |
| デービッド: わかりました。 |
| David: OK, I will. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Natsuko, do you have any tips for our listeners who are planning to do homestays in Japan? |
| Natsuko: Definitely! It's considered good manners to tell your host family what time you’re coming home. Also, make sure to let the family know if you don't plan to eat dinner at home. |
| Becky: If not, they will prepare the meal for you, right? |
| Natsuko: That’s right. And they might just wait for you to come back for a dinner, so make sure to let them know your plan for the day. |
| Becky: By the way, Natsuko, is hosting a homestay popular in Japan? |
| Natsuko: I don’t think so. Actually, Japanese people are not so used to opening their houses to other people, maybe because our houses are not usually that spacious. |
| Becky: I do know some people who have done homestays with Japanese families when they came to Japan on student exchange programs. |
| Natsuko: That does happen, and I think living with Japanese families can be a really good opportunity to experience real life and culture in Japan. |
| Becky: I agree. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Natsuko: ごろ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: about, around |
| Natsuko: ごろ[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: ごろ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: かえる [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to return home |
| Natsuko: かえる[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: かえる [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: ゆうごはん [natural native speed] |
| Becky: dinner |
| Natsuko: ゆうごはん[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: ゆうごはん [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: たぶん [natural native speed] |
| Becky: perhaps, probably |
| Natsuko: たぶん[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: たぶん [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: まだ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: still, yet (Adv) |
| Natsuko: まだ[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: まだ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: あとで [natural native speed] |
| Becky: later |
| Natsuko: あとで[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: あとで [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: メールする [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to email, to send a text message |
| Natsuko: メールする[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: メールする [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last.. |
| Natsuko: わかりました。 [natural native speed] |
| Becky: I understand. I see. |
| Natsuko: わかりました。[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: わかりました。 [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What’s the first phrase of this lesson? |
| Natsuko: わかりません |
| Becky: meaning "I don't know." |
| Natsuko: わかる is the verb meaning “to know, and わかりません is the negative verb meaning “not to know” or simply “I don’t know.” |
| Becky: When you’re asked a question, and you want to answer "I don't know," you can use this expression. |
| Natsuko: But it’s not just used for answering a question; you can also use wakarimasen (わかりません) to mean “I don’t understand.” |
| Becky: So if someone talks to you in Japanese, but you don’t know what the person is saying, you can simply say.. |
| Natsuko: わかりません。 |
| Becky: Natsuko, can you give us a short dialogue using this expression? |
| Natsuko: : Sure. For example, if you’re talking to someone at a coffee shop, they might ask you a question like 今、何時ですか。 |
| Becky: Which means “What time is it now?” |
| Natsuko: If you don’t know what time it is, you can simply say, わかりません。 |
| Becky: which means “I don't know." Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Becky: In this lesson, you will learn how to describe future events using the present tense of a verb. |
| Natsuko: In Japanese, you can use the same tense to express both the present and future. |
| Becky: These are known as the “non-past tenses.” You can differentiate between the present and future based on the context. Natsuko, let’s take a look at an example. How would you say “I have time”? |
| Natsuko: In Japanese, it’s じかんがあります。じかん means “time”, が is the subject-marking particle, then we have the verb あります。 meaning “to exist,” “there is” or “to have.” Altogether, じかんがあります |
| Becky: which means “I have time” or “There is time.” So how can we say “I will have time”? |
| Natsuko: Actually it’s the same - じかんがあります。As we said earlier, future and present tenses look the same in Japanese. |
| Becky: That’s easy when you’re learning Japanese, but it might be difficult when you hear it in conversations. That’s why it’s always important to know the context to work out if a sentence is in the present tense, or future tense. |
| Natsuko: But sometimes, you can find clues from the sentence itself. For example, if someone says あしたはひまですか。 |
| Becky: Which means “Are you free tomorrow?” |
| Natsuko: Obviously, it’s for the future, as it has the noun あした meaning “tomorrow.” |
| Becky: What if someone simply says “Are you free?” |
| Natsuko: If someone says ひまですか which means “Are you free?”, you need to figure out if it means “Are you free now?” or “Will you be free at some future time?” from the context. |
| Becky: To deliver what you want to say clearly, it’s important to use the right adverb when talking about the future, so let’s look at some of those now. |
| Natsuko: That sounds good. First, let me give you a sentence that we’re going to use with different adverbs. ブライアンさんは、ケーキを食べます。 |
| Becky: Which means “Brian eats cake.” |
| Natsuko: In the sentence, we have ブライアン, which is the name “Brian”, さん which is the honorific suffix meaning something like “Mr,” and the topic-marking particle は。 |
| Becky: Then we have the noun for “cake,” right? |
| Natsuko: That’s right. ケーキ is the noun meaning “cake”, then we have the object-marking particle を。Lastly, it ends with the verb 食べます。which can mean either “eat” or “will eat.” |
| Becky: Okay. When you talk about someone’s habits occurring, for example, “everyday” what can you say? |
| Natsuko: You can simply add the adverb 毎日 |
| Becky: which means “every day” |
| Natsuko: Just add 毎日 after the topic ブライアンさんは。So you can say.. ブライアンさんは まいにち、ケーキを食べます。 |
| Becky: “Brian eats cake every day.” |
| Natsuko: And if you want to say “usually”, you can use the Japanese adverb, いつも。 |
| Becky: Listeners, can you make a sentence meaning “Brian usually eats cake” using this adverb? You have five seconds to figure it out. |
| (Pause) |
| Becky: What’s the answer, Natsuko? |
| Natsuko: ブライアンさんは、いつも、ケーキを食べます。いつも means “Usually,” so this sentence means “Brian usually eats cake.” |
| Becky: When you want to talk about the future, you can keep everything the same, but use different adverbs.. |
| Natsuko: such as あした meaning “tomorrow” or きょうのよる meaning “tonight.” |
| Becky: Using one of them, how can we say “Brian will eat cake tomorrow”? |
| Natsuko: ブライアンさんは、あした、ケーキを食べます。 |
| Becky: What about “Brian will eat cake tonight?” |
| Natsuko: きょうのよる means “tonight.” so you can say ブライアンさんは、きょうのよる、ケーキを食べます。 |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Natsuko: またね。 |
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