Dialogue

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Lesson Transcript

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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