皆さん、今日のロケーションはManila・マニラです！ Hello to all our listeners in the Philippines!:grin:

Hi ソフィー,

Thanks for asking the question and sorry for our late reply!

Very nice sentences! Please see below for some correction. I will write only the sentence which needs correction.

今夜お兄さんはらめんを食べに行きたがっています。

>> 今夜、お兄さんはラーメンを食べに行きたがっています。

Without the comma, it's okay. But putting a comma after 今夜 makes reading easier. Without the comma, it's okay

先生は生徒たち毎日勉強したがる

>> 先生は生徒たち毎日勉強をさせたがる

間違ったら教えてください！

>> 間違っていたら教えてください！

Great job! Keep it up!

Sincerely,

Miki H

Team JapanesePod101.com

私の書いた文書は合っていますか？よろしくお願いします！

あの人は電車に乗りたがっているそうです。

今夜お兄さんはらめんを食べに行きたがっています。

このアイスを食べてみてほしい！

将来についてもっと考えて欲しいです。

先生は生徒たち毎日勉強したがる

間違ったら教えてください！お願いします！

> Rickさん、

こんにちは！

I'm very sorry for this super late reply... :(

Glad you ended up having fun in Tobu Zoo!!

Please check the corrected version of your story in Japanese (especially conjugations) and feel free to ask us questions ;)

日本に滞在していた時、私の友達が東武動物公園に行きたがりました。始めは私は行きたくなかったけど、本当に行ってよかったです。東武動物公園がある町は東京より小さいから、雰囲気が全く違いました。もちろん、全部動物は素晴らしかったです。でも、乗り物に乗りませんでした。次回はのります！

> ミハエルさん、

明けましておめでとうございます！

こちらこそ今年もよろしくお願いします。

そうですね。ヘビー・メタルのバンドの名前なら、あるかもしれません (^^;

Please check the corrected version of two sentences of yours:

このレッスンをつくってくれてありがとうございます。

「血祭り」はヘビー・メタル・バンドにはりっぱな名前だと思います。

Let us know if you have questions!

Natsuko (奈津子),

Team JapanesePod101.com

明けましておめでとうございます！

今年もよろしくお願いします。

そのレッスンをいただいてありがとうございます。

「血祭り」とはヘビー・メタル・バンドのためのりっぱな名前だと思います。

"Chi Matsuri" might be a great name for a Heavy Metal band.

たぶん、もうあります。（笑）

Maybe, there already is one :D

レッスンは楽しかったです！

ありがとうございます。

This is a true story from my trip this summer...

日本に滞在しながら、私の友達は東武動物公園に行きたがった。始めは私が行きたくなかったけど、本当に行ってよかったです。それがある町は東京より小さいだから、そこで雰囲気が全く違った。もちろん、全部動物は素晴らしいでした。でも、乗り物を乗りまっせんでした。次回はします！

While visiting Japan, my friends wanted to go to Tobu Zoo. At first I didn't want to go, but I'm really glad I did. The town there was smaller than Tokyo, it was a really different atmosphere there. Of course, the animals were also wonderful. Hoever, I didn't get to ride any of the rides. I will next time!

イギリスジムさん、

こんにちは。:smile:

Thank you very much for sharing your opinion! I'll share your post with my team.

If furigana feature can be controlled like you suggested, that'd be the best of course, but

I completely understand and agree with you that if removing furigana is not an option, we shouldn't

have furigana, because, for those who cannot read kanji, we offer kana version.:sweat_smile:

As to 'avoiding romaji', I think you're doing a great job.

Romaji is, at the end of the day, just an aid for learners who haven't studied Japanese characters yet.

We don't use them in natural Japanese, and it could cause you some confusions in the worst case.

So, keep up your good job! :smile::thumbsup:

Natsuko (奈津子),

Team JapanesePod101.com

Sorry, I said, "Maybe Alistair is suggesting an option to click on a button that could with from showing and removing furigana."

I meant to say "Maybe Alistair is suggesting an option to click on a button that could go from showing or removing furigana."

Hallo Team JapanesePod101.com,

Alastair suggested that "There should be an option to have furigana above the kanji rather than only kanji or only furigana." Maybe Alistair is suggesting an option to click on a button that could with from showing and removing furigana. That sounds to me like it could be useful, but I can imagine it might be very difficult to program such a feature into the text. However, if furigana was a permanent feature and it could not be removed, I would not like have furigana added to the text.

I used to think that it is an advantage to have furigana when reading Japanese. Some textbooks and most children's books provide furigana, but I began to realize that I found it hard to ignore the furigana when reading. The system you have at JapanesePod101.com is very well arranged to my way of thinking.

The best method, I find, for mastering the vocabulary and the readings of the Kanji in the text is constant, daily study of the Vocabulary Flashcards. After repeated Flashcard study, I read the lesson text while playing the audio track over and over again. Sometimes I can't clearly distinguish the reading from the actor's pronunciation. At those moments I find it quick and easy to either switch to the Hiragana text and/or to the Vocabulary List and then I can easily switch back to the text. It can be quite difficult to read through lots of text written only in Hiragana, but then I will sometimes switch to the Romaji text because it is so easy for me as an English reader to spot, in its context, the reading of the word I'm looking for.

BTW, I want to point out that I do prefer to avoid Romaji as much as possible. I believe that familiarity with Hiragana - and Katakana - is vital to reading and learning Japanese.

Thank you for all these features of JapanesePod101.com, and thank you for this comments section and all the help you give us by answering our questions about Japanese.

Hi Alastair,

Thank you for your feedback :smile:

We will consider it for our future lessons and material.

Cheers,

Laura

Team JapanesePod101.com

There should be an option to have furigana above the kanji rather than only kanji or only furigana. That would be really useful

Hi Cat san,

The song's name is "Sumire (スミレ)".

Singing is a good study tip!

Yuki

Team JapanesePod101.com

What's the name of the song on the ringtone?? I can't remember but know I've heard it before and it's driving me crazy!

Tracel さん、

そうですね、私も聞いたことがあります。サメとピラニアは、血の匂いが分かるので、血が出ると

寄ってくるらしいですね。シュノーケルをした時に怖い思いをしたんですね。:open_mouth:

海で楽しむ時には、注意が必要ですね:sweat_smile:

Natsuko (奈津子),

Team JapanesePod101.com

:smile:　変な奴らですね。サメと一緒に泳ぎたがっているなんて、バカですよね。

サメは海のオオカミだと言われています。サメは血の匂いが遠くから嗅ぎ取れますので、人は傷があったら、サメがいる海に泳がない方がいいらしいです。一頃、私マレーシアに行ったとき海にシュノーケルをしながら、コーラルを蹴って足を痛めました。足から血がちょっと出て、岸辺に戻る間に、小さいサメを見ました。怖かったぁぁ:sob:。今も足にある古傷を見ると、この話を思い出します。:sunglasses:

Barbara-san,

you're very right; 先生 is usually translated as "teacher", but we use this word to address

teachers, professors, doctors, lawyers, masters of martial arts, etc. It's a respectful adressing for

someone who "mastered" something or professional in his field.

In the dialog, it was a lawyer Yoko was meeting, so it's not a mistake.

By the way, laywer as profession is 弁護士 in kanji:wink:

Natsuko(奈津子),

Team JapanesePod101.com

I noticed in the PDF that in line 3 of the Kanji it says 先生 and Peter's translation is 'lawyer'. Is this right? Later on in line 15 it has 弁腰 which again is 'lawyer'. Is the first one just an error or am I missing something?

Martin, sure, the best in the world is always worth retaining. 一番！！！！

Just a side question: Would you retain professional services from anyone who described him/herself as the best_____ in the ______?

I loved this lesson. All my Japanese conversation partners are ladies of a certain age. Amazingly, not ONE of them has found occasion to teach me the word 血祭り。Or for that matter, べろべろ. I enjoy all these lessons immensely. さすがJapanesePod101!!!

Matthewさん、

thanks for the kind words and thanks for the heads up! any time you see a typo, feel free to shoot us an e-mail at contactus@japanesepod101.com and we'll fix it! どうもありがとうございます！　:dogeza: