Learn about using slangy and dialect Japanese
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: こんにちは、ナツコです。 (Konnichiwa, Natsuko desu.) |
| Naomi: ナオミです。 (Naomi desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Guy’s Night Out. Part 1. Natsuko-san, |
| Natsuko: Part 1. |
| Peter: It 長くなりそうですね (nagaku nari-sō desu ne). It looks like it’s going to be. |
| Natsuko: そうですね。 (Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: A long night and a long series. Anyway, Naomi-sensei, what’s going on in today’s conversation? |
| Naomi: Two guys are talking at the office, probably. |
| Peter: Well, maybe by Skype or maybe they are at their respective offices or on the phone but they should be working but they are talking as you said. Now a couple of interesting things about this conversation. What do we have first Natsuko-san? What's interesting about this conversation? |
| Natsuko: They use a very casual type of language. |
| Peter: Aha! |
| Natsuko: Usually used among friends. |
| Peter: Okay. |
| Natsuko: And so the way they end the sentence is very unique. |
| Peter: I like the way you phrase that, unique. |
| Natsuko: Unique. |
| Peter: Okay. |
| Natsuko: I think it’s unique. |
| Peter: Naomi-sensei, do you agree, unique? |
| Natsuko: That’s a nice way. |
| Peter: Politically correct Natsuko-san. How do we say “politically correct” in Japanese? |
| Natsuko: Well, I don’t think there is a Japanese word equal to politically correct but there are expressions, you know the concept. |
| Peter: Okay so with that said, we have two workers – and male or female? |
| Natsuko: Male. |
| Peter: Two male workers speaking in the office with a particular kind of accent or maybe we should say dialect. |
| Natsuko: Hmm it’s originally dialect but they are using it for fun just to make the conversation more intimate. |
| Peter: Okay and this dialect, it was from what region? |
| Natsuko: It’s originally from the Tohoku area, maybe. |
| Peter: North eastern part of Japan. So with that said, let’s take a look at what these guys are up to. All right, here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 久保正敏:小柴、仕事終わったらメイドバーに行かない？ |
| Kubo Masatoshi: Koshiba, shigoto owattara meido bā ni ikanai? |
| 小柴浩二:お、いいじゃん！ 行くべ！ |
| Koshiba Kōji: O, ii jan! Iku be! |
| 久保正敏:じゃあ、何時に仕事終わらせる？ |
| Kubo Masatoshi: Jā, nanji ni shigoto owaraseru? |
| 小柴浩二:んじゃ、8時までに終わらせるべ。 |
| Koshiba Kōji: Nja, 8 ji made ni owaraseru be. |
| 久保正敏:OK。んじゃそういうことで。 |
| Kubo Masatoshi: OK. Nja sō iu koto de. |
| もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。 |
| (Mōichido onegaishimasu. Yukkuri onegaishimasu.) |
| ＜繰り返し＞ () |
| 今度は英語が入ります。 |
| (Kondo wa eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 久保正敏:小柴、仕事終わったらメイドバーに行かない？ |
| Kubo Masatoshi: Koshiba, shigoto owattara meido bā ni ikanai? |
| Kubo Masatoshi: After work, why don't we go to a maid bar? |
| 小柴浩二:お、いいじゃん！ 行くべ！ |
| Koshiba Kōji: O, ii jan! Iku be! |
| Koshiba Kōji: Good idea! Let's go! |
| 久保正敏:じゃあ、何時に仕事終わらせる？ |
| Kubo Masatoshi: Jā, nanji ni shigoto owaraseru? |
| Kubo Masatoshi: Okay, what time should I finish up work? |
| 小柴浩二:んじゃ、8時までに終わらせるべ。 |
| Koshiba Kōji: Nja, 8 ji made ni owaraseru be. |
| Koshiba Kōji: Umm. You should finish up at 8 o'clock. |
| 久保正敏:OK。んじゃそういうことで。 |
| Kubo Masatoshi: OK. Nja sō iu koto de. |
| Kubo Masatoshi: Okay. I'll do it like that. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Natsuko-san, let’s find out what Naomi-sensei thought of today’s conversation? |
| Natsuko: ナオミさん、今日の会話どう思いましたか？ (Naomisan, kyō no kaiwa dō omoimashita ka?) |
| Naomi: うーん、私は使わないですね。 (Un, watashi wa tsukawanai desu ne.) I don’t use this expression but I think the very last sentence んじゃ、そういうことで。 (Nja, sō iu koto de.) This is pretty useful. |
| Natsuko: Oh yeah right. |
| Peter: This is very high frequency じゃ、そういうことで (Ja, sō iu koto de) Okay that’s it. |
| Natsuko: I use this a lot. |
| Natsuko: It comes in handy especially when you want to finish the conversation. |
| Peter: Yes basically and it’s… |
| Natsuko: Closing remarks. |
| Peter: All right, we are going to take a look at that but first, we are going to take a look at the vocab. So what do we have first? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natsuko: メイドバー (Meidobā) |
| Peter: Maid café, maid bar. |
| Natsuko: メ・イ・ド・バー「メイドバー」 (Me i do bā `meidobā') |
| Peter: Natsuko-san, 説明お願いします (Setsumei onegaishimasu) What’s… |
| Natsuko: I’ve never been there. So I can’t explain. |
| Natsuko: Me neither. |
| Peter: Me….Me too… |
| Natsuko: You’ve been there. |
| Peter: No I haven’t but we can explain the general concept. I heard someone say, it’s like a poor man’s snack because with the reason being is, the girls are dressed inメイド (meido) outfits and they are very nice and very sweet and they will talk to you but they charge you some money to be there. So kind of like if you want to feel like you are special or you want a little bit of attention, you would go there. |
| Natsuko: I think this is more like you know for guys who like to watch girls wearing that kind of clothing. It is because it’s, you know, I think it’s – it originally comes from Akihabara. |
| Peter: Well it is just funny the way you expressed it. It was like, yeah it makes it sound like this is for very strange people. |
| Natsuko: But you know, it’s not for everyone. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Natsuko: I heard Maki and Yuki have been there. So we should ask them, yeah. It’s best to ask someone who experienced it. |
| Peter: You know, what I think is, the basic premise behind it is that the staff working there is dressed in メイド (meido) outfits, the French メイド (meido) outfits. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: And most places, they serve food, right? |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Or you can get something to drink. A cup of coffee or something like this and you can go there and they will interact with you. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Among doing their other jobs and moving around like Natsuko said in their outfits. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: I think he said right now, this is quite a popular fad in Japan and I think right now, it is generating a lot of interest. So a lot of people go there just to see what it’s like. |
| Natsuko: Oh yes right. |
| Peter: It’s not like a core base of people who like Natsuko said go there just to leer at the people working. |
| Natsuko: Yeah and the main point is, the maids, you know. So I don’t think people go there to eat something you know like I like the lunch there. So I will go to the maid café. The main objective is to meet the maids. |
| Peter: Meet the maids. |
| Natsuko: Meet the maids. |
| Peter: So if we were to invite you to go and pay for you, would you go to the maid café? |
| Natsuko: Well I am interested to see what’s going on there because I hear a lot of stories but I’ve never been there. So maybe I want to actually see what’s happening there. |
| Peter: Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: もちろん！ (Mochiron!) |
| Peter: もちろん (Mochiron) Okay next we have |
| Natsuko: 終わらせる (owara seru) |
| Peter: To finish, to get done with. |
| Natsuko: お・わ・ら・せ・る終わらせる (O wa-ra seru owara seru) |
| Peter: Okay. Let’s take a look at the conversation. What do we have first, Naomi-sensei? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Natsuko: 小柴、仕事終わったらメイド……言えないな。 (Koshiba, shigoto owattara meido…… ienai na.) |
| Peter: 頑張って言ってって。 (Ganbatte itte tte.) You could say this…. |
| Naomi: 小柴……。 (Koshiba…….) |
| Natsuko: 笑っちゃうね。 (Waratchau ne.) |
| Peter: Okay. Natsuko-san, お願いします (Onegaishimasu). |
| Natsuko: 小柴、仕事終わったらメイドバーに行かない？ (Koshiba, shigoto owattara meidobā ni ikanai?) |
| Peter: Koshiba, After work, do you want to go to a maid bar, first we have here? |
| Natsuko: 小柴 (koshiba) |
| Peter: Which is the last name of his friend or his coworker or the person he is speaking to on the phone. So hearing this, we can kind of surmise that they are at the same office. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: And it’s obviously some down time. So you are just yelling across the room. |
| Natsuko: I don’t – well maybe yeah. |
| Peter: Maybe. |
| Natsuko: What a nice office. |
| Peter: Ah Natsuko-san, you haven’t been down to the fifth floor in a while. Let me just tell you that. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: For those of you who don’t know, Natsuko is up on the sixth floor in her translation cubicle. So she’s shielded from people yelling, let’s go to the maid bar, yeah all right. |
| Natsuko: Uh… |
| Peter: This is followed by |
| Natsuko: 仕事終わったら (shigoto owattara) |
| Peter: “Work after.” Here we are using the たら (tara) conditional to indicate place and time. Now what’s interesting here is, what’s dropped. We have 仕事 (shigoto) work and 終わったら (owattara) “after work” but what would normally go in there? |
| Natsuko: 仕事が終わったら (shigoto ga owattara) |
| Peter: Yeah usually we need the subject marking particle が (ga). So “work after” |
| Natsuko: メイドバーに行かない？ (Meidobā ni ikanai?) |
| Peter: “Maid bar to won’t go.” So again, this is the casual form. So if we use the polite form and we are inviting someone, how would we do it? |
| Natsuko: 行きませんか？ (Ikimasen ka?) |
| Peter: Wouldn’t you go but here this is the casual form. So it becomes |
| Natsuko: 行かない？ (Ikanai?) |
| Peter: So Natsuko-san, if we wanted to invite Naomi-sensei to go eat lunch, how can we do that in the casual form because we are all friends here? |
| Natsuko: ランチに行かない？ (Ranchi ni ikanai?) |
| Peter: Now if it’s a student asking Naomi-sensei if she wanted to go, how would we do that? |
| Naomi: ランチに行きませんか？ (Ranchi ni ikimasen ka?) |
| Peter: So that cleared this difference. This is followed by... |
| Natsuko: お、いいじゃん。行くべ！ (O, ii jan. Iku be!) |
| Peter: やりますね。 (Yarimasu ne.) “You can do it.” Right, Natsuko-san, that sounded pretty… |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Like convincing. |
| Natsuko: Uhoo… |
| Peter: おお、いいじゃん、行くべ。 (Ō, ii jan, iku be.) Like I was like, I could imagine you saying that sensei. |
| Naomi: 女の人は使わないですよね。 (Onnanohito wa tsukawanai desu yo ne.) |
| Natsuko: あんまり使わないですね。 (Amari tsukawanai desu ne.) Or maybe as a dialect. |
| Peter: I know usually but I could envision you using this on a daily basis. |
| Natsuko: え？ 本当？ (E? Hontō?) |
| Peter: Okay so first we had in this sentence? |
| Natsuko: お、いいじゃん！ (O, ii jan!) |
| Peter: Oh that’s a good idea. Interjection of お、いいじゃん！ (O, ii jan!) That sounds good. Good, isn’t it? Then we have |
| Natsuko: 行くべ。 (Iku be.) |
| Peter: 行く (Iku) The dictionary form of, “to go” followed by べ (be) Now べ (be) is a sentence ending particle used when inviting someone to do something. Originally a dialect of the Tohoku area of Japan and it’s primarily used by young male speakers. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, just for fun. |
| Peter: Just for fun, yeah. |
| Natsuko: They are kind of imitating. |
| Peter: Yep. So if you are out there and you have some young male friends, give it a try because it is pretty funny. I think you catch some people off guard if you say it. |
| Natsuko: Maybe. |
| Peter: Not to your teacher please but the key point here is, the way we are using it, it’s the dictionary form of the verb followed by べ (be). Then we have |
| Natsuko: じゃあ、何時に仕事終わらせる？ (Jā, nanji ni shigoto owaraseru?) |
| Peter: “Okay, what time can you finish up work?” First we have |
| Natsuko: じゃあ (jā) |
| Peter: This is a filler used to bide a little bit of time for the speaker followed by |
| Natsuko: 何時に (nanji ni) |
| Peter: “What time at,” again “time” is followed by the particle ni. |
| Natsuko: に (ni) |
| Peter: This is followed by |
| Natsuko: 仕事終わらせる (shigoto owaraseru) |
| Peter: “Work.” Then we have “make finish,” literally. The base word here is |
| Natsuko: 終わる (owaru) |
| Peter: “Finish” but we are using the causative here. So we conjugate. |
| Natsuko: 終わらせる (owara seru) |
| Peter: 終わる (owaru) becomes 終わらせる (owara seru) and this means “to make finish.” So literally “what time at work make finish.” “What time will you finish up work?” |
| Natsuko: Again the particle is missing, right? |
| Peter: What would that be? |
| Natsuko: 仕事を終わらせる (shigoto o owaraseru) |
| Peter: Okay. Then we have |
| Natsuko: じゃ、8時までに終わらせるべ。 (Ja, hachi-ji made ni owara seru be.) |
| Peter: “Umm at 8 o’clock, I will finish up work.” First we have a filler |
| Natsuko: じゃ (ja) |
| Peter: “Thinking about hmm, how long is it going to take” followed by |
| Natsuko: 8時までに (hachi-ji made ni) |
| Peter: This is interesting because we have “8 o’clock” followed by まで (made). So “it’s 8 o’clock too” but we also have the particle ni. So kind of like “up to 8 o’clock” and then we have |
| Natsuko: 終わらせる (owara seru) |
| Peter: To finish up. |
| Natsuko: べ (be) |
| Peter: And the sentence ending particle used by young males. “So I will finish up around 8.” Then we have |
| Natsuko: OK。んじゃ、そういうことで。 (OK. Nja, sō iu koto de.) |
| Peter: Okay. That’s it. And as we mentioned before, this final phrase is what we use to, all right, that was what I was talking about. Back to work. We are going to stop here. |
| Natsuko: Umm or maybe like, okay that’s done. |
| Peter: All right. That’s it. So そういうことで (sō iu koto de) and you don’t need the first part, the んじゃ (nja). So it’s just そういうことで (sō iu koto de) “That thing that we were talking about” or “that thing we were referencing.” そういうことで (sō iu koto de) “The order of business was attended to.” So そういうことで (sō iu koto de) “I am going back to work or that’s going to be it or I am out of here.” The rest is inferred. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So what do you think Natsuko-san? 使うべ？ (Tsukau be?) |
| Natsuko: うん、そう……。 (Un, sō…….) |
| Peter: Can we…. |
| Natsuko: So they are definitely going out and we can find out what it’s like in a maid bar, right? |
| Peter: We should go before we record the next episode. |
| Natsuko: We? |
| Peter: To the maid café so we can relate to what they experience. |
| Naomi: They have a lunch menu. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Natsuko: Go ahead. |
| Peter: 行くべ (iku be) Natsuko-san? |
| Natsuko: I will think about that. |
| Peter: All right. So that is going to do for today. We are going to stop here. Anything else to add? |
Outro |
| Natsuko: Wait for the next lesson. |
| Peter: That’s going to do it for today. |
| Natsuko: じゃ、またね！ (Ja, mata ne!) |
| Naomi: じゃ、そういうことで。 (Ja, sō iu koto de.) |
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