Learn about expressing that something has been done
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yūichi: ゆういちです。(Yūichi desu.) |
| Naomi: なおみです。(Naomi desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Time capsule part 5. Naomi-sensei. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Yūichi-sensei, today we find out what happens, right? |
| Naomi: はい、そうですね。(Hai, sō desu ne.) |
| Yūichi: とうとう来ました。(Tōtō kimashita.) |
| Peter: とうとう来ました。(Tōtō kimashita.) Okay, if you don’t remember, Tamotsu, Maki and Hajime are trying to dig up a time capsule they buried 28 years ago. If you haven’t got all the story, you can go back to part 1, start there or any part that you want. Now about where we left off. They remember that they buried the time capsule near a Ginkgo tree. So now they are looking for the Ginkgo tree and did they find it? |
| Naomi: うーん、あったっけ。ありますよ、っていうインフォメーションもらったところまでですね。(Ūn, atta kke. Arimasu yo, tte iu infomēshon moratta tokoro made desu ne.) |
| Peter: Yeah, so. |
| Naomi: They just got the information. |
| Peter: So they have a lead, okay? Now today’s grammar point is |
| Naomi: てある (te aru) |
| Peter: Okay in time capsule 1, we covered |
| Yūichi: ておく (te oku) |
| Peter: In time capsule 2, we covered |
| Naomi: てみる (te miru) |
| Peter: In time capsule 3, we covered |
| Yūichi: てしまう (te shimau) |
| Peter: In 4, we covered |
| Naomi: ている (te iru) |
| Peter: And today we are going to cover てある (te aru) which is |
| Naomi: そうですね...。(Sō desu ne...) |
| Peter: Going to be a challenge. |
| Naomi: あの、ビバ・te-formみたいな感じですね。(Ano, biba “te-form” mitai na kanji desu ne.) |
| Peter: This is a great series to review auxiliary verbs with the te-form. Now this is the last one, right? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Yūichi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: All right. Let’s find out what happens and Yūichi-sensei, it better be good. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| (マクドナルドの裏) (Makudonarudo no ura) |
| まき (Maki) : あった！！あのイチョウの木よ！！(Atta!! Ano ichō no ki yo!!) |
| たもつ (Tamotsu) : じゃあ、俺たちのタイムカプセルは、この木の下に埋めてあるんだね。(Jā, ore-tachi no taimu kapuseru wa, kono ki no shita ni umete aru n da ne.) |
| はじめ (Hajime) : よっし、じゃあ掘ってみよう！！(Yosshi, jā hotte miyō!!) |
| (掘る) (horu) |
| はじめ (Hajime) : あった！！あったぞ！！(Atta!! Atta zo!!) |
| まき (Maki) : じゃあ、缶を開けてみましょう。(Jā, kan o akete mimashō.) |
| たもつ (Tamotsu) : 何を入れたんだ？全然覚えてないよ。(Nani o ireta n da? Zenzen oboete nai yo.) |
| はじめ (Hajime) : あ、缶に何か書いてある...。(A, kan ni nanka kaite aru…) |
| まき (Maki) : 下手な字ね。(Heta na ji ne.) |
| たもつ (Tamotsu) : えっと...き・け・ん？(Etto... ki. ke. n?) |
| (ドッカーン) (Dokkān) |
| Yūichi: 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.) |
| まき (Maki) : あった！！あのイチョウの木よ！！(Atta!! Ano ichō no ki yo!!) |
| たもつ (Tamotsu) : じゃあ、俺たちのタイムカプセルは、この木の下に埋めてあるんだね。(Jā, ore-tachi no taimu kapuseru wa, kono ki no shita ni umete aru n da ne.) |
| はじめ (Hajime) : よっし、じゃあ掘ってみよう！！(Yosshi, jā hotte miyō!!) |
| はじめ (Hajime) : あった！！あったぞ！！(Atta!! Atta zo!!) |
| まき (Maki) : じゃあ、缶を開けてみましょう。(Jā, kan o akete mimashō.) |
| たもつ (Tamotsu) : 何を入れたんだ？全然覚えてないよ。(Nani o ireta n da? Zenzen oboete nai yo.) |
| はじめ (Hajime) : あ、缶に何か書いてある...。(A, kan ni nani ka kaite aru…) |
| まき (Maki) : 下手な字ね。(Heta na ji ne.) |
| たもつ (Tamotsu) : えっと...き・け・ん？(Etto... ki. ke. n?) |
| Yūichi: 今度は、英語が入ります。(Kondo wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| (マクドナルドの裏) (Makudonarudo no ura) |
| (Behind the McDonald's) |
| まき (Maki) : あった！！あのイチョウの木よ！！(Atta!! Ano ichō no ki yo!!) |
| MAKI: It's here! That ginkgo tree!! |
| たもつ (Tamotsu) : じゃあ、俺たちのタイムカプセルは、この木の下に埋めてあるんだね。(Jā, ore-tachi no taimu kapuseru wa, kono ki no shita ni umete aru n da ne.) |
| TAMOTSU: So our time capsule is buried under the tree, huh? |
| はじめ (Hajime) : よっし、じゃあ掘ってみよう！！(Yosshi, jā hotte miyō!!) |
| HAJIME: OK, let's dig it out!! |
| (掘る) (horu) |
| (digging) |
| はじめ (Hajime) : あった！！あったぞ！！(Atta!! Atta zo!!) |
| HAJIME: Hey, I found it!! |
| まき (Maki) : じゃあ、缶を開けてみましょう。(Jā, kan o akete mimashō.) |
| MAKI: Let's open the can, shall we? |
| たもつ (Tamotsu) : 何を入れたんだ？全然覚えてないよ。(Nani o ireta n da? Zenzen oboete nai yo.) |
| HAJIME: I don't remember at all what we put in it. |
| はじめ (Hajime) : あ、缶に何か書いてある...。(A, kan ni nanka kaite aru…) |
| HAJIME: Oh, something's written on the can... |
| まき (Maki) : 下手な字ね。(Heta na ji ne.) |
| MAKI: It's bad handwriting, huh? |
| たもつ (Tamotsu) : えっと...き・け・ん？(Etto... ki. ke. n?) |
| TAMOTSU: Uhhh...D-A-N-G-E-R? |
| (ドッカーン) (Dokkān) |
| (BOOOOM) |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: あの、ちょっとわからないんですが。(Ano, chotto wakaranai n desu ga.) I don’t really understand. 話にならないです。(Hanashi ni naranai desu.) It doesn’t make sense. |
| Naomi: うそ。(Uso.) Does it? |
| Peter: What happened? |
| Naomi: だって(datte), it says キ・ケ・ン (ki. ke. n) on the can, danger. |
| Peter: Okay, but what did they put in there? |
| Yūichi: One of them put a bomb in the can. |
| Naomi: ひどいね、ゆういちさん。(Hidoi ne, Yūichi-san.) |
| Yūichi: 僕ですか、これは？(Boku desu ka, kore wa?) |
| Naomi: What a mean ending... |
| Peter: なんか、手紙でよかったのに。例えば、たもつ、私はまきを愛している。(Nanka, tegami de yokatta noni. Tatoeba, Tamotsu, watashi wa Maki o aishite iru.) Like I love Maki or… |
| Naomi: They were like 5th grade or 6th grade, right? |
| Yūichi: Yeah, elementary school students. |
| Peter: Oh yeah, so bomb is much more easy to build. すみませんでしたね。(Sumimasen deshita ne.) |
| Naomi: Kids these days are smart. |
| Yūichi: そうなんです。(Sō nan desu.) |
| Peter: All right. So this one is rated PG17? Thank you. Now we have to put a little explicit thing on. ま、とりあえず、ゆういち、引退してください。(Ma, toriaezu, Yūichi, intai shite kudasai.) |
| Naomi: これね、あの…。(Kore ne, ano…) |
| Peter: So Yuichi, I think you should hang up your courier right here. Naomi-sensei, is there something you want to say? |
| Naomi: すいません。(Suimasen.) I changed his ending. |
| Peter: なおみ先生が終わるところを変えました。(Naomi-sensei ga owaru tokoro o kaemashita.) So Naomi-sensei changed the last part. 元々何でしたか。(Motomoto nani deshita ka.) What was it originally? |
| Yūichi: 元々は、最後のキ・ケ・ンはなかったです。(Motomoto wa, saigo no ki. ke. n wa nakatta desu.) |
| Peter: So there was nothing in the box or the can. |
| Naomi: I added the last line. |
| Peter: So originally they ended up just finding the tree. |
| Yūichi: It is just finding a can. |
| Naomi: And that’s it. |
| Yūichi: Yeah. They didn’t see what was inside and after that, I thought like we can talk about it. What was inside? Such as Peter thinks that there was a love letter in that or… |
| Peter: Ah so I think that’s a great idea. Why don’t we have the community write in what they think should be in there. |
| Yūichi: Yeah, I hope so. |
| Peter: Yeah, besides the bomb. |
| Yūichi: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| Naomi: ゆういちさんのストーリーは、全然覚えてないよ、で終わりだったんです。(Yūichi-san no sutōrī wa, zenzen oboete nai yo, de owari datta n desu.) |
| Peter: Okay, so let’s do this. Although this was one ending, let’s have an ending competition. So we will take it from the point where they look inside the can or the tin box that they put the things in and they see … (ten ten ten), like meaning it’s up to you and I think it’s a love letter or, you know, for example Tamotsu loves Maki, Maki loves Hajime and Hajime loves... I don’t know but anyway something. That’s what I think is in there. What do you think is in there and apparently, judging by the conclusion of this story, anything goes. So よろしくお願いします (yoroshiku onegai shimasu). Okay, let’s take a look at some vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: First word. |
| Naomi: 缶 (kan) |
| Peter: Can, tin. |
| Naomi: (slow) かん (kan) (natural speed) 缶 (kan) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Yūichi: 開ける (akeru) |
| Peter: To open, unwrap. |
| Yūichi: (slow) あける (akeru) (natural speed) 開ける (akeru) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: 覚える (oboeru) |
| Peter: To remember, to memorize. |
| Naomi: (slow) おぼえる (oboeru) (natural speed) 覚える (oboeru) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Yūichi: 下手 (heta) |
| Peter: Poor at, bad, clumsy, unskilled. |
| Yūichi: (slow) へた (heta) (natural speed) 下手 (heta) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: 字 (ji) |
| Peter: Handwriting, letter, character. |
| Naomi: (natural speed) じ (ji) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Yūichi: 危険 (kiken) |
| Peter: Danger. |
| Yūichi: (slow) きけん (kiken) (natural speed) 危険 (kiken) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: Okay, let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases in today’s lesson. Naomi-sensei, what do we have first? |
| Naomi: 缶 (kan) |
| Peter: So can or tin. |
| Naomi: Since it’s from an English word or I don’t know, Dutch... It's sometimes written in katakana. |
| Peter: But it does have kanji. |
| Naomi: 例えば、空き缶。 (Tatoeba, akikan.) |
| Peter: Empty can. |
| Naomi: 缶コーヒー (kan kōhī) |
| Peter: Canned coffee. |
| Naomi: 缶ビール (kan bīru) |
| Peter: A can of beer. |
| Naomi: なんていう風に使われます。(Nante iu fū ni tsukawaremasu.) |
| Peter: I was talking to my friend in the US and I used this expression. It’s just common, it’s canned coffee and he is like, what are you talking about? |
| Naomi: え、何？ (E, nani?) You don’t have canned coffee in the states? |
| Peter: Yeah, I don’t think it’s common and he was like, I don’t know what you are talking about. You usually get the big cups, the styrofoam cups. So yeah it’s not that common. |
| Naomi: ああ、そう。知らなかった。(Ā, sō. Shiranakatta.) |
| Peter: And it’s kind of like the cultural influence like here everybody has canned coffee. I guess it’s like a kind of intermediary until you get to the real coffee or no, you just drink canned coffee. Okay, anyway so yeah, both katakana or kanji for this word. Next we have. |
| Yūichi: 危険 (kiken) |
| Peter: Danger. Now I think one of the interesting things. We kind of got caught up in the banter before about, kind of storyline. I am sorry about that but I think one of the interesting things was the way the story was originally read by Naomi-sensei and Yuichi-sensei and what’s interesting was that 危険 (kiken) play the key word in the whole development of the story. Naomi-sensei or Yuichi-sensei, do you want to tell us more about that? |
| Naomi: そうですね、例えば 。(Sō desu ne, tatoeba.) When the sign says 危険 (kiken), it means you have to stay out of it. |
| Peter: It’s a very serious word. |
| Naomi: Yeah, don’t touch. |
| Peter: Like 危ない (abunai) is dangerous but 危険 (kiken) seems a little more serious. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) 危ないっていうのは (abunai tte iu no wa), I think it’s colloquial expression. |
| Yūichi: 危険 (kiken) is written on something like there is a notice 危険 (kiken), like it is put on very dangerous chemical or other stuff. |
| Peter: So when they opened the can, they saw that there was instantaneous uh-oh. There is going to be a problem. |
| Naomi: うん、そうです。(Un, sō desu.) |
| Yūichi: So you have to remember this 危険 (kiken) and if you see that, don’t touch it. |
| Peter: What I was trying to point out that when I read the story, 危険 (kiken) really didn’t have such an impact on me as a foreigner, I read the story. I didn’t really get the significance of the word. |
| Naomi: Really? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Naomi: Even if it says danger on the tin, on a can, you open it? |
| Peter: That’s what I was kind of getting at like I think to fully understand the way this story was written on another level, you have to understand that the turning point, the key point was the word 危険 (kiken) and I didn’t catch that the first time. Next. |
| Naomi: 覚える (oboeru) |
| Peter: To remember, to memorize. |
| Naomi: If you take a close look at this kanji, the first character, the top part of this kanji like almost looks like combination of katakana ツ (tsu) and ワ (wa) that part means learning and the bottom part of the kanji has 見る (miru) in it which means to look or to see. So if you learn something by looking, you can memorize easily. 見ながら勉強すれば覚えられる。(Minagara benkyō sureba oboerareru.) |
| Peter: Very nice demonic! |
| Naomi: それから (sorekara), 字 (ji) is handwriting. The top part of 字 (ji) is a roof and the bottom part, it has child in it. So a child is writing a letter under the roof or in the house. |
| Peter: All right. Let’s take a look at today’s grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Naomi: Today’s grammar point is てある (te aru). |
| Peter: And this roughly translates to to have been done. Now ある (aru) is a verb meaning to have or to be. Now when it follows the te-form of another verb as in てある (te aru), it acts as an auxiliary and functions similar to the English passive perfect from, or, like, to have been done. So basically てある (te aru) is used with the te-form of transitive verbs. It indicates the subject now exists in a state caused by something or someone else’s prior actions. Usually the person or the thing which did the action is unimportant or unknown. What does this all mean? Well I think again I had a lot of trouble really understanding this concept again when I was studying Japanese and I think a couple of examples can make this very, very clear. Let’s have the first example. |
| Naomi: 窓が開けてある。(Mado ga akete aru.) |
| Peter: The window has been opened. Again let’s go back and look at the definition. てある (te aru) is usually used with the transitive verb. Here we have 開ける (akeru) to open, okay? 開けてある (akete aru), to have been opened. It indicates the subject now exists, the state is opened. So 窓 (mado), the window が (ga), subject marking particle 開けてある (akete aru) is in a state of being open. The window has been opened and this was caused by someone else’s prior action. So someone came and opened the window and true to the definition, the person or thing which did the action is kind of unimportant. So the subject here is the window that has been opened and the person who did it is not around. Okay, now let’s take a look at some examples to hear the sentence from today’s conversation. |
| Yūichi: この木の下に埋めてあるんだね。(Kono ki no shita ni umete aru n da ne.) |
| Naomi: これ (kore), subject はタイムカプセルは (wa taimu kapuseru wa) is dropped. |
| Peter: So it’s been buried under this tree, right? It’s been buried under this tree. It has been. Let’s just break the sentence by its components. First we have. |
| Yūichi: タイムカプセルは (taimu kapuseru wa) |
| Peter: Time capsule marked by the topic marking particle は (wa) and again this is implied, followed by |
| Yūichi: この木の下に (kono ki no shita ni) |
| Peter: This tree’s under. Under this tree marked by particle に (ni) indicating position, followed by |
| Yūichi: 埋めてある (umete aru) |
| Peter: Taken from so has been buried. The verb to bury is |
| Yūichi: 埋める (umeru) |
| Peter: The te-form is |
| Yūichi: 埋めて (umete) |
| Peter: We attach ある (aru) to get |
| Yūichi: 埋めてある (umete aru) |
| Peter: Has been buried. So it has been buried under this tree. Let’s have another instance from today’s conversation. |
| Naomi: 缶に何か書いてある。(Kan ni nani ka kaite aru.) |
| Peter: Something has been written on the can. First we have |
| Naomi: 缶に (kan ni) |
| Peter: Can and position is に (ni) |
| Naomi: 何か (nani ka) |
| Peter: Something. |
| Naomi: 書いてある (kaite aru) |
| Peter: Has been written and here we have, this is taken from the verb to write which originally is |
| Naomi: 書く (kaku) |
| Peter: te-form is |
| Naomi: 書いて (kaite) |
| Peter: We attach |
| Naomi: ある (aru) |
| Peter: Has been written. |
| Naomi: 書いてある (kaite aru) |
| Peter: We did a lot of verbs in the te-form plus auxiliaries and I think hopefully what we can do is kind of now little bit of a comparison and see if this kind of makes sense and what really helped me understand this is this てある (te aru) is the state they are talking about. It has been, 書いてある (kaite aru) like something has been written. Using these two auxiliaries, we can actually show you the clear difference. Let’s first have a sample sentence. |
| Naomi: 私の机にメモが置いてある。(Watashi no tsukue ni memo ga oite aru.) |
| Peter: Oh a memo has been placed on my desk and here we are using てある (te aru), has been. For this sample sentence, let’s put a time on it. Let’s say it’s 2 P.M. okay? So 2 P.M. Naomi-sensei comes in. On her desk, a memo has been placed. So Naomi-sensei comes into the room and sees. |
| Naomi: あ、私の机にメモが置いてある。(A, watashi no tsukue ni memo ga oite aru.) |
| Peter: Two conditions. One the subject is the memo. The memo has been placed there. Two, who placed it there is not of significance and three, it’s in a state of being placed on the desk. Now let’s go back one hour, Yuichi-sensei and I are talking. Yuichi-sensei, we have to go, how can we let Naomi know where we will be and in this case, we can leave her a note. So that would be |
| Yūichi: メモを置いておきます。(Memo o oite okimasu.) |
| Peter: Here the subject is, Yuichi, what we are going to do is let’s leave her a memo. So here at 1 o’clock, we are doing something with the intention that Naomi will come and find it later. So it’s in preparation of Naomi coming back. So here we use ておきます (te okimasu). One more time that sentence. |
| Yūichi: メモを置いておきます。(Memo o oite okimasu.) |
| Peter: First we have |
| Yūichi: メモ (memo) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Yūichi: を (o) |
| Peter: Here object marking particle. So here the memo is the object. The subject is |
| Yūichi: 私 (watashi) |
| Peter: So 私はメモを (watashi wa memo o) |
| Yūichi: 置いておきます (oite okimasu) |
| Peter: And the original verb here is |
| Yūichi: 置く (oku) |
| Peter: To place. Now this is a bit confusing because we have 置いておきます (oite okimasu), but 置く (oku) is the place and then we get the te-form which is |
| Yūichi: 置いて (oite) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Yūichi: おきます (okimasu) |
| Peter: To do in preparation. So here 置いておきます (oite okimasu), to place in preparation and in preparation is for Naomi to come back. So, clear difference is here. At 1 PM, when we are doing this action in preparation, the subject is 私 (watashi). The メモ (memo) is the object and we are doing in preparation. At 2 PM, when Naomi comes back, the subject of the sentence is the メモ (memo). There is an existing state and the fact that we placed it there is not important. Hopefully we will clear up difference between ておく (te oku) and てある (te aru) two of the more difficult concepts in Japanese. Again PDF detailed write up. I really hope that was helpful. |
Outro |
| Naomi: PDFに詳しく書いてありますのでチェックしてください。(Pīdīefu ni kuwashiku kaite arimasu node chekku shite kudasai.) |
| Peter: So in the PDF, there is a very - a detailed explanation has been put in for you. |
| Peter: Okay, that is going to do it for today. |
| Naomi: じゃあ、また。(Jā, mata.) |
| Yūichi: さよなら。(Sayonara.) |
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