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| INTRODUCTION |
| Naomi: 直美です。 (Naomidesu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Get in on the Volitional Verb Action. In this lesson, you learn how to form the informal volitional form of a verb. |
| Naomi: Such as 勉強しよう。 (Benkyō shiyou.) |
| Peter: Let’s study. This conversation takes place at |
| Naomi: 旅行会社 (Ryokōkaisha) |
| Peter: A travel company. The conversation is between |
| Naomi: 下山新 (Nizayamashin) and 左絵理花 (Hidari Erika) I think they are coworkers. |
| Peter: Shin Shimoyama and Erica Hidari. Erica speaks in formal Japanese since she is younger than Shin. Shin speaks in informal Japanese to Erica but when he speaks to everyone, he speaks in formal Japanese. |
| Naomi: そうですね。 (Sōdesu ne.) |
| Peter: Now before we listen to the conversation, just to clear up. The volitional is basically the – let’s something, something as in let’s go or let’s study. So complicated grammatical term but |
| Naomi: Simple idea. |
| Peter: Exactly. Okay let’s listen to this conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 下山 新 (Shimoyama Shin): ただいま帰りました。 (Tadaima kaerimashita.) |
| 左 絵理花 (Hidari Erika): あ、下山先輩!お帰りなさーい。 (A, Shimoyama senpai! O-kaerinasāi.) 先輩がいなかったから、絵理花、毎日 寂しかったですぅ。 (Senpai ga inakatta kara, Erika, mainichi samishikatta desū.) 鎌倉ツアーは大変でしたか。 (Kamakura tsuā wa taihen deshita ka.) |
| 下山 新 (Shimoyama Shin): 大変じゃなかったよ。まぁ、普通だった。 (Taihen ja nakatta yo. Mā, futsū datta.) |
| 左 絵理花 (Hidari Erika): 良かったですね。 (Yokatta desu ne.) ねぇ、先輩、私の誕生日を知っています?あ・し・た・ですよ。 (Nē, senpai, watashi no tanjōbi o shitte imasu? A-shi-ta desu yo.) だから...明日デートしましょう。 (Dakara... ashita dēto shimashō.) |
| 下山 新 (Shimoyama Shin): 明日、誕生日?じゃ、みんなでパーティーしよう! (Ashita, tanjōbi? Ja, minna de pātī shiyō!) |
| 左 絵理花 (Hidari Erika): え?みんなで? (E? Minna de?) |
| 下山 新 (Shimoyama Shin): 皆さん、明日は、左さんの誕生日です。誕生会をしましょう! (Mina-san, ashita wa, Hidari-san no tanjōbi desu. Tanjōkai o shimashō!) |
| 上司 (Jōshi): お、いいねぇ。飲もう!飲もう! (O, ii nē. Nomō! Nomō!) |
| もう一度、お願いします。今度は、ゆっくりお願いします。 (Mōichido, onegaishimasu. Kondo wa, yukkuri onegaishimasu.) |
| 下山 新 (Shimoyama Shin): ただいま帰りました。 (Tadaima kaerimashita.) |
| 左 絵理花 (Hidari Erika): あ、下山先輩!お帰りなさーい。 (A, Shimoyama senpai! O-kaerinasāi.) 先輩がいなかったから、絵理花、毎日 寂しかったですぅ。 (Senpai ga inakatta kara, Erika, mainichi samishikatta desū.) 鎌倉ツアーは大変でしたか。 (Kamakura tsuā wa taihen deshita ka.) |
| 下山 新 (Shimoyama Shin): 大変じゃなかったよ。まぁ、普通だった。 (Taihen ja nakatta yo. Mā, futsū datta.) |
| 左 絵理花 (Hidari Erika): 良かったですね。 (Yokatta desu ne.) ねぇ、先輩、私の誕生日を知っています?あ・し・た・ですよ。 (Nē, senpai, watashi no tanjōbi o shitte imasu? A-shi-ta desu yo.) だから...明日デートしましょう。 (Dakara... ashita dēto shimashō.) |
| 下山 新 (Shimoyama Shin): 明日、誕生日?じゃ、みんなでパーティーしよう! (Ashita, tanjōbi? Ja, minna de pātī shiyō!) |
| 左 絵理花 (Hidari Erika): え?みんなで? (E? Minna de?) |
| 下山 新 (Shimoyama Shin): 皆さん、明日は、左さんの誕生日です。誕生会をしましょう! (Mina-san, ashita wa, Hidari-san no tanjōbi desu. Tanjōkai o shimashō!) |
| 上司 (Jōshi): お、いいねぇ。飲もう!飲もう! (O, ii nē. Nomō! Nomō!) |
| 今度は英語が入ります。 (Kondo wa eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 下山 新 (Shimoyama Shin): ただいま帰りました。 (Tadaima kaerimashita.) |
| SHIN SHIMOYAMA:I'm back. |
| 左 絵理花 (Hidari Erika): あ、下山先輩!お帰りなさーい。 (A, Shimoyama senpai! O-kaerinasāi.) |
| ERIKA HIDARI: Ah, Shimoyama, welcome back! |
| 先輩がいなかったから、絵理花、毎日 寂しかったですぅ。 (Senpai ga inakatta kara, Erika, mainichi samishikatta desū.) |
| Since you haven't been here, I was lonely every day. |
| 鎌倉ツアーは大変でしたか。 (Kamakura tsuā wa taihen deshita ka.) |
| Was the Kamakura tour tough? |
| 下山 新 (Shimoyama Shin): 大変じゃなかったよ。まぁ、普通だった。 (Taihen ja nakatta yo. Mā, futsū datta.) |
| SHIN SHIMOYAMA:It wasn't tough. It was all right, I guess. |
| 左 絵理花 (Hidari Erika): 良かったですね。 (Yokatta desu ne.) ねぇ、先輩、私の誕生日を知っています?あ・し・た・ですよ。 (Nē, senpai, watashi no tanjōbi o shitte imasu? A-shi-ta desu yo.) |
| ERIKA HIDARI: That's good. Hey, do you know when my birthday is? It's to-mo-rrow! |
| だから...明日デートしましょう。 (Dakara... ashita dēto shimashō.) |
| So let's go on a date tomorrow. |
| 下山 新 (Shimoyama Shin): 明日、誕生日?じゃ、みんなでパーティーしよう! (Ashita, tanjōbi? Ja, minna de pātī shiyō!) |
| SHIN SHIMOYAMA: Tomorrow, birthday? All right, let's have a party with everyone! |
| 左 絵理花 (Hidari Erika): え?みんなで? (E? Minna de?) |
| ERIKA HIDARI: Huh? With everyone? |
| 下山 新 (Shimoyama Shin): 皆さん、明日は、左さんの誕生日です。誕生会をしましょう! (Mina-san, ashita wa, Hidari-san no tanjōbi desu. Tanjōkai o shimashō!) |
| SHIN SHIMOYAMA:Everyone, tomorrow is Miss Hidari's birthday. Let's throw her a birthday party! |
| 上司 (Jōshi): お、いいねぇ。飲もう!飲もう!(O, ii nē. Nomō! Nomō!) |
| BOSS: Nice--. Let's drink, let's drink! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Naomi Sensei ちょっと質問があります。 (Chotto shitsumon ga arimasu.) |
| Naomi: はい。 (Hai.) You have a question? |
| Peter: Yes. I think we’ve talked about this many times but Erica calls herself Erika. Is that common? |
| Naomi: I am not sure if it’s common. I don’t quite like it though. |
| Peter: Why not? |
| Naomi: Because it sounds so childish. If you do that at the workplace, it sounds so unprofessional. |
| Peter: Okay at the workplace is one thing but what about in private life? |
| Naomi: I think it is okay. |
| Peter: Now is this only a girl’s thing? I have never heard men referring to themselves by their own name? |
| Naomi: そうですね。ピーター会社行く、とかね。言わないですね。 (Sōdesu ne. Pītā kaisha iku, toka ne. Iwanaidesu ne.) Yeah definitely girl’s thing. |
| Peter: But Naomi Sensei ちょっと待ってください。(Chottomatte kudasai.) just hang on one second. I think even in English, people do this. |
| Naomi: 本当？ (Hontō?) |
| Peter: Yeah like... |
| Naomi: Peter go home とか？ (Toka?) |
| Peter: What’s Peter going to eat for lunch today? Ah! Peter is going to have…. |
| Naomi: 本当に？ (Hontōni?) You do that? |
| Peter: I don’t but people do. |
| Naomi: Really? |
| Peter: Yeah. I don’t know if it’s exclusive to women but I can also think of like you know, a guy trying to give himself self esteem. Peter, you can do this, peter…. |
| Naomi: あ、そっかそっかそっか。 (A, sokka sokka sokka.) |
| Peter: ピーター、今日頑張れ。 (Pītā, kyō ganbare.) Like if I was talking to myself, ピーター、今日も頑張れ。頑張れ。 (Pītā, kyō mo ganbare. Ganbare.) |
| Naomi: 自分にね。 (Jibun ni ne.) You are talking to yourself. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Naomi: ああ。 (Ā.) |
| Peter: So in English, we have it in those kinds of situations. So not that unfamiliar for me, but in Japanese? |
| Naomi: あ～そうかもね。 (A ~-sō kamo ne.) |
| Peter: And also I will be very honest. When I was learning Japanese, I used to speak to myself quite a bit. |
| Naomi: あ、本当？ (A, hontō?) |
| Peter: Yeah. Just to get better but I always used the wrong form. When you speak to yourself, you are supposed to kind of use may day kay like orders. |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Peter: Like… |
| Naomi: Or informal at least. |
| Peter: Yeah 頑張れ (Ganbare) but at first, I was doing 頑張りましょう。今日、何しましょう？ (Ganbarimashō. Kyō, nani shimashou?) |
| Naomi: 面白い。 (Omoshiroi.) 自分で (Jibun de) formal 使ってるんだ。 (Tsukatteru nda.) |
| Peter: Very polite to myself. |
| Naomi: Oh okay. |
| Peter: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: First word |
| Naomi: 先輩 (senpai) |
| Peter: Senior, superior, mentor. |
| Naomi: (slow)せんぱい (Sen pai) (natural speed) 先輩 (senpai) |
| Peter: Next |
| Naomi: 寂しい (sabishii or samishii) |
| Peter: Lonely, lonesome. |
| Naomi: (slow)さびしい (Sabishī) (natural speed) 寂しい (sabishii or samishii) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: 知る (shiru) |
| Peter: To know, to understand. |
| Naomi: (slow)しる (shiru) (natural speed) 知る (shiru) |
| Peter: Next we have a phrase. |
| Naomi: だから (dakara) |
| Peter: So, therefore. |
| Naomi: (slow)だから (dakara) (natural speed) だから (dakara) |
| Peter: Next we have a phrase. |
| Naomi: みんなで (minna de) |
| Peter: With everyone. |
| Naomi: (slow)みんなで (minna de) (natural speed) みんなで (minna de) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. Naomi Sensei, what’s the first word we will look at? |
| Naomi: さびしい (Sabishī) or さみしい (Samishī) |
| Peter: Lonely, lonesome. Now, can we have those words one more time? Pay attention to the pronunciation. |
| Naomi: さびしい, さみしい. (Sabishī, samishī.) |
| Peter: So, the key here is the second syllable. In the first one it’s び (bi), and the second one it’s… |
| Naomi: み (mi). |
| Peter: It just has to do with the way some people pronounce this word. |
| Naomi: そうですね。 (Sōdesu ne.) |
| Peter: Naomi-sensei, どちらが言いますか。 (Dochira ga iimasu ka.) Which do you use? |
| Naomi: Hmmm… 多分 (Tabun), I think I use み, さみしい (Mi, samishī). |
| Peter: Kinda flow less. |
| Naomi: そうですね。 (Sōdesu ne.) |
| Peter: I personally use さびしい (Sabishī). I really hit the び (Bi). Next we have... |
| Naomi: 知る (Shiru) |
| Peter: To know. Now, there are some words that are generally used in the て+いる (Te + iru)construction. In this case, 知ている、知る、(Chite iru, shiru,) which means “to know” is one of them. So, to say that you know something, you have to use the ている (Te iru), or the present progressive equivalent to the verb. In this case, it would be (something something)... |
| Naomi: ...を知ている。 (... O chite iru.) |
| Peter: “I know something.” Or if you want to say it formally, |
| Naomi: ...を知ています。あの人を知ている。 (... O chite imasu. Ano hito o chite iru.) |
| Peter: “I know that person.” And please notice that it’s not… |
| Naomi: ...あの人を知る。 (... Ano hito o shiru.) |
| Peter: あの人を知る。 (Ano hito o shiru.) |
| Naomi: “I will get to know that person.” If you have to translate. |
| Peter: So this is a verb that is often used in that ている (Te iru) form. |
| Naomi: そうですね。 (Sōdesu ne.) |
| Peter: Next word. |
| Naomi: 先輩 (Senpai) |
| Peter: Senior, superior, mentor. |
| Naomi: But his word can be used as honorific suffix, like さん (San). But 先輩 (Senpai) can be used as a title too. |
| Peter: So you can call someone their name plus… |
| Naomi: 先輩 (Senpai). |
| Peter: In the dialogue, 絵理花 (Erika) called 新 下山... (Shin gezan) |
| Naomi: 下山先輩. (Gezan senpai.) |
| Peter: But the second time she omitted his name and just called him... |
| Naomi: 先輩. (Senpai.) |
| Peter: On to today’s grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Now in this lesson, we are going to learn how to create the informal volitional form of a verb. Again let’s something, something. What do we have in the dialogue? |
| Naomi: 飲もう、飲もう (Nomou, nomou) |
| Peter: Let’s drink, let’s drink. |
| Naomi: 飲む (Nomu) to drink becomes 飲もう (Nomou) let’s drink. |
| Peter: So you need to conjugate the verb to get the volitional form. Now today we are going to look at group 1 verbs. Group 1 verbs change the final む (Mu) column. The final む (Mu) column sound to the corresponding おう (Ō) column sound and prolong the sound kind of hold it. For example, the verb to buy is |
| Naomi: 買う (Kau) |
| Peter: Change the final う (U) to |
| Naomi: おう (Ō) |
| Peter: And you get. |
| Naomi: 買おう (Kaou) |
| Peter: Let’s buy. Now it’s spelled おう (Ō) but it’s pronounced as |
| Naomi: おう (Ō) |
| Peter: Kind of you hold it for an extra second. Next we have the verb to go. |
| Naomi: 行く (Iku) |
| Peter: Change the final く (Ku) to |
| Naomi: こう (Kō) |
| Peter: And you get. |
| Naomi: 行こう (Yukō) |
| Peter: Let’s go. Now let me quickly introduce some other class I verbs. Naomi Sensei, to speak. |
| Naomi: 話す (Hanasu) |
| Peter: Let’s speak. |
| Naomi: 話そう (Hanasou) |
| Peter: To wait. |
| Naomi: 待つ (Matsu) |
| Peter: Let’s wait. |
| Naomi: 待とう (Matou) |
| Peter: Next one is a little asterisks here. The next one is, we use this one because there is no other verb that ends in new. |
| Naomi: そうですね。 |
| Peter: Okay it’s not because we are dark or anything. Here we go, to die. |
| Naomi: 死ぬ (Sōdesu ne.) |
| Peter: Let’s die. |
| Naomi: 死のう (Shinou) |
| Peter: To ride. |
| Naomi: 乗る (Noru) |
| Peter: Let’s ride. |
| Naomi: 乗ろう (Norou) |
| Peter: Just quickly to recap here. Again this is the informal volitional. You are probably already familiar with the formal volitional which is |
| Naomi: ましょう (Mashou) |
| Peter: So 行きましょう (Ikimashou) let’s go. The informal 行こう (Yukō). |
| Naomi: 日本に行こう。 (Nihon ni ikou.) |
| Peter: Let’s go to Japan. |
| Naomi: ピーターに会おう。 (Pītā ni aou.) |
| Peter: Let’s meet Peter. |
| Naomi: 日本に行ってピーターに会おう。 (Nihon ni itte pītā ni aou.) |
| Peter: Let’s go to Japan and see Peter. Now what’s interesting about this previous sentence is the final verb is what decides |
| Naomi: The politeness level right. |
| Peter: Not only the politeness level, this also determines kind of the grammatical structure for the sentence. The literal translation is Japan go to Peter let’s meet but the translation is, Let’s go to Japan and meet Peter. That final verb being in the informal volitional represents the grammar for that whole sentence. |
| Naomi: なるほどね。 (Naruhodo ne.) |
| Peter: So the previous two sentences were |
| Naomi: 日本に行こう。(Nihon ni ikou.) |
| Peter: Let’s go to Japan and |
| Naomi: ピーターに会おう。 (Pītā ni aou.) |
| Peter: Let’s meet Peter and here we make one sentence out of it by using the te conjunction form |
| Naomi: 日本に行って、ピーターに会おう。 (Nihon ni itte, pītā ni aou.) |
| Peter: And let’s go to Japan and meet Peter. |
| Naomi: そうですね。 (Sōdesu ne.) |
| Peter: The first verb that appears in Japanese is actually translated as the let’s, interesting. |
| Naomi: ああ、面白い。 (Ā, omoshiroi.) Never thought about it. |
| Peter: Now for class 2 and class 3 verbs, please check the lesson notes for this lesson. |
| Naomi: クラス２とクラス (Kurasu 2 to kurasu)３は簡単ですから、見てください。 (Wa kantandesukara, mitekudasai.) |
Outro |
| Peter: That’s going to do it. |
| Naomi: じゃあ、また。 (Jā, mata.) |
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