Learn about describing how people laugh
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| INTRODUCTION |
| なおみ: なおみです。 |
| Peter: Peter here. Onomatopoeia lesson 6. Let’s Talk Laughter. |
| なおみ: こんにちはHi everyone, this is Naomi. |
| Peter: In the previous lesson, we learned |
| なおみ: ペラペラ |
| Peter: If you want to be ペラペラ in Japanese, you’ve got to know this onomatopoeia. Right Naomi Sensei? |
| なおみ: そうですね。 That’s right 頑張ってペラペラになりましょう |
| Peter: Today we have |
| なおみ: クスクスand ゲラゲラ |
| Peter: Now we can’t translate them without context. So Naomi Sensei, can we hear them in context? |
| なおみ: 最初、花子はクスクス笑っていたが、そのうち大きい声でゲラゲラ笑い出した。 |
| Peter: First 花子 was giggling but she soon burst into roaring laughter. What’s the first onomatopoeia we are looking at? |
| なおみ: クスクスas in クスクス笑う |
| Peter: To giggle, to chuckle, to titter. クスクスis the giggling sound used to describe women suppressed laughter. Hmm interesting translation here. |
| なおみ: クスクス |
| Peter: Ah one more time. |
| なおみ: クスクスクスクスクス、あははははーみたいな |
| Peter: Ah and you are not in the studio so you can’t picture but when Naomi Sensei did it, she put her hand over her mouth which is a very typical thing for Japanese people to do. |
| なおみ: Yeah for Japanese women yeah. |
| Peter: Especially and seeing that and hearing the explanation makes a lot of sense. The suppressed laughter kind of the hand over the mouth クスクスクス |
| なおみ: みたいな |
| Peter: How about a sample sentence please? |
| なおみ: 何をクスクス笑っているの |
| Peter: What are you giggling about? That is the first onomatopoeia. Okay on to the second onomatopoeia. What do we have? |
| なおみ: ゲラゲラas in ゲラゲラ笑う |
| Peter: To guffaw which means to laugh in a big way. It’s a nice hardy laugh. |
| なおみ: Loud laugh. |
| Peter: So ゲラゲラdescribes the sound of guffawing in a rather loud voice. |
| なおみ: コメディーを見てゲラゲラ笑った |
| Peter: I watched the comedy and laughed so hard. So think of someone like kind of uncontrollable laughter in an really loud voice. |
| なおみ: Do you often ゲラゲラ笑う |
| Peter: あんまりNot really. |
| なおみ: Now I’d like to introduce a similar expression けらけら |
| Peter: Now けらけら is used for a higher pitch laugh. Kind of its higher than ゲラゲラsince the K sound, this is so interesting for me and this is because the K sounds are usually used to describe lighter or higher pitch sounds than G sounds. |
| なおみ: そうです。 |
| Peter: Interesting. The K is in the original hiragana and the ah I can see it. |
| なおみ: ゲラゲラis laughter but really loud voice. けらけら is a laughter but slightly smaller like medium volume laughter. |
| Peter: Okay Naomi Sensei, in your best, best, absolute best. Okay Naomi Sensei, give us your absolute best ゲラゲラ笑う |
| なおみ: Like ah ah…あははははー That’s ゲラゲラ |
| Peter: That’s really good. |
| なおみ: And this one is けらけら |
| Peter: See, some things words can’t explain. So ______ (0:03:38) here けらけら and ゲラゲラ just rewind. That’s the perfect explanation. |
| なおみ: And since クスクス ゲラゲラ けらけら are the sounds for laughter, we often use the verb 笑うwith them. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: Okay let’s recap the usage of the words we looked at today and we are going to do this with sample sentences. Naomi Sensei. |
| なおみ: The first word is クスクス この漫画、すごくおもしろい。 電車の中でくすくす笑ってしまったよ。 |
| Peter: This Manga was so funny. I tittered when I read it on the train. Well you are kind of trying to suppress your laugh. |
| なおみ: Yeah because you are on a train. |
| Peter: So you start to laugh and you kind of cover up クスクス |
| なおみ: Right. |
| Peter: Okay what’s the second word? |
| なおみ: ゲラゲラ ゲラゲラ笑って、お腹が痛くなった。 |
| Peter: My stomach hurts as I laughed so hard. Okay to wrap up, Naomi Sensei, in this lesson, we learned |
| なおみ: クスクス and ゲラゲラ |
| Peter: Naomi Sensei, can you finish this sentence using one of our onomatopoeia from today? |
| なおみ: Sure. |
| Peter: Okay なおみ先生は、ピーターのジョークに |
| なおみ: You are a joke. 笑わない Okay umm, |
| Peter: You don’t laugh? |
| なおみ: I try not to laugh but if I have to choose one, I would say クスクス 私は、ピーターのジョークにクスクス笑う。 |
| Peter: Yeah ゲラゲラでしょう |
| なおみ: Yeah けらけらかな。けらけら笑う。 |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: Okay that’s all for today. Remember, learning onomatopoeia is essential for greater fluency and for taking your Japanese to the next level. So be sure to stop by the website and pick up the PDF. There you will find a detailed write up of today’s lesson. Also on the website, you can access some of the previous lessons with the basic or premium membership. Find out more about japanesepod101.com by visiting japanesepod101.com |
| なおみ: Give me your ゲラゲラ |
| Peter: あはは |
| なおみ: けらけらぐらいでしょ。Come on. |
| Peter: Umm… |
| なおみ: あははははー |
| Peter: I only have the けらけら |
| なおみ: そうね。けらけら頑張って |
| Peter: I will try. I don’t have the ゲラゲラ |
| なおみ: 嘘だー |
| Peter: ほんと |
| なおみ: ほんと？ |
| Peter: ほんと No ゲラゲラ maybe one day. |
| なおみ: うふふー |
| Peter: All right. That’s going to do for today. |
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