Learn about describing how people cry
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Peter: Peter here. Onomatopoeia Lesson 8. Onomatopoeia That Won’t Make You Cry. |
| なつこ: なつこです。こんにちは Hi everyone. This is Natsuko. |
| Peter: Welcome to japanesepod101.com’s onomatopoeia series. In this series, we are exploring the wonderful world of Japanese onomatopoeia. |
| なつこ: There are two types of Japanese onomatopoeia 擬音語and 擬態語 |
| Peter: 擬音語are the true onomatopoeia that mimic sounds just like in English. or meow. |
| なつこ: Such as ワンワン、にゃん |
| Peter: 擬態語 on the other hand describes the situation, feeling or state using sounds. |
| なつこ: Such as ぺらぺら which means fluent in foreign language. |
| Peter: We hope you will enjoy this enjoyable ride into the wonderful world of Japanese onomatopoeia. So without further adieu, let’s get on with this lesson. To recap quickly, in the previous lesson, we learned the onomatopoeia that describes grin. |
| なつこ: Yes にこにこand .にやにや |
| Peter: なつこさんは、今 |
| なつこ: 私はにこにこしています I hope. |
| Peter: So Natsuko san is grinning from ear to ear. In this lesson, we are going to cover the other side of the spectrum. |
| なつこ: Oh the sad side. |
| Peter: That’s right. In this lesson, we are going to introduce the onomatopoeia that describes crying such as |
| なつこ: ぎゃあぎゃあ めそめそ しくしく |
| Peter: What’s the first onomatopoeia we are looking at? |
| なつこ: ぎゃあぎゃあ |
| Peter: Now we can’t translate them without context. So Natsuko san, can we have ぎゃあぎゃあ in context? |
| なつこ: Sure 子供が転んでぎゃあぎゃあ泣いていた |
| Peter: A kid fell over and he was crying loudly ぎゃあぎゃあ is the sound of a considerately high pitch noisy crying or screeching that usually implies to speaker’s unpleasant feeling. |
| なつこ: Yes. |
| Peter: So when ぎゃあぎゃあ is used with a verb 言う to say or わめくto yell, it means to complain or to whine. |
| なつこ: ぎゃあぎゃあ言う ぎゃあぎゃあわめく For example, 子供は大きい声でぎゃあぎゃあわめいていた。 |
| Peter: A kid was screeching and showing his discomfort in a very loud voice. |
| なつこ: 迷惑ですね |
| Peter: Yeah I think he is a bit troublesome for others and with our translation, we are trying to be very literal so you can really try to grasp the meaning because we have three onomatopoeia associated with crying. So in order to make the difference clear, we are using that translation. So on to the next onomatopoeia. What’s the next onomatopoeia? |
| なつこ: しくしく |
| Peter: In context please |
| なつこ: 子供がしくしくと泣いている。どうしたんだろう。 |
| Peter: A kid is crying quietly. I wonder what happened. So we also have here for translation whimpering or sniffling kind of like when you hear somebody quietly crying. |
| なつこ: Yes. |
| Peter: Hey are you crying Natsuko san? |
| なつこ: しくしく、しくしく |
| Peter: You do that very well, that is しくしく |
| なつこ: Yes maybe the person is almost making no sound, very quietly crying. |
| Peter: Now しくしく is the quiet crying sound usually made by a woman or children. Now there is one more onomatopoeia associated with crying that we are going to cover here and that is |
| なつこ: めそめそ |
| Peter: Now Natsuko san, |
| なつこ: Yes. |
| Peter: しくしく is quiet しくしく |
| なつこ: Yes right. |
| Peter: Where does めそめそ fall into this? |
| なつこ: That’s a really good question. Well めそめそcould be the same sound as しくしく. It’s also a very quiet crying but the difference is that しくしく is focusing on the sound whereas めそめそ is focusing on the attitude of someone who keeps moaning and groaning. |
| Peter: So めそめそ a sound associated with a feeling or a state. |
| なつこ: Yes. |
| Peter: That one that’s unfamiliar – kind of unfamiliar to English speaking people. |
| なつこ: Maybe, yes. |
| Peter: Whereas ぎゃあぎゃあ or しくしくor 擬音語 based on the sound. The onomatopoeia that are familiar to English speaking people. All right, so Natsuko san, can we have a sample sentence for めそめそ |
| なつこ: 去年の今頃私は失恋をして毎日めそめそ泣いていた。 |
| Peter: This time last year, I had a broken heart and I was whimpering every day. Whimpering, sulking. |
| なつこ: Umm in this case, it’s not natural to say しくしく泣いていたbecause this sentence is talking about my feeling and attitude, not the way I was crying. |
| Peter: Yeah not the sound. |
| なつこ: Yes and you can also say めそめそするinstead of めそめそ泣く |
| Peter: So Natsuko san, we have something fun today. |
| なつこ: What? |
| Peter: So speaking of 擬音語 and 擬態語 can you mimic this sound. We are going to play an audio file. |
| なつこ: Wow! |
| Peter: Listen to it and then try to mimic it. Listeners, please pay attention to the words Natsuko san uses. Here we go. |
| なつこ: おぎゃーおぎゃー |
| Peter: So a crying baby is おぎゃーおぎゃー in Japanese. |
| なつこ: Yes how about in English? |
| Peter: How about the next sound? |
| なつこ: えーん、えーん、えーん So that’s えーん、えーん kind of cry. |
| Peter: But it’s interesting. It’s pretty close. I could see the difference. I have no idea to make the difference between the crying baby and a crying 4-year old boy. |
| なつこ: Right. Where is the difference but you can hear the difference. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: When you do it, yeah. It’s interesting hmm Japanese onomatopoeia. Okay let’s recap the usage of the words we looked at today and we are going to do this with sample sentences. |
| なつこ: The first phrase is ぎゃあぎゃあ泣く ジェイソンを見て、子供は「こわいよぉ〜!!!」とぎゃあぎゃあ泣きはじめた。 |
| Peter: When the kid saw ジェイソン, he said scary and started screeching. Okay first things first. ジェイソンis the American horror film, Jason. |
| なつこ: I guess so. |
| Peter: Have you seen it Natsuko san? |
| なつこ: No. It looks so scary. |
| Peter: Yeah maybe its better we could say The Ring or something like that. |
| なつこ: Or maybe for smaller children, something like Halloween costumes. |
| Peter: That’s so funny. Yeah Natsuko san, the sample sentence is showing a kid Jason and my way of toning it down is showing him The Ring, so yeah not really good with kids yet, am I? Okay. |
| なつこ: I think the second one would be better for the ring. |
| Peter: Let’s see the second one. What’s the phrase? |
| なつこ: しくしく泣く。 |
| Peter: Sample sentence. |
| なつこ: リングを見て子供は怖いよーとしくしく泣き始めた |
| Peter: When the kid saw the ring, he said scary and he started sniffling. Okay lastly |
| なつこ: めそめそ泣く or めそめそする 友達がめそめそしていないで。もっと良い人がいるよと言った。 |
| Peter: My friend told me, stop moaning and groaning, there must be a better person out there. So you could see in the last one that it’s kind of the person is – the crying is like a bi-product of the person feeling sorry for them self. |
| なつこ: Yes right. |
| Peter: Picture dark room, you know, bento boxes everywhere. Come on, step out of it. |
| なつこ: Very negative feeling. |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: So I think that about does it for today. Now be sure to stop by the website and pick up the lesson notes. There you will find a detailed write up of this lesson. |
| なつこ: それではまた今度。 |
Get complete breakdowns, review with quizzes and download printable practice sheets! Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide