Is There a Difference Between ゆく and いく?

[toucannyc]

ども！
あたらしいJapanesepod101ききて　ですが　日本語を　べんきょうしました。そして、もんだが　あります。「Survival Lesson」 6番で、「ときょう　へ　ゆきですか。」を　ききましたから、じしょで　ゆく　を　ひきました。じしょで　ゆく　や　いくは、おなじです。さいが　ありますか。ありがと。

~~~~ツカンNYC

Hey!
I’m a new Japanesepod101 listener but I’ve been studying Japanese. Anyway, I have a question. In Survival Lesson 6 I head the phase “tokyo e yuki desuka?” So I look up “yuku” in a dictionary and it said that it was the same as “iku”. Is there a difference? In my class we always used “iku” and “ikimasu”. Thanks in advance.

~~~~Toucannyc

P.S. If there are errors in the above Japanese (and I’m sure there are ) then please tell me! And yes, I know Japanese has no spaces but because I don’t know many kanji yet I thought I would make it easier for people and just put spaces because kana alone is hard to read.

[Jason]

No, there is no difference in meaning. Both ゆ and い are possible readings of 行. い is much more common but as you've seen here ゆ does pop up occasionaly.

[Sean]

Summerizing from the usage note on Yahoo! Dictionary, 'yuku' was the more commonly form in the past. But in modern day language, 'iku' has a spoken, conversational feel to it, whereas 'yuku' is used in more literary words.

Althought the phrase you're taking about isn't 東京へ行きですか（とうきょうへゆきですか） but　東京行きですか（とうきょうゆきですか） minus the へ, ゆき being a word for a train, etc. heading for somewhere.

As for the Japanese, here's a couple of suggestions.

＞あたらしいJapanesepod101ききて　ですが
あたらしい　Japanesepod101のききて（リスナー・ちょうしゅしゃ）ですが

I don't know if ききて is used for listeners of a program, something like リスナー or ちょうしゅしゃ might work better IMO.

＞そして、もんだが　あります。
もんだい

＞「Survival Lesson」 6番で、
「Survival　Lesson」の第６回で

＞じしょで　ゆく　や　いくは、おなじです。
「ゆく」と「いく」

や = implies there are more things to the list, whereas と is for complete lists.

＞さいが　ありますか。ありがと。
ちがいがありますか

ちがい seems more fitting to me.

[Psy]

さいが　ありますか。ありがと。

サイがいますよ。

There's got to be a better way to get this message out because I always find myself mentioning it: when you ask for a favor, instead of signing off with "thanks" as you do in English, in Japanese you use some variant of よろしくおねがいします。Also, "arigatou" typically has an extended vowel: ありがとう.

And yes, I know Japanese has no spaces but because I don’t know many kanji yet I thought I would make it easier for people and just put spaces because kana alone is hard to read.

You're totally right about that. I've been reading kana for a long time but I still get lost sometimes when people do that. Keep practicing and がんばって！

[toucannyc]

「Survival Lesson」 6番で、
「Survival　Lesson」の第６回で

Why would you use 回（かい）？ I was under the impression that 回 was for the number of times that something happens in a amount of time. For example: まいしゅう　に　２回　日本語クラスへいきます。Every week I go to Japanese class two times. Is this wrong?
よろしくおねがいします。

[Jason]

No. It is used in saying how many times something happens in a certain amount of time, but 回 by itself just means "number of times."

[Psy]

回 is also commonly used to refer to an episode number. 話（わ） is another counter for Episodes, but I think it might just be for stories and TV shows...

[toucannyc]

みなさん、ありがとう！いま、ゆくと　ゆき　と回が　わかりました。

~~~~~~~~~ツゥカンNYC
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