Learn how to ask what something is in the Japanese language
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| Introduction |
| Jessi: What's the Japanese Word for This? ジェシーです。(Jeshii desu.) Jessi here! |
| Naomi: こんにちは！なおみです！(Kon'nichi wa! Naomi desu!) Hi everyone, Naomi here. |
| Jessi: Thank you as always for joining us for our Absolute Beginner series! In the last lesson, we learned how to talk about going somewhere. For example? |
| Naomi: わたしは日本に行きます。 (Watashi wa Nihon ni ikimasu). |
| Jessi: "I'm going to Japan." And in this lesson, we're going to focus on asking how to say something in another language. |
| Naomi: You'll be able to say things like "What's this in Japanese?" and "What's this in English?" |
| Jessi: That's right. |
| Naomi: Jessi, what's happening in the conversation? |
| Jessi: Well, it looks like Taylor, Masato, and Kaori are at home and they're eating something! Kaori takes a bite of something interesting and he's asking Taylor about it. Okay, let's listen to the conversation and see what happens. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| かおり:うーん。おいしい。(Ūn. Oishii.) (Cough cough cough!) からい！ (Karai!) |
| テイラー:(laughing)それはハラペーニョです。(Sore wa harapēnyo desu.) |
| まさと:ハラペーニョ？ハラペーニョはにほんごでなんですか？(Harapēnyo? Harapēnyo wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) |
| テイラー:ちょっとまってください。(Chotto matte kudasai.) |
| ああ、ハラペーニョはにほんごでとうがらしです。(Ā, harapēnyo wa nihongo de tōgarashi desu.) |
| かおり:(Cough cough cough.)ああー。とうがらし・・・。(Aā. tōgarashi...)sai.) |
| Jessi: Let's listen to the conversation again slowly. |
| かおり:うーん。おいしい。(Ūn. Oishii.) (Cough cough cough!) からい！ (Karai!) |
| テイラー:(laughing)それはハラペーニョです。(Sore wa harapēnyo desu.) |
| まさと:ハラペーニョ？ハラペーニョはにほんごでなんですか？(Harapēnyo? Harapēnyo wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) |
| テイラー:ちょっとまってください。(Chotto matte kudasai.) |
| ああ、ハラペーニョはにほんごでとうがらしです。(Ā, harapēnyo wa nihongo de tōgarashi desu.) |
| かおり:(Cough cough cough.)ああー。とうがらし・・・。(Aā. tōgarashi...) |
| Jessi: Now let’s listen to it with the translation. |
| かおり:うーん。おいしい。(Ūn. Oishii.) (Cough cough cough!) からい！ (Karai!) |
| Jessi: Mm. This is good. (Cough cough cough!) It's spicy! |
| テイラー:(laughing)それはハラペーニョです。(Sore wa harapēnyo desu.) |
| Jessi: (Laughing) That's a jalapeno. |
| まさと:ハラペーニョ？ハラペーニョはにほんごでなんですか？(Harapēnyo? Harapēnyo wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Jalapeno? What's "jalapeno" in Japanese? |
| テイラー:ちょっとまってください。(Chotto matte kudasai.) |
| Jessi: Please wait a moment. |
| ああ、ハラペーニョはにほんごでとうがらしです。(Ā, harapēnyo wa nihongo de tōgarashi desu.) |
| Jessi: Oh, "jalapeno" in Japanese is "tōgarashi." |
| かおり:(Cough cough cough.)ああー。とうがらし・・・。(Aā. tōgarashi...) |
| Jessi: (Cough cough cough.) Ohh, "tōgarashi..." |
| Post conversation banter |
| Jessi: Naomi, とうがらし (tōgarashi)！Hot spicy pepper! I know exactly how Kaori feels because I wouldn't be able to eat this myself... |
| Naomi: It looks like it was his first encounter with a ハラペーニョ (harapēnyo)（laugh） |
| Jessi: Yeah. They probably should have asked what it was first. |
| Naomi: True! I think so. |
| Jessi: So, listeners, if you want to avoid something like this happening to you, well,. it's good to know how to ask what something is, right? And how to ask what it's called in your native language. |
| Naomi: Right. That's what we'll learn later on in this lesson. |
| Jessi: Let's look at some of our vocabulary words for this lesson. The first one is... |
| Naomi: 日本語 (nihongo) |
| Jessi: Japanese, as in the Japanese language. One more time? |
| Naomi: 日本語 (nihongo) |
| Jessi: 日本語 (nihongo). Remember how 日本 is Japan? We just add ご to the end of it. 日本語 (nihongo). |
| Naomi: Yes, every name of a language ends in ご in Japanese. |
| Jessi: We have another example of this. Our next word, Naomi, is? |
| Naomi: 英語 (eigo) |
| Jessi: English, as in the English language. One more time? |
| Naomi: 英語 (eigo) |
| Jessi: 英語 (eigo). An important word to keep in mind if you want to ask someone if they speak English, or understand English. Later on in this lesson you'll learn how to ask what something is in English. |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Jessi: We'll be using both 日本語 (nihongo) “Japanese” and 英語 (eigo) “English” a lot in the next section, so keep those in mind! And how about our last phrase? |
| Naomi: 待ってください (matte kudasai). |
| Jessi: 待ってください (matte kudasai). "Please wait." Now, this is something we're just going to learn as a set phrase for now. Can we hear it one more time slowly? |
| Naomi: (Slowly) 待ってください (matte kudasai). |
| Jessi: And again at regular speed. |
| Naomi: まってください (matte kudasai). |
| Jessi: Again, this means please wait. |
| Naomi: Be careful with the pronunciation. The first word is NOT まて (mate) but まって (matte). |
| Jessi: There's a stop sound before て(te). まって (matte) |
| Naomi: Right. まって ・ください (matte kudasai). |
| Jessi: Another thing you might want to remember is that ください (kudasai) means please. So whenever you hear something that ends in ください (kudasai), it means the speaker is asking someone to do something, or is asking someone FOR something. |
| Naomi: Good tip! |
| Jessi: So one more time, "please wait" is...? |
| Naomi: 待ってください (matte kudasai). |
| Jessi: まってください。 (matte kudasai). Okay, and with that, let's move on to the lesson focus! |
Lesson focus |
| Jessi: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask how to say something in another language. |
| Naomi: Yes, as in. What's this in English? And What's this in Japanese? |
| Jessi: Once you are able to ask this, there is no limit to the Japanese you'll learn! Asking how to say things in Japanese is great for expanding your vocabulary and learning new words. |
| Naomi: I agree! This is very useful to know. |
| Jessi: So, without further ado, our sentence structure, Naomi? |
| Naomi: [Item ] は (wa) [language] で 何ですか？(de nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Let's break it down. |
| Naomi: Okay. First, we start with the unknown word plus は (wa). |
| Jessi: Okay, the unknown word plus は (wa), |
| Naomi: Followed by the name of the language, plus, で何ですか？(de nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: The name of the language plus でなんですか。(de nan desu ka?) |
| Naomi: It's a bit long! |
| Jessi: It is. Let's see if I've got this right. Unknown word は (wa), languageで, 何ですか？(de nan desu ka?) |
| Naomi: That's it! |
| Jessi: Listeners, if you have trouble visualizing it, this is where the lesson notes would really come in handy. So feel free to follow along in those. Okay, so now let's do some examples. |
| Naomi: Sure. Let's look at the example from the dialogue first. |
| Jessi: Masato ate some of the hot pepper, which Taylor said was a "jalapeno". Masato didn't know what a jalapeno was, so he asked... |
| Naomi: ハラペーニョは日本語で何ですか？(Harapēnyo wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: Let's break this down. |
| Naomi: ハラペーニョは (Harapēnyo wa) |
| Jessi: The unknown word, ハラペーニョ (harapēnyo), plus は (wa) |
| Naomi: 日本語 (nihongo) |
| Jessi: Japanese. |
| Naomi: で何ですか (de nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: What is it? |
| Naomi: ハラペーニョは日本語で何ですか？(Harapēnyo wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: "What is jalapeno in Japanese?" Okay listeners, now let's try asking what something is in Japanese. This is a really good way to pick up new words. |
| Naomi: Let's picture a situation first. |
| Jessi: Okay. Let's say, you want to buy something at the store in Japan, but you don't know what it's called in Japanese. |
| Naomi: How about a corn dog? |
| Jessi: Okay, corn dog. How would you ask how to say that in Japanese? |
| Naomi: Corn dog, は日本語で何ですか。(Corn dog wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) |
| Jessi: "What's corn dog in Japanese?" Listeners, repeat after Naomi. |
| Naomi: Corn dog, は日本語で何ですか。(Corn dog wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) |
| [Pause] |
| Jessi: So Naomi, what IS corn dog in Japanese? Corn dog は日本語でなんですか？(Corn dog wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) |
| Naomi: アメリカンドッグ です。(Amerikandoggu desu.) |
| Jessi: That's right listeners, it's known as an American dog! I always thought this was a funny name. |
| Naomi: Yeah, I think so too. |
| Jessi: So don't try asking for a corn dog, that won't work. アメリカンドッグ (Amerikandoggu). Okay, let's try asking what something is in English. Oh, I know! Let's try a role play type situation. Kind of like what we saw in the dialogue. |
| Naomi: Sounds good! |
| Jessi: Let's say we're at a restaurant, looking at the menu. Okay, here I go. Hmm...なおみさん、これは、何ですか？ (Naomi-san, kore wa, nan desu ka?) |
| Naomi: あ～これは、[まっちゃ]です。(A~ Kore wa, maccha desu.) |
| Jessi: [Maccha]は、英語で何ですか？ (Maccha wa, eigo de nandesu ka?) |
| Naomi: [Whisked green tea ]です。(desu.) |
| Jessi: Listeners, did you get that?! Let's hear the question one more time. |
| Naomi: [Item]は、英語で何ですか？(wa, eigo de nandesu ka?) |
| Jessi: Listeners, please repeat after Naomi. "What's [Maccha] in English?" |
| Naomi: まっちゃは、英語で何ですか？(Maccha wa, eigo de nandesu ka?) |
| [Pause] |
| Naomi: Great job! |
| Jessi: Okay listeners, how was that? These sentences that we went over are a little long, but once you get the hang of the pattern, then you're all set! |
| Naomi: We only covered how to say English and Japanese in this lesson, but the names of other languages are not that hard. |
| Jessi: Right! If you are interested in how to say other language names, like Spanish, Korean, French, etcetera, check out the lesson notes for this lesson. The names of languages are really quite simple. |
| Naomi: Okay, well that's all for this lesson. |
| Jessi: Thanks for joining us. |
| Naomi: And let us know if you have any questions! |
| Jessi: See you all next time. |
| Naomi: じゃまた～！(Ja mata~!) |
Lesson conversation |
| (The sound of eating) |
| かおり:うーん。おいしい。(Ūn. Oishii.) (Cough cough cough!) からい！ (Karai!) |
| テイラー:(laughing)それはハラペーニョです。(Sore wa harapēnyo desu.) |
| まさと:ハラペーニョ？ハラペーニョはにほんごでなんですか？(Harapēnyo? Harapēnyo wa nihongo de nan desu ka?) |
| テイラー:ちょっとまってください。(Chotto matte kudasai.) |
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