Learn how to ask for something
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| Introduction |
| Jessi: Can You Take My Japanese Order? 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.) Naomi here and thanks again for being here with us for this Absolute Beginner Lesson. |
| Jessi: In the last lesson, we learned how to say "Excuse me" and "I'm sorry." One phrase covered them both! |
| Naomi: Yes, and that phrase was すみません (sumimasen). Jessi, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Jessi: In this lesson, which is the last of the five Introduction lessons, you'll learn how to ask for something in Japanese. |
| Naomi: Like, if you're at a restaurant, and want to say "Can I get a menu?" |
| Jessi: Or "Can I get some water?" It's actually really easy to say. |
| Naomi: You will hear a short conversation at a restaurant. |
| Jessi: It takes place between a customer and a waiter. Okay, let's listen in. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| 客:すみません！メニュー、おねがいします。(Sumimasen! Menyū, onegai shimasu.) |
| 店員:はい。 (Hai.) |
| 客:すみません、みず、おねがいします。 (Sumimasen, mizu, onegai shimasu.) |
| 店員:はい。 (Hai.) |
| 客:すみません、ちゅうもん、おねがいします。 (Sumimasen, chūmon, onegai shimasu.) |
| 店員:はーい。 (Hāi.) |
| 客:すみません！メニュー、おねがいします。(Sumimasen! Menyū, onegai shimasu.) |
| 店員:はい。 (Hai.) |
| 客:すみません、みず、おねがいします。 (Sumimasen, mizu, onegai shimasu.) |
| 店員:はい。 (Hai.) |
| 客:すみません、ちゅうもん、おねがいします。 (Sumimasen, chūmon, onegai shimasu.) |
| 店員:はーい。 (Hāi.) |
| English Host: Now let’s listen to it with the translation. |
| 客:すみません！メニュー、おねがいします。(Sumimasen! Menyū, onegai shimasu.) |
| Jessi: Excuse me, can I get a menu? |
| 店員:はい。 (Hai.) |
| Jessi: Sure. |
| 客:すみません、みず、おねがいします。 (Sumimasen, mizu, onegai shimasu.) |
| Jessi: Excuse me, can I get some water? |
| 店員:はい。 (Hai.) |
| Jessi: Sure. |
| 客:すみません、ちゅうもん、おねがいします。 (Sumimasen, chūmon, onegai shimasu.) |
| Jessi: Excuse me, can you take my order? |
| 店員:はーい。 (Hāi.) |
| Jessi: Sure! |
Lesson focus |
| Jessi: It sounds like the waiter is having a bit of a tough time with that table... |
| Naomi: She has to keep going back. The customer kept saying すみません～ (sumimasen~) すみません～ (sumimasen~). |
| Jessi: Listeners, you remember this, right? From the last lesson? One of the meanings of すみません (sumimasen) is "excuse me." So, "Excuse me, excuse me, can I get some help here?" Kind of like that. |
| Naomi: Right. Okay. So let's look at what he asked for. |
| Jessi: The first new word is... |
| Naomi: メニュー (Menyū) |
| Jessi: Menu. If it sounds exactly the same, that's because it is! You'll find that a lot of words in Japanese come straight from English. Just like this one. |
| Naomi: Just, the pronunciation might be different. |
| Jessi: Right. In most cases, it will be very different. But in this case... |
| Naomi: メニュー (Menyū) |
| Jessi: メニュー (Menyū) sounds just like "menu". And the next word? |
| Naomi: 水 (mizu). |
| Jessi: 水 (mizu) is "water," and after that...? |
| Naomi: 注文 (chūmon). |
| Jessi: 注文 (chūmon) is "order." Don't worry about trying to memorize all these now. Just keep them in the back of your brain. We'll be using them in the next section. |
| Naomi: There's one more word I want to cover. |
| Jessi: The one the waiter kept saying, right? |
| Naomi: Yes! That word is はい！(Hai!) |
| Jessi: はい！(Hai!) We talked about this in the last lesson where it was almost like a question - はい？ (Hai?) Yes? This time it's just a straightforward "yes" or "sure." |
Lesson focus |
| Jessi: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask for something in Japanese. |
| Naomi: There's one phrase you will learn for that in this lesson. |
| Jessi: And you actually already know it! Do you remember the phrase you learned when introducing yourself? The one you say at the end after your name? |
| Naomi: よろしくお願いします。(Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| Jessi: That's it! よろしく お願いします.(Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) That second part, お願いします (onegai shimasu), is what we'll be using today. |
| Naomi: On its own, you can think of it as meaning "please." |
| Jessi: Yes, as in "menu please", "water please", and so on. Okay so Naomi, what is the formation? |
| Naomi: Very simple. Just say the item you want and add お願いします (onegai shimasu). |
| Jessi: So that's item plus お願いします (onegai shimasu) |
| Naomi: Exactly. |
| Jessi: So like we had in the dialogue... |
| Naomi: メニューお願いします (menyū onegai shimasu) |
| Jessi: Literally, "menu please". In more natural English we'd say "Can I get a menu?" And the next one? |
| Naomi: 水お願いします (mizu onegai shimasu) |
| Jessi: "Can I get some water?" Let's practice those, shall we? |
| Naomi: Okay! |
| Jessi: Repeat after Naomi. Can I get a menu? |
| Naomi: メニューお願いします (menyū onegai shimasu) |
| [Pause] |
| Jessi: And now, can I get some water? |
| Naomi: 水お願いします (mizu o onegai shimasu) |
| [Pause] |
| Jessi: Now, a menu and water are both physical objects. So you can use this お願いします (onegai shimasu) for actual tangible things. BUT you can also use it for not-so-tangible things. |
| Naomi: Ahh, like... a service. |
| Jessi: Right. Can you give us the example that we had in the dialogue? |
| Naomi: Sure. 注文お願いします (chūmon onegai shimasu). |
| Jessi: 注文 (chūmon) is order, and お願いします (onegai shimasu) is like “please.” So literally, it's like saying "Order please." You may think it means something like, "Can I have my order please?" But what it really means is, "Can you take my order please?" |
| Naomi: So you're asking them to do something. |
| Jessi: Yes. Quite handy, this お願いします (onegai shimasu). |
| Naomi: Okay, let's try a small roleplay! |
| Jessi: Okay! How about you and I first and then you with the listeners? |
| Naomi: Sounds good! I'll be the waitress. |
| Jessi: And I'll be the customer. Okay, I've just settled down in this nice looking restaurant, what do I want to eat... hmm? I don't see a menu. I better get the waitresses attention... あの...すみません～ (Ano… Sumimasen~) |
| Naomi: はい！(Hai!) |
| Jessi: メニューお願いします。(Menyū onegai shimasu.) |
| Naomi: はーい。 (Hāi.) |
| Jessi: Yay, I got my menu! Okay, listeners, your turn! You've just sat down at your table. First, get the attention of the waitress. |
| [Pause] （あの...）すみません |
| Naomi: はい！(Hai!) |
| Jessi: Ask the waitress for a menu. |
| [Pause] メニューお願いします (Menyū onegai shimasu.) |
| Naomi: はーい。 (Hāi.) |
| Jessi: Very nice! How about a small bonus one? Here comes Naomi with your menu. She hands it to you and you thank her by saying...? |
| [Pause] |
| Jessi: If you said... |
| Naomi: ありがとうございます! (Arigatō gozaimasu!) |
| Jessi: Give yourself an extra point. |
| Naomi: Thanks for listening! ありがとうございます！(Arigatō gozaimasu!) |
| Jessi: See you all next time! |
Lesson conversation |
| 客:すみません！メニュー、おねがいします。(Sumimasen! Menyū, onegai shimasu.) |
| 店員:はい。 (Hai.) |
| 客:すみません、みず、おねがいします。 (Sumimasen, mizu, onegai shimasu.) |
| 店員:はい。 (Hai.) |
| 客:すみません、ちゅうもん、おねがいします。 (Sumimasen, chūmon, onegai shimasu.) |
| 店員:はーい。 (Hāi.) |
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