Learn how to introduce yourself
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Intro |
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| Jessi: Hi everyone, ジェシーです (Jeshīdesu)。 Jessi here! |
| Tomoyuki: こんにちは、ともゆき です。 (Kon'nichiwa, Tomoyuki desu.) |
| Jessi: A Japanese Introduction. Thanks again for joining us for this series! Tomoyuki, could you remind us what we learned in the last lesson, Lesson 2? |
| Tomoyuki: はい。 (Hai.) In the last lesson, we reviewed name suffixes, such as さん (san)、ちゃん (chan)、and くん (kun). |
| Jessi: That's right, and in this lesson, you'll review how to give a self introduction and say your occupation and nationality. |
| Tomoyuki: Yes, you'll be able to say things like "I'm a student" and "I'm American", "I'm English", etc. Jessi, what's happening in this conversation? |
| Jessi: In the conversation, Taylor is at his Japanese class in the US, and the students are introducing themselves to each other. |
| Tomoyuki: So they're in a classroom. |
| Jessi: Yes. All right! Let's listen to the conversation. |
| Dialogue |
| (At a Japanese class) |
| テイラー:はじめまして。わたし は Taylor (テイラー)です。かいしゃいん です。よろしく おね がいします。 |
| Taylor: Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Taylor desu. Kaishain desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. |
| ニコール:わたし は Nicole(ニコール)です。しゅふです。よろしく おねがいします。 |
| Nicole: Watashi wa Nicole desu. Shufu desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. |
| ルイス:こんにちは。ぼく は Luis(ルイス)です。がくせいです。ぼく は メキシコじんです。 Luis: Konnichiwa. Boku wa Luis desu. Gakusei desu. Boku wa Mekishiko-jin desu. |
| Jessi: Let’s listen to the conversation again slowly. |
| (At a Japanese class) |
| テイラー:はじめまして。わたし は Taylor (テイラー)です。かいしゃいん です。よろしく おね がいします。 |
| Taylor: Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Taylor desu. Kaishain desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. |
| ニコール:わたし は Nicole(ニコール)です。しゅふです。よろしく おねがいします。 |
| Nicole: Watashi wa Nicole desu. Shufu desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. |
| ルイス:こんにちは。ぼく は Luis(ルイス)です。がくせいです。ぼく は メキシコじんです。 Luis: Konnichiwa. Boku wa Luis desu. Gakusei desu. Boku wa Mekishiko-jin desu |
| Jessi: Now let’s listen to it with the translation. |
| (At a Japanese class) |
| テイラー:はじめまして。わたし は Taylor(テイラー)です。 |
| Taylor: Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Taylor desu. |
| Jessi: Nice to meet you. I'm Taylor. |
| テイラー: かいしゃいん です。 |
| Taylor: Kaishain desu. |
| Jessi: I'm a company employee. |
| テイラー: よろしく おねがいします。 |
| Taylor: Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. |
| Jessi: It's a pleasure to meet you. |
| ニコール:わたし は Nicole(ニコール)です。 |
| Nicole: Watashi wa Nicole desu. |
| Jessi: I'm Nicole. I'm a homemaker. |
| ニコール:しゅふです。 |
| Nicole: Shufu desu. |
| Jessi: I'm a homemaker. |
| ニコール: よろしく おねがいします。 |
| Nicole: Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. |
| Jessi: It's a pleasure to meet you. |
| ルイス:こんにちは。ぼく は Luis(ルイス)です。がくせいです。 |
| Luis: Konnichiwa. Boku wa Luis desu. |
| Jessi: Hello. I'm Luis. |
| ルイス:がくせいです。 |
| Luis: Gakusei desu. |
| Jessi: I'm a student. |
| ルイス: ぼく は メキシコじんです。 |
| Luis: Boku wa Mekishiko-jin desu. |
| Jessi: I'm Mexican. |
| Vocabulary and Phrase Usage |
| Jessi: All right! So this sounds like it could be your typical Japanese classroom - a mix of people, everyone introducing themselves to each other... |
| Tomoyuki: Yes! It sounds like it might be the first day of class. |
| Jessi: Right, since they are doing self introductions. |
| Tomoyuki: Jessi, we got an interesting question regarding self introductions. |
| Jessi: Oh really? What was it? |
| Tomoyuki: A listener was wondering how they should pronounce their name... |
| Jessi: Ohh, when speaking Japanese! |
| Tomoyuki: Right. |
| Jessi: Good question...! That's because... there is a Japanese way to pronounce foreign words, and that includes foreign names. The way you name sounds in Japanese could be quite different from the original pronunciation! |
| Tomoyuki: For example, in the dialogue, the name Nicole became ニコール (Nikōru). |
| Jessi: Yes, that's a good example. My name, for example, also changes. Jessi becomes ジェシー (Jeshī) in Japanese. And, in our response to that listener, we said that either way was okay. |
| Tomoyuki: Yes, the original pronunciation, or Japanese pronunciation. |
| Jessi: It probably helps to know how your name is pronounced in Japanese, though, just in case. |
| Tomoyuki: Yes, because some foreign sounds can be difficult for Japanese speakers. |
| Jessi: Right. Okay, let's take a look at some of the vocab for this lesson. |
| Tomoyuki: Sounds good! |
| Jessi: The first one is... |
| Tomoyuki: 人（じん） (jin) |
| Jessi: 人 (jin). This is a suffix that means "person", and it's used when talking about nationality. |
| Tomoyuki: To give your nationality, you say the name of your country plus じん (jin). |
| Jessi: For example... I'm from the US, so "American" would be... |
| Tomoyuki: アメリカ (Amerika) plus 人 (jin). アメリカ人 (Amerika-jin). |
| Jessi: アメリカ人。 (Amerika-jin.) American person. How about, a British person? |
| Tomoyuki: The country name, England, is イギリス (Igirisu), and then we added じん (jin)。イギリス人. (Igirisu-jin.) |
| Jessi: イギリス人(Igirisu-jin). British person. How about one more. |
| Tomoyuki: Sure. In the dialogue, we had Luis, who is from Mexico. For Mexican, he said メキシコ人 (mekishiko jin) |
| Jessi: メキシコ (Mekishiko), the name of the country, plus じん (jin)。メキシコ人 (Mekishiko-jin). Great! Now, let's do a quick quiz question. |
| Tomoyuki: Okay! How would you say... Japanese person? Here's a hint... Japan is 日本 (Nihon) in Japanese. |
| [pause for 5 sec] |
| Jessi: And the answer is...? |
| Tomoyuki: 日本人 (Nihon-jin). 日本 (Nihon) plus 人 (jin). Japanese person. |
| Jessi: Excellent! So just remember, country name plus じん (jin), equals nationality! Great! Now let's move onto the lesson focus. |
| Grammar Point |
| Jessi: In this lesson, you'll learn how to say your occupation and nationality using the A is B structure. |
| Tomoyuki: You may remember this from Season 1. |
| Jessi: Right, we learned that AはBです (A wa B desu) means A is B. You'll also review what you say when you first meet someone. |
| Tomoyuki: Let's go over that first! |
| Jessi: Okay, sounds good. So this dialogue takes place at Taylor's Japanese class, where the students are introducing themselves to each other. |
| Tomoyuki: Taylor said はじめまして、私はテイラーです (hajimemashite, watashi wa teirā desu). |
| Jessi: はじめまして (Hajimemashite), nice to meet you. 私はテイラーです (Watashi wa teirādesu) I'm Taylor. This is all review, right? |
| Tomoyuki: Right. |
| Jessi: Before, we learned that わたしは[name]です (watashi wa [name] desu) means My name is [blank]. In this lesson, we're going to replace names with occupation and nationality. Let's start with nationality, since we JUST learned how to say that! |
| Tomoyuki: Sounds good! |
| Jessi: Our structure is わたしは[nationality]です (watashi wa [nationality] desu.) In my case, I'm from the US, so.. listeners, do you remember how to say American? |
| Tomoyuki: The country name, アメリカ (Amerika) plus じん (jin), so... アメリカ人 (Amerika-jin). |
| Jessi: Right! 私はアメリカ人です。 (Watashi wa Amerika-jin desu.) "I'm American." |
| Tomoyuki: 私はアメリカ人です。 (Watashi wa Amerika-jin desu.) |
| Jessi: OK. Listeners. Listen and repeat. “I’m American”. |
| Tomoyuki: 私は アメリカ人です。 (Watashi wa Amerika-jin desu.) |
| Jessi: [pause] Great. So, if you were Mexican, what would you say? |
| Tomoyuki: Mexican would be メキシコ人 (Mekishiko jin) So… |
| Jessi: 私はメキシコ人です。 (Watashi wa Mekishiko-jin desu.) “I’m Mexican.” |
| Tomoyuki: That’s right. 私はメキシコ人です。 (Mekishiko-jin desu.) |
| Jessi: All right.. Now, let's move onto occupation. It's the same pattern, so it's pretty easy. |
| Tomoyuki: Yes, it would be わたしは (Watashi wa) + occupation + です (desu) |
| Jessi: See? Not much has changed. It's mostly a matter of remembering new vocab. Let's look at the words used in the dialogue. Tomoyuki, how do you say a company employee, or someone who works in an office? |
| Tomoyuki: 会社員 (kaishain) |
| Jessi: かいしゃいん (kishain), company employee, or office worker. So, if you were to say "I'm an office worker," that would be? |
| Tomoyuki: 私は会社員です。 (Watashi wa kaishain desu.) |
| Jessi: わたしはかいしゃいんです。 (Watashi wa kaishain desu.) "I'm an office worker" OK. Listeners. Listen and repeat after Tomoyuki. "I'm an office worker." |
| Tomoyuki: 私は会社員です。 (Watashi wa kaishain desu) |
| Jessi: [pause] Now let’s say “I’m a student.” |
| Tomoyuki: Student is がくせい (gakusei) |
| Jessi: がくせい？ (gakusei?) |
| Tomoyuki: Right. がくせい (gakusei). So…”I’m a student” would be? |
| Jessi: Well…that would be… わたしはがくせいです。 (Watashi wa gakusei desu.) “I’m a student”. |
| Tomoyuki: Right. わたしはがくせいです。 (Watashi wa gakusei desu.) |
| Jessi: Now, Tomoyuki, there’s something I wanna bring up. In the dialogue, we have another word for “I”, don’t we? |
| Tomoyuki: Right, ぼく (boku). |
| Jessi: ぼく (Boku) is another word for "I." |
| Tomoyuki: Men or boys use ぼく (boku) instead of わたし (watashi). |
| Jessi: So would it be strange for men to use わたし (watashi) then? |
| Tomoyuki: Well, if you’re an adult and speaking formally, it's OK to use わたし (watashi). |
| But if you’re still young…like in junior high school, high school, or college, then I recommend that you use ぼく (boku) instead of わたし (watashi). |
| Jessi: Got it. In the dialogue, one of the students mentioned their nationality using ぼく (boku), didn’t he? |
| Tomoyuki: Right. Luis said…僕はメキシコ人です (boku wa Mekishiko-jin desu). |
| Jessi: 僕はメキシコ人です。 (Boku wa Mekishiko-jin desu.) “I'm Mexican.” So if you’re a young male listener, please listen and repeat after Tomoyuki. |
| Tomoyuki: 僕はメキシコ人です。 (Boku wa Mekishiko-jin desu.) |
| Jessi: [pause] Okay! |
| Tomoyuki: Remember this わたしは (watashi wa) or ぼくは (boku wa) plus [occupation or nationality], plus です (desu) sentence structure. |
| Jessi: Now, there's one more important point we want to make here. Tomoyuki, when everyone said their occupation, it sounded really short. For example, 会社員です (kaishain desu)。主婦です (shufu desu)。学生です (gakusei desu)。 |
| Tomoyuki: Great point! They left off the わたしは (watashi wa) and ぼくは (boku wa) at the beginning. So instead of わたしは会社員です (watashi wa kaishain desu) or ぼくは会社員です (boku wa kaishain desu), it's just, 会社員です (kaishain desu). |
| Jessi: And that's because it was already clear that they were talking about themselves. When the topic is obvious, it doesn't need to be repeated. So when you're talking about yourself, you don't need to say わたしは (watashi wa) or ぼくは (boku wa) at the start of each sentence. |
| Tomoyuki: Exactly. Leaving it out sounds more natural. |
| Jessi: Let's hear how Taylor introduced himself again. |
| Tomoyuki: Sure. He said, はじめまして (Hajimemashite)。わたし は (Watashi wa) Taylorです (desu)。会社員です。 (kaishain desu.) |
| Jessi: わたしはTaylorです。 (Watashi wa Taylor desu.) I'm Taylor. 会社員です。 (kaishain desu.) I'm an office worker. |
| Tomoyuki: Let's have the listeners practice this. |
| Jessi: Sounds good! Listeners, please repeat after Tomoyuki. |
| Tomoyuki: わたし は Taylorです。(Watashi wa Taylordesu.) 会社員です。 (kaishain desu.) |
| [pause] |
Outro |
| Jessi: Okay, that's sounding great! That's going to wrap up this lesson, but before we go - listeners, leave us a comment telling YOUR occupation and nationality! |
| Tomoyuki: Remember to use わたしは (watashi wa) or ぼくは (boku wa) plus occupation or nationality, plus です (desu). |
| Jessi: We look forward to reading your comments! All right, thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time. |
| Tomoyuki: じゃあまた。 (Jā mata.) |
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