Learn about three personal pronouns meaning "I" and how to introduce yourself in Japanese
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Erin: Hi everyone, and welcome back to JapanesePod101.com. This is An Integrated Guide to Japanese, Unit 1 Lesson 1 - How to Introduce Yourself in Japanese, Erin Here. |
| Risa: Kon’nichiwa. I'm Risa. |
| Erin: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to introduce yourself and learn about three pronouns meaning “I” in Japanese. The conversation takes place at a hospital. |
| Risa: It's between Shiori Kawaguchi, Keith Johnson, and Nicole Roberts. |
| Erin: The speakers are strangers. Therefore they will speak formal Japanese. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| かわぐちしおり: はじめまして。 |
| かわぐちしおり: かわぐち しおりです。 |
| かわぐちしおり: わたしは かいしゃいんです。 |
| かわぐちしおり: よろしく おねがいします。 |
| キース・ジョンソン: はじめまして。 |
| キース・ジョンソン: ぼくは ジョンソン キースです。 |
| ロバーツ・ニコル: わたくしは、ロバーツ・ニコルです。 |
| ロバーツ・ニコル: しゅっしんは シドニーです。 |
| ロバーツ・ニコル: よろしくおねがいします。 |
| Erin: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| かわぐちしおり: はじめまして。 |
| かわぐちしおり: かわぐち しおりです。 |
| かわぐちしおり: わたしは かいしゃいんです。 |
| かわぐちしおり: よろしく おねがいします。 |
| キース・ジョンソン: はじめまして。 |
| キース・ジョンソン: ぼくは ジョンソン キースです。 |
| ロバーツ・ニコル: わたくしは、ロバーツ・ニコルです。 |
| ロバーツ・ニコル: しゅっしんは シドニーです。 |
| ロバーツ・ニコル: よろしくおねがいします。 |
| Erin: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Shiori Kawaguchi: It's nice to meet you. |
| Shiori Kawaguchi: I am Kawaguchi Shiori. |
| Shiori Kawaguchi: I am working at a company. |
| Shiori Kawaguchi: Please be good to me. |
| Keith Johnson: It's nice to meet you. |
| Keith Johnson: I am Keith Johnson. |
| Nicole Roberts: I am Nicole Roberts. |
| Nicole Roberts: I am from Sydney. |
| Nicole Roberts: Please be good to me. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Erin: Japanese people usually bow to someone to show appreciation or to apologize. |
| Risa: That’s right. And bowing is generally called 'o-jigi (お辞儀).' |
| Erin: I think the more deeply you bow, the more politely you can show your feeling in general. |
| Risa: Yes, so on a first meeting, it is good to introduce yourself with a light bow, known as 'eshaku (会釈).' |
| Erin: This is the one that you need to tilt your back at an angle of about 15 degrees, right? |
| Risa: Right. And it is important to keep your hands in the right position. Men usually keep their hands on their side, and women grab hands in front of their bellies while bowing. |
| Erin: But when you step into a shop, the staff bows deeper at an angle of about 30 degrees. |
| Risa: That’s right. That type of bow is called a 'keirei (敬礼.)' If you work at a shop, you need to greet your guests at this angle. |
| Erin: I see. In Japan, you also need to bow when exchanging your business cards. For example, when you meet someone for the first time in a business setting, you are supposed to bow and exchange your business card with them. For this interaction, you should bow at about 15 degrees. |
| Risa: That’s right, you will use “eshaku (会釈)” here. And it is important to say the set phrases when giving your business card. |
| Erin: So… let’s say you give your business card to me. What would you say? |
| Risa: Hajimemashite. Risa to mōshimasu. Yoroshiku o-negai itashimasu. |
| Erin: “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Risa. Please be good to me.” |
| Risa: And, if you are there for your company, you can say your company name right before your name. For example… Hajimemashite. JapanesePod101 no Risa to mōshimasu. Yoroshiku o-negai itashimasu. |
| Erin: “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Risa from JapanesePod101. Please be good to me.” Also, listeners, make sure to hand out your card with both hands, and have the card facing toward the recipient. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Erin: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Risa: はじめまして。 [natural native speed] |
| Erin: Nice to meet you. |
| Risa: は じ め ま し て。[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Risa: はじめまして。 [natural native speed] |
| Erin: Next we have... |
| Risa: よろしくおねがいします。 [natural native speed] |
| Erin: It's a pleasure to meet you. |
| Risa: よ ろ し く お ね が い し ま す。[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Risa: よろしくおねがいします。 [natural native speed] |
| Erin: Next we have... |
| Risa: わたし [natural native speed] |
| Erin: I, me |
| Risa: わ た し[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Risa: わたし [natural native speed] |
| Erin: Next we have... |
| Risa: ぼく [natural native speed] |
| Erin: I, me (used by males) |
| Risa: ぼ く [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Risa: ぼく [natural native speed] |
| Erin: Next we have... |
| Risa: わたくし [natural native speed] |
| Erin: I, me (humble) |
| Risa: わ た く し [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Risa: わたくし [natural native speed] |
| Erin: And last... |
| Risa: シドニー [natural native speed] |
| Erin: Sydney |
| Risa: シ ド ニ イ[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Risa: シドニー [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Erin: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first expression is... |
| Risa: はじめまして。 |
| Erin: meaning "Nice to meet you." |
| Risa: This expression might look similar to you if you know the verb はじめる (hajimeru) which means “to begin." |
| Erin: This phrase… |
| Risa: はじめまして... |
| Erin: is often the first thing one would say when introducing oneself, and it’s appropriate for all politeness levels. |
| Risa: Right. And listeners, make sure to use it only when you meet someone for the very first time. |
| Erin: And you can say the expression even if the other person said it already. Both speakers can use the same phrase when meeting for the first time. Risa, can you give us an example using this word? |
| Risa: Sure. For example, you can say... はじめまして。ロリーです。 |
| Erin: ...which means "It's nice to meet you. I'm Lori.” |
| Erin: Okay, what's the next expression? |
| Risa: よろしくおねがいします。 |
| Erin: This expression means "Please be good to me." It is a commonly used expression which corresponds to "It's a pleasure to meet you." It sounds formal to me, but I heard that there is a way to make it even more formal, right? |
| Risa: Yes. Just say Dōzo and this expression. Dōzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.（どうぞよろしくおねがいします。） |
| Erin: What about making it a bit more casual? |
| Risa: In that case, you can also say yoroshiku.（よろしく。）It means the same thing, but more casual. |
| Erin: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Erin: In this lesson, you'll learn how to introduce yourself and learn about the usage of three pronouns meaning “I” in Japanese. |
| Erin: Okay, Risa. When I meet someone for the first time, how can I introduce myself? |
| Risa: It’s simple. First, say はじめまして. |
| Erin: This means “It’s nice to meet you.” |
| Risa: Then, you are going to introduce your name, using a very essential sentence pattern, A は B です。 (A wa B desu.) |
| Erin: One more time |
| Risa i : A は B です。 (A, wa, B, desu.) |
| Erin : Let’s break it down. So we have A, followed by |
| Risai: は (wa) |
| Erin : And then B, followed by |
| Risa: です (desu) . |
| Erin: Okay, so the pattern one more time? |
| Risa: A は B です。 (A wa B desu.) |
| Erin: So where we have A and B, we can start inserting different words to make a sentence to introduce myself, right?. |
| Risa: Yes, you can say, わたしはエリンです。 (Watashi wa Erin desu.) |
| Erin :わたし (watashi) means I, and エリン(Erin) is my name. So we just put one of those into the A is B structure. A は B で す。 (A wa B desu.) And we get? |
| Risa: わたしはエリンです。 (Watashi wa Erin desu.) |
| Erin: What do we have so far? |
| Risa: はじめまして。わたしはエリンです。 |
| Erin: “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Erin.” So I can use this when I meet someone for the very first time in Japan. Okay, listeners, now you try! Imagine your name is John. Say “It’s nice to meet you. I'm John.” in Japanese. |
| [Pause] |
| Erin: Did you get it? |
| Risa: はじめまして。わたしは、ジョンです。 |
| Erin: "It’s nice to meet you. I'm John." |
| Erin: Now, imagine your name is あいこ. Say "It’s nice to meet you. I'm Aiko" in Japanese. |
| Risa: はじめまして。わたしは あいこ です。 |
| Erin: "It’s nice to meet you. I'm Aiko." |
| Risa: There are two things you should know. First, there's a shortcut to giving your name. Instead of saying わたしは リサ です, I can say リサ です。 |
| Erin: The only difference is you drop... |
| Risa: わたしは |
| Erin: since it's understood you're talking about yourself. Second, Japanese people usually say either their full names — or only their family names — when they introduce themselves. |
| Risa: Now, we just checked the pronoun わたし, but there are more pronouns meaning “I” in Japanese. Let’s review them one by one. |
| Erin: So what’s the first one? |
| Risa: わたし (Watashi). We already used this one earlier. In general, you can use this word to mean “I.” |
| Erin: For example…? |
| Risa: わたしは かいしゃいんです。 |
| Erin: "I am working at a company." |
| Risa: Women usually use this when referring to themselves. |
| Erin: I heard that too. Men can use it too, but usually only in very formal situations such as job interviews or similar situations. What if a male person overuses this pronoun in a casual situation? |
| Risa: It should be okay, but it won’t sound very natural. |
| Erin: That’s why there is another pronoun for male speakers to use in a casual situation. |
| Risa: That’s right. We have ぼく (Boku). Boku is another word that means "I," but mostly males use it. |
| Erin: I heard that boys and young guys use this when they talk casually. |
| Risa: Right. In a casual situation, men can use boku instead of watashi to refer to themselves. |
| Erin: And here’s the last one. |
| Risa: わたくし (Watakushi) |
| Erin: This is the humble word for “I” and this is an extremely polite form. |
| Risa: Japanese people don’t use it often in daily conversation unless they work in a service industry. |
| Erin: I remember hearing it when a staff member referred to himself while talking to me as a guest. I guess both men and women can use this, right? |
| Risa: Yes. This is a gender-neutral word. |
Outro |
| Erin: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Risa: Matane. |
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