Learn how to ask, "How do you say that ?"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Peter: Basic Bootcamp Lesson 3 – Useful phrases for learning Japanese. Welcome to Basic Bootcamp. This five part series will help ease your way into Japanese. We’ll go over all the basics that will get you on the right track to learning Japanese quickly. |
| Naomi: In this lesson, you will learn several essential phrases to use in Japanese to help you learn Japanese. |
| Peter: Using Japanese to learn Japanese. |
| Naomi: Yes. |
| Peter: You can use the phrases in this lesson when you are at a loss of words or couldn’t catch what was said. With these phrases you can ask anyone at anytime how to say something as well as ask people to repeat themselves. |
| Naomi: Right. Using Japanese to learn Japanese can help you improve much faster. |
| Peter: This lesson’s conversation takes place at a restaurant. The first speaker is a foreigner. Marvin doesn’t know how to say “soy sauce” in Japanese. |
| Naomi: So, he points to the soy sauce and asks the waiter a question. |
| Peter: Let’s have a listen. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: すみません。 |
| A: Excuse me. |
| A: これは日本語で何ですか。 |
| A: How do you say this in Japanese? |
| B: "しょうゆ。" |
| B: "Shōyu." |
| A: すみません。もう一度お願いします。 |
| A: Excuse me, could you say that one more time, please? |
| B: "しょうゆ。" |
| B: "Shōyu." |
| A: すみません。ゆっくりお願いします。 |
| A: Excuse me, could you say it slowly, please? |
| B: "しょ・う・ゆ" |
| B: "Sho-u-yu." |
| Peter: One time slowly. |
| A: すみません。 |
| A: Excuse me. |
| A: これは日本語で何ですか。 |
| A: How do you say this in Japanese? |
| B: "しょうゆ。" |
| B: "Shōyu." |
| A: すみません。もう一度お願いします。 |
| A: Excuse me, could you say that one more time, please? |
| B: "しょうゆ。" |
| B: "Shōyu." |
| A: すみません。ゆっくりお願いします。 |
| A: Excuse me, could you say it slowly, please? |
| B: "しょ・う・ゆ" |
| B: "Sho-u-yu." |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| So, “soy sauce” is しょうゆ (Shōyu) in Japanese. |
| Naomi: Right. しょうゆ (Shōyu), and these phrases in this lesson’s dialogue are very useful. |
| Peter: These are the phrases to use when you can’t find the right word or can’t catch what someone else has said. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary and phrases for this lesson. Again, we’ll say the Japanese one time at natural native speed, then we’ll give you the English, then we’re going to break it down, tune your ears to Japanese. Finally, we’ll give you the entire phrase or word one more time at natural native speed. Naomi-sensei, please start. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: First, we have the phrase... |
| Naomi: すみません (sumimasen) |
| Peter: “Excuse me.” |
| Naomi: すみません (sumimasen) (slow speed) すみません (sumimasen) (normal speed) |
| Peter: The next word? |
| Naomi: 日本語 (nihongo) |
| Peter: “Japanese language” |
| Naomi: 日本語 (nihongo) (slow speed) 日本語 (nihongo) (normal speed) |
| Peter: Next word? |
| Naomi: 何 (nan) |
| Peter: “Japanese language” |
| Naomi: 何 (nan) (slow speed) 何 (nan) (normal speed) |
| Peter: Next we have phrase? |
| Naomi: もう一度お願いします (mō ichi-do onegai shimasu) |
| Peter: “Once more please” |
| Naomi: もう一度お願いします (mō ichi-do onegai shimasu) (slow speed) |
| もう一度お願いします (mō ichi-do onegai shimasu) (normal speed) |
| Peter: And finally we have another phrase? |
| Naomi: ゆっくりお願いします。 (Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| Peter: “slowly please” |
| Naomi: ゆっくりお願いします。 (Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) (slow speed) |
| ゆっくりお願いします。 (Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: let’s take a closer look at these phrases for learning Japanese. Naomi-sensei, first, let’s look at すみません (sumimasen), You hear and use this phrase all the time. |
| Naomi: Right. It means “Excuse me.” or “I’m sorry.”. |
| Peter: It’s one of the best phrases to know because you can use it in multiple situations. First, when can we use this? |
| Naomi: It’s like the English “Excuse me.”. We say すみません (sumimasen) when we are trying to get someone’s attention. |
| Peter: So, maybe when you want to tell or ask someone something, you can use this. In this dialogue, we used it before asking a question. Can you say the phrase again? |
| Naomi: すみません (sumimasen) |
| Peter: Ok. So, you ask the question and you got an answer. But, if you’re still just starting out in Japanese, chances are you might not be able to catch the word right away. |
| Naomi: I think that happens a lot. In that case, our next phrase, お願いします (onegai shimasu) comes in handy. |
| Peter: Can you say it one more time? |
| Naomi: お願いします (onegai shimasu) |
| Peter: As we touched on it Bootcamp lesson one, お願いします (onegai shimasu) means “please.” Now, not to be confused with よろしくお願いします (Yoroshiku o-negai shimasu). お願いします (onegai shimasu) itself means “please” and can be used for asking somebody for something, or asking someone to do something. |
| Naomi: If you want someone to repeat themselves, you can say もう一度お願いします (Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu). |
| Peter: Literally, “once again, please?” Let’s break down that phrase. First, we have? |
| Naomi: もう一度 (Mō ichi-do) |
| Peter: “One more time,” “once again.” |
| Naomi: もう (mō) in this case means “more,” and 一度 (ichi-do) means “one time.” |
| Peter: If you look at the word 一度 (ichi-do), it literally means just that. 一 (ichi) means “one” and 度 (do) means “time.” 一度 (ichi-do), “one time.” |
| Naomi: And then, we end it with お願いします (onegai shimasu). |
| Peter: “Please.” Literally, “one more time please.” And the listener saying it is implied, “one more time please,” “please say it one more time.” “Say it,” the action, is implied by the speaker and referred by the listener. Can we hear the phrase all together once more? |
| Naomi: もう一度お願いします (Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu). |
| Peter: もう一度 (Mō ichi-do), “one more time”; お願いします (onegai shimasu), “please.” |
| もう一度お願いします (Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu), “once again, please.” So, the person will repeat the phrase for you. However, Naomi-sensei, what if they say it at the same speed and you still can’t catch it? |
| Naomi: We have a phrase for that, too. ゆっくりお願いします (Yukkuri onegai shimasu). |
| Peter: “Slowly, please.” In this case, while we translate it as “Slowly, please,” what’s implied by the speaker? |
| Naomi: “Can you say?” |
| Peter: So it’s a shorten way. “Slowly, please,” but, “Can you say it slowly, please?” |
| Let’s break down this phrase. Naomi-sensei, what’s the first word? |
| Naomi: ゆっくり (Yukkuri) |
| Peter: ゆっくり (Yukkuri) means “slowly.” After that, we have… |
| Naomi: お願いします (onegai shimasu). |
| Peter: “Please.” This is the same phrase we saw before in… |
| Naomi: もう一度お願いします (Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu). |
| Peter: See how useful お願いします (onegai shimasu) is? You really need to put this one to memory. So, can we hear the whole phrase again? |
| Naomi: ゆっくりお願いします (Yukkuri onegai shimasu). |
| Peter: Ok. So, now we’ve got two ways to ask for something to be repeated. On to the grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: In this lesson’s grammar section, you’ll learn the phrase “How do you say something in Japanese?” In the dialogue, the first speaker is holding the soy sauce and says? |
| Naomi: これは日本語で何ですか。 (Kore wa Nihon-go de nan desu ka?) |
| Peter: “What’s this in Japanese?” With this phrase, you’ll be able to learn a lot of Japanese while practicing your Japanese at the same time. Let’s break down this sentence. |
| Naomi: これ (kore) |
| Peter: “This” |
| Naomi: は (wa) |
| Peter: Topic marking particle; “as for,” and in this case, “as for this.” |
| Naomi: 日本語で (Nihon-go de) |
| Peter: means “in Japanese.” Two components to this, first, 日本語 (Nihon-go), “Japanese language” |
| Naomi: で (de) |
| Peter: This is a particle that marks the tool and the tool here is Japanese, so we translate this as “in Japanese.” As for this, in Japanese. Next, we have… |
| Naomi: 何 (nan) |
| Peter: “What” |
| Naomi: です (desu) |
| Peter: “Is” |
| Naomi: か (ka) |
| Peter: question-marking particle. So, if we put it all together, Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: これは日本語で何ですか。 (Kore wa Nihon-go de nan desu ka?) |
| Peter: It literally means “This, in Japanese, what is?” Of course, in natural English, “What is this in Japanese?” or “How do you say this in Japanese?”. Can we hear this sentence one more time? |
| Naomi: これは日本語で何ですか。 (Kore wa Nihon-go de nan desu ka?) |
| Peter: これは日本語で何ですか。 (Kore wa Nihon-go de nan desu ka?) “How do you say this in Japanese?” |
| Naomi: Right, これ (kore) means “this”, but you can put the actual English word instead of これ (kore). |
| Peter: For example? |
| Naomi: Coffee は日本語で何ですか。 (Coffee wa Nihon-go de nan desu ka?) |
| Peter: “How do you say coffee in Japanese?” |
| Naomi: American は日本語で何ですか。 (American wa Nihon-go de nan desu ka?) |
| Peter: “How do you say American in Japanese?” Naomi-sensei, Bootcamp は日本語で何ですか。 (Bootcamp wa Nihon-go de nan desu ka?) “How do you say Bootcamp in Japanese?” |
| If you get this one down, you’ll both impress people and learn that word that’s been missing from your vocabulary. |
| Naomi: Right. The good thing about this sentence is that you can also use the same sentence structure to ask what something is called in English. |
| Peter: For example, if someone springs an unfamiliar Japanese word on you, and you’d like to know what it’s called in English, you can say? |
| Naomi: Such and such は英語で何ですか (wa Ei-go de nan desu ka)? |
| Peter: Say the unfamiliar Japanese word and say? |
| Naomi: は英語で何ですか (wa Ei-go de nan desu ka)? 英語 (Ei-go) means “English.” |
| Peter: “Say that again,” or もう一度お願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu.) |
| Naomi: Sure, 英語 (Ei-go). |
| Peter: ゆっくりお願いします。 (Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) “This time, slowly, please.” |
| Naomi: 英語 (Ei-go). |
| Peter: 英語 (Ei-go), “English.” Long vowel. Not A-go, Ei-go. |
| Naomi: Right, Ei-go. |
| Peter: Ok, so Naomi-sensei, can we hear all the phrases we learned one more time. もう一度お願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu.) |
| Naomi: Sure. すみません。( Sumimasen.) |
| Peter: “Excuse me.” |
| Naomi: これは日本語で何ですか。 (Kore wa Nihon-go de nan desu ka?) |
| Peter: “How do you say this in Japanese?” |
| Naomi: もう一度お願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu.) |
| Peter: “One more time, please.” |
| Naomi: ゆっくりお願いします。 (Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| Peter: “Slowly, please.” |
Outro |
| Peter: All right. So, remember. If you get stuck, you have these phrases to help you out. There’s nothing more important than applying the Japanese you know. And there’s nothing to be worry about. |
| Naomi: See you next time for more Basic Bootcamp Japanese. |
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