Learn about indicating that two actions occur at the same time
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: おはよう、クック諸島。ナツコです。(Ohayō, Kukku Shotō. Natsuko desu.) |
| Yoshi: おはよう、クック諸島。よしです。(Ohayō, Kukku Shotō. Yoshi desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. As always, we are brought to you by Erklaren, the translation and interpretation specialists. Okay, we are back with another lesson and today, we are going to introduce a very useful grammar point. Natsuko-san, what’s that grammar point? |
| Natsuko: ながら (nagara) |
| Peter: While, doing something while, doing something else. |
| Natsuko: Yes, a very popular phrase in Japanese. |
| Peter: Very popular because everybody is so busy. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: It’s usually while working. |
| Natsuko: Ah really? |
| Peter: Now Yoshi-san, about today’s conversation, today’s conversation is between two people. What kind of relationship do they have? |
| Yoshi: I think they are friends. They could be boyfriend and girlfriend. |
| Peter: Very wishful thinking here. |
| Yoshi: Do you know we got to stick to our hope? |
| Peter: No, we have to stick to the script. So what we are going to do now is get into this conversation but the main point is that what kind of Japanese will we be using? |
| Yoshi: Casual Japanese. |
| Peter: Okay, because the conversation is between two friends. So with that said, let’s get into today’s lesson. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : 久しぶりのドライブは楽しいね。(Hisashiburi no doraibu wa tanoshii ne.) |
| よし (Yoshi) : そうだね。(Sō da ne.) |
| （よしの電話が鳴る）(Yoshi no denwa ga naru) |
| よし (Yoshi) : もしもし。おー、元気？(Moshimoshi. Ō, genki?) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : 運転しながら、携帯で話してるの？違法だよ。つかまるよ。(Unten shinagara, keitai de hanashite ru no? Ihō da yo. Tsukamaru yo.) |
| よし (Yoshi) : 大丈夫だよ。つかまらないよ。(Daijōbu da yo. Tsukamaranai yo.) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : それよりも、命の問題でしょう。(Soreyori mo, inochi no mondai deshō.) |
| Chigusa: もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : 久しぶりのドライブは楽しいね。(Hisashiburi no doraibu wa tanoshii ne.) |
| よし (Yoshi) : そうだね。(Sō da ne.) |
| よし (Yoshi) : もしもし。おー、元気？(Moshimoshi. Ō, genki?) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : 運転しながら、携帯で話してるの？違法だよ。つかまるよ。(Unten shinagara, keitai de hanashite ru no? Ihō da yo. Tsukamaru yo.) |
| よし (Yoshi) : 大丈夫だよ。つかまらないよ。(Daijōbu da yo. Tsukamaranai yo.) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : それよりも、命の問題でしょう。(Soreyori mo, inochi no mondai deshō.) |
| Chigusa: 今度は、ピーターの英語が入ります。(Kondo wa, Pītā no Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : 久しぶりのドライブは楽しいね。(Hisashiburi no doraibu wa tanoshii ne.) |
| CHIGUSA: It's fun, this first drive in a while, right? |
| よし (Yoshi) : そうだね。(Sō da ne.) |
| YOSHI: That's right. |
| （よしの電話が鳴る）(Yoshi no denwa ga naru) |
| （Yoshi's phone rings） |
| よし (Yoshi) : もしもし。おー、元気？(Moshimoshi. Ō, genki?) |
| YOSHI: Hello. Hey, how are you? |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : 運転しながら、携帯で話してるの？違法だよ。つかまるよ。(Unten shinagara, keitai de hanashite ru no? Ihō da yo. Tsukamaru yo.) |
| CHIGUSA: You're talking on your cell phone while you're driving? That's illegal. You're gonna get caught. |
| よし (Yoshi) : 大丈夫だよ。つかまらないよ。(Daijōbu da yo. Tsukamaranai yo.) |
| YOSHI: It's alright. I'm not gonna get caught. |
| ちぐさ (Chigusa) : それよりも、命の問題でしょう。(Soreyori mo, inochi no mondai deshō.) |
| CHIGUSA: More than that, it's a matter of life and death. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Yoshi-san, let’s ask Natsuko-san what she thought of today’s conversation. |
| Yoshi: ナツコさん、今日の会話はどうでしたか。(Natsuko-san, kyō no kaiwa wa dō deshita ka.) |
| Natsuko: そうですね。携帯しながら運転は危ないですよね。(Sō desu ne. Keitai shinagara unten wa abunai desu yo ne.) |
| Peter: English please. |
| Natsuko: Yes, I think it’s very dangerous to speak on your cell phone while driving. |
| Peter: I think it is extremely dangerous. |
| Natsuko: You better not. |
| Peter: Yeah, and in Japan, it is illegal. |
| Natsuko: Yes, it is. |
| Peter: From a few years ago. So I think some places, Natsuko-san, do you know when this went into effect? |
| Natsuko: I think it was last year. |
| Peter: There has been a drastic decrease in the number of people talking on the cell phone while driving. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: And it hasn’t stopped everybody but a lot of people also use the hands free. |
| Natsuko: You are right. |
| Peter: So maybe, like when we specify this like to be holding the cell phone and have it to your ear is where the problem lies. It’s a good question. I am not sure if it’s illegal to talk on the cell phone while driving even if it's hands free. |
| Natsuko: I am not sure either but you do get distracted anyway right while speaking. |
| Peter: Yeah, but I think I don’t know. It could go either way right because you know if you think about it that way, you shouldn’t be able to talk to anybody in the car while driving. So yeah so oh, do we have any lawyer friends? Yoshi-san, do you have any lawyer friends? |
| Yoshi: No, I don’t. |
| Peter: Okay, so that’s something that we will have to look into. So if you stop by japanesepod101.com and check out the comments section, we should have something in there. I say should because I don’t know where we are going to find this information. |
| Natsuko: Yes, but maybe there is a lawyer among the listeners. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: All right. That would be good. So now let’s move on to vocabulary. First word. |
| Natsuko: 違法 (ihō) |
| Peter: Illegal. |
| Natsuko: (slow) いほう (ihō) (natural speed) 違法 (ihō) |
| Peter: Now this word is made up of two Chinese characters, two kanji. What’s the meaning of this first character? |
| Yoshi: Different. |
| Peter: Different. Now what’s the second character? |
| Yoshi: law. |
| Peter: Different law. So for any given country, there is just one set of laws. So a different law don't work in that given country. So if it helps, you could think about it this way. The different law is pretty much equal to illegal because when you get to the court, the judges aren’t going to want to hear anything about a different law. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Just the ones they know. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So it makes sense. Different law, illegal, doesn’t work here. Yoshi-san, can you give us a sample sentence? |
| Yoshi: 飲酒運転は違法です。(Inshu unten wa ihō desu.) |
| Peter: Drunk driving is illegal. Can you give us the word for drunk driving? |
| Yoshi: 飲酒運転 (inshu unten) |
| Peter: And the first word to drink is |
| Yoshi: 飲酒 (inshu) |
| Peter: And there are two characters in this. The first character means |
| Yoshi: Drink. |
| Peter: Second character. |
| Yoshi: Alcohol. |
| Peter: Drink alcohol, very straightforward, 飲酒 (inshu). Then we have |
| Yoshi: 運転 (unten) |
| Peter: Operate and in this case, it’s the car. This is illegal and Japan has done some very interesting things recently. One is stiff fines. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: It’s ¥300,000. |
| Natsuko: Yes, it’s now very strict. |
| Peter: What’s the Japanese for that? How much is it in Japanese? |
| Natsuko: 30万円 (san-jū-man-en) |
| Peter: Yep, ¥300,000. That’s about $2600? |
| Natsuko: I guess so. I don’t know the rate today. |
| Peter: But yeah, really expensive. Okay, next we have, Natsuko-san? |
| Natsuko: つかまる (tsukamaru) |
| Peter: Get caught. |
| Natsuko: (slow) つかまる (tsukamaru) (natural speed) つかまる (tsukamaru) |
| Peter: And this is to get caught. What about to catch? |
| Natsuko: つかまえる (tsukamaeru) |
| Peter: Can you just break that down? |
| Natsuko: (slow) つかまえる (tsukamaeru) (natural speed) つかまえる (tsukamaeru) |
| Peter: Now Natsuko-san, now I always use Yoshi-san for the examples, okay. If I am drunk driving and you catch me, how would you say that in Japanese? |
| Natsuko: 私はピーターを飲酒運転でつかまえました。(Watashi wa Pītā o inshu unten de tsukamaemashita.) |
| Peter: I caught Peter drunk driving, I caught Peter on drunk driving charges. もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| Natsuko: 私はピーターを飲酒運転でつかまえました。(Watashi wa Pītā o inshu unten de tsukamaemashita.) |
| Peter: I caught Peter on drunk driving charges. I caught Peter for drunk driving. Okay Yoshi-san, so I called you and then you called my guarantor in Japan and you had to tell him that Peter was caught drunk driving. |
| Yoshi: ピーターが飲酒運転でつかまりました。(Pītā ga inshu unten de tsukamarimashita.) |
| Peter: Peter got caught on drunk driving charges. Peter got caught drunk driving. So to catch and be caught and finally we have in vocabulary |
| Yoshi: 命 (inochi) |
| Peter: Life. |
| Yoshi: (slow) いのち (inochi) (natural speed) 命 (inochi) |
| Peter: Yoshi-san, example sentence. |
| Yoshi: 命からがら逃げる。(Inochi karagara nigeru.) |
| Peter: Barely escape with one’s life. I like that からがら (karagara). |
| Natsuko: I do like that. |
| Peter: I know it sounds nice. |
| Natsuko: Oh really! |
| Peter: からがら逃げる (karagara nigeru), the word of the week, actually the phrase of the week. |
| Natsuko: But I don’t want to use it. |
| Peter: Yeah, well really good point here. This is not some Japanese that you really want to be in the situation to use. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Excellent point, Natsuko. Okay, we are running short on time. What we are going to do is go over some points in the conversation real quick. Well actually we will go to the conversation really quick and then move on to the grammar point. Natsuko-san, first line. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Natsuko: 久しぶりのドライブは楽しいね。(Hisashiburi no doraibu wa tanoshii ne.) |
| Peter: What’s unique about this first sentence literally translated, “long time’s,” possessive here, drive is fun, right? Long times drive is fun, that’s the literal translation but we have to interpret it here. 久しぶりのドライブ (hisashiburi no doraibu) and the pattern here is 久しぶりの (hisashiburi no) and what comes after that noun there can change. For example, Natsuko-san, say well, I am dieting and I finally get to the weight I want. This is a really hypothetical situation but I go out and I get a pizza. So it’s my first pizza in a while, I can say |
| Natsuko: 久しぶりのピザ (hisashiburi no piza) |
| Peter: Yeah. Yoshi-san, my first 酒 (sake) in a while. |
| Yoshi: 久しぶりの酒 (hisashiburi no sake) |
| Peter: That’s the construction. |
| Natsuko: Why is it always the pair eating and drinking? |
| Peter: Okay Natsuko-san, make one up. |
| Natsuko: 久しぶりの休み (hisashiburi no yasumi) |
| Peter: I think because we never have those. I think that’s why we don’t. |
| Natsuko: I am very sorry. |
| Peter: Yeah, vacation 休み (yasumi), yeah. That doesn’t go well with a corporate counselor, yeah. |
| Natsuko: Oh it doesn’t work, sorry, sorry yeah. |
| Peter: Eating and drinking, that’s all we do, that’s it. Okay, so you can feel free to use this structure over and over. Then we have |
| Yoshi: そうだね。(Sō da ne.) |
| Peter: That’s right, just agreeing. This is followed by a telephone call |
| Yoshi: もしもし。おー、元気？(Moshimoshi. Ō, genki?) |
| Peter: Okay. Notice the informal casual way of speaking here, おー、元気？(ō, genki?). Now Yoshi-san, who would you be talking to here? |
| Yoshi: I should be talking to some good friend of mine. |
| Peter: Exactly. You can tell as soon as you hear this phrase, what kind of relationship they have. If you picked up the phone and said |
| Yoshi: あ、お元気ですか。(A, o-genki desu ka.) |
| Peter: You can tell that that person is in a higher social status, maybe a professor, maybe someone from work related. It depends on that thing but you can tell right away that the social status is higher and also お元気ですか (o-genki desu ka) is kind of indicates that it’s been a period of time they haven’t met or spoken. So again, this is what we want to get more and more involved with. As soon as you hear what phrases to use, you can kind of tell what relationship that person has with the person they are speaking with, followed by |
| Natsuko: 運転しながら携帯で話してるの？(Unten shinagara keitai de hanashite ru no?) |
| Peter: You are speaking on your cell phone while driving? Notice the question form here. The final particle of this sentence is |
| Natsuko: の (no) |
| Peter: Listen to the intonation of this sentence, one more time. |
| Natsuko: 運転しながら携帯で話してるの？(Unten shinagara keitai de hanashite ru no?) |
| Peter: That final intonation indicates that you are talking on the phone? You are talking on your cell phone while driving? And our grammar point is in here. So let’s just take a minute and look at this grammar point. Today’s grammar point, one more time Natsuko-san. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Natsuko: ながら (nagara) |
| Peter: While. Now here the subordinate clause comes first and the way we attach ながら (nagara) is we take the masu-stem of the verb and attach ながら (nagara) to that. So 運転する (unten suru), 運転 (unten) operation, to make it into a verb, we have |
| Natsuko: 運転する (unten suru) |
| Peter: Masu-stem of する (suru) is |
| Natsuko: し (shi) |
| Peter: Attach ながら (nagara), we get |
| Natsuko: 運転しながら (unten shinagara) |
| Peter: And this is followed up by |
| Natsuko: 携帯で話しているの (keitai de hanashite iru no) |
| Peter: You are talking on your cell phone. Now inside today’s PDF, we will have a detailed write up of this more on the construction and more on the grammar about this. More examples et cetera. Okay, this is followed by |
| Natsuko: 違法だよ。つかまるよ。(Ihō da yo. Tsukamaru yo.) |
| Peter: Notice both of these sentences end with a sentence final particle |
| Natsuko: よ (yo) |
| Peter: Indicating that she is emphasizing what he is doing is illegal. You are going to get caught, emphasizing these two things. Yoshi-san follows it up and maybe we can say, can we say typical? |
| Natsuko: Yes, I bet. |
| Peter: Macho guy attitude! |
| Yoshi: 大丈夫だよ。(Daijōbu da yo.) |
| Peter: And here we can interpret this as while 大丈夫 (daijōbu) means all right, here we can interpret it as no problem. It will be alright, everything will work out. Basically saying, I am not getting caught, followed up by |
| Yoshi: つかまらないよ。(Tsukamaranai yo.) |
| Peter: And now he is emphasizing back. I am not going to get caught. Natsuko-san, let me ask you this. Do we need a part 2 to this series when the cop stops him? |
| Natsuko: I guess so. |
| Peter: And maybe we will continue. Do you want a prison series? Yoshi-san, do you want to be in prison? |
| Yoshi: Not anymore. |
| Peter: Okay, and then the last part of this. |
| Natsuko: それよりも、命の問題でしょう。(Soreyori mo, inochi no mondai deshō.) |
| Peter: First part of this sentence, |
| Natsuko: それよりも (soreyori mo) |
| Peter: More than that. What is this particle も (mo) here doing? |
| Natsuko: Rather or more. |
| Peter: Yeah. More than that. Here we have the comparative marker, which is |
| Natsuko: よりも (yori mo) |
| Peter: And before that we have |
| Natsuko: それ (sore) |
| Peter: So here it’s pretty straightforward. Just reversing the order. Literally that more than. Again we just have to reverse here, more than that. |
| Natsuko: 命の問題でしょう (inochi no mondai deshō) |
| Peter: Life’s problem, right is the literal translation. Life’s problem, right? Again 命 (inochi) life, possessive の (no), 問題 (mondai), life’s problem, right. Literal translation but again we interpret this and what the speaker is trying to convey is, it’s a matter of life, right and then we interpret it as it’s a matter of life and death. Okay, so I like that lesson today. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: And I am still debating whether we should follow this up. |
| Natsuko: It depends on Yoshi-san. |
| Peter: Yoshi-san, you make the call. |
| Yoshi: But I think it’s going to be a good lesson actually. |
| Peter: Yeah, the only problem is researching that lesson. Someone’s going to have to go and get caught a few times by the police. |
| Natsuko: Why? |
| Peter: Well I don’t really know. Do you know the procedure? |
| Natsuko: No, but I don’t think you will get into prison. |
Outro |
| Peter: No, just stopped a few times. Okay anyway, we would like to hear your opinion. Do you want this series to continue on? Stop by japanesepod101.com. Okay, with that said, we will be back tomorrow. So that’s going to do for today. |
| Natsuko: じゃあ、また明日ね。(Jā, mata ashita ne.) |
| Yoshi: またね。(Mata ne.) |
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