Learn about expressing an imaginary list of reasons
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yoshi: おはよう、ハンボルト。よしです。(Ohayō, Hanboruto. Yoshi desu.) |
| Chigusa: おはよう、ハンボルト。ちぐさです。(Ohayō, Hanboruto. Chigusa desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Beginner lesson #139. Today is Yoshi-san's special occasion. Now if you didn’t catch the location, I got to admit, this one is quite tough and it comes from the mind of our one and only Yoshi-san. Yoshi-san, isn’t there someone else you wanted to say hello to that has to do with this location? |
| Yoshi: おはよう、ローラ。(Ohayō, Rōra.) |
| Peter: Okay, now if you want to know what’s going on, you are going to have to stop by japanesepod101.com. Yoshi-san is going to comment and tell you what exactly is going on but it’s all connected. We can assure you that. Now for today’s lesson, we are going to work on the sentence ending particle し (shi). We covered this previously and it caused some confusion. What we are going to do today is take today’s lesson to focus on it. Very useful especially in spoken Japanese. In today’s conversation, Chigusa is going to try and get out of her cell phone contract. So with that said, let’s listen to today’s conversation. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 店員 (ten’in) : いらっしゃいませ。番号カードをお取りください。(Irasshaimase. Bangō kādo o o-tori kudasai.) |
| 機械 (kikai) : ６３番の方。(Roku-jū san-ban no kata.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : 解約をお願いします。(Kaiyaku o onegai shimasu.) |
| 店員 (ten’in) : 解約ですか。ご不満の点がありましたか。(Kaiyaku desu ka. Go-fuman no ten ga arimashita ka.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : 電話はあまり使わないし、基本料金は高いし。(Denwa wa amari tsukawanai shi, kihon ryōkin wa takai shi.) |
| 店員 (ten’in) : はい、かしこまりました。少々お待ちください。(Hai, kashikomarimashita. Shōshō o-machi kudasai.) |
| はい、ここにサインしてください。はい、手続きを完了しました。(Hai, koko ni sain shite kudasai. Hai, tetsuzuki o kanryō shimashita.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : どうもありがとうございました。(Dōmo arigatō gozaimashita.) |
| Peter: One more time. Slowly please. |
| Yoshi: 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.) |
| 店員 (ten’in) : いらっしゃいませ。番号カードをお取りください。(Irasshaimase. Bangō kādo o o-tori kudasai.) |
| 機械 (kikai) : ６３番の方。(Roku-jū san-ban no kata.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : 解約をお願いします。(Kaiyaku o onegai shimasu.) |
| 店員 (ten’in) : 解約ですか。ご不満の点がありましたか。(Kaiyaku desu ka. Go-fuman no ten ga arimashita ka.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : 電話はあまり使わないし、基本料金は高いし。(Denwa wa amari tsukawanai shi, kihon ryōkin wa takai shi.) |
| 店員 (ten’in) : はい、かしこまりました。少々お待ちください。(Hai, kashikomarimashita. Shōshō o-machi kudasai.) |
| はい、ここにサインしてください。はい、手続きを完了しました。(Hai, koko ni sain shite kudasai. Hai, tetsuzuki o kanryō shimashita.) |
| 客 (kyaku) : どうもありがとうございました。(Dōmo arigatō gozaimashita.) |
| 店員 (ten’in) : いらっしゃいませ。番号カードをお取りください。(Irasshaimase. Bangō kādo o o-tori kudasai.) |
| EMPLOYEE: Welcome. Please take a number. |
| 機械 (kikai) : ６３番の方。(Roku-jū san-ban no kata.) |
| CUSTOMER: Number 63. |
| 客 (kyaku) : 解約をお願いします。(Kaiyaku o onegai shimasu.) |
| EMPLOYEE: Please cancel my contract. |
| 店員 (ten’in) : 解約ですか。(Kaiyaku desu ka.) |
| CUSTOMER: Cancel your contract? |
| 店員 (ten’in) : ご不満の点がありましたか。(Go-fuman no ten ga arimashita ka.) |
| CUSTOMER: Were you unsatisfied with something? |
| 客 (kyaku) : 電話はあまり使わないし、(Denwa wa amari tsukawanai shi,) |
| EMPLOYEE: I don't use the phone much and |
| 客 (kyaku) : 基本料金は高いし。(kihon ryōkin wa takai shi.) |
| EMPLOYEE: the basic charge is high. |
| 店員 (ten’in) : はい、かしこまりました。(Hai, kashikomarimashita.) |
| CUSTOMER: I understand. |
| 店員 (ten’in) : 少々お待ちください。(Shōshō o-machi kudasai.) |
| CUSTOMER: Please wait just a moment... |
| 店員 (ten’in) : はい、ここにサインしてください。(Hai, koko ni sain shite kudasai.) |
| CUSTOMER: Please sign here. |
| 店員 (ten’in) : はい、手続きを完了しました。(Hai, tetsuzuki o kanryō shimashita.) |
| CUSTOMER: Okay, your paperwork is all done. |
| 客 (kyaku) : どうもありがとうございました。(Dōmo arigatō gozaimashita.) |
| EMPLOYEE: Thank you so much! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Okay, very real life and practical situation especially for someone living in Japan with a cell phone contract. Chigusa-san, does this conversation sound familiar? |
| Chigusa: Yes, I have done it before once. |
| Peter: Yeah? |
| Chigusa: Yeah. |
| Peter: Did it go a lot like this? |
| Chigusa: Yeah, quite so. |
| Peter: Really? |
| Chigusa: Really. |
| Peter: They let you go that easy? They always have something. There are usually a few more lines right after we were unsatisfied with something, usually a few more things follow and reluctantly, they let you go about. Okay, lots of vocab in there and we want to go through the conversation. So what we are going to do now is talk about the vocab. Chigusa-san, first word. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Chigusa: 番号カード (bangō kādo) |
| Peter: Number card, number ticket and it's the little number you pull while you are waiting. |
| Chigusa: (slow) ばんごうカード (bangō kādo) (natural speed) 番号カード (bangō kādo) |
| Peter: Not only the cell phone shop but also at the bank are the two that come to mind in Japan. In the US, it’s the bakery. You’d go into the bakery, you take the number and you wait. Yoshi-san, any other places you can think of? |
| Yoshi: Post office. |
| Peter: There it is. Now is that with the letters or with the financial side? |
| Yoshi: I think it depends on the post office how big and how crowded they get but I think both. |
| Peter: Okay Chigusa-san, any other places? |
| Chigusa: Hospitals. |
| Peter: Yeah you go in, put your card in. Depending on what specialist you are going to see, you get a number and you wait out there. So it’s quite common to see this 番号カード (bangō kādo). Okay, next we have |
| Yoshi: 解約 (kaiyaku) |
| Peter: Cancellation of a contract. |
| Yoshi: (slow) かいやく (kaiyaku) (natural speed) 解約 (kaiyaku) |
| Peter: The opposite of cancelation is to sign a contract which is |
| Yoshi: 契約 (keiyaku) |
| Peter: So with 解約 (kaiyaku) and 契約 (keiyaku), one character stays the same, that’s 約 (yaku) and just the first character changes. Okay, next. |
| Chigusa: 不満 (fuman) |
| Peter: Dissatisfaction, discontent. |
| Chigusa: (slow) ふまん (fuman) (natural speed) 不満 (fuman) |
| Peter: What’s the opposite of 不満 (fuman)? |
| Chigusa: 満足 (manzoku) |
| Peter: Satisfaction. Again both words share one character, that is |
| Chigusa: 満 (man) |
| Peter: Next we have |
| Yoshi: 基本 (kihon) |
| Peter: Standard, basis. |
| Yoshi: (slow) 基本 (kihon) (natural speed) 基本 (kihon) |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Yoshi: 料金 (ryōkin) |
| Peter: Fee, charge. |
| Yoshi: (slow) りょうきん (ryōkin) (natural speed) 料金 (ryōkin) |
| Peter: Now we put them together, we get. |
| Yoshi: 基本料金 (kihon ryōkin) |
| Peter: Basic charge. This is used not only with cell phones but with, Yoshi-san. |
| Yoshi: Anything you can get used with. |
| Peter: Yeah, pretty much anything that has a contract. Gas, water, electric. So that’s like a basic monthly fee. So any service that has a standard fee and increases with usage. So it’s used in many other kinds of things too. For example, my cable bill. I have a standard cable bill but if I want to add a movie or something, then it goes up. So lots of other places, this is 基本料金 (kihon ryōkin). Next we have |
| Chigusa: サイン (sain) |
| Peter: Signature. |
| Chigusa: (slow) サイン (sain) (natural speed) サイン (sain) |
| Peter: Now let’s make this into a verb. |
| Chigusa: サインする (sain suru) |
| Peter: All you do is add する (suru). Now you will often hear someone ask you to sign. So Chigusa-san, how would someone ask you to sign? |
| Chigusa: サインしてください。(Sain shite kudasai.) |
| Peter: Yeah, when something is delivered to your place or if you sign up for something, when it first came to Japan, it was very problematic. I wasn’t living in Tokyo and I needed a 判子 (hanko), a stamp for most things but in Tokyo and now-a-days like it’s kind of modernized, a sign is good enough for almost everything. Something comes, just signs but I think the bank is still a problem. Okay, now that we’ve covered that, let’s take a look at today’s conversation. Yoshi-san, first line. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Yoshi: いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.) |
| Peter: Welcome. Very straightforward. We go over this one over and over. |
| Yoshi: 番号カードをお取りください。(Bangō kādo o o-tori kudasai.) |
| Peter: Now what we’d like to point out about this sentence is the polite way to say please. Now we taught you 取ってください (totte kudasai), please take but Yoshi-san, what do we hear in this sentence? |
| Yoshi: お取りください (o-tori kudasai) |
| Peter: Now the next level of politeness is not the te-form plus ください (kudasai) but it’s actually using the prefix お (o), followed by the verb. So let’s take a look at the base verb here. What’s the verb, Yoshi-san? |
| Yoshi: 取る (toru) |
| Peter: So what we do here is we take the prefix お (o), we add it to the verb and the final る (ru) becomes り (ri). So it’s almost like from the う (u) column, you go to the い (i) column. Now if we give you another example and it’s in the dialogue and you hear it all the time. It’s actually a construction that you are probably more familiar with even if you are a newbie, even if you are just new to the language. Chigusa-san, you know the phrase I am talking about, right? |
| Chigusa: お待ちください (o-machi kudasai) |
| Peter: What verb is this based on? |
| Chigusa: 待つ (matsu) |
| Peter: Again we have つ (tsu) in the う (u) column. You go from the う (u) column to the い (i) column. つ (tsu) becomes |
| Chigusa: ち (chi) |
| Peter: So 待つ (matsu), つ (tsu) becomes |
| Chigusa: ち (chi) |
| Peter: And we add the prefix |
| Chigusa: お (o) |
| Peter: お待ちください。お取りください。(O-machi kudasai. O-tori kudasai.) Now this doesn’t work for all the verbs. There is a little more to this. Again all we are doing here is just introducing you to. We want to get your feet wet. Okay, there is more to it but you would hear this construction in extremely polite Japanese and as Chigusa-san is speaking to the customer, it’s very polite Japanese. Okay, next we have more polite Japanese coming at you. The machine says, Chigusa-san. |
| Chigusa: 63番の方。(Roku-jū san-ban no kata.) |
| Peter: Okay so we have the number, number 63, 63 番の (roku-jū san-ban no) and we have |
| Chigusa: 方 (kata) |
| Peter: Which is a polite way to say |
| Chigusa: 人 (hito) |
| Peter: It just elevates the person you are speaking about. And again as a business is speaking about a customer, again it’s the customer holding this number. They want to elevate that person, more polite to that person. So you hear this word 方 (kata) which means 人 (hito). Okay, then we have |
| Chigusa: 解約をお願いします。(Kaiyaku o onegai shimasu.) |
| Peter: Okay. The point of this sentence is, there is an object marker を (o) in between 解約 (kaiyaku) and お願いします (onegai shimasu.). Okay, you may have not picked it up the first few times though, but there is を (o) in there. There is that object marker. Following this we have |
| Yoshi: 解約ですか。(Kaiyaku desu ka.) |
| Peter: Cancelation? Again just repeating it back, very straightforward here, followed by |
| Yoshi: ご不満の点がありましたか。(Go-fuman no ten ga arimashita ka.) |
| Peter: Okay, first let’s take a look at 不満 (fuman). We have here the prefix |
| Yoshi: ご (go) |
| Peter: Now Yoshi-san, why would we do this or not we, but why in Japanese do we add the prefix ご (go)? |
| Peter: Just to be polite. |
| Peter: Exactly. There is お (o) and there is also ご (go). You become more and more familiar with the difference between them. For example, it’s ご家族 (go-kazoku). Certain words take ご (go), certain words take お (o). This is something you get through familiarity. Okay, but we are going to get you there. Don’t worry about this. Okay, so we have ご不満の点 (go-fuman no ten), literally translated, unsatisfied point. |
| Yoshi: がありましたか (ga arimashita ka) |
| Peter: There is and the intonation showing there is a question. So literally, “unsatisfied point there is?” Now we have to interpret and when we interpret, it becomes “is there.” Again we start from the back. Is there something, is there a point. Is there something you are unsatisfied with and the answer to this was |
| Chigusa: 電話はあまり使わないし、基本料金は高いし。(Denwa wa amari tsukawanai shi, kihon ryōkin wa takai shi.) |
| Peter: Couple of points here. First, Chigusa-san, what kind of Japanese are you using? |
| Chigusa: Informal. |
| Peter: And it works here because again the customer is always right and then Japanese is taken to a whole other level. You can use informal Japanese when speaking to a business but Chigusa-san, would it be the other way around? Would a business speak to you in the informal Japanese? |
| Chigusa: Never. |
| Peter: Yeah, at least reputable businesses won’t. Now again, it’s a very standard business. We are not saying if you go to the countryside, you go into a small Ramen shop, they may speak very informal Japanese to you. That’s perfectly alright because it’s kind of that closeness and that – it's a very different feel to it but in very straightforward reputable businesses especially in the big cities most where you will come in contact with, it’s very standard to use extremely polite Japanese and informal Japanese would not be used. Okay, second point is we end the sentence with し (shi), 電話はあまり使わないし (denwa wa amari tsukawanai shi). Now without the し (shi) at the end of the sentence, it just means I don’t use the phone much but when we add this in, I don’t use the phone much and there is other reasons and even though we follow up with the next sentence, 基本料金は高いし (kihon ryōkin wa takai shi), even though we follow it up with another reason, it’s very common to add these し (shi) when you are giving multiple reasons because I don’t use the phone much and the basic plan is expensive and there are more reasons whether it be used in computer more and more now to communicate, chatting or whatever. There are more reasons than said. |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: All right, that’s going to do for today. |
| Chigusa: またね。(Mata ne.) |
| Yoshi: またね。(Mata ne.) |
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