Learn about talking about where you come from
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: おはよう東京、ナツコです。(Ohayō Tōkyō, Natsuko desu.) |
| Peter: Good morning Tokyo. Peter here. Now today with me is Natsuko. Hello Natsuko, welcome back. |
| Natsuko: Hello. It’s good to be back. |
| Peter: Now you might notice, our Alpha male, Kazunori is not here again. That guy, I don’t know. What’s going on with him? He is out every night late. |
| Natsuko: He might be busy. |
| Peter: Yes. If you are familiar with Tokyo, there is a place called |
| Natsuko: 歌舞伎町 (Kabukichō) |
| Peter: Yes. One more time please break this down for us. |
| Natsuko: (slow)かぶきちょう (Kabukichō) |
| Peter: And can you tell us about Kabukicho? |
| Natsuko: Well it’s a famous town in Tokyo. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Natsuko: Rather infamies. |
| Peter: Yes, I think that’s the better word. That’s perfect. |
| Natsuko: Yeah and many young people go out there to have a drink and some good times. |
| Peter: Yes, well anyway, you could find more about 歌舞伎町 (Kabukichō) on our website www.japanesepod101.com. It’s something that you should definitely know about as it's very infamous. It’s funny. If you say to Japanese people Kabukicho, what kind of reaction can you expect? |
| Natsuko: I think the reaction would be like oh oh! |
| Peter: Yes, oh oh! It’s funny I had a friend and I took him to 歌舞伎町 (Kabukichō) and he called his girlfriend, the Japanese girl and he said, I am in 歌舞伎町 (Kabukichō), she was angry. So we will get something up on the website shortly about 歌舞伎町 (Kabukichō) as everyone should know about it. Now I think the last citing we had of our alpha male, he was over there last night. So that’s why he didn’t make it into the studio today. |
| Natsuko: Are you sure? |
| Peter: That’s what I have heard. Okay, let’s get back to the show. In the past few weeks, we introduced three question forms. Right, Natsuko? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Can you just review them for us? Can you give us the word for who? |
| Natsuko: 誰 (dare) |
| Peter: Yes, very nice. Can you give us the word for what? |
| Natsuko: 何 (nani) |
| Peter: Yes, we had this this week and can you give us the word for where? |
| Natsuko: どこ (doko) |
| Peter: Yes, this is the word that our lesson is going to focus on today. So please everybody, pay attention to this word. Please listen, see what you can pick up. If you don’t get it the first time, we are going to do it again a little slower and then we are going to break it down for you. So don’t worry, don’t concentrate too much. Just listen and see what you can pick up. Okay, here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 夏子 (Natsuko) : ご出身はどこですか。(Go-shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| ピーター (Pītā) : アメリカのニューヨークです。ご出身はどこですか。(Amerika no Nyū Yōku desu. Go-shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| 夏子 (Natsuko) : 日本の東京です。(Nihon no Tōkyō desu.) |
| Peter: Okay, everybody did you get that? This time we’ll do it much slower, so please listen. Here we go. |
| 夏子 (Natsuko) : ご出身はどこですか。(Go-shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| ピーター (Pītā) : アメリカのニューヨークです。ご出身はどこですか。(Amerika no Nyū Yōku desu. Go-shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| 夏子 (Natsuko) : 日本の東京です。(Nihon no Tōkyō desu.) |
| Peter: Okay, very nice! Everybody out there gets that? Okay, now we’re going to break it down, we’re going to give it to you nice and slowly. So we’re going to have Natsuko read and I’m going to translate. Okay? Here we go, Natsuko. |
| 夏子 (Natsuko) : ご出身はどこですか。(Go-shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| NATSUKO: Where is your hometown? |
| ピーター (Pītā) : アメリカのニューヨークです。(Amerika no Nyū Yōku desu.) |
| PETER: New York. |
| ピーター (Pītā) : ご出身はどこですか。(Go-shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| PETER: Where is your hometown? |
| 夏子 (Natsuko) : 日本の東京です。(Nihon no Tōkyō desu.) |
| NATUSKO: Tokyo, Japan. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: Okay very, very nice. Now what we are going to do is we are going to break down the vocabulary now. We had a few new words in here and a few old words. So first, we are going to review the words we already had and then we are going to introduce the new words. So Natsuko, we had the word for Japan before, correct? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Can you give us that word again? |
| Natsuko: 日本 (Nihon) |
| Peter: Very nice. One more time, nice and slow, please. |
| Natsuko: (slow)にほん (Nihon) |
| Peter: Okay, very nice. Now for all of you out there who saw my very interesting friend’s video, he said it a different way, right? He had ニッポン (Nippon). |
| Natsuko: Oh yes. |
| Peter: Why is that sometimes that it’s an ‘h’ sound and sometimes it’s a ‘p’ sound. Is there any difference? |
| Natsuko: ニッポン (Nippon) is rather more international way. That’s my understanding. |
| Peter: Okay, and also maybe when you scream, do you scream ニホン (Nihon) or do you scream ニッポン (Nippon)? |
| Natsuko: ニッポン。(Nippon.) |
| Peter: Yeah. I think when you are yelling and screaming and going crazy like at a soccer match or something… |
| Natsuko: Yeah, yeah…. |
| Peter: Sorry, football match for all of our European listeners and the rest of the world actually outside of the Americas. So I think it’s ニッポン (Nippon) when you scream it right? |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Okay, and could you just break this word down for us. |
| Natsuko: (slow)にっぽん (Nippon) |
| Peter: Very nice and one more time. |
| Natsuko: (slow)にっぽん (Nippon) |
| Peter: Very nice. So for everybody out there who saw the video and was wondering, that’s what he was saying ニッポン (Nippon). Okay, very, very nice. Can you break down the next word which is Tokyo? |
| Natsuko: 東京 (Tōkyō) |
| Peter: Yes, and remember guys, hold the two ‘o’s, right? It’s not トキオ (Tokio), it is? |
| Natsuko: 東京 (Tōkyō) |
| Peter: Yes, when you are speaking to your friend, you can say Tokyo but when you are speaking to Japanese people, you want to say |
| Natsuko: 東京 (Tōkyō) |
| Peter: Very nice. Thank you, Natsuko. Great pronunciation. Okay, next we had these words already. We are going to cover again, America and New York. Natsuko, please can you give us these words? |
| Natsuko: アメリカ (Amerika) |
| Peter: Very nice. One more time. |
| Natsuko: アメリカ (Amerika) |
| Peter: Okay, and New York. |
| Natsuko: ニューヨーク (Nyū Yōku) |
| Peter: Yes. This is quite difficult. I am from New York and you know, I want to say the natural pronunciation, New York but for everyone speaking to Japanese people, New York is not going to get through. You want to pronounce it like this. Natsuko, one more time. |
| Natsuko: ニューヨーク (Nyū Yōku) |
| Peter: Yes, you got to hold, hold it right in there. Okay, and now finally on to our new word which is hometown. |
| Natsuko: ご出身 (go-shusshin) |
| Peter: Okay. This is “hometown.” Now the ご (go) in front, the ご (go) prefix is at the honorable prefix, right? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So the word actually for hometown is |
| Natsuko: 出身 (shusshin) |
| Peter: Okay, and please give us this word for hometown one more time, please. |
| Natsuko: 出身 (shusshin) |
| Peter: Okay, and please break it down. |
| Natsuko: (slow)しゅっしん (shusshin) |
| Peter: Yes. And everybody out there, you want to be very careful to hold the S in the middle, correct Natsuko? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Can you hold it in the middle for us one more time? |
| Natsuko: (slow)しゅっしん (shusshin) |
| Peter: Yes. You want to hold しゅっしん (shusshin), hold it in there or it could be confused with another word. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: This is a question you are going to hear very, very often. It’s usually one of the first three questions that come to you. Where is your hometown? Okay, now there is another way to ask “where are you from” that you might hear instead of this. What we gave you was the standard textbook case and you will find out many times that the textbook case, the standard case is not really used in spoken Japanese. So what we want to do is we want to give you another way that you will definitely come across if you come to Japan. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Okay, and can you give us that one? |
| Natsuko: どこから来ました？(Doko kara kimashita?) |
| Peter: Yes, very nice and Natsuko, what's the translation for this? |
| Natsuko: Where are you from? |
| Peter: Yes, very nice. Now please give it to us one more time. |
| Natsuko: どこから来ました？(Doko kara kimashita?) |
| Peter: Yeah, and the literal translation is, where did you come from, right? Now if you break it down by syllable. |
| Natsuko: (slow)どこからきました (doko kara kimashita) |
| Peter: Very nice and one time fast. |
| Natsuko: どこから来ました？(Doko kara kimashita?) |
| Peter: Very nice. Now you noticed in there we had the word for where, which is |
| Natsuko: どこ (doko) |
| Peter: Then we had from, which is |
| Natsuko: から (kara) |
| Peter: Yes, and one more time from. |
| Natsuko: から (kara) |
| Peter: Very nice and then finally we had the word come. It’s actually the past tense and can you give us that word? |
| Natsuko: 来ました (kimashita) |
| Peter: Yeah, so the literal translation, where did you come from? So we can answer this question by saying the country that you are from plus |
| Natsuko: から (kara) |
| Peter: And |
| Natsuko: 来ました (kimashita) |
| Peter: Yes. So in my case, I am from America. So Natsuko, if you ask me where am I from |
| Natsuko: どこから来ました？(Doko kara kimashita?) |
| Peter: I could answer because I am from America. |
| Natsuko: アメリカから来ました。(Amerika kara kimashita.) |
| Peter: Yes. You just add the country and then you repeat what you heard, right? |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Okay, proper way is |
| Natsuko: アメリカから来ました。(Amerika kara kimashita.) |
| Peter: And but for everybody out there who it might be little difficult at this stage, you can just say |
| Natsuko: アメリカから。(Amerika kara.) |
| Peter: Yeah, and actually as I will hear repeatedly, the more you speak Japanese, the more you tend to become – you are very familiar with it and a lot of times, I even leave out the last part. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Which is |
| Natsuko: 来ました (kimashita) |
| Peter: Yeah, so I just say アメリカから (Amerika kara) |
| Natsuko: It works. |
| Peter: Right, it works. |
| Natsuko: It does. |
| Peter: So now I want to jump back to the dialogue. Can you give us the dialogue one more time? The question was |
| Natsuko: ご出身はどこですか。(Go-shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| Peter: Yes, very nice. Now my answer was |
| Natsuko: アメリカのニューヨークです。(Amerika no Nyū Yōku desu.) |
| Peter: Okay, I want to talk about this の (no). Now the country comes first, right? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Okay, we start with a kind of macro view. We start with the country and then we work our way down to the city and then you can even work your way down to the town name but the Macro way we start is always followed by |
| Natsuko: の (no) |
| Peter: Yes, very nice. So in my case, it was |
| Natsuko: アメリカのニューヨーク (Amerika no Nyū Yōku) |
| Peter: America and the subcategory was New York and then we can keep on going. So what we want to do is we want to give you some more examples for everybody out there listening who might be wondering, how do I say, “Where am I from?” Okay, so let’s start. Please listen and see if you can get what we are talking about. So I will ask the question and Natsuko will give the answer. |
| ご出身はどこですか。(Go-shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: イギリスのマンチェスターです。(Igirisu no Manchesutā desu.) |
| Peter: And one more time the answer, please. |
| Natsuko: イギリスのマンチェスターです。(Igirisu no Manchesutā desu.) |
| Peter: Okay, everybody get that? Natsuko, where is your hometown? |
| Natsuko: Manchester, England. |
| Peter: Yes, very nice. Okay, next, ご出身はどこですか。(Go-shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: カナダのトロントです。(Kanada no Toronto desu.) |
| Peter: Very nice. One more time, the answer, please. |
| Natsuko: カナダのトロントです。(Kanada no Toronto desu.) |
| Peter: Very nice. Where is your hometown? |
| Natsuko: Toronto, Canada. |
| Peter: Okay, next. ご出身はどこですか。(Go-shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: ニュージーランドのオークランドです。(Nyū Jīrando no Ōkurando desu.) |
| Peter: One more time the answer, please. |
| Natsuko: ニュージーランドのオークランドです。(Nyū Jīrando no Ōkurando desu.) |
| Peter: Okay, where is your hometown? |
| Natsuko: Oakland, New Zealand. |
| Peter: Very nice. Next ご出身はどこですか。(Go-shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: ブラジルのサンパウロです。(Burajiru no San Pauro desu.) |
| Peter: Very nice. That answer, one more time, please. |
| Natsuko: ブラジルのサンパウロです。(Burajiru no San Pauro desu.) |
| Peter: Where is your hometown? |
| Natsuko: St Paulo, Brazil. |
| Peter: Very nice, okay. Next ご出身はどこですか。(Go-shusshin wa doko desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: ノルウェーのオスロです。(Noruwē no Osuro desu.) |
| Peter: Very nice. One more time, the answer, please. |
| Natsuko: ノルウェーのオスロです。(Noruwē no Osuro desu.) |
| Peter: Where is your hometown? |
| Natsuko: Oslo, Norway. |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: Very nice, okay. So that’s going to wrap it up for today. So we will see everybody tomorrow. |
| Natsuko: また、明日。(Mata, ashita.) |
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