Learn about expressing the meaning "like," as in "resembling" or "it seems to"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: こんにちは、ナツコです。(Kon’nichiwa, Natsuko desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Beginner lesson #166. Text Message Turmoil. Natsuko-san, a few things before we start today. Well it’s nice to have you here of course. |
| Natsuko: Thank you. |
| Peter: Now we’ve had some comments recently about a very observant listener and he is correct. He stated that our beginner lessons should not be titled beginner lessons. |
| Natsuko: I agree. |
| Peter: And yes, in today’s conversation, if there was ever an example, today’s conversation is that example that yes our levels are a bit off but we are in the process of coming up with the new naming convention and again the reason we called this series Beginner lessons is because if you start from lesson 1 and you go in a linear fashion 1, 2, 3, 4, each lesson builds upon the previous one. So perhaps the levels do segment in between. So perhaps the better title for this series is season 1. |
| Natsuko: Oh yes sure, because we advanced too much. |
| Peter: Yeah, we are really advanced and today’s conversation is... well all I could say is 頑張ってください (ganbatte kudasai). |
| Natsuko: But we went through 166? |
| Peter: So we are contradicting ourselves there too beginner lesson #166. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. Someone who went through 165 lessons is no longer a beginner, right? |
| Peter: No way. And you know, some of these grammar points that we are touching on, we actually covered and our earliest intermediate lessons. |
| Natsuko: Oh yes, sure. |
| Peter: There are these overlapping themes but this is something we are working on, we hope to address. So もう少々お待ちください (mō shōshō o-machi kudasai), just hang on a little bit longer but for now. Natsuko-san, tell us about today’s conversation. |
| Natsuko: Ah... pretty controversial topic isn’t it? |
| Peter: Oh yes. Okay, first who are the speakers? |
| Natsuko: They are two women talking about – about what? |
| Peter: You tell me because actually Natsuko makes a long awaited return to voice acting. So… |
| Natsuko: And what a role I do. |
| Peter: So just sum up today’s lesson real quick. |
| Natsuko: Oh it’s two women talking about text messages. |
| Peter: Judging by the politeness level, they are |
| Natsuko: Friends. |
| Peter: So we are going to have informal Japanese. With that said, here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| しほ (Shiho) : どうしたの？そんな病人みたいな顔してー。(Dō shita no? Sonna byōnin mitai na kao shitē.) |
| 瑞穂 (Mizuho) : 昨日、太郎に浮気がばれて、大変だったのよ。(Kinō, Tarō ni uwaki ga barete, taihen datta no yo.) |
| しほ (Shiho) : えーっ！ホストとの浮気ばれたの？なんで、ばれたの？(Ē! Hosuto to no uwaki bareta no? Nande, bareta no?) |
| 瑞穂 (Mizuho) : それが、携帯を見たみたいなのよ。私がお風呂に入っているすきに。(Sore ga, keitai o mita mitai na no yo. Atashi ga o-furo ni haitte iru suki ni.) |
| しほ (Shiho) : メール消してなかったの？バカだなあ。メール消すのは鉄則でしょう。(Mēru keshite nakatta no? Baka da nā. Mēru kesu no wa tessoku deshō.) |
| Natsuko: 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.) |
| しほ (Shiho) : どうしたの？そんな病人みたいな顔してー。(Dō shita no? Sonna byōnin mitai na kao shitē.) |
| 瑞穂 (Mizuho) : 昨日、太郎に浮気がばれて、大変だったのよ。(Kinō, Tarō ni uwaki ga barete, taihen datta no yo.) |
| しほ (Shiho) : えーっ！ホストとの浮気ばれたの？なんで、ばれたの？(Ē! Hosuto to no uwaki bareta no? Nande, bareta no?) |
| 瑞穂 (Mizuho) : それが、携帯を見たみたいなのよ。私がお風呂に入っているすきに。(Sore ga, keitai o mita mitai na no yo. Watashi ga o-furo ni haitte iru suki ni.) |
| しほ (Shiho) : メール消してなかったの？バカだなあ。メール消すのは鉄則でしょう。(Mēru keshite nakatta no? Baka da nā. Mēru kesu no wa tessoku deshō.) |
| Natsuko: 次は、英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| しほ (Shiho) : どうしたの？そんな病人みたいな顔してー。(Dō shita no? Sonna byōnin mitai na kao shitē.) |
| SHIHO: What's wrong? You're pale. You look like a sick person. |
| 瑞穂 (Mizuho) : 昨日、太郎に浮気がばれて、大変だったのよ。(Kinō, Tarō ni uwaki ga barete, taihen datta no yo.) |
| MIZUHO: Yesterday, Tarō found out I was cheating on him, and it was a mess. |
| しほ (Shiho) : えーっ！ホストとの浮気ばれたの？なんで、ばれたの？(Ē! Hosuto to no uwaki bareta no? Nande, bareta no?) |
| SHIHO: What? He found out about you seeing a host? How did he find out? |
| 瑞穂 (Mizuho) : それが、携帯を見たみたいなのよ。私がお風呂に入っているすきに。(Sore ga, keitai o mita mitai na no yo. Atashi ga o-furo ni haitte iru suki ni.) |
| MIZUHO: I think he saw my cell phone, while I was taking a bath. |
| しほ (Shiho) : メール消してなかったの？バカだなあ。メール消すのは鉄則でしょう。(Mēru keshite nakatta no? Baka da nā. Mēru kesu no wa tessoku deshō.) |
| SHIHO: You hadn't erased your email messages? You fool! That's a golden rule! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: ナツコさん、今日の会話どう思いましたか。(Natsuko-san, kyō no kaiwa dō omoimashita ka.) |
| Natsuko: 最低ですね。(Saitei desu ne.) |
| Peter: The worst? What did you think of your role? |
| Natsuko: Wow! What a role! |
| Peter: All right now, this conversation there is just so much in there that what we are going to do is go through the vocab very quickly and then we are going to take a look at the Japanese. Now Natsuko-san, first word. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natsuko: 病人 (byōnin) |
| Peter: Sick person, patient. |
| Natsuko: (slow) びょうにん (byōnin) (natural speed) 病人 (byōnin) |
| Peter: Two characters making up this word. First we have |
| Natsuko: Sickness. |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Natsuko: Person. |
| Peter: So very logical. Sick person, sickness person. Very straightforward here, followed by |
| Natsuko: 浮気 (uwaki) |
| Peter: Unfaithful. |
| Natsuko: (slow) うわき (uwaki) (natural speed) 浮気 (uwaki) |
| Peter: Now this is a noun here but usually here this is used in a different context usually in its verb form, which is |
| Natsuko: 浮気する (uwaki suru) |
| Peter: Or talking about a person who cheats. |
| Natsuko: 浮気者 (uwakimono) |
| Peter: Cheater and 浮気する (uwaki suru) is to cheat, to be unfaithful. Now what’s so interesting for this about me is what are the characters, the two characters that make up this word. |
| Natsuko: The first one is float. |
| Peter: So rising up. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, or drift. |
| Peter: To float, you have to be quite light. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, sure. |
| Peter: So take things light. So taking things light, followed by |
| Natsuko: 気 (ki) which means feeling. |
| Peter: Yeah, so a light feeling, a floating feeling. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: So you are not really serious. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: If this helps you remember it. You know the two characters that make up this. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: So you tend to drift away from your responsibilities. |
| Natsuko: You are right. |
| Peter: Which is the opposite when you are really serious about something or someone and that is |
| Natsuko: 本気 (honki) |
| Peter: And the first character for this means root. There are many meanings but one is root, root feeling, serious feeling. So here you could see the opposite end of the spectrum. One is rooted down, your feelings are – you know, you are rooted down towards that person. The other one, floating away. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, so one is very steady and the other is more like unstringed. |
| Peter: Yeah, floating away, free without string, no strings attached. You know we have that expression in English. |
| Natsuko: Oh yeah. |
| Peter: Okay, then we have next. |
| Natsuko: すきに (suki ni) |
| Peter: While one has a chance, use this chance. |
| Natsuko: (slow) すきに (suki ni) (natural speed) すきに (suki ni) |
| Peter: Can we have a sample sentence for this? |
| Natsuko: 彼が見ていないすきに逃げた。(Kare ga mite inai suki ni nigeta.) |
| Peter: While he wasn’t looking, they escaped. すきに (suki ni) right in front of the verb to escape. Next we have |
| Natsuko: 鉄則 (tessoku) |
| Peter: Ironclad regulation. |
| Natsuko: (slow) てっそく (tessoku) (natural speed) 鉄則 (tessoku) |
| Peter: Kind of like written in stone. That’s a rule you have to obey. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: All right Natsuko-san, let’s try to help everyone understand what’s going on today and maybe in the process, we can understand ourselves. |
| Natsuko: Okay. |
| Peter: You actually have the insight here but anyway, let’s get into it. What do you have first? |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Natsuko: どうしたの？(Dō shita no?) |
| Peter: What’s wrong, what happened? |
| Natsuko: そんな病人みたいな顔してー。(Sonna byōnin mitai na kao shitē.) |
| Peter: Okay, let’s take a look at this part of the sentence. Natsuko-san, can you give us the first part, one more time? |
| Natsuko: そんな (sonna) |
| Peter: Like that, like that. |
| Natsuko: 病人 (byōnin) |
| Peter: Like that sick person. |
| Natsuko: みたいな (mitai na) |
| Peter: Like and then we have the な (na) because みたい (mitai) is treated as a na-adjective. Here it’s not the verb みたい (mitai) I want to, here it means like, as if referring to some appearance and this is used when someone has some knowledge or judging by someone’s appearance, the way something looks to them. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Okay, so we have like that sick person. |
| Natsuko: 顔 (kao) |
| Peter: Face. |
| Natsuko: して (shite) |
| Peter: And to make a face in Japanese is 顔する (kao suru), ～顔する (naninanigao suru). |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: And here する (suru) is conjugated into its te-form which the rest is inferred. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: So literally we have that kind sick person like face make. Now we have to kind of back up and Natsuko-san, as we said over and over, so much in Japanese is inferred. Now speaker A, the first speaker here, who is the subject? Who are we talking about in this sentence? |
| Natsuko: The other person. |
| Peter: The other person. So you, then we go to the back and as we said 顔する (kao suru) is to make a face. You are making a face. Then we have みたいな (mitai na), like or as if sick person. そんな (sonna) and here. So we translate this as you look like a sick person. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, right. |
| Peter: What’s wrong again that’s the first part, what’s wrong? You are making the face of a sick person. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Natsuko: 昨日、太郎に浮気がばれて、大変だったのよ。(Kinō, Tarō ni uwaki ga barete, taihen datta no yo.) |
| Peter: Yesterday Taro found out I was cheating and it was a mess. Let’s just take a quick look here. The particles in this sentence are very important. First we start off with yesterday. |
| Natsuko: 昨日 (kinō) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Natsuko: 太郎に (Tarō ni) |
| Peter: Okay, 太郎 (Tarō) is the one that found out and here, he is marked by the particle に (ni). |
| Natsuko: に (ni) |
| Peter: This is followed by |
| Natsuko: 浮気がばれて (uwaki ga barete) |
| Peter: Unfaithful was exposed, unfaithful exposed. Taro by. So to Taro the unfaithfulness was exposed. Okay, and ばれる (bareru) here is not the passive but rather intransitive. It’s the intransitive verb of to expose. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, right. |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Natsuko: 大変だったのよ (taihen datta no yo) |
| Peter: And this word 大変 (taihen). Again context of the sentence because it can be used as an adverb, it can be used as an adjective but here it means that it was a very serious or a situation with a lot of consequences. |
| Natsuko: Lots of trouble. |
| Peter: Yes. Then we have |
| Natsuko: えーっ！ホストとの浮気ばれたの？(Ē! Hosuto to no uwaki bareta no?) |
| Peter: Hah Taro found out about you seeing a host? Now I think to understand this, we have to kind of explain the idea behind the host. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Now in Japan, they have – as in many countries, there is an exclusive club with male hosts that women can go to and when they go there, they can drink with these guys and talk to these guys and have fun with these guys. You know, in catches they pay a lot of money for the drinks. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, right. |
| Peter: A lot. Some of these checks can get into the thousands of dollars. The concept is, I mean we could take forever to explain about it umm. The guys are just dressed up in tuxedos very nice. Most of these clubs nothing happens. It’s just they go there and they have a good time talking to these guys. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: And then the flipside is, they pay a lot of money for it. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, so it’s really strange. Just – you know, you just talk to them and they give you a lot of compliments to make you feel very good. |
| Peter: Yeah, so very good for, like self-esteem. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, yeah exactly. |
| Peter: And very bad for the wallet because yes… |
| Natsuko: Sure. |
| Peter: Now one of the catches here is obviously if a female patron is a very good client, then the owners of the club will suggest that the hosts meet them outside. |
| Natsuko: Ah! |
| Peter: So you kind of – it’s funny like I kind of from the nuance of your I see and your expression, like oh you know a lot about this. Are you speaking from experience? |
| Natsuko: Yeah. No, no…. |
| Peter: ありがとうございます、ナツコさん。(Arigatō gozaimasu, Natsuko-san.) It’s not unusual for these people to meet outside the club and this is what got caught. Okay, then this is followed by |
| Natsuko: なんで、ばれたの？(Nande, bareta no?) |
| Peter: Why did you get caught? Why were you exposed? Now what’s interesting here is in English, we would say, how did you get caught? |
| Natsuko: Oh yeah, sure. |
| Peter: But in Japanese, it's why. |
| Natsuko: Why |
| Peter: Did you get caught? |
| Natsuko: なんで (nande) |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, that’s why. |
| Peter: So it’s interesting that it’s kind of inferred that it’s – you shouldn’t get caught why. |
| Natsuko: Oh I see. |
| Peter: At least that’s how I kind of read it and then we get the answer. Here it is. |
| Natsuko: それが、携帯を見たみたいなのよ。(Sore ga, keitai o mita mitai na no yo.) |
| Peter: I think he saw my cell phone. Now a couple of pitfalls in this sentence. First we have それが (sore ga), that as in that reason. This is followed by |
| Natsuko: 携帯を (keitai o) |
| Peter: Cell phone. |
| Natsuko: 見た (mita) |
| Peter: Saw, followed by |
| Natsuko: みたい (mitai) |
| Peter: Okay, stop here. Cell phone saw seems like. Okay, not 100% sure but it’s a very logical conclusion. Again みたい (mitai) is based on some knowledge of some events or a little bit of knowledge but not 100%... |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Or some appearance. |
| Natsuko: So making a guess |
| Peter: Based on something. Now last week, we introduced てみたい (te mitai). So 見てみたい (mite mitai) is wanted to try to see. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Here it’s 見た (mita). So there is absolutely no connection. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: And as this is followed by みたい (mitai), then we know that we are speaking about a situation where the speaker is guessing. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: Based on some piece of information. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Then we have, while she was in the bath. Okay, we are running short on time here. This is followed by |
| Natsuko: メール消してなかったの？(Mēru keshite nakatta no?) |
| Peter: Literally mail which is electronic mail. Mail wasn’t erasing, but here again you didn’t erase the email is how we translate it, followed by |
| Natsuko: バカだなあ。(Baka da nā.) |
| Peter: You are a fool. |
| Natsuko: メール消すのは鉄則でしょう。(Mēru kesu no wa tessoku deshō.) |
| Peter: It’s a given. That’s a golden rule like that’s what you are supposed to do. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Erasing the mail is |
| Natsuko: Is more important than anything. |
| Peter: Yep. It’s something you have to do. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, you have to stick to them. |
| Peter: Apparently there is this cheater’s code out there somewhere. I don’t know anything about this but okay we had – we are way out of time. So what we are going to do here is ask you to stop by japanesepod101.com and post your questions. I know you are going to have a lot and we will have people there answer these questions. Now today’s grammar point is みたい (mitai) and as we are out of time you are going to have to check out the PDF for this one but are really good bright up today. And maybe we should come back with this lesson again and finish it all. What do you think, Natsuko-san? |
| Natsuko: Ah, yes. I think so. We are only half way there. |
| Peter: All right. We will see if we can do. Let us know if you want the end of this. Post and then… we'll try to get out to you, because yes there’s so much more good information in here. You know what… why don’t we do this, why don’t we have the next beginner lesson continue on this one? |
| Natsuko: Sure. It’s worth two lessons. |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: All right. So let’s go. What are we going to do? We are going to stop here. We will see you next week, finishing off this lesson. That’s going to do it for today. |
| Natsuko: じゃあ、また今度ね。(Jā, mata kondo ne.) |
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