Learn about making small talk, greeting people
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: おはよう東京、ナツコです。(Ohayō Tōkyō, Natsuko desu.) |
| Peter: Good morning Tokyo. Peter here and we are back with another lesson in basic and practical Japanese. Now today we have another great lesson for you. We finally get around to saying, how are you? Right, Natsuko? |
| Natsuko: Umm it was a long way. |
| Peter: Yes it’s been a long road but now I think you are ready. Okay, so what we are going to do is jump right into the conversation. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Natsuko: お元気ですか。(O-genki desu ka.) |
| Peter: 元気ですよ。お元気ですか。(Genki desu yo. O-genki desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: 元気ですよ。(Genki desu yo.) |
| Peter: Okay, that’s it. Pretty funny. We are going to give it to you one more time. Please listen and here we go. |
| Natsuko: お元気ですか。(O-genki desu ka.) |
| Peter: 元気ですよ。お元気ですか。(Genki desu yo. O-genki desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: 元気ですよ。(Genki desu yo.) |
| Peter: Okay, that’s it. Short and sweet. This is the classic textbook example. I think if you find the first book written in Japanese, this is the basic conversation, right? |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: Okay, so what we are going to do now is break down this conversation a little bit. I will translate and Natsuko will do the reading. Here we go. |
| Natsuko: お元気ですか。(O-genki desu ka.) |
| Peter: How are you? |
| Natsuko: 元気ですよ。(Genki desu yo.) |
| Peter: I am fine. |
| Natsuko: お元気ですか。(O-genki desu ka.) |
| Peter: How are you? |
| Natsuko: 元気ですよ。(Genki desu yo.) |
| Peter: I am good, I am fine. Right? |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: Okay so now, what we would like to do is introduce the word |
| Natsuko: 元気 (genki) |
| Peter: Yes. So Natsuko, can you tell us what this means? |
| Natsuko: It means in good condition. |
| Peter: Yes, fine, good, okay, right? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Okay, now please break this word down because this again is one of the words you are going to use all the time, all day and it’s just a must. |
| Natsuko: (slow)げんき (genki) |
| Peter: And one time fast. |
| Natsuko: 元気 (genki) |
| Peter: Very nice. One more time. |
| Natsuko: 元気 (genki) |
| Peter: Okay. We cannot stress how important this word is. Now what we introduced was a textbook classic example. What was the first line in that? |
| Natsuko: お元気ですか。(O-genki desu ka.) |
| Peter: Yes, can you break down the first part of that? |
| Natsuko: (slow)おげんき (o-genki) |
| Peter: Yes. Now before the 元気 (genki), we have the prefix |
| Natsuko: お (o) |
| Peter: Yes, and this お (o) makes the expression very, very polite, right? |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: Okay, so we gave you the most polite way of saying how are you? Now let’s work our way down a bit because it’s very important to know the different levels of how you should greet someone. So in this situation, you would use it towards somebody who is in a higher position, say a boss, a teacher, right? |
| Natsuko: Yeah, right. |
| Peter: Now the next level of politeness would be |
| Natsuko: 元気ですか。(Genki desu ka.) |
| Peter: Yes, how are you? Okay, this is a bit still formal, maybe a colleague or you can – this is also very polite, not as polite as putting the お (o) in front of it but still very polite. Now we’d like today to introduce the way you speak to your friends because this is when you are probably going to use it the most. Now if I see my friend, how would I say how are you? |
| Natsuko: 元気？(Genki?) |
| Peter: Yes, all intonation. Okay, so what we are going to do is we are going to backtrack and we are going to do the same conversation we just had in a very informal way and watch what the conversation becomes. |
| Natsuko: 元気？(Genki?) |
| Peter: 元気。元気？(Genki. Genki?) |
| Natsuko: 元気。(Genki.) |
| Peter: Okay, so you see how this gets trimmed down and you see how short this becomes. Now what we’d like to do is spice it up. We want to give you responses that would really be great and something very interesting, much more than just the standard. |
| Natsuko: 元気 (genki) |
| Peter: Yes, okay so what we are going to do now is we are going to jump back to the polite form because we think you should know the polite form. So what we are going to do is go back to the polite form and introduce some new ways of responding rather than just the standard |
| Natsuko: 元気 (genki) |
| Peter: Okay, so what I am going to do is I am going to ask Natsuko how she is doing. Here we go and I am going to do it in a formal way, not the most polite way but the formal way. Okay, here we go. 元気ですか。(Genki desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: 絶好調ですよ。(Zekkōchō desu yo.) |
| Peter: All right, very, very nice answer. Give it to us one more time a little bit slower. |
| Natsuko: (slow)ぜっこうちょうですよ (zekkōchō desu yo) |
| Peter: And what does this mean? |
| Natsuko: I am in excellent form. |
| Peter: Yes firing on all cylinders, in great condition. Now break this down because we highly recommend you use this one because this is a great one. Now break it down by syllable. |
| Natsuko: (slow)ぜっこうちょう (zekkōchō) |
| Peter: Very nice and again you want to hold in there right. Which syllable do you want to hold? |
| Natsuko: ‘k’ |
| Peter: Yeah, you want to hold the ‘k’. So it’s |
| Natsuko: (slow)ぜっこうちょう (zekkōchō) |
| Peter: Very nice and this is a great one. Okay, let’s get another one. 元気ですか。(Genki desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: 元気いっぱいです。(Genki ippai desu.) |
| Peter: Yes, very nice. Give it to us one more time. |
| Natsuko: 元気いっぱいです。(Genki ippai desu.) |
| Peter: Okay, and can you break down the second part of that word? |
| Natsuko: (slow)いっぱい (ippai) |
| Peter: And what does this mean? |
| Natsuko: Full |
| Peter: Yes, full of, full of 元気 (genki). Another very, very good one and again as you can see, you might have noticed, we are going in order from the best condition all the way down to not good condition. Okay. 元気ですか。(Genki desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: すごく元気です。(Sugoku genki desu.) |
| Peter: Okay, one more time, please. |
| Natsuko: すごく元気です。(Sugoku genki desu.) |
| Peter: Really good and we can also say |
| Natsuko: すごい元気。(Sugoi genki.) |
| Peter: Right. We can say this, too? |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Okay, very nice. Next. 元気ですか。(Genki desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: まあまあです。(Māmā desu.) |
| Peter: And what does this mean? |
| Natsuko: So so. |
| Peter: Yes, and can you give it to us one more time, please? |
| Natsuko: まあまあ (māmā) |
| Peter: Very nice and please break it down by syllable. |
| Natsuko: (slow)まあまあ (māmā) |
| Peter: Very nice. You want to kind of hold it in there. One more time, please. |
| Natsuko: まあまあ (māmā) |
| Peter: Very nice. Here we go. Next. 元気ですか。(Genki desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: あまり元気ではありません。(Amari genki de wa arimasen.) |
| Peter: Okay, very nice. Please break down the first part. |
| Natsuko: (slow)あまり (amari) |
| Peter: Yes, and one time fast. |
| Natsuko: あまり (amari) |
| Peter: And what does this mean? |
| Natsuko: Not so. |
| Peter: Yes, okay next here we go. |
| Natsuko: ではありません (de wa arimasen) |
| Peter: This is the negative form used with nouns and we covered this again in previous episodes. So please, if you haven’t heard those, please check back and listen, okay. So this phrase means I am not that good, right? One more time, please. |
| Natsuko: あまり元気ではありません。(Amari genki de wa arimasen.) |
| Peter: Yeah, not that good. Okay, next. 元気ですか。(Genki desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: 元気ではありません。(Genki de wa arimasen.) |
| Peter: And one more time, please. |
| Natsuko: 元気ではありません。(Genki de wa arimasen.) |
| Peter: And what does this mean? |
| Natsuko: I am not good. |
| Peter: Not good, yes. Okay, and last one, お元気ですか。(O-genki desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: だめです。(Dame desu.) |
| Peter: Uh, one more time, please. |
| Natsuko: だめです。(Dame desu.) |
| Peter: Okay, and what does this mean? |
| Natsuko: Bad. |
| Peter: Yeah, bad. |
| Natsuko: Bad. |
| Peter: And we covered this again in previous episodes. So please if you haven’t heard those, please check back and listen. Okay, so we have a full gamut of answers now. Now what we gave you was the polite form when you are talking to other people. Now what we’d like to do is give you a very casual, very informal way of speaking when you are among friends. So now, what we are going to do is we are going to give you the same things but now informally. Okay so here we go, same pattern. I am asking and Natsuko is answering. ナツコ、 元気？(Natsuko, genki?) |
| Natsuko: 絶好調。(Zekkōchō.) |
| Peter: One more time. 元気？(Genki?) |
| Natsuko: 絶好調。(Zekkōchō.) |
| Peter: Yes, very nice. Next. 元気？(Genki?) |
| Natsuko: 元気いっぱい。(Genki ippai.) |
| Peter: And that answer, one more time |
| Natsuko: 元気いっぱい。(Genki ippai.) |
| Peter: Very nice. Here we go. Natsuko, 元気？(Genki?) |
| Natsuko: すごく元気。(Sugoku genki.) |
| Peter: That answer one more time. |
| Natsuko: すごく元気。(Sugoku genki.) |
| Peter: Very nice. Here we go. ナツコ、元気？(Natsuko, genki?) |
| Natsuko: まあまあ。(Māmā.) |
| Peter: One more time, that answer. |
| Natsuko: まあまあ。(Māmā.) |
| Peter: Very nice. Okay, here we go. ナツコ、元気？(Natsuko, genki?) |
| Natsuko: あまり元気じゃない。(Amari genki ja nai.) |
| Peter: Yes okay, stop and press. What happened here? In the polite form, we were using |
| Natsuko: ではありません (de wa arimasen) |
| Peter: Yeah, and but now, we can use |
| Natsuko: じゃない (ja nai) |
| Peter: Yes, which is a shortened way of saying this, right? |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Okay. We can also use |
| Natsuko: ではない (de wa nai) |
| Peter: Yes, so and this one again, we use |
| Natsuko: 元気じゃない (genki ja nai) |
| Peter: Or |
| Natsuko: 元気ではない (genki de wa nai) |
| Peter: Okay, now if you remember back to like and not like. We gave you the very formal polite way but we can use the informal way and say |
| Natsuko: 好きじゃない (suki ja nai) |
| Peter: Yes, and |
| Natsuko: 好きではない (suki de wa nai) |
| Peter: Yes, the very shortened way and this is again talking amongst friends. Okay, we will get into more later on but we just wanted to cover that. Okay, next here we go. 元気？(Genki?) |
| Natsuko: 元気じゃない。(Genki ja nai.) |
| Peter: And one more time. |
| Natsuko: 元気じゃない。(Genki ja nai.) |
| Peter: Very nice and give us the other way that you can say it. |
| Natsuko: 元気ではない。(Genki de wa nai.) |
| Peter: Very nice. One more time. |
| Natsuko: 元気ではない。(Genki de wa nai.) |
| Peter: Yeah, now I think the じゃない (ja nai) is the more casual spoken form, right? |
| Natsuko: Yeah, we hear that more frequently. |
| Peter: Yeah, definitely. So I think you guys would want to stick with じゃない (ja nai). |
| Natsuko: じゃない (ja nai) |
| Peter: Right. |
| Natsuko: じゃない (ja nai) would be better. |
| Peter: So give us one more time, I am not okay. |
| Natsuko: 元気じゃない (genki ja nai) |
| Peter: I don’t like it. |
| Natsuko: 好きじゃない (suki ja nai) |
| Peter: Yes. Very, very nice and one more time. |
| Natsuko: 元気じゃない (genki ja nai) |
| Peter: Okay, here we go. Next one. ナツコ、元気？(Natsuko, genki?) |
| Natsuko: だめ。(Dame.) |
| Peter: Okay, and one more time that answer, please. |
| Natsuko: だめ。(Dame.) |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: Okay, very nice. Okay, we ran a little bit long today but again this was a very important lesson because this is going to be what you are using every single day. Just walk down the street. You can talk to Japanese people. Practice, get out there, test it out. Now you’ve got the tools to start talking to people, going out there, having conversations. I think it’s really coming together now. What do you think, Natsuko? |
| Natsuko: Yeah, just try it. |
| Peter: Yes, get out there, test it out. See what you can do. Okay, that’s going to be it for today. |
| Natsuko: また明日。(Mata ashita.) |
| Peter: See you tomorrow. |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get complete breakdowns, review with quizzes and download printable practice sheets! Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide