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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: おはよう とうきょう。なつこ です。 [Ohayō Tōkyō. Natsuko desu.] |
| Kazunori: おはよう とうきょう。かずのり です。 [Ohayō Tōkyō. Kazunori desu.] |
| Peter: Good morning Tokyo, Peter here. And we’re back with another lesson. Okay; so we’re back with our fourth lesson today, and unfortunately, we’re not gonna jump right into conversation because there’s a few basic points and, I’m sorry to say, a little...I don’t wanna say the word, I don’t wanna say the G-word, but a little bit of a grammar that we’re gonna have to get into today. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: So, we’ll try to make it as painless and as quick as possible. But we’re going just back to the verb ‘to be’, which is… |
| Natsuko: です [desu] |
| Peter: Yes. And what we’re gonna introduce today is kind of when you start out in English; I think the best way is to conjugate the verb ‘to be’, so we’re gonna give you the rough conjugation of the verb ‘to be’. Now, there’s two points that are a little bit troublesome with this; in Japanese; the verb comes where in the sentence? |
| Natsuko: At the last. |
| Peter: Yes; right at the end. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So, as I said, we’ll try to make this as painless as possible, but just remember the verb comes at the end, so です [desu] is ‘to be’, which comes at the end. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So, kind of like ‘I Peter am’. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Right? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: If you, oh, can you give us the….remember the sentence we had yesterday? ‘I am Natsuko’? Can you give us that in Japanese one more time? |
| Natsuko: わたしは なつこ です。 [Watashi wa Natsuko desu.] |
| Peter: Yes; so, this is kind of like... わたし [watashi] is ‘I’, right? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: And なつこ [Natsuko] is your name. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: And then ‘am’, so, ‘I Natsuko am’. |
| Natsuko: Yes; exactly like that. |
| Peter: Yes. We’re gonna get you into this, and we’ll use you into the way the verbs are gonna come along, but today, we’re just gonna base...we’re gonna give you the basic conjugation: ‘I am’, ‘you are’, ‘he is’, ‘she is’, ‘we are’, ‘you are’ and ‘they are’. And we’re gonna have to, hate to say it, leave out ‘it’. Right? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: We’re gonna leave out ‘it’ to another day because you can only take so much grammar one day. |
| Natsuko: Hmm. |
| Peter: Okay; so, enough for me to ranting and raving. Let’s jump right in and we’re gonna start out with… ‘I’. |
| Natsuko: わたし [watashi] |
| Peter: Yes. ‘You’. |
| Natsuko: あなた [anata] |
| Perer: Yes. Can we have the word for ‘you’ one more time; break it down slowly, please? |
| Natsuko: あ な た [a na ta] |
| Peter: Yes, very very nice. Okay. ‘He’. |
| Natsuko: かれ [kare] |
| Peter: Yes. ‘She’. |
| Natsuko: かのじょ [kanojo] |
| Peter: Okay; and give us ‘he’ one more time and then break it down. So, two times; one time fast and then break it down. |
| Natsuko: かれ [kare] |
| Peter: Yes. |
| Natsuko か れ [ka re] |
| Peter: Yes. Okay, and next. |
| Natsuko: かのじょ [kanojo] |
| Peter: Yes; break it down nice and slow. |
| Natsuko: か の じょ [ka no jo] |
| Peter: Very very nice; very nice. Okay; now, we’re going to make this...we’re going to use this practically. Remember? My name is Peter and the Japanese pronunciation should be ピーター [Pītā]. And Kazunori. And now, what we’re gonna have Natsuko do is say that ‘I am Natsuko’. And we’ll make it, as if Natsuko is talking to me, with Kazunori on the side. Okay? So, can you give us ‘I am’, ‘you are’ and ‘he is’. |
| Natsuko: わたしは なつこ です。 [Watashi wa Natsuko desu.] あなたは ピーター です。 [Anata wa Pītā desu.] かれは かずのり です。 [Kare wa Kazunori desu.] |
| Peter: Okay; very nice. One more time? |
| Natsuko: わたしは なつこ です。 [Watashi wa Natsuko desu.] あなたは ピーター です。 [Anata wa Pītā desu.] かれは かずのり です。 [Kare wa Kazunori desu.] |
| Peter: Very very nice. Okay? And now, what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna jump and now Kazunori is going to say the same thing, talking to me. Okay? Okay; here we go. |
| Kazunori: わたしは かずのり です。 [Watashi wa Kazunori desu.] あなたは ピーター です。 [Anata wa Pītā desu.] かのじょは なつこ です。 [Kanojo wa Natsuko desu.] |
| Peter: Very nice. One more time, please. |
| Kazunori: わたしは かずのり です。 [Watashi wa Kazunori desu.] あなたは ピーター です。 [Anata wa Pītā desu.] かのじょは なつこ です。 [Kanojo wa Natsuko desu.] |
| Peter: Very very nice; thank you. That’s why he is the alpha male; did you hear the pronunciation? Perfect. Now, all you guys out there, try and listen to the way Kazunori speaks, because he’s ideally what you want to copy. So, now we’re gonna move on to ‘we are’, ‘you are’ and ‘they are’. Okay? Natsuko, please? |
| Natsuko: わたしたち [watashi tachi] |
| Peter: Okay; stop right there. Now you notice; what’s the same about ‘I’ and ‘we’? |
| Natsuko: わたし [watashi] |
| Peter: Yes. For you there, out there, that caught that, the わたし [watashi] is the same. Now what’s the different part? |
| Natsuko: たち [tachi] |
| Peter: Yes. One more time, nice and slow. |
| Natsuko: た ち [ta chi] |
| Peter: Yes, and this roughly means...could you give us the rough meaning? |
| Natsuko: It means plural. |
| Peter: Perfect, yes; that’s it. So, たち [tachi] is the plural, correct? |
| Natsuko: Um-hum; yes. |
| Peter: So, can you give us one more time quickly and then break it down into syllables. |
| Natsuko: わたしたち [watashi tachi] わ た し た ち [wa ta shi ta chi] |
| Peter: Perfect; beautiful. Okay? And now we’re going to move onto ‘you’; plural ‘you’. |
| Natsuko: あなたたち [anata tachi] |
| Peter: Yes; I noticed something very similar there. |
| Natsuko: Yes; たち [tachi], again. |
| Peter: Yes. |
| Natsuko: あ な た た ち [a na ta ta chi] |
| Peter: So, again, we use the base… |
| Natsuko: あなた [anata] |
| Peter: Yes. So, here’s the thing; if you guys remember ‘I’, わたし [watashi], and ‘you’, あなた [anata], if you just add the… |
| Natsuko: たち [tachi] |
| Peter: you have the plural. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So, you’re making it very very easy for us, Natsuko. |
| Natsuko: Easy. |
| Peter: Okay, now we’re gonna move onto ‘they are’, male form. |
| Natsuko: かれら [karera] |
| Peter: Yes. One more time, please? |
| Natsuko: かれら [karera] |
| Peter: Okay; break this down for us? |
| Natsuko: か れ ら [ka re ra] |
| Peter: Okay. There’s something similar about this one too, correct? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: But something different than the previous plural forms of ‘you’ and ‘we’. |
| Natsuko: Yes. かれ [kare] is the same with ‘he’. |
| Peter: Ah, yes, yes. |
| Natsuko: But ら [ra], that’s also the plural part, but it’s different from たち [tachi]. |
| Peter: Yeah. Okay; so this one could take a little getting used to. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Okay. How about the plural for females? |
| Natsuko: かのじょら [kanojora] |
| Peter: Ah, okay. And can you break that down for us? |
| Natsuko: か の じょ ら [ka no jo ra] |
| Peter: Very nice. Okay, now we’re going to have Kazunori give you the pronunciations. |
| Kazunori: わたしたち [watashi tachi] |
| Peter: Very nice. One more time; slow it down a bit. |
| Kazunori: わ た し た ち [wa ta shi ta chi] |
| Peter: Very nice. Next. |
| Kazunori: あなたたち [anata tachi] |
| Peter: Very nice. Slow it down. |
| Kazunori: あ な た た ち [a na ta ta chi] |
| Peter: Very nice. Next. |
| Kazunori: かれら [karera] |
| Peter: Very nice. |
| Kazunori: か れ ら [ka re ra] |
| Peter: Very nice. Female? |
| Kazunori: かのじょら [kanojora] |
| Peter: Yes! Break it down, please? |
| Kazunori: か の じょ ら [ka no jo ra] |
| Peter: Okay; very nice. So, did everyone out there get that? Okay, we had to get through this because this is the key to our next lessons. Once you get this down, once you get this base down, that’s it; the sky’s the limit. You can do anything; right, Natsuko? |
| Natsuko: Hm-hum. Yes. You use this and you have a conversation. |
| Peter: Yes, which we’re gonna do right now; we’re gonna show you how useful this is. Now, can you give me the word for ‘America’, one more time? |
| Natsuko: アメリカ [Amerika] |
| Peter: Yes. And how do I say ‘I am American’? |
| Natsuko: わたしは アメリカじん です。 [Watashi wa Amerika-jin desu.] |
| Peter: Okay. So, I can do this; let’s...why don’t we do this? わたしは ピーター です。 [Watashi wa Pītā desu.] And notice I dropped last name to make it a little less formal. And also, if you quote in the beginning, when Natsuko and Kazunori introduced themselves, they dropped わたし [watashi] altogether and we can just say just your name and です [desu], meaning ‘I am Peter’ and ‘I am Natsuko’. Correct? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: わたしは ピーター です。 [Watashi wa Pītā desu.] わたしは アメリカじん です。 [Watashi wa Amerika-jin desu.] |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Okay? Now we’re gonna have Natsuko. |
| Natsuko: わたしは なつこ です。 [Watashi wa Natsuko desu.] わたしは にほんじん です。 [Watashi wa Nihon-jin desu.] |
| Peter: Okay? Now? |
| Kazunori: わたしは かずのり です。 [Watashi wa Kazunori desu.] わたしは にほんじん です。 [Watashi wa Nihon-jin desu.] |
| Peter: Okay. So, we got that down. Now, why don’t we do plurals? Here we’re gonna do some plural. So, why don’t we have you say ‘we are Japanese’ referring to Natsuko and Kazunori. |
| Natsuko: わたしたちは にほんじん です。 [Watashi tachi wa Nihon-jin desu.] |
| Peter: Very very nice. Did you catch that? Now, one more time, please? |
| Natsuko: わたしたちは にほんじん です。 [Watashi tachi wa Nihon-jin desu.] |
| Peter: Very nice. Now, I can say… あなたたちは にほんじん です。 [Anata tachi wa Nihon-jin desu.] |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: Right? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: One more time. And now we’re gonna have Natsuko say, so you can get correct pronunciation. |
| Natsuko: あなたたちは にほんじん です。 [Anata tachi wa Nihon-jin desu.] |
| Peter: Okay. Very very nice. So, for example, say, we’re walking in the street and we see a group of Americans. What can we say? |
| Natsuko: かれらは アメリカじん です。 [Karera wa Amerika-jin desu.] |
| Peter: Yes. One more time, please? |
| Natsuko: かれらは アメリカじん です。 [Karera wa Amerika-jin desu.] |
| Peter: Very very nice. Now, this takes the masculine form; correct? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Yeah. So, if there’s one guy in there, it becomes… |
| Natsuko: かれら [karera] |
| Peter: Yes; if it’s all girls? |
| Natsuko: かのじょら [kanojora] |
| Peter: Okay. So now what we’re gonna have, we’re gonna do one little drill and that’s gonna be it for today. We’re gonna focus on ‘they’. Okay? And we’re going to imagine a group of people. So, I’m going to say that English country name and Natsuko will give us the sentence about the group. For example, I gave America before, now we’ll work on some other nationalities. Okay, Natsuko, say I saw a group of English people. |
| Natsuko: かれらは イギリスじん です。 [Karera wa Igirisu-jin desu.] |
| Peter: Yes. Say I saw a group of Australian people. |
| Natsuko: かれらは オーストラリアじん です。 [Karera wa Ōsutoraria-jin desu.] |
| Peter: Okay; very nice. Now, why don’t we get the same thing from Kazunori to hear the way he speaks? |
| Kazunori: かれらは イギリスじん です。 [Karera wa Igirisu-jin desu.] |
| Peter: Okay; ‘they are English’. Australia? |
| Kazunori: かれらは オーストラリアじん です。 [Karera wa Ōsutoraria-jin desu.] |
| Peter: Yes; ‘they are Australian’. Okay; so, that’s gonna wrap it up for today. We had...we had a bit of a long lesson today, but this is the fundamental building block. This is it. Next lesson, we’re gonna have conversations with ‘the sky is the limit’ from here on it. So, sorry about dragging down today with the G-word, but we had it; had to be done, right Natsuko? |
| Natsuko: Yes; we’re gonna have fun next time. |
| Peter: Yeah. No pain; No gain. Okay, so that’s gonna be it for us today. |
Outro |
| Natsuko: またね [Matane] |
| Kazunori: またね [Matane] |
| Peter: じゃあね [Jāne] See you tomorrow. |
| Natsuko: See you tomorrow. |
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