Learn about expressing an action is progressing at the present
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 |
| Chigusa: おはよう、アテネ。ちぐさです。(Ohayō, Atene. Chigusa desu.) |
| Yoshi: おはよう、アテネ。ヨシです。(Ohayō, Atene. Yoshi desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Beginner lesson #88. All right, today in this studio, Chigusa-san. |
| Chigusa: こんにちは。(Kon’nichiwa.) |
| Peter: こんにちは。お久しぶりですね。(Kon’nichiwa. O-hisashiburi desu ne.) |
| Chigusa: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Good to be back. |
| Peter: It’s great to have you back. |
| Chigusa: Thank you. |
| Peter: So this is the first time I think you’ve been with us for a beginner lesson from the beginning. |
| Chigusa: そうかもしれないですね。(Sō kamo shirenai desu ne.) |
| Peter: So everybody please look forward to that and back with us again is Yoshi-san. |
| Yoshi: こんにちは！(Kon’nichiwa!) |
| Peter: Okay, today we will be looking at the present progressive. Now this culminates what we’ve been looking at over the past three weeks, the te-form of verbs and other things incorporated. All right, without further adieu, let’s get into today’s conversation. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 夫 (otto) : お、そろそろ映画が始まるぞ。(O, sorosoro eiga ga hajimaru zo.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 待って... やっぱり、心配だわ。電話する。(Matte... yappari, shinpai da wa. Denwa suru.) |
| 夫 (otto) : いいよ。(Ii yo.) |
| (電話をかける音、人が出る音) ((Denwa o kakeru oto, hito ga deru oto) |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : はい。亀田です。(Hai. Kameda desu.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : もしもし、亀田です。(Moshimoshi, Kameda desu.) |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : こんばんは。(Konbanwa.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 私の宝物たちは大丈夫ですか。(Watashi no takaramono-tachi wa daijōbu desu ka.) |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : 大丈夫ですよ。(Daijōbu desu yo.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 何をしてますか。(Nani o shite masu ka.) |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : 息子さんは宿題をやっています。上のお嬢さんは携帯で友達と話しています。下のお嬢さんは...ちょっと待ってください。彼女はネットを見ています。(Musuko-san wa shukudai o yatte imasu. Ue no o-jō-san wa keitai de tomodachi to hanashite imasu. Shita no o-jō-san wa... chotto matte kudasai. Kanojo wa netto o mite imasu.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : ありがとう。安心しました。よろしくね。じゃ。(Arigatō. Anshin shimashita. Yoroshiku ne. Ja.) |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : 失礼します。(Shitsurei shimasu.) |
| 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.) |
| 夫 (otto) : お、そろそろ映画が始まるぞ。(O, sorosoro eiga ga hajimaru zo.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 待って... やっぱり、心配だわ。電話する。(Matte... yappari, shinpai da wa. Denwa suru.) |
| 夫 (otto) : いいよ。(Ii yo.) |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : はい。亀田です。(Hai. Kameda desu.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : もしもし、亀田です。(Moshimoshi, Kameda desu.) |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : こんばんは。(Konbanwa.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 私の宝物たちは大丈夫ですか。(Watashi no takaramono-tachi wa daijōbu desu ka.) |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : 大丈夫ですよ。(Daijōbu desu yo.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 何をしてますか。(Nani o shite masu ka.) |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : 息子さんは宿題をやっています。上のお嬢さんは携帯で友達と話しています。下のお嬢さんは...ちょっと待ってください。彼女はネットを見ています。(Musuko-san wa shukudai o yatte imasu. Ue no o-jō-san wa keitai de tomodachi to hanashite imasu. Shita no o-jō-san wa... chotto matte kudasai. Kanojo wa netto o mite imasu.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : ありがとう。安心しました。よろしくね。じゃ。(Arigatō. Anshin shimashita. Yoroshiku ne. Ja.) |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : 失礼します。(Shitsurei shimasu.) |
| Yoshi: 次は、ピーターさんの英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa, Pītā-san no Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 夫 (otto) : お、そろそろ映画が始まるぞ。(O, sorosoro eiga ga hajimaru zo.) |
| HUSBAND: Ah, the movie is about to start. |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 待って... (Matte…) |
| WIFE: Wait! |
| 妻 (tsuma) : やっぱり、心配だわ。(yappari, shinpai da wa.) |
| WIFE: Just as I thought. I'm worried. |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 電話する。(Denwa suru.) |
| WIFE: I'm going to call. |
| 夫 (otto) : いいよ。(Ii yo.) |
| HUSBAND: Okay. |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : はい。亀田です。(Hai. Kameda desu.) |
| BABYSITTER: Hello, it's Kameda. |
| 妻 (tsuma) : もしもし、亀田です。(Moshimoshi, Kameda desu.) |
| WIFE: Hello, it's Kameda. |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : こんばんは。(Konbanwa.) |
| BABYSITTER: Good evening. |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 私の宝物たちは大丈夫ですか。(Watashi no takaramono-tachi wa daijōbu desu ka.) |
| WIFE: Are my treasures okay? |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : 大丈夫ですよ。(Daijōbu desu yo.) |
| BABYSITTER: They are okay. |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 何をしてますか。(Nani o shite masu ka.) |
| WIFE: What are they doing? |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : 息子さんは宿題をやっています。(Musuko-san wa shukudai o yatte imasu.) |
| BABYSITTER: Your son is doing homework. |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : 上のお嬢さんは携帯で友達と話しています。(Ue no o-jō-san wa keitai de tomodachi to hanashite imasu.) |
| BABYSITTER: Your older daughter is talking to her friend on the cellphone. |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : 下のお嬢さんは...ちょっと待ってください。(Shita no o-jō-san wa... chotto matte kudasai.) |
| BABYSITTER: Your younger daughter, please wait one second. |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : 彼女はネットを見ています。(Kanojo wa netto o mite imasu.) |
| BABYSITTER: She is surfing the net. |
| 妻 (tsuma) : ありがとう。(Arigatō.) |
| WIFE: Thank you. |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 安心しました。(Anshin shimashita.) |
| WIFE: I feel relieved. |
| 妻 (tsuma) : よろしくね。(Yoroshiku ne.) |
| WIFE: Keep watching them. |
| 妻 (tsuma) : じゃ。(Ja.) |
| WIFE: See you. |
| ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) : 失礼します。(Shitsurei shimasu.) |
| BABYSITTER: Excuse me. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Yoshi-san, what a voice! What a cute 14-year-old you are. |
| Chigusa: 可愛い。(Kawaii.) |
| Yoshi: Thank you. |
| Peter: So a new grammar structure in there plus some interesting vocab. Again, now, what’s unique about this lesson is inside of the conversation, we actually have informal and formal, and the reason we are doing this is, to use formal Japanese between a married couple is a bit strange. So here we are introducing the informal. Then when she makes the phone call, it’s a bit of a distant person. So we switch to polite Japanese. Now here to talk about this, back for vocab again. ナツコさん、よろしくお願いします。(Natsuko-san, yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| Natsuko: よろしくお願いします。(Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| Peter: So Natsuko-san, we were talking about how when a husband and wife speak, they speak very informally. |
| Natsuko: Yes, naturally. |
| Peter: Naturally not in a polite way. So can you and Yoshi-san take us through this conversation one more time? |
| Natsuko: Okay. |
| Peter: お願いします。(Onegai shimasu.) |
| Yoshi: お、もう映画が始まるぞ。(O, mō eiga ga hajimaru zo.) |
| Natsuko: 待って... やっぱり、心配だわ。電話する。(Matte… yappari, shinpai da wa. Denwa suru.) |
| Yoshi: いいよ。(Ii yo.) |
| Peter: Now this is something that you’d find in our informal tracks. Again when you become intimate with someone, you switch from the polite to the informal. So for those of you looking for more of these types of conversations at japanesepod101.com, any conversation we do that has an informal track, we give you the polite version but we have the informal on our site. Now what would this be in polite Japanese? Can you take the same conversation and make it into polite Japanese? |
| Yoshi: お、もう映画が始まります。(O, mō eiga ga hajimarimasu.) |
| Natsuko: 待ってください。やっぱり心配です。電話します。(Matte kudasai. Yappari shinpai desu. Denwa shimasu.) |
| Yoshi: いいですよ。(Ii desu yo.) |
| Peter: You can see the difference. Now for more on this, please check inside the PDF. We will have a little bit of a write up on informal versus formal for this specific lesson because up until now, we have been keeping for the most part informal or plain Japanese out of the conversations but we are at a point now where it’s become necessary to include this stuff to make the conversations more natural. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: Okay, now, the next point we want to talk about. First, let’s get into the first vocabulary word. |
| Natsuko: ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) |
| Peter: Babysitter. |
| Natsuko: (slow)ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) (natural speed) ベビーシッター (bebīshittā) |
| Peter: Now the movie is about to start but the wife is still a little nervous, still anxious about her kids. So she calls home, to her house. Now when the babysitter picks up, what did he say? |
| Yoshi: はい、亀田です。(Hai, Kameda desu.) |
| Peter: Hello, this is Kameda as in the household name. Is this the babysitter’s name? |
| Natsuko: No. |
| Peter: Whose name is this? |
| Natsuko: It’s the household’s name. |
| Peter: Exactly. So the husband and wife, their last name is |
| Natsuko: 亀田 (Kameda) |
| Peter: That’s why he picks up the phone in this manner. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So if you are at a Japanese person’s house and for some reason, you are playing secretary, you pick up the phone, you would say the name of the house. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So this is one of the key points that we wanted to show. That’s why the conversation goes like this. |
| Yoshi: はい、亀田です。(Hai, Kameda desu.) |
| Natsuko: もしもし。亀田です。(Moshimoshi. Kameda desu.) |
| Peter: That’s why they are both saying Kameda. Now the interesting thing about this is this was 勉強になりました (benkyō ni narimashita). I learned about this today. I didn’t know…. |
| Natsuko: Oh yeah. |
| Peter: Yeah, I didn’t know about this before today. |
| Natsuko: Well you didn’t have an occasion to pick up the phone in another house, right? |
| Peter: Very good point, very good point, Natsuko-san. Okay, let’s continue on with the vocabulary. |
| Natsuko: 最初のキーワードは、宝物 (Saisho no kīwādo wa, takaramono) |
| Peter: Treasure. |
| Natsuko: (slow)たからもの (takaramono) (natural speed) 宝物 (takaramono) |
| Peter: This has the same dual meaning in Japanese as it does in English. Treasure as in something with value and treasure as in something very important to one. So in the dialogue, what was the treasure? |
| Yoshi: 子供 (kodomo) |
| Peter: And how do we make it plural? |
| Yoshi: 宝物たち (takaramono-tachi) |
| Peter: Yes. So if you were talking about things, you wouldn’t say the same thing. This is not plural for treasurers as in a metallic kind of object. |
| Natsuko: Yes, usually. |
| Peter: So that’s why the たち (tachi) here indicates that she is talking about the children. |
| Natsuko: Uhoo. |
| Peter: Okay, Natsuko-san, let’s ask Yoshi-san what his treasure is. |
| Natsuko: ヨシさんの宝物は何ですか。(Yoshi-san no takaramono wa nan desu ka.) |
| Yoshi: 私の宝物は家族と友達です。(Watashi no takaramono wa kazoku to tomodachi desu.) |
| Natsuko: いいですね。(Ii desu ne.) |
| Peter: This one sounds really familiar. I remember, like, Yoshi’s stock answer. |
| Natsuko: Really? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Natsuko: I didn’t notice. |
| Peter: I think we did this one already. Treasure, but anyway it’s a great word so…. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Might as well have it again. All right, let’s go on to the next word. |
| Yoshi: 次のキーワードは、息子 (Tsugi no kīwādo wa, musuko) |
| Peter: Son. |
| Yoshi: (slow)むすこ (musuko) (natural speed) 息子 (musuko) |
| Peter: When you talk about your own son, you say |
| Natsuko: うちの息子 (uchi no musuko) |
| Peter: One of the ways to talk about your own son, but when you talk about someone else’s son, you say |
| Natsuko: 息子さん (musuko-san) |
| Peter: You attach the suffix |
| Natsuko: さん (san) |
| Peter: Okay, you don’t want to forget this. Now how about “daughter”? |
| Natsuko: 娘 (musume) |
| Peter: And again when you talk about someone else’s daughter, |
| Natsuko: 娘さん (musume-san) |
| Peter: The suffix さん (san). Now let’s take a look back at the conversation. The babysitter is talking about 亀田さん (Kameda-san)’s daughters. Now he uses some very interesting Japanese here. Can we have that Japanese one more time, Natsuko-san? |
| Natsuko: 上のお嬢さん (ue no o-jō-san) |
| Peter: Your older daughter, the older daughter. |
| Natsuko: 下のお嬢さん (shita no o-jō-san) |
| Peter: Younger daughter. Now here is the catch. In Japanese, there are many ways to refer to family members. 娘さん (musume-san) is okay if the person has one daughter but when you are talking with someone with two daughters or three daughters or so on, just to say 娘さん (musume-san) is not enough because which one are you talking about. So the babysitter in order to point to the difference, he uses this construction, the older daughter and younger daughter and the word he used for daughter was |
| Natsuko: お嬢さん (o-jō-san) |
| Peter: Now Natsuko-san is going to tell us about this word. |
| Natsuko: The original meaning of お嬢さん (o-jō-san) is daughter, but this word can also be used for young ladies in general or girls. |
| Peter: I see. |
| Natsuko: It’s a really polite way to refer to young ladies. Well, usually ladies are someone’s daughter. So I think it’s pretty natural to call them daughters. |
| Peter: She is right to me. How about the case of son’s if say it was reversed, there was one daughter and two sons? |
| Natsuko: 上の息子さん。下の息子さん。(Ue no musuko-san. Shita no musuko-san.) |
| Peter: Okay, now what we are going to introduce next is quite important when talking about families. Now, recently, Japanese families are getting smaller and smaller. You may have heard about Japan’s population dilemma. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Just recently they actually peaked in population and from here on out, population is expected to decline. So most families have two children. So it’s not quite the case anymore where we need this so much but it’s very good to know because sometimes there are quite big families. |
| Natsuko: Yes, it reflects Japanese culture. |
| Peter: So you heard Natsuko-San. She is going to tell us about the sibling order. For example, the oldest son, second oldest son. Let’s start with the male side. |
| Natsuko: Okay. |
| Peter: How can we say oldest son? |
| Natsuko: 長男 (chōnan) |
| Peter: One more time. |
| Natsuko: 長男 (chōnan) |
| Peter: Now the characters for this are |
| Natsuko: 長 (chō) |
| Peter: Long or head. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: And |
| Natsuko: 男 (nan) |
| Peter: Man. Next we have |
| Natsuko: 次男 (jinan) |
| Peter: And the characters for this are next and boy. So we have the head boy, next boy and then from here on out |
| Natsuko: 三男 (sannan) |
| Peter: We switch the numbers. |
| Natsuko: Yes |
| Peter: Head boy, the first born, next boy, second born. |
| Natsuko: 三男 (sannan) |
| Peter: Third born and there is the number for 3 in there. |
| Natsuko: Uhoo… |
| Peter: After that? |
| Natsuko: 四男 (yonnan) |
| Peter: Fourth born and so on and so on for guys. |
| Natsuko: Yes, yes. |
| Peter: Okay, now let’s have Yoshi-san tell us about the girls. |
| Yoshi: The first daughter is 長女 (chōjo). |
| Peter: Same first character, head. Second character is |
| Yoshi: 女 (jo) |
| Peter: Girl, head girl. Second born girl. |
| Yoshi: 次女 (jijo) |
| Peter: Next girl, second born. After that again, we switch the numbers. |
| Yoshi: 三女 (sanjo), 四女 (yonjo) |
| Peter: So this is when talking about the order that the children were born for the respective sexes. |
| Natsuko: Uhoo. |
| Peter: Now two generations ago, this was used a lot. Natsuko-san, |
| Natsuko: Yes, it was critical. |
| Peter: You needed this to keep track of what was going on. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: I have met people here with 9 brothers and sisters and very big families. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Okay, next. |
| Natsuko: 次のキーワードは、安心 (Tsugi no kīwādo wa, anshin) |
| Peter: Relief, at ease. |
| Natsuko: (slow)あんしん (anshin) (natural speed) 安心 (anshin) |
| Peter: Now Natsuko-san, how do we turn this into a verb? |
| Natsuko: You add する (suru). |
| Peter: Again another one where we form the verb by adding する (suru). |
| Natsuko: 安心する (anshin suru) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Now let’s move on to today’s grammar point. Natsuko-san, what’s today’s grammar point? |
| Natsuko: 今日のグラマーポイントは、ている (Kyō no guramā pointo wa, te iru) |
| Peter: The present progressive. Now as you will see in the upcoming weeks, now that we’ve introduced the |
| Natsuko: て (te) |
| Peter: Form of verbs, we have opened so many doors. |
| Natsuko: Yes, at last. |
| Peter: At last we have struggled so many times boxing in these conversations to fit the grammar but now we are almost free. We were waiting for this day. Natsuko in the studio, she is like we are finally here. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: It’s just a testament to how far everyone has come. Now the way we form the present progressive is we add |
| Natsuko: いる (iru) |
| Peter: To the te-form. Now いる (iru) is the dictionary form of if you remember |
| Natsuko: Uhoo. |
| Peter: The verb to exist for animate and in most cases, living things. There are exceptions but the good rule of thumb is the verb to exist for animate living things. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: We add this to |
| Natsuko: Te-form. |
| Peter: Of verbs and we get the present progressive. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Okay, let’s give you a little example. Natsuko, what are we doing right now? |
| Natsuko: 日本語を教えている。(Nihon-go o oshiete iru.) |
| Peter: “Teaching Japanese.” This is the plain form. Now Natsuko, can you give us the polite form, which you'd come across in textbooks and what should be used in a classroom? |
| Natsuko: 日本語を教えています。(Nihon-go o oshiete imasu.) |
| Peter: Okay, you can see the difference. |
| Natsuko: 教えている (oshiete iru) |
| Peter: and the polite |
| Natsuko: 教えています (oshiete imasu) |
| Peter: Okay, and what are our listeners doing? |
| Natsuko: 日本語を勉強しています。(Nihon-go o benkyō shite imasu.) |
| Peter: Okay. 頑張ってください。(Ganbatte kudasai.) |
| Natsuko: 頑張ってください。(Ganbatte kudasai.) |
| Peter: Now, we have more about this grammar construction in the PDF. Today is one PDF you definitely want to pick up. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
Outro |
| Peter: Okay, this is what is building the base for a lot of things to come. But today was a good one. |
| Natsuko: Yes, this was a milestone day. |
| Peter: I like that phrase, milestone day. Alright, that’s gonna do it for today! |
| Natsuko: じゃ、また明日ね。 (Ja, mata ashita ne.) |
| Yoshi: 頑張って。(Ganbatte.) |
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