Learn about talking about wearing items such as glasses and sunglasses
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: こんにちは、なつこです。(Konnichiwa, Natsuko desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. What To Wear #3. Natsuko-san, |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: This one is a little tough. |
| Natsuko: Really? |
| Peter: Yeah. I heard from someone that it's like throwing them into the deep end. |
| Natsuko: Oh oh! |
| Peter: Do I have to give credit where I heard it from, okay Sachiko. Sachiko said, I took it. I am guilty but she has a good point. |
| Natsuko: Really. |
| Peter: Yeah. What do you think? I think there is some tricky stuff in today’s conversation? |
| Natsuko: Yeah maybe but it would be easy if you hear the whole conversation. |
| Peter: Yes and if you hear the previous too because this is the third part of the three part series. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So again, we have our salesman working away. This guy is something else. He is really something special. So let’s take a look at the maestro at work. What we are going to introduce though before we get into it today. There is one line in there that I’d like to explain and I think it would help a lot if we walked you through this. So that way it will flow out better. Now, in today’s lesson, we have some 謙譲 (kenjō) which is very polite Japanese if you are lowering yourself down. You are lowering your position down in relation to the person you are speaking with. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Now we have some of that. Natsuko-san, where does that come up? |
| Natsuko: 申しません。 (mōshimasen.) |
| Peter: And it means, I won’t say. I wouldn’t say. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Negative of to say. |
| Natsuko: 申す (mōsu) |
| Peter: Now, this verb. One more time, Natsuko-san. |
| Natsuko: 申す (mōsu) |
| Peter: Is the extremely polite way, the way to lower yourself down and it’s equivalent to |
| Natsuko: 言う (Iu) |
| Peter: To say. So when you hear this, just think of it as “to say.” |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: 言う (Iu) In this case we have the negative form. So actually the polite negative of to say you is |
| Natsuko: 言いません (Iimasen) |
| Peter: So what we are actually doing in this conversation is taking out 言いません (Iimasen) and replacing it with just a better version. It’s the same car with just a better body. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: So we are replacing it with? |
| Natsuko: 申しません (mōshimasen) |
| Peter: And here the purpose of this is to lower the position down and the sales person is lowering himself down in relation to the customer. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: With that said, here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 店員:では、こちらのサングラスも、かけてみてはどうでしょう。 |
| （木ノ下、サングラスをかける） |
| Tenin: Dewa, kochira no sangurasu mo, kakete mite wa dō deshō.(Kinoshita, sangurasu o kakeru) |
| 店員:お客様、素晴らしいです。とってもダンディーでございます。いかがでしょうか。 |
| Tenin: O-kyaku-sama, subarashii desu. Tottemo dandeī de gozaimasu. Ikaga deshō ka. |
| 木ノ下:私は、あなたの着せ替え人形じゃありません！ただジャケットを着てみたかっただけなんです。 |
| Kinoshita: Watashi wa, anata no kisekae ningyō ja arimasen! Tada jaketto o kite mitakatta dake na n desu! |
| 店員:あら。でも、とってもエレガントでございますよ。 |
| Tenin: Ara. Demo, tottemo ereganto de gozaimasu yo. |
| 木ノ下:本当ですか。 |
| Kinoshita: Hontō desu ka? |
| 店員:私は、嘘など申しません。 |
| Tenin: Watashi wa, uso nado mōshimasen. |
| 木ノ下:本当に。 |
| Kinoshita: Hontō ni? |
| 店員:本当ですよ。サングラスをかけますと、どこぞの俳優さんかと思っちゃいます。 |
| Tenin: Hontō desu yo! Sangurasu o kakemasu to, doko zo no haiyū-san ka to omocchaimasu. |
| 木ノ下:まじですか。じゃあ、5点全部買います。 |
| Kinoshita: Maji desu ka? Jā, go ten zenbu kaimasu. |
| 店員:お買い上げありがとうございます！ |
| Tenin: O-kaiage arigatō gozaimasu! |
| もう一度、お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。 (Mōichido, onegaishimasu. Yukkuri onegaishimasu.) |
| 店員:では、こちらのサングラスも、かけてみてはどうでしょう。 |
| （木ノ下、サングラスをかける） |
| Tenin: Dewa, kochira no sangurasu mo, kakete mite wa dō deshō.(Kinoshita, sangurasu o kakeru) |
| 店員:お客様、素晴らしいです。とってもダンディーでございます。いかがでしょうか。 |
| Tenin: O-kyaku-sama, subarashii desu. Tottemo dandeī de gozaimasu. Ikaga deshō ka. |
| 木ノ下:私は、あなたの着せ替え人形じゃありません！ただジャケットを着てみたかっただけなんです。 |
| Kinoshita: Watashi wa, anata no kisekae ningyō ja arimasen! Tada jaketto o kite mitakatta dake na n desu! |
| 店員:あら。でも、とってもエレガントでございますよ。 |
| Tenin: Ara. Demo, tottemo ereganto de gozaimasu yo. |
| 木ノ下:本当ですか。 |
| Kinoshita: Hontō desu ka? |
| 店員:私は、嘘など申しません。 |
| Tenin: Watashi wa, uso nado mōshimasen. |
| 木ノ下:本当に。 |
| Kinoshita: Hontō ni? |
| 店員:本当ですよ。サングラスをかけますと、どこぞの俳優さんかと思っちゃいます。 |
| Tenin: Hontō desu yo! Sangurasu o kakemasu to, doko zo no haiyū-san ka to omocchaimasu. |
| 木ノ下:まじですか。じゃあ、5点全部買います。 |
| Kinoshita: Maji desu ka? Jā, go ten zenbu kaimasu. |
| 店員:お買い上げありがとうございます！ |
| Tenin: O-kaiage arigatō gozaimasu! |
| 次は英語が入ります。 (Tsugi wa eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 店員:では、こちらのサングラスも、かけてみてはどうでしょう。 |
| （木ノ下、サングラスをかける） |
| Tenin: Dewa, kochira no sangurasu mo, kakete mite wa dō deshō.(Kinoshita, sangurasu o kakeru) |
| Clerk: Well, how about trying on these sunglasses? |
| 店員:お客様、素晴らしいです。とってもダンディーでございます。いかがでしょうか。 |
| Tenin: O-kyaku-sama, subarashii desu. Tottemo dandeī de gozaimasu. Ikaga deshō ka. |
| Clerk: Sir, they're wonderful! They're so snazzy! What do you think? |
| 木ノ下:私は、あなたの着せ替え人形じゃありません！ただジャケットを着てみたかっただけなんです。 |
| Kinoshita: Watashi wa, anata no kisekae ningyō ja arimasen! Tada jaketto o kite mitakatta dake na n desu! |
| Kinoshita: I'm not your dress-up doll! Just the jacket I tried on, please. |
| 店員:あら。でも、とってもエレガントでございますよ。 |
| Tenin: Ara. Demo, tottemo ereganto de gozaimasu yo. |
| Clerk: Oh, but it's so elegant! |
| 木ノ下:本当ですか。 |
| Kinoshita: Hontō desu ka? |
| Kinoshita: Really? |
| 店員:私は、嘘など申しません。 |
| Tenin: Watashi wa, uso nado mōshimasen. |
| Clerk: I never lie. |
| 木ノ下:本当に。 |
| Kinoshita: Hontō ni? |
| Kinoshita: Really? |
| 店員:本当ですよ。サングラスをかけますと、どこぞの俳優さんかと思っちゃいます。 |
| Tenin: Hontō desu yo! Sangurasu o kakemasu to, doko zo no haiyū-san ka to omocchaimasu. |
| Clerk: Really! When you put on the sunglasses, I accidentally mistake you for some famous actor. |
| 木ノ下:まじですか。じゃあ、5点全部買います。 |
| Kinoshita: Maji desu ka? Jā, go ten zenbu kaimasu. |
| Kinoshita: Seriously? Then I’ll buy all 5! |
| 店員:お買い上げありがとうございます！ |
| Tenin: O-kaiage arigatō gozaimasu! |
| Clerk: Thank you so very much for your patronage! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: なつこさん、今日の会話どう思いましたか？ (Natsuko-san, kyō no kaiwa dō omoimashita ka?) |
| Natsuko: 結局、買っちゃったんですね。 (Kekkyoku, katchatta n desu ne.) |
| Peter: Yep he bought it. Score 1 for the company. All that training paid off. Let’s back up. We are going to take a look at vocab. Natsuko-san, what do we have first? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natsuko: 着せ替え人形 (kisekaeningyō) |
| Peter: A dress-up doll. |
| Natsuko: き・せ・か・え・に・ん・ぎょ・う「着せ替え人形」 (Ki se ka e ni n gyou `kisekaeningyō') |
| Peter: Next we have |
| Natsuko: 点 (ten) |
| Peter: Spot, point. |
| Natsuko: て・ん「点」 (Te n `ten') |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Natsuko: 全部 (zenbu) |
| Peter: All, entire, whole. |
| Natsuko: ぜ・ん・ぶ「全部」 (ze n bu `zenbu') |
| Peter: Next we have |
| Natsuko: 俳優 (haiyū) |
| Peter: Actor. |
| Natsuko: は・い・ゆ・う「俳優」 (Ha i yu u `haiyū') |
| Peter: And finally |
| Natsuko: お買い上げ (O kaiage) |
| Peter: Buy, purchase. |
| Natsuko: お・か・い・あ・げ「お買い上げ」 (O ka i a-ge `o kaiage') |
| Peter: All right. Here we go. Now let’s get into these details. There is a lot going on here. So well let’s just start it off. Now again, we start off with the same pattern. Natsuko-san mentioned this last week that there is also another verb when talking about wearing things and that adverb is... |
| Natsuko: かける (kakeru) |
| Peter: So the only thing different about this sentence is what’s going to be worn, the verb and one little particle. The rest is the same. So let’s take a look. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Natsuko: では、こちらのサングラスもかけてみてはどうでしょう。 (Dewa, kochira no sangurasu mo kakete mite wa dō deshou.) |
| Peter: Okay. How about trying on these sunglasses. Now first we have では which is used to change the topic. |
| Natsuko: Then. |
| Peter: Yeah. Next so on followed by |
| Natsuko: こちらの (kochira no) |
| Peter: Same. These |
| Natsuko: サングラス (sangurasu) |
| Peter: Sunglasses. Did you pick up that word? One more time, Natsuko-san? |
| Natsuko: サングラス (sangurasu) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Natsuko: も (mo) |
| Peter: So in the previous conversations, we used |
| Natsuko: を (o) |
| Peter: The object marker but here も (mo) can substitute for を (o) |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: And here as we are talking about additional things, try this on rather than that. Try this also. Then we have |
| Natsuko: かけて (kakete) |
| Peter: the te-form of |
| Natsuko: かける (kakeru) |
| Peter: Now this is the verb used when wearing things. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Such as |
| Natsuko: Glasses or sometimes, for bags, when you hang it on your shoulder. |
| Peter: So it’s the way it’s worn. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: That can also make a difference, yes. |
| Natsuko: Hang it. |
| Peter: Yes. So but primarily mostly this is used with glasses. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Okay and then of course we have the te-form followed by the particle は and then we have |
| Natsuko: みてはどうでしょう (mite wa dō deshou) |
| Peter: In all of these cases, it’s the same. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: The structure is the same. What was the politeness level and the verb according to what was being put on. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: All right and then he goes into the sales pitch. |
| Natsuko: お客様、素晴らしいです。とってもダンディーでございます。いかがでしょうか。 (Okyakusama, subarashii desu. Tottemo dandī de gozaimasu. Ikaga deshou ka.) |
| Peter: All right. Standard ‘oh wow, you look great.’ Amazing followed by something quite interesting. You look very dandy. |
| Natsuko: ダンディー (dandī) |
| Peter: This is an adjective that has made it into Japanese. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Let’s just go over this one more time. |
| Natsuko: ダンディー (dandī) |
| Peter: And just break it down. |
| Natsuko: ダ・ン・ディー「ダンディー」 (da n dī `dandī') |
| Peter: And Natsuko-san, can you give us the nuance behind this adjective? |
| Natsuko: I think it’s exclusively used for men. |
| Peter: How men look. |
| Natsuko: Yes. And a usually grown up person with very nice clothes and gives a feeling of kind of high status, high social status. |
| Peter: Yeah. I think that’s the perfect description. There is that hint of upper class in that dandy. |
| Natsuko: Yes. So that’s why it’s not usually used for very young men. |
| Peter: And the interesting thing is, what’s so amazing about Japanese is like by the words and the context they are used in, you could tell a lot about the person who is speaking, who is being spoken to, you could tell a lot about this interaction. You can almost visualize that it’s probably upper management and maybe a 社長 (shachō) a boss of something shopping at a very high class, posh menswear store and he is getting this royal treatment. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: Then we have ～でございます (~de gozaimasu) which is the polite form of the copula, very, very polite and then again we have |
| Natsuko: いかがでしょうか (ikaga deshou ka) |
| Peter: How is it? And then we get something we don’t expect. Here we go. |
| Natsuko: 私はあなたの着せ替え人形じゃありません。 (Watashi wa anata no kisekaeningyō ja arimasen.) |
| Peter: “I am not your dress-up doll.” So I think he’s had a little bit too much of the sales pitch. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: I could just see this sales guy getting so whipped up and this and this and this and this. So yeah, he had – he reached his limit followed by |
| Natsuko: ただ、ジャケットを着てみたかっただけなんです。 (Tada, jaketto o kite mitakatta dake nan desu.) |
| Peter: I just wanted to try on a jacket as in a suit jacket. Interesting point about the sentence is, ただ coming in the front. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Natsuko: だけなんです (dake nan desu) |
| Peter: Towards the latter part of the sentence and this combination is often used to say “only” or “just.” |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: I just wanted to try on the jacket. ただ (tada) came in the front and だけ (dake) came in the back. Then we had again a conjugation of the auxiliary verb みる (miru). So 着てみる (kite miru) became |
| Natsuko: 着てみたかった (kite mitakatta) |
| Peter: So let’s just work our way backwards. みたかった (mitakatta) is the past tense of |
| Natsuko: みたい (mitai) |
| Peter: And when this is attached to the te-form of a verb, it means “want to do something.” So what we want to do here is, we want to start with the dictionary form of the verb and then just work our way up to what we have in today’s dialogue. So we start with the verb “to wear.” |
| Natsuko: 着る (kiru) |
| Peter: Then we want to say, I want to try to wear it. I want to try to wear it. So we need the te-form plus the verb |
| Natsuko: みる (miru) |
| Peter: “Try to wear something.” |
| Natsuko: 着てみる (kite miru) |
| Peter: So we take the te-form of to wear 着てみる (kite miru). We attach the auxiliary verb |
| Natsuko: みる (miru) |
| Peter: And now we are working off the みる (miru). We are going to conjugate みる (miru). The verb to wear, 着る (kiru) is done. We don’t look at that again. Now we are working off the みる (miru). Then we want to say, I want to try to wear it. |
| Natsuko: 着てみたい (kite mitai) |
| Peter: It’s that みる (miru) that we conjugate. It goes from みる (miru) to |
| Natsuko: みたい (mitai) |
| Peter: And it’s treated as a class 2 verb. Okay, on we go. |
| Natsuko: あら、でもとってもエレガントでございますよ。 (Ara, demo tottemo ereganto de gozaimasu yo.) |
| Peter: And he doesn’t stop. Really but you look so elegant. You look really elegant and what does he come up with? |
| Natsuko: 本当ですか？ (Hontō desu ka?) |
| Peter: He’s got a bite, fishing for rich men. Then he seals the deal with – and this is where the polite Japanese comes in, for sealing the deal. |
| Natsuko: 私は嘘など申しません。 (Watashi wa uso nado mōshimasen.) |
| Peter: And I would never lie or I wouldn’t lie. Now in English, we can kind of hear the difference by the intonation. I wouldn’t lie. This is something along the lines of “Sir, I would never lie or….” |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: You know, they are really over the top and this is one of the most fascinating things about Japanese. You don’t have to act or use intonation. You could just use words. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: He substitutes 申しません (mōshimasen) for |
| Natsuko: 言いません (iimasen) |
| Peter: And I lie wouldn’t is what we have and lie among other things. Exaggerate, that’s where this など (nado) comes in. 私は (watashi wa) I 嘘 (uso) lie など (nado) lie or exaggerate. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Then 申しません (mōshimasen) wouldn’t say. Literally, “I lie wouldn’t say.” So “I wouldn’t tell a lie.” George Washington over here. Then we have |
| Natsuko: 本当に？ (Hontō ni?) |
| Peter: Really. He is buying it. He seals the deal. Now the key to this sentence is a よ (yo) you know. Really emphasizing that he’s being honest. We have |
| Natsuko: 本当ですよ。 (Hontō desu yo.) |
| Peter: It adds that よ at the end and here is his line of the day. |
| Natsuko: サングラスをかけますと、俳優さんみたいです。 (Sangurasu o kakemasu to, haiyū-san mitai desu.) |
| Peter: When you put the sunglasses on, you are like an actor. You are like a star. |
| Natsuko: Doesn’t this mean that without sunglasses, he doesn’t look like an actor, right? |
| Peter: Ah Natsuko, you must be really – a really picky shopper. |
| Natsuko: I am. |
| Peter: Ah that’s good. He should have used that to negotiate nah. That’s – I like that. In this sentence what we just want to cover quickly is this conditional can be used if or when – when you put on these glasses, if you put on these glasses and this first clause indicates that you know, when he does this certain thing, then it becomes this. |
| Natsuko: まじですか？ (Maji desu ka?) |
| Peter: And now he’s completely taken in, are you serious? |
| Natsuko: じゃあ、5点全部かいます。 (Jā, 5-ten zenbu kaimasu.) |
| Peter: I will take them all. I will take all five followed by |
| Natsuko: お買い上げありがとうございます。 (O kaiage arigatō gozaimasu.) |
| Peter: And お買い上げ (o kaiage) we covered in the vocab is buying. Thank you for your purchase. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Buying, purchase. Thank you for your purchase. It reminds me of 手上げ (teage) |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: “To give up” which is |
| Natsuko: お手上げ (oteage) |
| Peter: Yeah お手上げ (oteage) which is “to give up” and I think what we are going to do with this series. I think we had enough. Natsuko-san |
Outro |
| Natsuko: Umm. |
| Peter: Another happy customer. |
| Natsuko: I think the shop clerk is happier. |
| Peter: Oh boy! All right, that’s going to do for today. |
| Natsuko: じゃあ、また今度ね。 (Jā, mata kondo ne.) |
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