Learn about saying it is easy or hard to do something
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 |
| Naomi: なおみです。(Naomi desu.) |
| Yūichi: ゆういちです。(Yūichi desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Gomi-San in Mangaland part 4. なおみ先生、最後ですね。(Naomi-sensei, saigo desu ne.) |
| Naomi: そうですね。パート４で終わりです。(Sō desu ne. Pāto fō de owari desu.) |
| Peter: The last one in the series. So can we have a quick recap of the previous three lessons? ゆういち先生、お願いします。(Yūichi-sensei, onegai shimasu.) |
| Yūichi: はい。先週のレッスンでは、五味さんと星野さんが漫画喫茶に行きましたね。(Hai. Senshū no ressun de wa, Gomi-san to Hoshino-san ga manga kissa ni ikimashita ne.) |
| Peter: So in the previous lesson, Gomi and Hoshino went to a comic café. |
| Yūichi: 明日は勤務査定だと言っていました。(Ashita wa kinmu satei da to itte imashita.) |
| Peter: Hoshino-san mentioned that they have an interview for work assessment tomorrow which is now today. |
| Yūichi: 今日のレッスンでは、勤務査定の会話です。(Kyō no ressun de wa, kinmu satei no kaiwa desu.) |
| Peter: So today’s dialogue is a work assessment interview between Hoshino and |
| Yūichi: 部長 (buchō) |
| Peter: The manager or the head of the department. Okay, what are we going to be covering today for the grammar point? |
| Naomi: 今日は復習です。(Kyō wa fukushū desu.) It’s a review lesson. |
| Peter: We are going to be going over すぎる (sugiru), にくい (nikui) and やすい (yasui). |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Or use these auxiliaries. Okay, here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| (コンコン) (konkon) |
| 星野 (Hoshino) : 失礼します。 |
| 部長 (buchō) : おお、星野君。顔色が悪いけれど、大丈夫か？仕事をし過ぎてはだめだぞ。 |
| 星野 (Hoshino) : いえいえ、実は夕べ、漫画を読んで徹夜してしまいまして。 |
| 部長 (buchō) : 何？漫画？ |
| 星野 (Hoshino) : ええ。ナナを全巻と猫村さんを全巻読みました。大変読みやすい名作ですね。 |
| 部長 (buchō) : 君、ふざけているのか？君をニューヨークの駐在員に推薦するつもりだったが、そんな態度だと、推薦しにくいな。 |
| 星野 (Hoshino) : え？...だって、え？部長は漫画が...。 |
| 部長 (buchō) : 大嫌いだよ。くだらない。 |
| 五味 (Gomi) : しめしめ、一人ライバルが減った。ほんと、アイツは騙しやすい。 |
| Yūichi: もう一度、お願いします。今度は、ゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do, onegai shimasu. Kondo wa, yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| Yūichi: 今度は、英語が入ります。(Kondo wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| (コンコン) (konkon) |
| (knocking on a door) |
| 星野 (Hoshino) : 失礼します。 |
| HOSHINO: May I come in? |
| 部長 (buchō) : おお、星野君。顔色が悪いけれど、大丈夫か？ |
| CHIEF: Oh, Hoshino-kun. Are you feeling OK? You look pale. |
| 部長 (buchō) : 仕事をし過ぎてはだめだぞ。 |
| CHIEF: You shouldn't be working too much. |
| 星野 (Hoshino) : いえいえ、実は夕べ、漫画を読んで徹夜してしまいまして。 |
| HOSHINO: No, sir. Actually, I stayed up all night reading manga. |
| 部長 (buchō) : 何？漫画？ |
| CHIEF: What? Manga? |
| 星野 (Hoshino) : ええ。ナナを全巻と猫村さんを全巻読みました。 |
| HOSHINO: Yes. I read the entire series of Nana and Nekomura-san. |
| 星野 (Hoshino) : 大変読みやすい名作ですね。 |
| HOSHINO: They are very easy to read. I think both are masterpieces. |
| 部長 (buchō) : 君、ふざけているのか？ |
| CHIEF: Are you kidding me? |
| 部長 (buchō) : 君をニューヨークの駐在員に推薦するつもりだったが、 |
| CHIEF: I was going to recommend you as a resident officer in the New York office but |
| 部長 (buchō) : そんな態度だと、推薦しにくいな。 |
| CHIEF: it’s difficult to recommend you with that attitude. |
| 星野 (Hoshino) : え？...だって、え？部長は漫画が...。 |
| HOSHINO: What? But I thought...what? You don’t like... |
| 部長 (buchō) : 大嫌いだよ。くだらない。 |
| CHIEF: I hate manga. It’s worthless garbage. |
| 五味 (Gomi) : しめしめ、一人ライバルが減った。 |
| GOMI: Hahaha, I eliminated one of my rivals. |
| 五味 (Gomi) : ほんと、アイツは騙しやすい。 |
| GOMI: He is too easy to get around. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: なおみ先生、どうでしたか。びっくりしましたか。(Naomi-sensei, dō deshita ka. Bikkuri shimashita ka.) |
| Naomi: だって私が書いたんだもん。(Datte watashi ga kaita n da mon.) |
| Peter: はい。ゆういち先生、どうでしたか。びっくりしましたか。(Hai. Yūichi-sensei, dō deshita ka. Bikkuri shimashita ka.) |
| Yūichi: ひどすぎます。(Hidosugimasu.) |
| Peter: It’s too terrible what he did. |
| Yūichi: 五味さんは腹が黒いですね。(Gomi-san wa hara ga kuroi desu ne.) |
| Naomi: あ～。腹が黒い。(Ā. Hara ga kuroi.) |
| Peter: いい表現ですね。(Ii hyōgen desu ne.) |
| Naomi: His stomach is dark. |
| Peter: Which means that he does dastardly deeds. |
| Yūichi: Evil-minded? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Yūichi: Or black-hearted. |
| Peter: But in Japanese, the expression is black stomach. |
| Naomi: 腹が黒い (hara ga kuroi) or 腹黒 (haraguro), 腹黒い (haraguroi). He is like Peter, right? |
| Peter: ちょっと待って。(Chotto matte.) |
| Naomi: 腹黒い。(Haraguroi.) |
| Peter: 腹黒い。(Haraguroi.) |
| Naomi: 皆さん、ピーターは腹黒いんですよ。(Mina-san, Pītā wa haraguroi n desu yo.) |
| Yūichi: 気をつけてください。(Ki o tsukete kudasai.) |
| Naomi: Just kidding. |
| Peter: あ～。(Ā.) |
| Naomi: It’s because we like you. |
| Peter: You know what, I like it. 腹が黒いピーターですね。(Hara ga kuroi Pītā desu ne.) |
| Yūichi: 自分で言っちゃった。(Jibun de itchatta.) |
| Peter: でも、正直、なんかもう作戦通りですね。すごくないですか。(Demo, shōjiki, nanka mō sakusendōri desu ne. Sugokunai desu ka.) Like he executed the plan very well. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) I think the expression Gomi used in the last line しめしめ (shimeshime) is kind of funny. |
| Peter: What does it mean? |
| Naomi: なんだろうなぁ。(Nan dorō nā.) なんか (nanka), something goes well just like you’ve expected. This phrase is used. |
| Peter: So for example, if you take a big test, an important test and they post the results and you go up there and you turn around, can you say しめしめ (shimeshime). |
| Naomi: あ～、違うなあ。(Ā, chigau nā.) It’s used when you planned something bad. |
| Peter: ああ～。(Ā.) |
| Naomi: ヒヒ、みたいな感じ。(Hihi, mitai na kanji.) |
| Peter: これから使います。(Kore kara tsukaimasu.) I will use this. |
| Naomi: ねぇ。いつでも使えるよね、ピーターだったらね。(Nee. Itsudemo tsukaeru yo ne, Pītā dattara ne.) |
| Peter: うーん。しめしめ。(Ūn. Shimeshime.) |
| Naomi: 漫画とかでよく使われる表現ですよね。(Manga toka de yoku tsukawareru hyōgen desu yo ne.) |
| Yūichi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Naomi: This word appeared in comics and anime. |
| Peter: Right interesting new word for us to use. |
| Naomi: しめしめ (shimeshime) |
| Peter: しめしめ (shimeshime) |
| Naomi: と、腹が黒い。(To, hara ga kuroi.) |
| Peter: 腹が黒い。あと、五味さん、ちょっとですね。(Hara ga kuroi. Ato, Gomi-san, chotto desu ne.) |
| Naomi: You like him, right? |
| Peter: Yeah. 星野が悪いんでしょ。(Hoshino ga warui n desho.) Like… |
| Naomi: ほらほら。(Hora hora.) |
| Peter: そんなに騙されやすい？(Sonna ni damasareyasui?) Like he is that easy, that gullible? |
| Naomi: I think he is a nice person. |
| Yūichi: Yeah too nice. 人がよすぎる。(Hito ga yosugiru.) |
| Naomi: いい人すぎる。(Ii hito sugiru.) |
| Peter: しかし、騙されやすい。(Shikashi, damasareyasui.) |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Which is an interesting word. It’s the word for gullible and what’s interesting about this word, I am pretty sure that it’s based on a grammatical construction which is probably mainstream because 騙す (damasu) is the fool, 騙される (damasareru) is to be fooled, 騙されやすい (damasareyasui) is to easily be fooled. Hence gullible. Hence another use of やすい (yasui) as an auxiliary 騙されやすい (damasareyasui). |
| Naomi: Or. 騙しやすい、も使いますね。(Damashiyasui, mo tsukaimasu ne.) |
| Yūichi: 騙します。騙しやすい。騙されます。騙されやすい。(Damashimasu. Damashiyasui. Damasaremasu. Damasareyasui.) |
| Peter: 騙されやすいといえば、誰かの名前が頭に浮かんできませんか。(Damasareyasui to ieba, dareka no namae ga atama ni ukande kimasen ka.) Like this name just pops into my head when I think about 騙されやすい (damasareyasui). |
| Naomi: 何で見てんのよ。(Nande mite n no yo.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: It will come to me but for now let’s go for the vocab. |
| Peter: First word. |
| Yūichi: 顔色 (kaoiro) |
| Peter: Complexion. |
| Yūichi: (slow) かおいろ (kaoiro) (natural speed) 顔色 (kaoiro) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: 夕べ (yūbe) |
| Peter: Last night, evening. |
| Naomi: (slow) ゆうべ (yūbe) (natural speed) 夕べ (yūbe) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Yūichi: 徹夜 (tetsuya) |
| Peter: All night, sleepless night. |
| Yūichi: (slow) てつや (tetsuya) (natural speed) 徹夜 (tetsuya) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: 全巻 (zenkan) |
| Peter: The whole volume. |
| Naomi: (slow) ぜんかん (zenkan) (natural speed) 全巻 (zenkan) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Yūichi: ふざける (fuzakeru) |
| Peter: Fool around. |
| Yūichi: (slow) ふざける (fuzakeru) (natural speed) ふざける (fuzakeru) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: 駐在員 (chūzaiin) |
| Peter: Expatriate staff. |
| Naomi: (slow) ちゅうざいいん (chūzaiin) (natural speed) 駐在員 (chūzaiin) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Yūichi: 推薦する (suisen suru) |
| Peter: To recommend as in for a promotion. |
| Yūichi: (slow) すいせんする (suisen suru) (natural speed) 推薦する (suisen suru) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: 騙す (damasu) |
| Peter: To trick, to cheat. |
| Naomi: (slow) だます (damasu) (natural speed) 騙す (damasu) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Yūichi: くだらない (kudaranai) |
| Peter: Worthless, useless. |
| Yūichi: (slow) くだらない (kudaranai) (natural speed) くだらない (kudaranai) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: しめしめ (shimeshime) |
| Peter: An interjection used when accomplishing something dastardly. |
| Naomi: (slow) しめしめ (shimeshime) (natural speed) しめしめ (shimeshime) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Yūichi: ライバル (raibaru) |
| Peter: Rival, competition. |
| Yūichi: (slow) ライバル (raibaru) (natural speed) ライバル (raibaru) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: 減る (heru) |
| Peter: To decrease. |
| Naomi: (slow) へる (heru) (natural speed) 減る (heru) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: Okay, let’s take a closer look at some of the vocab and phrases used in this lesson. Naomi-sensei, what do we have first? |
| Naomi: 徹夜 (tetsuya) |
| Peter: Around the clock. |
| Naomi: 徹 (tetsu) means complete. |
| Peter: Or thoroughly. |
| Naomi: 夜 (ya) means night. So all night. |
| Peter: All through the night. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) 徹夜をする (tetsuya o suru) is the verb and it means not to sleep at night or to be up all night and the other verb is 徹夜で (tetsuya de). |
| Peter: Which is an adverbial phrase all through the night. |
| Yūichi: 徹夜で働く。(Tetsuya de hataraku.) |
| Peter: To work all night. あー、いいですね。いい表現ですね。(Ā, ii desu ne. Ii hyōgen desu ne.) |
| Yūichi: For students like 徹夜で勉強する (tetsuya de benkyō suru). |
| Peter: To study all night. |
| Naomi: ピーターはよく徹夜で働きますよね。 (Pītā wa yoku tetsuya de hatarakimasu yo ne.) Now you often work all night. |
| Peter: そうですね、まあ大体５，６時くらいですね。(Sō desu ne, mā daitai go, roku-ji kurai desu ne.) About 5 or 6. |
| Naomi: お～、すごいね。(Ō, sugoi ne.) |
| Yūichi: すごいですね。(Sugoi desu ne.) |
| Peter: はい、よくないですね。(Hai, yokunai desu ne.) |
| Yūichi: 働きすぎですね。(Hatarakisugi desu ne.) |
| Peter: その通りですね。(Sono tōri desu ne.) |
| Naomi: 次は (tsugi wa) |
| Yūichi: 全巻 (zenkan) |
| Peter: The whole volume. |
| Yūichi: 全 (zen) means all or whole and 巻 (kan) means roll. |
| Peter: So kind of everything rolled up into one. |
| Naomi: In the old days, we didn't have a book. We have a roll, right? |
| Peter: Like a scroll. |
| Naomi: Scroll yeah. The stories were written on their paper. When they keep it, they roll it. |
| Peter: So after one episode is finished with it it’s all rolled up and placed and then you continuously place the related stories next to it. So they are all rolled up not in one but you have all the rolls. All the rolled scrolls. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Now first volume is 一巻 (ikkan). The second volume is |
| Peter: 二巻 (ni-kan) |
| Naomi: And we usually use 冊 for the counter for books. 一冊、二冊。(Issatsu, ni-satsu.) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Yūichi: くだらない (kudaranai) |
| Peter: Useless. Worthless. |
| Yūichi: For example, くだらない冗談はやめてください (kudaranai jōdan wa yamete kudasai.) |
| Peter: Stop telling me useless jokes or stop telling me not funny jokes. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Yeah, I think 経験を基づいて (keiken o motozuite), like based on my experiences I am trying to translate jokes that I knew into Japanese and get Japanese people to understand them. This is the word that I heard quite a bit くだらない (kudaranai), like the joke didn’t make sense. So if someone tells you a joke that’s not funny you can say くだらない (kudaranai) or but I also hear people if they are laughing but it’s just silly humor, they will also laugh and say くだらない (kudaranai). |
| Naomi: Ah like silly, ね (ne). うん。(Un.) It’s so silly. くだらない。(Kudaranai.) |
| Peter: So it could mean either one but I tend to fall into the category of not funny くだらない (kudaranai). Anyway, what do we have next? |
| Naomi: ～てはだめだ (-te wa dame da) |
| Peter: So this expression is a phrase of prohibition and it is used to tell the listener not to do something. It literally means it’s not good to do that something. |
| Naomi: 怒ってはだめだ。(Okotte wa dame da.) |
| Peter: You must not get angry. |
| Yūichi: 走ってはだめだ。(Hashitte wa dame da.) |
| Peter: You must not run. So you have the verb in the te-form, followed by |
| Yūichi: は だめだ (wa dame da) |
| Peter: 寝てはだめだ。(Nete wa dame da.) You must not sleep. |
| Naomi: そうですね。寝てはだめだ。徹夜をしてください。(Sō desu ne. Nete wa dame da. Tetsuya o shite kudasai.) |
| Peter: Stay up all night. Oh yeah, we have a future managing here. Okay, on to today’s grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Now today’s grammar point is a review of the three grammar points we introduced in the previous three lessons of the series. In the first lesson we had |
| Naomi: すぎる (sugiru) |
| Peter: And again to indicate that something or someone does something too much, too excessively, then we had |
| Yūichi: にくい (nikui) |
| Peter: To indicate that something or someone is difficult to do something, something and then in Part 3, we had |
| Naomi: やすい (yasui) |
| Peter: And this is the opposite of にくい (nikui) used as an auxiliary adjective meaning that it’s easy to do something. Okay, can we have an example of each? First we will have すぎる (sugiru). |
| Naomi: この本は難しすぎる。(Kono hon wa muzukashisugiru.) |
| Peter: This book is too hard. Here we have an adjective. This is attached to an adjective but not before we drop the い (i) as it’s an i-adjective. So the original word is |
| Naomi: 難しい (muzukashii) |
| Peter: Drop the い (i). |
| Naomi: 難し (muzukashi) |
| Peter: Notice the shortened. It’s kind of hard to pick up but 難しい (muzukashii), it’s a little extended that last い (i). So we have 難し (muzukashi). Then we attach |
| Naomi: すぎる (sugiru) |
| Peter: And get? |
| Naomi: 難しすぎる (muzukashisugiru) |
| Peter: Too difficult. Let’s take a look at the auxiliary にくい (nikui). |
| Yūichi: あなたの字は読みにくい。(Anata no ji wa yominikui.) |
| Peter: It’s hard to read your writing. So what’s the original verb? |
| Yūichi: 読む (yomu) |
| Peter: To write. Masu-stem |
| Yūichi: 読み (yomi) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Yūichi: にくい (nikui) |
| Peter: Append にくい (nikui) |
| Yūichi: 読みにくい (yominikui) |
| Peter: Hard to read. Okay and finally we have the auxiliary adjective やすい (yasui). |
| Naomi: この本は読みやすい。(Kono hon wa yomiyasui.) |
| Peter: This book is easy to read. Root verb? |
| Naomi: 読む (yomu) |
| Peter: To read masu-stem? |
| Naomi: 読み (yomi) |
| Peter: Append やすい (yasui) |
| Naomi: 読みやすい (yomiyasui) |
| Peter: Easy to read. Now before we end today, I want to jump back to the auxiliary adjective にくい (nikui). What do we have again for the sample sentence? |
| Naomi: あなたの字は読みにくい。(Anata no ji wa yominikui.) |
| Peter: It’s hard to read your writing. Now にくい (nikui) is used quite often but a lot of times in colloquial Japanese, in spoken Japanese, にくい (nikui) will be substituted with つらい (tsurai) and just all you do is swap it out. So 読みにくい (yominikui) will become |
| Yūichi: 読みづらい (yomizurai) |
| Peter: Same exact meaning and it comes from the adjective つらい (tsurai) which means tough or difficult. When we append it to the masu-stem of the verb, つ (tsu) becomes づ (zu). So づらい (zurai). 飲みづらい。食べづらい。(Yomizurai. Tabezurai.) Difficult to drink, difficult to eat. |
| Yūichi: このチーズは食べづらい。(Kono chīzu wa tabezurai.) |
| Peter: This cheese is difficult to eat. It stinks. |
| Naomi: あの人は話しづらい。(Ano hito wa hanashizurai.) |
| Peter: It’s hard to talk to that person and the main difference between つらい (tsurai) and にくい (nikui) is つらい (tsurai) is kind of more colloquial like used more often in spoken Japanese. |
| Naomi: 両方ともよく使うと思います。(Ryōhō tomo yoku tsukau to omoimasu.) |
Outro |
| Peter: That’s going to do it for today. |
| Naomi: じゃあ、また。(Jā, mata.) |
| Yūichi: さよなら。(Sayonara.) |
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