Learn how to ask about and say where something is
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to JapanesePod101.com. This is Business Japanese for Beginners Season 1 Lesson 19 - Talking About Location. Eric here. |
| Natsuko: こんにちは。 奈津子です。. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask and say where something is. The conversation takes place at the reception desk of a company. |
| Natsuko: It's between Linda and a receptionist. |
| Eric: It’s a conversation between a visitor and a receptionist, so they’ll be using formal Japanese. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Receptionist: お待たせいたしました。営業部は、３階にございます。 |
| : エレベーターで３階へお上がり下さい。 |
| Linda: はい、分かりました。すみません、エレベーターはどこですか。 |
| Receptionist:エレベーターは、あちらにございます。 |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Receptionist: お待たせいたしました。営業部は、３階にございます。 |
| : エレベーターで３階へお上がり下さい。 |
| Linda: はい、分かりました。すみません、エレベーターはどこですか。 |
| Receptionist:エレベーターは、あちらにございます。 |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Receptionist: Thank you for waiting. The sales department is on the third floor. |
| : Please take the elevator to the third floor. |
| Linda: Okay, thank you. Where is the elevator? |
| Receptionist: The elevator is over there. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: erebeetaa means “elevator” of course. Can you also call it a “lift”, like in British English? |
| Natsuko: Unfortunately, no. If you say リフト in Japan, it means “ski lift.” |
| Eric: So basically, Japan borrows from American English. |
| Natsuko: Right. And keep in mind that in Japan, the floor of the building that is at the same level as the ground outside is called 一階. |
| Eric: “The first floor” in American English and “the ground floor” in British English. In the dialogue, the receptionist says “the third floor” in Japanese. Is it sankai or sangai? |
| Natsuko: Both are fine. And for “the eighth floor,” some people say はちかい and some say はっかい. Either one is fine. |
| Eric: Basically the number plus -kai means the number plus floor, right? |
| Natsuko: Yeah. Some exceptions are 一階, “the 1st floor,” 六階,“the 6th floor,” and 十階 “the 10th floor.” |
| Eric: I see. And when you visit a very tall office building, you have to find the right elevator for the floor you’re trying to get to. |
| Natsuko: Right. That’s very important. Tall buildings have 低層階用エレベーター and 高層階用エレベーター. |
| Eric: There are elevators that go only to the lower levels and elevators that go to the higher levels, so pay attention to the signs or notices in the elevator hall. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Natsuko: お待たせいたしました。 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Thank you for waiting. |
| Natsuko: お待たせいたしました。[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: お待たせいたしました。 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: エレベーター [natural native speed] |
| Eric: elevator, lift |
| Natsuko: エレベーター[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: エレベーター [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: 上がる [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to rise, to go up |
| Natsuko: 上がる[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 上がる [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: わかりました。 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: I understand. I see. |
| Natsuko: わかりました。[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: わかりました。 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last... |
| Natsuko: あちら [natural native speed] |
| Eric: that (over there), there |
| Natsuko: あちら[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: あちら [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Natsuko: お待たせいたしました。 |
| Eric: meaning "Thank you for waiting" or "I'm sorry that I kept you waiting." Actually, the grammar used here is pretty advanced. So in this lesson, let’s keep it simple. |
| Natsuko: Basically, the base verb of お待たせいたしました is 待たせる |
| Eric: meaning “to let or make someone wait” |
| Natsuko: And お待たせする is the humble way to say 待たせる |
| Eric: Since you’ve already kept someone waiting, you need to say it in the past tense. What’s the past form? |
| Natsuko: お待たせした |
| Eric: Since it’s a business conversation, you need to be polite. The polite form is... |
| Natsuko: お待たせ・しました |
| Eric: So this is the polite way of saying "Thank you for waiting." If you want to be extra formal, change the last part, shimashita, to itashimashita. |
| Natsuko: お待たせ・いたしました |
| Eric: Let’s review. Say "thank you for waiting" politely. Listeners, repeat after Natsuko. |
| Natsuko: お待たせしました |
| Eric:... Next, say "thank you for waiting" extra formally. Listeners, repeat after Natsuko. |
| Natsuko:お待たせいたしました |
| Eric: For more detailed grammar information, please check this lesson notes. Okay, what's the next word? |
| Natsuko: あちら |
| Eric: meaning "over there." |
| Natsuko: あそこ also means “over there.” In very formal situations, people tend to use あちら instead of あそこ |
| Eric: When you’re walking down the street, a stranger asks you where a restroom is and you want to say there’s a restroom over there… You’ll say... |
| Natsuko: あそこです or トイレはあそこにあります。 |
| Eric: “It’s over there,” “there’s a restroom over there” respectively. But if you’re working at a hotel and a guest asks you where the restroom is, you need to be more polite. |
| Natsuko: あちらです or トイレはあちらにあります。 Or even more formally, あちらでございます or トイレはあちらにございます。 |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: In this lesson, you will learn how to ask and say where something is. First of all, let’s learn how to explain where something is. |
| Natsuko: In the dialogue, the receptionist says 営業部は、３階にございます。 |
| Eric: which means “The sales department is on the third floor.” Let’s break this sentence down. |
| Natsuko: 営業部 |
| Eric: “the sales department” |
| Natsuko:は |
| Eric: the topic marking particle |
| Natsuko:三階 |
| Eric: “the third floor” |
| Natsuko:に |
| Eric:a particle indicating place. It corresponds to “at” “in” or “on” in English. |
| Natsuko:ございます |
| Eric: This is the extra formal way to say “to exist.” Can we hear the sentence again? |
| Natsuko: Okay. 営業部は、３階にございます。 |
| Eric: Literally, “as for the sales department, on the 3rd floor it exists.” In more natural English, “The sales department is on the third floor.” Now pay attention to the formation. You start the sentence with the topic, in this case, the sales department plus wa. |
| Natsuko: 営業部は |
| Eric: Next, say the location followed by ni. |
| Natsuko: 三階に |
| Eric: Add gozaimasu meaning “to exist” at the end. |
| Natsuko: ございます。Altogether, 営業部は・三階に・ございます. The pattern is Thing は placeに ございます。 |
| Eric: "Thing is at place." Natsuko, can we hear a sample sentence? |
| Natsuko:Sure. 人事部は、5階にございます。 |
| Eric: “The human resources department is on the fifth floor.” |
| Next, let’s learn how to ask where something is. In the dialogue, the receptionist told Linda that the sales department is on the 3rd floor, but Linda couldn’t find the elevator. |
| Natsuko: So she said...すみません、エレベーターはどこですか。 |
| Eric: meaning “Excuse me. Where is the elevator?” |
| Natsuko: すみません means “excuse me” or “I’m sorry.” |
| Eric: Let’s break down the latter part and look at the components. |
| Natsuko: エレベーター |
| Eric: “elevator” |
| Natsuko:は |
| Eric:a topic marking particle |
| Natsuko:どこ |
| Eric: “where” |
| Natsuko:です |
| Eric: A copula which corresponds to “is, am, are” in English. |
| Natsuko:か |
| Eric: This is the question particle. Can we hear the whole sentence? |
| Natsuko:エレベーターはどこですか |
| Eric: Literally, “As for elevator, where is?” Of course it means “Where is the elevator?” |
| Natsuko: You can ask where something is located by saying はどこですか. |
| Eric: First you say what you’re looking for plus は. In this dialogues’ case, it’s the elevator so… |
| Natsuko:エレベーターは |
| Eric: Then add doko desu ka meaning “where is it?” |
| Natsuko:So altogether, エレベーターはどこですか。 |
| Eric:If you’re looking for a restroom, what would you say? |
| Natsuko: Restroom is トイレ. So... トイレはどこですか |
| Eric: If you’re looking for an escalator... |
| Natsuko: エスカレーターはどこですか？ |
| Eric: OK.When you want to ask which floor something is on, you just need to replace doko with the question word for “which floor.” |
| Natsuko: 何階. For example, 営業部は何階ですか。 |
| Eric: which means "Which floor is the sales department?" |
| Okay listeners, time to recap! You’re at your client’s office, but before the meeting starts you want to go to the restroom. Listeners, ask where the restroom is in Japanese. Don’t forget to say “Excuse me” at the beginning. (Give listeners 5 sec.) Natsuko, how do you say that? |
| Natsuko: すみません、トイレはどこですか。 |
| Eric: Unfortunately the restroom is not on the floor you’re located on. It’s on the 3rd floor. Listeners, what would an employee at your office say?(Give listeners 5 sec.)... Natsuko, the answer is? |
| Natsuko:トイレは三階にあります |
| Eric:Did you get the answer correct? I hope you did. |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Natsuko: またねー |
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