Learn how to ask someone to repeat their name
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to JapanesePod101.com. This is Business Japanese for Beginners, Season 1 Lesson 2 - Asking Someone to Repeat Their Name in Japanese. Eric here. |
| Natsuko: こんにちは。 なつこです。 |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask someone to repeat their name when you didn’t catch it. The conversation takes place between two people at a business meeting. |
| Natsuko: It's between Linda and Mr. Katsumata. |
| Eric: The speakers have a business relationship, so they’ll be using formal Japanese. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Linda: 申しわけありません。お名前を、 もう一度 お願いします。 |
| Katsumata:か・つ・ま・た と申します。 |
| Linda: かつまた様。ありがとうございます。 |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Linda: 申しわけありません。お名前を、 もう一度 お願いします。 |
| Katsumata:か・つ・ま・た と申します。 |
| Linda: かつまた様。ありがとうございます。 |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Linda: I am sorry but could you please tell me your name again? |
| Katsumata: It’s Ka Tsu Ma Ta. |
| Linda: Mr Katsumata, thank you very much. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Natsuko, is it common in Japan to have a business card written in English? |
| Natsuko: Well...It’s getting more common I guess. Japanese business people have started to carry business cards written both in Japanese and English. |
| Eric: So do you think there’s a possibility that our listeners will come across people who only have Japanese written on their business cards? |
| Natsuko: There might be a chance. |
| Eric: Well… sometimes it’s hard for learners to read Kanji, especially when it’s in names. |
| Natsuko: I know what you mean. Some people have difficult Kanji in their names. |
| Eric: So what would you recommend if a person doesn't have an English business card, you have trouble reading Kanji, and you also couldn’t catch that person's name? |
| Natsuko: In that case it would be perfectly OK to ask the person how to read his or her name correctly. |
| Eric: That’s good to know. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Natsuko: 申しわけありません [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Sorry, Excuse me |
| Natsuko: 申しわけありません[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 申しわけありません [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: 名前 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: name |
| Natsuko: 名前[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 名前 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: もう一度 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: once again |
| Natsuko: もう一度[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: もう一度 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: お願いします [natural native speed] |
| Eric: please |
| Natsuko: お願いします[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: お願いします [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: 様 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: honorific suffix |
| Natsuko: 様[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 様 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last we have.. |
| Natsuko: ありがとうございます [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Thank you very much. |
| Natsuko: ありがとうございます[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: ありがとうございます [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Natsuko: お名前 |
| Eric: which means “name” |
| Natsuko: お名前 is made up of two parts – an honorific prefix o and a noun namae, which means “name”. |
| Eric: You can use it to ask for another person's name. For example, when you ask someone's name, you can simply say... |
| Natsuko: O-namae wa? |
| Eric: Literally, this means ”Your name is...?" which is equivalent to “What's your name?” in English. Natsuko, can we use this [o-namae] for our own names? |
| Natsuko: No. For example you CANNOT say [o-namae wa Eric desu.] to say “My name is Eric.” You need to use [ namae ] instead. namae wa Eric desu. |
| Eric: Meaning “My name is Eric.” |
| Can we hear the sample sentence again? |
| Natsuko: Sure. お名前は? |
| Eric: ..which means “Your name is?” or “May I have your name? “ Okay, what's the next word? |
| Natsuko: かつまた様 |
| Eric: meaning “Mr. Katsumata” |
| Natsuko: かつまた様 consists of the family name Katsumata and a honorific name suffix, -sama. |
| Eric: You can use the honorific suffix -sama when you want to say someone's name very politely. In business settings, you should use this suffix when you say your client's name. First say the client's family name and then add -sama, for example... |
| Natsuko: Tanaka-sama. |
| Eric: “Mr. or Ms. Tanaka.” Can you give us an example sentence using this word? |
| Natsuko: Sure. 田中様、こちらへどうぞ。 |
| Eric: .. which means “Mr/Mrs. Tanaka, come this way, please.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask someone to repeat their name if you didn't catch it. When you want to politely ask someone to do something in a business setting, it’s better to start your question by saying … |
| Natsuko: 申しわけありません。 |
| Eric: which means “I’m sorry”. |
| Natsuko: After saying 申しわけありません, you can ask your favor. 申しわけ is a noun that means “excuse” and ありません is a formal negative form of the verb ある, which means “to exist”. So altogether 申しわけありません means “there is no excuse” or just simply “I am sorry”. |
| Eric: For example, you can say… |
| Natsuko: 申しわけありません。もう少しお待ちください。 |
| Eric: “I am sorry but please wait for a moment.” |
| Natsuko: In more formal situations, you can use the verb gozaimasen instead of arimasen. 申しわけございません。Gozaimasen is more polite than arimasen. |
| Eric: OK Natsuko. Let’s recap a little. What expression is the most formal? |
| Natsuko: The most formal is 申しわけございません。 You can use this to express apologies in a business situation. The next one is 申しわけありません. It’s still very formal. |
| And the less formal version is すみません. |
| Eric: In the dialogue, Linda said... |
| Natsuko: 申しわけありません |
| Eric: Then, she continued… |
| Natsuko: お名前を、もう一度 お願いします。 |
| Eric: Natsuko, let's break down this phrase to see the meaning of each word. |
| Natsuko:OK. お名前 means “name”. It is made up of two words, remember? |
| Eric: That’s right – the honorific prefix [o] plus 名前 [namae] which means “name” |
| Natsuko: Right. And お名前 is followed by an object marking particle [o]. お名前を. Next we have もう一度. |
| Erice: もう [mou] means “again” and 一度 [ichido] means “once”. |
| Natsuko: And the last part is お願いします |
| Eric: which means “please”. So, altogether…. |
| Natsuko: お名前を、もう一度 お願いします。 |
| Eric: means “Please, say your name again” or “Could you tell me your name again please?”. Natsuko, can we use this pattern to ask for a phone number? |
| Natsuko: You can. In that case, just replace お名前 with お電話番号, which means “telephone number”. |
| Eric: So, altogether it will be... |
| Natsuko: 申しわけありません。お電話番号を、もう一度 お願いします。 |
| Eric: “I am sorry but could you please tell me your phone number again?” |
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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