Learn how to ask your coworkers about their holiday plans
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to JapanesePod101.com. This is Business Japanese for Beginners Season 1 Lesson 20 - Talking About Vacation Plans. Eric here. |
| Natsuko: こんにちは。 奈津子です。 |
| Eric: In this lesson you’ll learn how to ask whether your co-workers will be going anywhere for the holidays. The conversation takes place in an elevator. |
| Natsuko: It's between Linda and her co-worker, Mr. Ito. |
| Eric: The speakers are co-workers, so they’ll be speaking politely, but not too formally. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Linda: お疲れ様です。 |
| Ito: お疲れ様です。 |
| Linda: 正月休みは、どこかに行きますか。 |
| Ito: スキーに行きます。 |
| Linda: いいですね。 |
| Ito: リンダは？ |
| Linda: 私は、アメリカに帰ります。 |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Linda: お疲れ様です。 |
| Ito: お疲れ様です。 |
| Linda: 正月休みは、どこかに行きますか。 |
| Ito: スキーに行きます。 |
| Linda: いいですね。 |
| Ito: リンダは？ |
| Linda: 私は、アメリカに帰ります。 |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Linda: Hello, how are you? |
| Ito: Hi. |
| Linda: Are you going somewhere for New Year’s vacation? |
| Ito: I’m going to go skiing. |
| Linda: Sounds good. |
| Ito: How about you Linda? |
| Linda: I’m going back to the States. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: So Linda is going back to the U.S. for her New Year’s vacation. |
| Natsuko: Sounds great. The tickets might be a little expensive, though. |
| Eric: Maybe she’s going to go back to the U.S. before Christmas. |
| Natsuko: Ah, that way, she can get a cheaper ticket. Usually the vacation season doesn’t start until Christmas in Japan. |
| Eric: When is the actual New Year’s holiday season? |
| Natsuko: It depends on the company, but public offices, including local and national government, are usually closed from the 29th of December to the 3rd of January. |
| Eric: I see. |
| Natsuko: Of course, the actual date changes depending on the calendar though. |
| Eric: So if you’re planning to go back to your home country for a vacation, leaving Japan before Christmas will save you some money. |
| Natsuko: If possible, you should leave earlier than the 23rd of December since that’s a national holiday and school vacation starts around that time. |
| Eric: Those are some good tips. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Natsuko: 正月 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: New Year's Holidays |
| Natsuko: 正月[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 正月 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: 休み [natural native speed] |
| Eric: holiday, time off |
| Natsuko: 休み[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 休み [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: 行く [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to go |
| Natsuko: 行く[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 行く [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: よてい [natural native speed] |
| Eric: plans, arrangements, schedules |
| Natsuko: よてい[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: よてい [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: スキー [natural native speed] |
| Eric: ski |
| Natsuko: スキー[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: スキー [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: 帰る [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to return, to go home |
| Natsuko: 帰る[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 帰る [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Natsuko: アメリカ [natural native speed] |
| Eric: America, the U.S.A. |
| Natsuko: アメリカ[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: アメリカ [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: お疲れ様です。 |
| Eric: The literal meaning is "You must be tired." It is used to show appreciation for someone's hard work, effort, or the trouble someone has gone to. We don’t have an equivalent phrase in English, but it’s usually translated as "Hello, how are you?" |
| Natsuko: We recommend that you memorize it as a phrase. |
| Eric: Can we hear the phrase again? |
| Natsuko:お疲れ様です。You can even use this phrase in an email. We write お疲れ様ですat the beginning of an email before going into the main message. |
| Eric: I’ve heard the expression otsukaresama. Is that kind of casual? |
| Natsuko: It is. You can use お疲れ or お疲れ様 with your subordinates or close friends. |
| Eric: OK. Let’s recap. To your boss or co-worker, you should say… |
| Natsuko:お疲れ様です |
| Eric: But to your subordinate or close friend, you’d say… |
| Natsuko:お疲れ様 |
| Eric: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Natsuko: いいですね。 |
| Eric: meaning "Sounds good." |
| Natsuko: At the very end, we have a particle, ね. |
| Eric: Right. Ne is a sentence-ending particle and in this case, ne indicates the speaker's admiration. |
| Natsuko: If you want to say it casually, drop the です and say いいね. |
| Eric: OK. Let’s recap. Let’s say “sounds good” politely. |
| Natsuko:いいですね。 |
| Eric: How do you say “sounds good” casually? |
| Natsuko: いいね。 |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask whether your co-workers will be going somewhere for the holidays. |
| Natsuko: In this lesson’s dialogue, Linda asked Mr. Ito the question 正月休みは、どこかに行きますか, |
| Eric: meaning “Are you going somewhere for your New Year’s vacation?” First of all, we’ll look closely at this sentence. Let’s break it down. |
| Natsuko: 正月休みは |
| Eric: meaning “New year’s vacation” plus a particle, wa. So it means “as for your New Year’s vacation,” |
| Natsuko:どこかに |
| Eric: meaning “somewhere” and a particle, ni, that indicates direction. So it literally means “to somewhere.” |
| Natsuko: いきますか |
| Eric: This means “to go” and has a sentence-ending particle, ka? So it means “do you go?” or “are you going?” Natsuko, can we hear the sentence again? |
| Natsuko: 正月休みは・どこかに・行きますか。 [Natsuko, please read a little slowly and clearly.] |
| Eric: Literally, “as for your New Year vacation, to somewhere, are you going?”, and of course it means “Are you going somewhere for New Year’s vacation?” |
| Natsuko: Here’s the sentence pattern you can use to ask about holiday plans - [Name of the holiday plus はどこかにいきますか。] |
| Eric: Can you give us some examples? |
| Natsuko: Sure. Listeners, you’ve heard of ゴールデンウィーク, right? |
| Eric: As you may know, “Golden Week” is a week-long holiday season that starts at the end of April and ends at the beginning of May. |
| Natsuko: Here’s a sample sentence. ゴールデンウィークはどこかに行きますか。 |
| Eric: “Are you going somewhere for Golden Week?” |
| Natsuko: 週末 means “weekend.” So.. 週末はどこかに行きますか。 |
| Eric: which means “Are you going somewhere on the weekend?” OK. What are we looking at next? |
| Natsuko: In response, Mr. Ito said スキーに行きます。 |
| Eric:meaning “I’m going to go skiing.” Most listeners are already familiar with the sentence pattern, [place ni ikimasu] meaning “I’ll go to place” by now. When you talk about going to do activities such as ski, snowboard, or golf, you can use the same pattern. |
| Natsuko: Let me give you some examples. ゴルフに行きます |
| Eric: “I’m going to go golfing.” |
| Natsuko:旅行 means “traveling”. So 旅行に行きます |
| Eric:Means “I’m going to go traveling.” Let’s hear sentences from the dialogue again. In the dialogue, Linda asked Mr. Ito… |
| Natsuko: 正月休みは、どこかに行きますか。 |
| Eric: “Are you going somewhere for New Year’s vacation?” And Mr. Ito said... |
| Natsuko:スキーに行きます。 |
| Eric: “I’m going to go skiing.” Okay listeners, Repeat after Natsuko. “Are you going somewhere for your New Year’s vacation?” |
| Natsuko: 正月休みは、どこかに行きますか。 |
| Eric: … Next “I’m going to go skiing.” Repeat after Natsuko. |
| Natsuko:スキーに行きます。 |
| Eric:....All right. Let’s practice more. You are in the office. It’s Friday today. Ask your co-worker if he or she is going somewhere for the weekend in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: Here’s a hint. “Weekend” is 週末 in Japanese. |
| Eric:...(wait for 5 sec.) Natsuko, can we hear the correct answer? |
| Natsuko: 週末はどこかに行きますか。 |
| Eric: “Are you going somewhere on the weekend?” Your co-worker is going to travel on the weekend. What would he or she say? |
| Natsuko: Here’s a hint. “Travelling” in Japanese is 旅行. |
| Eric: :...(wait for 5 sec.) Natsuko, can we hear the correct answer? |
| Natsuko: 旅行に行きます。 |
| Eric:“I’m going to go traveling.” How did it go? Did you get the right answer? |
| Natsuko: Make sure to read the lesson notes. You can find vocab lists of the main holidays and major activities there. |
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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