Learn how to greet your boss in the morning
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to JapanesePod101.com. This is Business Japanese for Beginners Season 1 Lesson 4 - Greeting Your Japanese Boss in the Morning. Eric here. |
| Natsuko: こんにちは。 なつこです。 |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to greet your boss in the morning. The conversation takes place at an office. |
| Natsuko: It's between Linda and her boss, Mr. Takahashi. |
| Eric: The speakers have a boss-subordinate relationship, so Linda will be speaking to her boss using formal Japanese, and the boss will be using informal Japanese. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Linda: 課長、おはようございます。 |
| Takahashi: あ、リンダ、おはよう。 |
| Linda: 今日は、暑いですね。 |
| Takahashi: 本当に、朝から、暑いね。 |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Linda: 課長、おはようございます。 |
| Takahashi: あ、リンダ、おはよう。 |
| Linda: 今日は、暑いですね。 |
| Takahashi: 本当に、朝から、暑いね。 |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Linda: Good morning Sir. |
| Takahashi: Hi Linda. Good morning. |
| Linda: Isn’t it hot today? |
| Takahashi: Yes it is, it’s hot and still just the morning.. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Natsuko, in Japanese companies people tend to address their boss or co-workers by their last name rather than their first name. |
| Natsuko: That's true. And when we talk to our colleagues or boss, we can also add their title to their names. |
| Eric: Titles…? |
| Natsuko: Yes. For example, if my boss is a manager, 課長, and his family name is Takahashi (高橋), I would call him 高橋課長. |
| Eric: I’ve heard that. You can attach titles to foreign names too, right? |
| Natsuko: Yes. We can say, ギャランテ社長, for example. |
| Eric: It means “my or our president, Mr.Galante”. |
| Natsuko: You can also refer to someone just by their title. For example, in our dialog Linda simply called him 課長. |
| Eric: I see. This kind of address is often used to get your boss’s attention in the office. |
| Natsuko: Like 課長～ or 社長！ |
| Eric: For 社長, “company president,” it should be OK, since there’s only one president in the office usually, but for 課長... I guess there could be several managers in one office. |
| Natsuko: Ah... in that case, family name plus 課長 would be better. |
| Eric: 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: おはよう [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Good morning! (informal) |
| Natsuko: おはよう[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: おはよう [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: おはようございます [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Good morning. |
| Natsuko: おはようございます[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: おはようございます [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: 暑い [natural native speed] |
| Eric: hot |
| Natsuko: 暑い[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 暑い [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: 本当に [natural native speed] |
| Eric: really, truly |
| Natsuko: 本当に[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 本当に [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: 朝 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: morning |
| Natsuko: 朝[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 朝 [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: から [natural native speed] |
| Eric: from |
| Natsuko: から[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: から [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last we have... |
| Natsuko: ね [natural native speed] |
| Eric: isn't it? (sentence ending particle) |
| Natsuko: ね[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: ね [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 expression for this lesson is.. |
| Natsuko: おはよう |
| Eric: which means “Good morning!” in an informal way. Please note that this expression is used only in informal situations, such as with your friends and family, and your close co-workers. |
| Natsuko: DO NOT say おはよう to your boss or client because it’s informal. |
| Eric: But your boss would use this to you since you're their subordinate. |
| Natsuko: Here’s a pronunciation tip.[ ohayō]. We usually prolong the last [yō] sound. |
| Eric: Usually? |
| Natsuko: Right. You’ll sometimes hear people say [ ohayo] with a short [ yo] at the end. |
| Eric: Ah yes, I’ve heard that. |
| Natsuko: It’s a very casual greeting used between friends who are close. |
| Eric: So it’s OK to say [ ohayo] to your close friends, right? |
| Natsuko: That’s right. |
| Eric: OK. Can you give us a sample sentence using [ohayō]? |
| Natsuko: Sure. ひろこ、おはよう！ |
| Eric: ..which means “Hi Hiroko, good morning!” Okay, what's the next expression? |
| Natsuko: おはようございます |
| Eric: which means “Good morning!” in a polite way. |
| Natsuko: おはようございます is more polite than おはよう |
| Eric: The word ございます increases the politeness level of the phrase. To your friends or close colleagues, you can say… |
| Natsuko: おはよう。 |
| Eric: But to your bosses or clients, you have to say… |
| Natsuko: おはようございます。 |
| Eric: To mean “Good morning”. Now Natsuko, what about strangers, passersby, neighbors, or people you don’t know very well? Which expression should we use? |
| Natsuko: You have to be polite to those people. So... of course it’s おはようございます。 |
| Eric: Can you give us a sample sentence using this word? |
| Natsuko: Sure. ひろこさん、おはようございます。 |
| Eric: .. which means “Hi Hiroko, good morning.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: In this lesson, you will learn how to greet your boss in the morning. |
| Natsuko: You can greet your boss simply by saying おはようございます! |
| Eric: which means “Good morning!”. |
| Natsuko: Listeners, please pay attention to the pronunciation. It has a long [ō ] sound in it. [ohayō gozaimasu.] |
| Eric: Natsuko, you said that [ ohayo ] with short [o] sound is acceptable between friends, but when greeting your boss it’s not acceptable? |
| Natsuko: No. You have to prolong the [o] sound and say [ ohayō gozaimasu.] to your boss. |
| Eric: Let’s take a good look at this lesson’s dialogue, Linda said…. |
| Natsuko: 課長、おはようございます。 |
| Eric: “Good morning sir.” Linda calls Mr. Takahashi by his title and says good morning. |
| Let’s give our listeners some more examples. If you want to greet the general manager, you’d say… |
| Natsuko: “general manager” is 部長 in Japanese. So 部長、おはようございます。 |
| Eric: It means “Good morning Sir. or Ma’am”. After they greeted each other, Linda and Mr. Takahashi talked about the temperature. I guess talking about the weather and temperature is a universal topic after greeting. |
| Natsuko: I agree. It’s the safest topic for making small talk. In the dialogue, Linda said 今日は暑いですね。 |
| Eric: “It’s hot today.” |
| Natsuko: Here, we have 今日 meaning “today”, は、the topic marking particle, and the い-adjective 暑い, which is a weather word that means “hot.”, plus the copula です and ending particle ね. |
| Eric: You can replace this weather word with any other to say.. |
| Natsuko: 今日は寒いですね。 |
| Eric: “It’s cold today.” The sentence pattern here is.. |
| Natsuko: 今日は、[describing weather word] ですね。 |
| Eric: “Isn’t it [descriptive weather word] today?” |
| Natsuko: 今日 means “today”. は is a topic marking particle. |
| Eric: then you add a word describing the weather or temperature. For example, “hot” in Japanese is... |
| Natsuko: 暑い. |
| Eric: Next, we have copula です meaning “is”. Lastly we have the sentence ending particle ね. It works as a tag question. |
| Natsuko: So this [ですね] here means “isn’t it?”. |
| Eric: Can we hear the sentence again? |
| Natusko:今日は、暑いですね。 |
| Eric: “It’s hot today, isn’t it?” Natsuko, how would you say “It’s cool today, isn’t it?” |
| Natsuko: Replace 暑い meaning “hot” with 涼しい meaning “cool”. |
| Eric: So… |
| Natsuko: 今日は涼しいですね。 |
| Eric: “It’s cool today, isn’t it?” Ok, let's give our listeners sample sentences with the grammar pattern we introduced in this lesson. |
| Natsuko: Sure. 課長、おはようございます。今日は、寒いですね。 |
| Eric: “Good morning, Sir. It’s cold today, isn’t it?” |
| Natsuko: 部長、おはようございます。今日は、いい天気ですね。 |
| Eric: “Good morning, Sir. The weather is good today, isn’t it?” |
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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