Learn how to ask someone to do something
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Peter: Take Charge of the Situation Using Your Japanese. In the previous lesson, you learned how to combine two or more adjectives. |
| Naomi: Right. Such as 安くておいしい |
| Peter: Cheap and tasty. In this lesson, you'll learn useful phrases for asking and giving directions. You'll also learn how to ask someone to do something. |
| Naomi: Such as きてください. Please come. 行ってください. Please go. |
| Peter: This conversation takes place at |
| Naomi: 秋葉原駅 |
| Peter: Akihabara Station. Now, in Akihabara, there are a lot of electronics and appliances stores. Akihabara is known as a mecca for people who are into computers or anime. |
| Naomi: In this conversation, Ashley is trying to go to ヨドバシカメラ. |
| Peter: YODOBASHIKAMERA is the big electronics and appliances store. |
| Naomi: And it looks like Ashley is lost. |
| Peter: She decides to ask for directions, so the conversation is between |
| Naomi: アシュリーさんと駅員さん |
| Peter: Ashley and the station clerk. The level of the formality of this conversation is... |
| Naomi: Formal. |
| Peter: We strongly recommend that you reference the verb conjugation lesson. |
| DIALOGUE |
| (Rush hour) |
| アナウンス:次は、秋葉原。秋葉原。 |
| アシュリー:すみません。降ります。すみません！ |
| :(Ashley manages to get off the train) |
| アシュリー:すみません。ここは、どこですか。 |
| 駅員:え？秋葉原駅の西口です。 |
| アシュリー:ヨドバシカメラはどこですか。 |
| 駅員:中央改札口を出てください。 |
| アシュリー:ちゅうおうかいさつぐち....は何ですか。 |
| 駅員:まっすぐ行ってください。あります。 |
| アシュリー:あの、もう一度おねがいします。 |
| 駅員:仕方ないなあ。・・・じゃ、来てください。 |
| :（They walk to the Central Exit) |
| 駅員:ここは、中央改札口です。 |
| :ここを出て、右に曲がってください。 |
| :それから、左に曲がってください。 |
| アシュリー:右に曲がって、左に曲がる・・・ |
| :わかりました。本当にありがとうございました。 |
| 駅員:じゃ、気をつけて。 |
| (Rush hour) |
| Peter(Rush hour) |
| アナウンス:次は、秋葉原。秋葉原。 |
| Peter: Next is Akihabara...Akihabara... |
| アシュリー:すみません。降ります。すみません！ |
| Peter: Excuse me. I'm getting off here. Excuse me! |
| :(Ashley manages to get off the train) |
| Peter: (Ashley manages to get off the train) |
| アシュリー:すみません。ここは、どこですか。 |
| Peter: Excuse me, where is this place? |
| 駅員:え？秋葉原駅の西口です。 |
| Peter: Huh? This is Akihabara Station's West Exit. |
| アシュリー:ヨドバシカメラはどこですか。 |
| Peter: Where is Yodobashi camera? |
| 駅員:中央改札口を出てください。 |
| Peter: Go out the Chuo kaisatsu guchi. |
| アシュリー:ちゅうおうかいさつぐち....は何ですか。 |
| Peter: "Chuo kaisatsu guchi..." what's that? |
| 駅員:まっすぐ行ってください。あります。 |
| Peter: Go straight ahead, and it's there. |
| アシュリー:あの、もう一度おねがいします。 |
| Peter: Um, could you say that one more time? |
| 駅員:仕方ないなあ。・・・じゃ、来てください。 |
| Peter: Guess I have no choice. (sigh) All right, come with me. |
| :（They walk to the Central Exit) |
| Peter: （They walk to the Central Exit) |
| 駅員:ここは、中央改札口です。 |
| Peter: This is the Central Exit. |
| :ここを出て、右に曲がってください。 |
| Peter: Go out here, and turn right. |
| :それから、左に曲がってください。 |
| Peter: Then, turn left. |
| アシュリー:右に曲がって、左に曲がる・・・ |
| Peter: Turn right, and then turn left... |
| :わかりました。本当にありがとうございました。 |
| Peter: I see. Thank you very much. |
| 駅員:じゃ、気をつけて。 |
| Peter: Take care. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Naomi: So she took a train during rush hour? Oh no.. she's going to hate Japan. |
| Peter: (comment &advice) |
| Naomi: I'm not saying people are mean or anything. It's just too crowded. |
| Peter: How do you say rush hour in Japanese? |
| Naomi: ラッシュ. For example 朝のラッシュ |
| Peter: rush hour in the morning. 直美先生、 朝のラッシュはいつですか？When is the morning rush hour? |
| Naomi: ...To be honest with you, I don't know. I never take the train during rush hour...However, 会社は９時からですね。Most Japanese companies start at 9. |
| Peter: So we can assume that the hour from 8-9 is the buisest. |
| Naomi: そうですね。朝のラッシュは８時から９時までだと思います。 |
| Peter: If you take the train during rush hour, the phrase Ashley used will come in handy. |
| Naomi: Yeah.. すみません。降ります！ すみません！ |
| Peter: Excuse me. I'm getting off here. Excuse me! Even if it's not rush hour, trains in Tokyo are pretty crowded. So if you ever take trains in Tokyo, make sure you keep these phrases in mind! |
| Naomi: And if you got lost at the station, ask the station clerk. They're usually very nice. |
| Peter: Right. Even if you get off at the right station, many times there will be multiple exits, and so it can be hard to figure out which exit you should take. In that case, tell the station clerk where you want to go, and they will be able to tell you which exit you take. |
| Naomi: The station clerk who Ashley talks to was nice enough to take her to the right exit. |
| Peter: You say nice? Come on. Wouldn't you say he was a bit rude? |
| Naomi: あー。Yeah...maybe...just a little. At first he said...仕方ないなあ。 |
| Peter: Guess I have no choice. |
| Naomi: I think the situation is...It's rush hour, it's super crowded and he's not supposed to leave that place. But there's someone in trouble asking for help...So... |
| Peter: Now in the previous lesson, we learned しょうがないなぁ "Can not be helped" But are they the same? |
| Naomi: Right. Both 仕方 and しよう or しょう means method or way. And ない means "There isn't" or "doesn't exist" |
| Peter: So SHIKATA NAI and SHOUGANAI mean "There's no other way, there are no other choices" Which one do you use. |
| Naomi: I use both... Maybe I use しょうがないなぁー more often in a casual conversation. |
| Peter: According to the vocab list in the lesson notes, both shikatanai and shouganai are i adjectives. |
| Naomi: Right, so you can put it before a noun. So if you say...ピーターは仕方ない人です。 ピーターはしょうがない人です。 |
| Peter: It means something like "Peter, you're hopeless" or "Peter, never change" |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Naomi まっすぐ [natural native speed] |
| Peter straight ; Adj (na), Adv. |
| Naomi まっすぐ [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi まっすぐ [natural native speed] |
| Naomi 気をつける [natural native speed] |
| Peter to be careful; V2 |
| Naomi 気をつける [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi 気をつける [natural native speed] |
| Naomi 本当に [natural native speed] |
| Peter really, truly; Adv. |
| Naomi 本当に [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi 本当に [natural native speed] |
| Naomi 右 [natural native speed] |
| Peter right hand side |
| Naomi 右 [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi 右 [natural native speed] |
| Naomi 仕方ない [natural native speed] |
| Peter it can't be helped, it's inevitable; Adj(i) |
| Naomi 仕方ない [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi 仕方ない [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Naomi The first word/phrase we’ll look at is.... |
| Peter: Let's take a look at useful vocab for giving directions. These are a must-know if you ever plan on traveling to Japan! |
| What's the first word we're looking at? |
| Naomi: まっすぐ |
| Peter: straight. Now this is an adjective as well as an adverb. |
| Naomi: Usually adverbs are followed by the particle "ni", but まっすぐ can work as an adverb with or without "ni". |
| Peter: How do you say..."To go straight." |
| Naomi: まっすぐ 行く |
| Peter: Straight, go. Go straight.OK.What's next? |
| Naomi: 右 |
| Peter: right as the opposite to left. How do you say left. |
| Naomi: 左 |
| Peter: Can we hear them again? |
| Naomi&Peter: 右（right)左(left) |
| Peter: How do you say "To turn right" |
| Naomi: To turn is 曲がる. So 右に曲がる |
| Peter: How about "To turn left" |
| Naomi: 左に曲がる |
| Peter: Notice that the particle "ni" is inserted before "Magaru-to turn" Say those phrases again? |
| Naomi&Peter: 右に曲がる(turn to the right)左に曲がる（turn to the left) |
| Peter: OK. What's the next word? |
| Naomi: 西口 |
| Peter: West exit. The first Kanij is NISHI meaning west. The second Kanji GUCHI meaning entrance or exit in this case. OK. Let's go over the four cardinal points in Japanese. There's a word list in the lesson notes. So please take a look at it. How do you say "West" again? |
| Naomi: 西 |
| Peter: What's "East" |
| Naomi: 東 And this Kanji represents the sun rising. |
| Peter: See that Kanji? The Sun is rising behind the tree. The sun is rising from the east, so this Chinese character means "East". How about "North" |
| Naomi: 北 |
| Peter: And South is |
| Naomi: 南 |
| Peter: Say those words again? |
| Naomi: 西（west)東(East)北(North)南(south) |
| Naomi: So South America would be 南アメリカ |
| Peter: South America. |
| Naomi: 北アメリカ |
| Peter: North America. How about central America? |
| Naomi: 中央アメリカ |
| Peter: I'd like to mention the word 口. This literally means mouth but it also means exit or entrance. |
| Naomi: Right. If you think about it, your mouth is actually an entrance for food. |
| Peter: But you can't use 口 by itself meaning entrance or exit. |
| Naomi: Right. For entrance, we say 入口 |
| Peter: For exit? |
| Naomi: 出口 |
| Peter: Can we hear them again? |
| Naomi: 入口(Entrance)出口(exit) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: In this lesson you will learn how to ask someone to do something using the te-form of a verb plus kudasai. The te-form of verbs has many different uses in Japanese. In this lesson we will focus on the te-form plus kudasai （ください）, which enables us to make a polite request. |
| Naomi: Making the te-form of a verb is a bit complicated. So please check out the lesson notes and verb conjugation lesson. |
| Peter: There, you can find a detailed write up about the conjugation. In this section, we'll just give you the te-form of a verb. OK. Naomi-sensei, how do you say to come? |
| Naomi: くる |
| Peter: the te form is... |
| Naomi: きて |
| Peter: When you use te-form by itself, it indicate informal request. So KITE is "Come" as in "Come here." By adding kudasai (ください) to the te-form of a verb, you can create a polite request.So... |
| Naomi: きてください |
| Peter: means "Please come" Let's do more examples, how to you say "To turn" |
| Naomi: 曲がる |
| Peter: The te form is... |
| Naomi: 曲がって |
| Peter: It means "Turn!" And please turn is... |
| Naomi: 曲がってください。 |
| Peter: In the dialogue, the station clerk said... |
| Naomi: 右に曲がってください |
| Peter: Please turn right. |
| Naomi: He also said...左に曲がってください |
| Peter: Please turn left. One more example, how do you say "to go" |
| Naomi: 行く |
| Peter: The te form is... |
| Naomi: 行って |
| Peter: It means "Go" So, please go is |
| Naomi: 行ってください |
| Peter: In the dialogue, the station clerk said... |
| Naomi: まっすぐ行ってください |
| Peter: Please go straight. Let's check the te from of other verbs that appeared in the conversation.The first verb is? |
| Naomi: 降りる |
| Peter: to get off the te-from is |
| Naomi: 降りて |
| Peter: Sample sentence please. |
| Naomi: 秋葉原で降りてください |
| Peter: Please get off at Akihabara. "De" as in "Akihabara de" indicates where the action takes place. |
| OK. What's the next verb? |
| Naomi: 出る |
| Peter: To leave, to go out. And the te form is? |
| Naomi: 出て |
| Peter: sample sentence please. |
| Naomi: 改札口を出てください |
| Peter: Go out the Chuo kaisatsu guchi.Now KAISATSUGUCHI means ticket entrance. And finally we have the phrase |
| Naomi: 気をつける |
| Peter: To take care, to pay attention, to be careful |
| Naomi: 気 means spirit feeling or attention. つける is to attach. |
| Peter: So this phrase literally translates to "attach your attention" In natural English we would say "Pay attention" or "be careful" |
| Naomi: the te from of つける is つけて so... 気をつけてください |
| Peter: Please be careful...Maybe in this situation "take care" is more appropriate translation. |
| Peter: Let's recap this lesson with a quiz. The quiz will be multiple choice. We'll give a question and three possible answers. Your job is to guess the answer.OK. The first question. |
| What does "仕方ない"mean? |
| A)There's no choice B)Take care C)Excuse me. |
| Naomi: The answer is? |
| Peter: A)There's no choice. |
| Naomi: Take care is 気をつけてください Excuse me is すみません |
| Peter: The next question. Which of the following sentences means "Please go straight"? |
| Naomi: A)右に曲がってください B)これください C)まっすぐ行ってください |
| Peter: The answer is? |
| Naomi: C)まっすぐ行ってください please go straight |
| Peter: OK. What's A? |
| Naomi: 右に曲がってください means Turn to the right. |
| Peter: How about B? |
| Naomi: これください means Could I have this? or Please give me this. |
Outro |
| Peter: That concludes this lesson. In the next lesson, Ashley is going to bump into someone she knows in Akihabara. |
| Naomi: She's surprised, so she asks "What are you doing here??" |
| Peter: You'll learn how to say what you're doing right now. |
| Naomi: じゃ、また |
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