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| INTRODUCTION |
| Chigusa &Yoshi: おはよう、東京。 |
| Chigusa: チグサです。 |
| Yoshi: ヨシです。 |
| Peter: Peter here. チグサさん and ヨシさん are back again. Today we’re back with another beginner lesson. Now, today we’re working on the all-important phrase… |
| Chigusa: How are you? |
| Peter: This expression that we’re going to introduce today is heard every day, many times each day all over Japan, right, チグサさん? |
| Chigusa: Right. |
| Peter: I mean, talk about frequency of phrases. This one is up there. So what we’re going to do, as always, is we’re going to give you the conversation at normal native speaking speed. Then we’re going to give you a slow version. Finally, what we’ll do is give you the translation. Then we’re going to take a look at vocabulary and then break the conversation down. Okay? With that said, here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| よし: お元気ですか。 |
| ちぐさ: はい、元気ですよ。 |
| ちぐさ: お元気ですか。 |
| よし: はい、絶好調です! |
| Peter: One more time slowly, please. |
| よし: お元気ですか。 |
| ちぐさ: はい、元気ですよ。 |
| ちぐさ: お元気ですか。 |
| よし: はい、絶好調です! |
| Peter: This time チグサさん and ヨシさん will give you the Japanese and I’ll give you the English. Here we go. |
| よし: お元気ですか。 |
| Yoshi: How are you? |
| ちぐさ: はい、元気ですよ。 |
| Chigusa: I'm fine. |
| ちぐさ: お元気ですか。 |
| Chigusa: How are you? |
| Yoshi: はい、絶好調です! |
| Peter: I'm doing amazing. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: Okay, first let’s take a look at some of the vocabulary words in there. First word… |
| Chigusa: 元気 |
| Peter: “Health”, “vigor”, “energy”. Now, while the word 元気 has these meanings and others, in the dialogue, 元気 is acting as an expression, meaning the subject is doing well, fine, good. This is a widely-used expression to enquire and respond to questions asking how one is doing. Break it down. |
| Chigusa: (slow)げんき (natural speed)元気 |
| Peter: Now, I want to take a look at the Kanji, the Chinese characters for 元気. チグサさん、 what’s the first character mean? |
| Chigusa: Origin. |
| Peter: ヨシさん, what does the second character mean? |
| Yoshi: Spirit. |
| Peter: Finally we have… |
| Chigusa: 絶好調 |
| Peter: “In great condition” is the literal meaning. Now, we interpret it as “couldn’t be better, on cloud nine, feeling like a million bucks”. |
| Chigusa: (slow)ぜっこうちょう (natural speed)絶好調 |
| Peter: Now, this word has two long vowels. And in between the first two syllables there’s a pause. In Japanese, some words have a slight pause in between certain syllables. This is marked by a small つ. So can you give it to use one more time? |
| Chigusa: 絶好調 |
| Peter: It was right in between the 絶 and 好. Right in between those two there’s a slight short pause. |
| Chigusa: 絶好調 |
| Peter: And then the two long vowels. Okay, now that we’ve taken a look at this vocabulary, let’s move on to the dialogue. What was the first line? |
| Yoshi: お元気ですか？ |
| Peter: Now, here the subject is inferred, we don’t have to put in “you”. If we did, the sentence would sound like this… |
| Yoshi: あなたはお元気ですか？ |
| Peter: But, ヨシさん, does this sound natural? |
| Yoshi: No. |
| Peter: Here we can leave the subject out because it’s inferred. The subject is the person you’re talking to. If you’re asking about someone else or addressing a number of people, for example in a speech, in short, the subject is not the person you’re speaking to or already speaking about, then you need to identify the subject. And to the word 元気 we attach the prefix… |
| Yoshi: お |
| Peter: The prefix お increases the politeness level. However, this phrase is usually used in cases of extreme politeness or with someone who you’re not extremely close with. When meeting friends, the conversation would be more casual, and this is one of the main topics we talk about and we focus on at JapanesePod101.com – the politeness level, what to use when talking with your friends, what to use when talking with people outside that tight in our circle. One of the keys to really mastering Japanese. So we have the honorific prefix お attached to 元気, followed by… |
| Yoshi: です |
| Peter: The copula. Followed by… |
| Yoshi: か |
| Peter: As soon as we hear the particle… |
| Yoshi: か |
| Peter: We can understand the question. The subject’s inferred, so “are you fine?” is the literal translation. But in English we interpret it to be “How are you? How’s it going? How’re you doing? What’s up?” This can be used in all of these contexts, depending on the situation and the politeness level. And the answer here is… |
| Chigusa: はい、元気ですよ。 |
| Peter: First we have yes, which is… |
| Chigusa: はい |
| Peter: Break that down. |
| Chigusa: (slow)はい (natural speed)はい |
| Peter: Followed by… |
| Chigusa: 元気ですよ |
| Peter: Now let’s take a look at the sentence ending particle here. What’s the final particle here? |
| Chigusa: よ |
| Peter: Now this is adding emphasis to the fact that チグサさん is fine. Now, we have the same question. Now we have the same question now チグサさん asks ヨシ… |
| Chigusa: お元気ですか？ |
| Peter: Again, か indicating it’s a question. |
| Yoshi: はい、絶好調です。 |
| Peter: Now, here Yoshi says “Yes, I'm in really good condition. I'm doing amazing.” Literally, “I'm in great condition. I'm in really great condition.” But interpreted as “I couldn’t be better. I'm doing amazing. Everything’s going my way.” Now, you won't find this is a textbook because in most Japanese textbooks the standard question and answer is お元気ですか and, チグサさん? |
| Chigusa: はい、元気です。 |
| Peter: But there’s so many more possibilities. And our goal here, at JapanesePod101.com, is to give you alternatives that you’d never find in a textbook in addition, of course, to giving you everything they cover. Give you current, often-used phrases to widen your vocabulary, expand your range of knowledge, and that’s one of the key goals of JapanesePod101.com. So ヨシさん, what is another way we can answer this question that you won't find in a textbook? |
| Yoshi: はい、すごく元気ですよ。 |
| Peter: “I'm doing really great.” ヨシさん, what’s new here? |
| Yoshi: すごく |
| Peter: Which is the adverbial form of… |
| Yoshi: すごい |
| Peter: And adjective meaning “great”, “amazing”, in addition to other meanings. Again, context does play a role with this adjective. Break it down. |
| Yoshi: (slow)すごい (natural speed)すごい |
| Peter: This adjective is also widely used, and one that you will come in contact with quite frequently in the Japanese language. You’ll hear it used in situations where the speaker sees something great or amazing happen or occur, or hear some great or amazing news. It’s adverbial form is commonly used with other adjectives that emphasize the degree of. In this lesson, すごい is in its adverbial form, modifying 元気. Okay, ヨシさん, give us one more that will really impress, really impress. |
| Yoshi: はい、バッチリです。 |
| Peter: ヨシさん, now that’s what I'm talking about. That is perfect! Give us that new word one more time. |
| Yoshi: バッチリ |
| Peter: “Perfectly”, “perfect”, “doing great”, “things couldn’t be better”, “everything’s perfect”. Break it down. |
| Yoshi: (slow)ばっちり (natural speed)バッチリ |
| Peter: Now, this is a great one that is sure to impress friends. This one, [*], is this going to impress people? |
| Yoshi: Of course, I'm sure it will. |
| Peter: Are you going to find it in a textbook? |
| Yoshi: No, I don’t think so. |
| Peter: I know so. Now, ヨシさん, what about using this with your professor. |
| Yoshi: I think you can use it, but only when you have a good relationship with the professor. |
| Peter: Yeah, and… You know what, actually using this word will show to your professor, your teacher that you’re studying outside the classroom and it might help foster a good relationship. Because pretty much the standard is 元気？元気？元気？. The frequency of that word is astronomical, so a little variety, it may help foster that good relationship. We’re talking A’s here. So if you have a pretty good relationship, you can try this out. And among friends, this is an amazing way to say “I'm doing great”. This one I use all the time with my friends, really great expression. Okay, so before we go let’s just give you that conversation one more time. |
| Yoshi: お元気ですか？ |
| Chigusa: はい、元気ですよ。お元気ですか？ |
| Yoshi: はい、絶好調です。 |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: That’s going to do it for today. |
| Chigusa: また明日。 |
| Yoshi: またね。 |
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