Learn how to invite someone to do something
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Alisha: Hi everyone! アリッシャです！ Alisha here! |
| Natsuko: こんにちは！ナツコです！Hi everyone, I'm Natsuko. |
| Alisha: Welcome to Lower Beginner Season 1 lesson 14 – “Sample Some Japanese Festival Fare!”. |
| Natsuko: In the previous lesson, Ken said it was his first time seeing a Japanese festival, and we learned how to say you’re experiencing something for the first time. |
| Alisha: That’s right. If a person has never experienced something, we might want to let them try, right? In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to invite someone to do something. |
| Natsuko: Good! And where does this lesson’s dialogue take place? |
| Alisha: Ken and his colleague decided to visit a Matsuri, so today’s dialogue is at the Matsuri. |
| Natsuko: Okay; and it’s a continuation of their conversation from lesson 13. では、聞きましょう！ |
| Alisha: Let’s listen to the conversation! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Natsuko: Hmm…たこやき、とうもろこし・・・屋台food!! The dialog of this lesson makes my mouth water. (笑) |
| Alisha: But 1,000 yen for two grilled corns? Isn’t that a little too expensive? |
| Natsuko: Yes, it is, but anything sold at yatai is more expensive than in any other place, because these stalls are especially for festivals. |
| Alisha: Hmm, they’re doing good business at the Matsuri. |
| Natsuko: Yes. (both laugh) |
| Alisha: Do Yatais only sell food? |
| Natsuko: No; although Yatai is often translated as “food stall”, there are some stalls for games and toys, other than food and beverage at a Matsuri. You can see many different Yatai lined up along a main street in any festivals in Japan. |
| Alisha: What kind of food do they typically serve? |
| Natsuko: Pan-fried noodles called Yakisoba, as well as wataame, which is candy floss, and so on. |
| Alisha: Both savory and sweet food? That’s handy! Ok, let’s move on to vocabulary for this lesson. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Alisha: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word we’ll look at is.... |
| Natsuko: 何か, meaning “something”. |
| Alisha: “Nani ka” consists of the question word “nani”, meaning “what”, and the particle “ka”. How can we use this word? |
| Natsuko: In the dialog, Ken’s colleague suggested 何か食べましょう; this means “Let’s eat something”. When you know what you want to eat but you haven’t decided what to eat yet, you can simply put 何か before the verb. |
| Alisha: Very easy, right? Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Natsuko: We’ll learn general counter in this lesson. In Japanese, we use special counters when we count objects. These counters differ according to the objects’ shapes or characteristics. However, we also have general counter which can be used when there is no specific counter. |
| Alisha: This set only goes up to 10 and it doesn’t have a pattern. You just need to memorise them. |
| Natsuko: That’s right. It’s not very difficult. It goes ひとつ |
| Alisha: “One item” |
| Natsuko: ふたつ |
| Alisha: “Two items” |
| Natsuko: みっつ |
| Alisha: “Three items” |
| Natsuko: よっつ |
| Alisha: “Four items” |
| Natsuko: いつつ |
| Alisha: “Five items” |
| Natsuko: むっつ |
| Alisha: “Six items” |
| Natsuko: ななつ |
| Alisha: “Seven items” |
| Natsuko: やっつ |
| Alisha: “Eight items” |
| Natsuko: ここのつ |
| Alisha: “Nine items” |
| Natsuko: とう |
| Alisha: “Ten items”. Let’s move on. What’s the next word we have in this lesson? |
| Natsuko: 高い |
| Alisha: We’ve already learnt Takai as in takai tokoro meaning “high-up place”. |
| Natsuko: Yes, we did. As you say “high” as in price in English, we also use 高い for “expensive”. |
| Alisha: That’s interesting. Different languages, but we share the same idea. |
| Natsuko: Indeed! We use it like すしは高いです。 |
| Alisha: And it means “Sushi is expensive”. This must be useful! Now, what’s the next word we have? |
| Natsuko: おごります。 |
| Alisha: Wooo, that’s the expression I love to hear! (笑) |
| Natsuko: Me too. (笑) |
| Alisha: So, when you take care of the bill at restaurant, you can say “Ogorimasu” and it means “I’ll pay for it” or “it’s my treat”. The verb ogorimasu itself means “to treat”. |
| Natsuko: It’s common that your senior will buy you a drink or a meal in Japan. Don’t forget to appreciate the generosity by saying ありがとうございます or ごちそうさまです if someone buys you a meal. ごちそうさまです is a post-meal greeting or a way to say thank you for buying the meal. Alisha, おひるごはん、おごります。”Alisha, I’ll buy you lunch.” |
| Alisha: ほんとう？ありがとうございます。ごちそうさまです。Really? Thank you. I appreciate that. Hmm, now I’m encouraged to learn more! Let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Alisha: In this lesson, you’re going to learn how to invite someone to do something. Let’s take the example from the dialog. Ken’s colleague said “let’s eat something”. Natsuko, what was that in Japanese? |
| Natsuko: 何か食べましょう。To invite someone to do something, we can use [Verb] + ましょう, like 食べましょう. |
| Alisha: Now listeners, if you have listened to the Absolute Beginner series, Season 2, Lesson 22 introduced the expression to invite [verb] + mashō. |
| Natsuko: This conjugation is quite simple. Take the masu form of verb, remove masu and add mashō. The verb “to eat” is 食べます. Remove masu and add mashō to 食べ, making 食べましょう. |
| Alisha: Sounds easy! But does this work for any verbs? |
| Natsuko: Yes! Group 1 verbs, group 2 verbs and irregular group 3 verbs! Alisha, can you try this with the verb 飲みます, “to drink”? |
| Alisha: From 飲みます, remove masu and add mashō. So, 飲みましょう? |
| Natsuko: Brilliant! 飲みましょう。 |
| Alisha: Good! Now, let’s move on to the next item. In the dialog, Ken’s colleague suggested some food to Ken. That was… |
| Natsuko: たこやきはどうですか。 |
| Alisha: So, it’s [something] wa dō desu ka. You can insert anything you like to suggest before wa dō desu ka. Natsuko, I’m hungry. 何か食べましょう。 |
| Natsuko: カレーライスはどうですか。 |
| Alisha: Sounds good! Listeners, did you get that? I said I was hungry, so let’s eat something, using mashō and Natsuko: answered “how about curry and rice?” Let’s practice this phrase. Listeners, repeat after Natsuko. Natsuko, start with the phrase “how about [something]”. |
| Natsuko: は、どうですか。[wait 5 sec.] |
| Alisha: Now say, “how about curry and rice?” |
| Natsuko: カレーライスはどうですか。[wait 5 sec.] |
| Alisha: How did you find it? Natsuko, how can we reply to that question? |
| Natsuko: If you accept the suggestion, you can say いいですね。 |
| Alisha: And, if we don’t want to accept the suggestion? |
| Natsuko: You can say, [something] はちょっと・・・ This would come in handy, when you would like to give negative answers indirectly. It’s literally “I’m sorry, but [something] is a bit….” without clearly saying “No, I don’t want that”. |
| Alisha: Indirect “No” to avoid hurting others’ feelings. Nice. |
| Natsuko: Exactly! Shall we practice both? |
| Alisha: Sure! Listeners, repeat after Natsuko. First, to accept…? |
| Natsuko: いいですね [wait 5 sec.] |
| Alisha: Now turn down the suggestion indirectly. Let’s use “curry and rice”. |
| Natsuko: カレーライスは、ちょっと・・・ |
| Alisha: Easy, right? Now, let’s practice all the expressions as a short conversation, using たこやき. Listeners, repeat after Natsuko. First, say “let’s eat something.” |
| Natsuko: 何か、食べましょう [wait 5 sec.] |
| Alisha: Now listeners, ask Natsuko: “how about Takoyaki?” using は、どうですか。 |
| Natsuko: [wait 5 sec.] たこやきは、どうですか。 |
| Alisha: Good; would you like some takoyaki, Natsuko? |
| Natsuko: Octopus is a bit... not my favourite, so I’d say; たこはちょっと・・・ |
| Alisha: [wait 5 sec.] Now, listeners, what if Natsuko: would like some Takoyaki? What would she say? |
| Natsuko: [wait 5 sec.] いいですね。 |
| Alisha: Did you get it right? For more detailed explanations, please check out the lesson notes. |
Outro |
| Alisha: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. Please leave us your comments, questions, and any feedback you have on the lesson page! See you next time. |
| Natsuko: じゃ、また。 |
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