Learn how to express where you want to go
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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 16 – “Going on a Weekend Trip in Japan”. |
| Natsuko: So, this lesson is about a trip in Japan. What are we going to learn in this lesson, Alisha? |
| Alisha: In this lesson, we’ll learn how to express desire, specifically, the desire to go somewhere. Natsuko, where does this lesson’s dialogue take place? |
| Natsuko: Mr. Hayashi sees Ken and Emily with travel bags, and asks if they’re travelling somewhere. では、聞きましょう！ |
| Alisha: Okay; let’s listen to the conversation! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Alisha: Natsuko, where is Kyushu? |
| Natsuko: Kyushu is located in the South and it’s one of the main islands of Japan. |
| Alisha: I’ve heard of Yakushima shrine, which I think is in Kyushu. Am I right? |
| Natsuko: Yes, you are. It’s a famous shrine in Kagoshima, which is mentioned in the dialogue as it is Mr. Hayashi’s hometown. Kagoshima has many natural attractions, including hot springs that are called “onsen” in Japanese. |
| Alisha: That sounds nice! Somewhere with beautiful scenery is probably also a source of good food and drink, right? |
| Natsuko: Of course! |
| Alisha: Good food and drink, beautiful scenery, and cultural attractions….it sounds perfect! |
| Natsuko: Another important and famous place in Kyushu is Tanegashima, which also belongs to Kagoshima. |
| Alisha: That’s where the Portuguese people arrived in the 16th century and introduced firearms to Japan, isn’t it? |
| Natsuko: Exactly! So Tanegashima historically is a very meaningful island, but at the same time it’s home to JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. |
| Alisha: So it’s a mix of historical and modern cultures. Interesting! Listeners, if you have the chance to visit Southern Japan, you’d definitely want to add Kagoshima to your list! Okay, now let’s move on to the vocabulary and phrases 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 phrase we’ll look at is.... |
| Natsuko: ～のどこですか。With this phrase, you can ask the details of a place. It means “Where is it in ～[place]?” |
| Alisha: So, if I want to ask you where is Kagoshima in Kyushu? |
| Natsuko: 九州のどこですか? The complete sentence would be 鹿児島は、九州のどこですか, but it’s only if you need to say where Kagoshima is. |
| Alisha: I see. Listeners, please note that in this expression ～のどこですか, the larger place comes first and then the particle no, followed by the specified place. |
| Natsuko: In the dialogue, Mr. Hayashi asked where in Kyushu Emily and Ken are going, with 九州のどこですか。And Emily answered 鹿児島です。If Emily wants to answer with a complete sentence, it would be 九州の鹿児島です。The specified place is 鹿児島 which follows の and the wider area 九州 comes first. Alisha, ふるさとは、どこですか。Alisha, where’s your hometown? |
| Alisha: [answer] Now listeners, try to say your hometown using this expression. |
| Natsuko: みなさん、ふるさとは、どこですか。 |
| Alisha: [wait 5 sec.] Did you get that right? Please feel free to practice this phrase in the lesson comments! Natsuko, what’s the next word we have? |
| Natsuko: おすすめ meaning “recommendation”. |
| Alisha: This word is very useful as you can use it in many different situations asking for the recommendations. |
| Natsuko: That’s right. Simply say おすすめはありますか for “do you have any recommendation?” |
| Alisha: For example, when you go to a restaurant and don’t know what you want to eat, you’d ask if they have any dishes they would recommend. |
| Natsuko: For such occasions, you can also use the phrase おすすめは何ですか meaning, “what’s the special?” |
| Alisha: That’s easy! Now, let’s move onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Alisha: In this lesson, we’re going to learn how to express desire to go somewhere, like “I want to go to a hot spring resort”. Natsuko, how can we make this sentence in Japanese? |
| Natsuko: The key phrase is [place] に行きたいです using the particle ni. Let’s start with the conjugation to express desire. |
| Alisha: If the verb is “to go”, which is 行きます, how can we conjugate to say “to want to go”? |
| Natsuko: From the masu-form 行きます, drop ます and add たい. Now, to keep the formal and polite level, we also have to add です. So, 行き・たい・です。行きたいです。 |
| Alisha: Listeners, let’s practice. Please repeat after Natsuko. |
| Natsuko: 行きたい [wait 5 sec.] 行きたいです。 |
| Alisha: [wait 5 sec.] How did you do? In casual conversation, you can omit the last です. So, Natsuko, you mentioned the particle ni. Can you give us a little more insight into when it is used? |
| Natsuko: Sure! The particle ni describes the destination, and the pattern is [destination] + ni + 行きます, or if it’s a desire form, 行きたいです instead of 行きます。 Like 温泉、に、行きたいです。 |
| Alisha: That’s easy! In English, the word order is “to + [destination]”, but in Japanese, the particle “ni” comes after the destination. We can put any place’s name and add this particle ni, right? |
| Natsuko: Right! So, if you want to go to 九州, 九州に行きたいです。 |
| Alisha: Okay, listeners, let’s practice. How do you say “I want to go to Japan” in Japanese? |
| Natsuko: [wait 5 sec.] 日本に行きたいです。 |
| Alisha: Did you get it right? But Natsuko, what if I don’t want to go to 九州? |
| Natsuko: The negative form for いきたい is いきたくない. It’s the same conjugation as the i-adjective. In a polite way, add です after that and say, いきたくないです。 |
| Alisha: So, now you can try “I don’t want to go to 九州” in Japanese. |
| Natsuko [wait 5 sec.] 九州に行きたくないです。 |
| Alisha: Perfect! |
| Natsuko But this sentence is not very nice for the people of Kyushu, (笑) so let’s try something else. I feel lazy, so I don’t feel like going in to my company today… |
| Alisha: (笑) That sounds useful too! “Company” in Japanese is |
| Natsuko 会社 |
| Alisha: so, the sentence would be… |
| Natsuko: 会社に行きたくないです。 |
| Alisha: Wow, bad Natsuko! |
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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