Learn about Japanese expressions that you can use while dining at a restaurant
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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 18 – “Dining Out in Japan” |
| Natsuko: In this lesson, you’ll learn useful expressions you can use at a restaurant. You’ll also learn how to count people. |
| Alisha: Where does this lesson’s dialog take place? |
| Natsuko: Ken goes to a restaurant and a waitress welcomes him at the entrance. では、聞きましょう。 |
| Alisha: Let’s listen to the conversation! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Natsuko: Alisha, have you ever tried shabushabu? |
| Alisha: I’ve heard of it, but I haven’t had a chance yet. What’s shabushabu like? |
| Natsuko: It’s a dish of thinly sliced meat and vegetables. You have to take a slice of meat, stir it in a cooking pot, let it swim in the boiling water, and eat it with dipping sauces. |
| Alisha: So we cook it ourselves? |
| Natsuko: Yes, we do. We usually let the meat swim in the boiling water with soup stock, turning it just twice or three times until it’s perfectly cooked. It takes 5 seconds or less. |
| Alisha: That’s fast! Do we have choices of meat? |
| Natsuko: Pork and beef are the most common choices, but we often enjoy other varieties like chicken and fish. |
| Alisha: Sounds healthy and original. |
| Natsuko: Yes, it is. If you ever have the chance, please do try! |
| Alisha: I definitely will. Okay, let’s see this lesson’s vocabulary and phrases. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Alisha: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Natsuko: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to count people. We use special forms for saying 1 person and 2 persons, and after that, we use the counter suffix “-nin” after general number. |
| Alisha: Let’s start from 1 person. To say one person in Japanese… |
| Natsuko: ひとり |
| Alisha: Two people |
| Natsuko: ふたり |
| Alisha: Three people |
| Natsuko: さんにん |
| Alisha: Four people |
| Natsuko: よにん |
| Alisha: Five people |
| Natsuko: ごにん |
| Alisha: Six people |
| Natsuko: ろくにん |
| Alisha: Seven people |
| Natsuko: ななにん or しちにん |
| Alisha: Eight people |
| Natsuko: はちにん |
| Alisha: Nine people |
| Natsuko: きゅうにん |
| Alisha: Lastly, ten people |
| Natsuko: じゅうにん |
| Alisha: It’s not very difficult is it? Listeners, the first two take the special forms, “hitori” and “futari”, but aren’t they familiar to you? |
| Natsuko: Good point! We’ve learnt general counters in Lower Beginner Season 1 Lesson 14. It goes, ひとつ、ふたつ、みっつ・・・ |
| Alisha: That’s why those two sounded familiar! |
| Natsuko: ひとり for one person, ふたり for two and maybe よにん for four people would require a little more attention, but none of them would sound new to you. |
| Alisha: No, they don’t. Now, let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Alisha: In this lesson, you’re going to learn some useful expressions at a restaurant. After you’re welcomed, you’ll be asked how many people you need a table for. |
| Natsuko: 何名さまですか。 |
| Alisha: Your waitress or waiter has to use very polite Japanese to you, so they use politer counter for people, “mei”, and then even add honorific suffix “sama”. If you’re a group of 4, you’d respond… |
| Natsuko: よにんです。 |
| Alisha: That’s when you can use the counters we’ve just learned today! |
| Natsuko: Yes! Then, you’ll be asked if you smoke with the phrase おたばこは？because they often have both non-smoking and smoking tables. |
| Alisha: I don’t like eating in a smoky environment. How can I request a non-smoking seat? |
| Natsuko: きんえんせき、おねがいします。And if you smoke, you can say きつえんせき、おねがいします。 |
| Alisha: きんえん and きつえん sound similar, so let’s practice! First, “non-smoking” is… |
| Natsuko: きんえん |
| Alisha: [wait 5 sec.] Now “smoking” is… |
| Natsuko: きつえん |
| Alisha: [wait 5 sec.] Simply by adding “seki” after きんえん or きつえん, you can tell them which table you want. Natsuko will ask you if you smoke, so tell her if you want non-smoking or smoking seat. |
| Natsuko: おたばこは。[wait 5 sec.] きんえんせきお願いします。Or, きつえんせきお願いします。 |
| Alisha: Did you say おねがいします too? |
| Natsuko: After you’ve got a table, you can order food and drink using the pattern of [item] を[number], おねがいします。For example, ビールをふたつ、おねがいします。 |
| Alisha: And that means “two draught beers, please”. Let’s practice this useful sentence. Listeners, repeat after Natsuko. |
| Natsuko: ビールをふたつ、おねがいします。 |
| Alisha: [wait 5 sec.] Great! We have more detailed information in the lesson notes, so please check them out! |
Outro |
| Alisha: That’s about all we have time for this lesson. We hope you enjoyed it. See you next time! |
| Natsuko: じゃ、また。 |
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