Learn how to ask questions and say where you are from
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: Hi everyone! Welcome to Lower Beginner Season 1, Lesson 2, Which Famous Tokyo Tower is That?! ジェシー です。Jessi here! |
| Natsuko: こんにちは！なつこです！Hi everyone, Natsuko here! |
| Jessi: Welcome to the second lesson in our Lower Beginner series! |
| Natsuko: So Jessi, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Jessi: In this lesson, we're going to learn how to ask questions based on grammar we learned in the last lesson. |
| Natsuko: And where does this lesson's dialogue take place? |
| Jessi: Emily and Ken are taking a bus, and they go past a famous new Tokyo tourist attraction. |
| Natsuko: では聞きましょう。 |
| Jessi: Let's listen to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| EMILY: どうぞ。 |
| OLD WOMAN: ありがとうございます。…アメリカから? |
| KEN: いいえ。オーストラリアのブリスベンからきました。 |
| OLD WOMAN: そうですか。 |
| KEN: すみません、あれは、とうきょうタワーですか。 |
| OLD WOMAN: あれ？あれは、とうきょうスカイツリーです。 |
| 634メートルです。 |
| KEN: ろっぴゃく、さんじゅう、よん…。 |
| Jessi: Now let's here with the English translation. |
| EMILY: どうぞ。 |
| EMILY: Please have a seat. |
| OLD WOMAN: ありがとうございます。…アメリカから? |
| OLD WOMAN: Thank you so much. ...Are you American? |
| KEN: いいえ。オーストラリアのブリスベンからきました。 |
| KEN: No. We're from Brisbane, Australia. |
| OLD WOMAN: そうですか。 |
| OLD WOMAN: Is that so? |
| KEN: すみません、あれは、とうきょうタワーですか。 |
| KEN: Excuse me, is that Tokyo Tower? |
| OLD WOMAN: あれ？あれは、とうきょうスカイツリーです。 |
| OLD WOMAN: That? That's the Tokyo Sky Tree. |
| 634メートルです。 |
| It's 634 meters tall. |
| KEN: ろっぴゃく、さんじゅう、よん…。 |
| KEN: Six hundred, thirty, four... |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jessi: So Natsuko, we heard it in the dialogue, but can you tell us a little bit about the Tokyo Sky Tree? |
| Natsuko: It's Tokyo's newest tourist attraction! It's a 634-meter high broadcasting tower. It opened in May 2012, and it took almost three and a half years to build. |
| Jessi: That's right, and it's actually in the Guinness Book of World Records as of October 2012 as the tallest tower in the world. It has an observation deck and everything. Have you been up to the Sky Tree yet, Natsuko? |
| Natsuko: いいえ、まだです。 |
| Jessi: “No, not yet.” I haven’t been either yet, actually! |
| Natsuko: ぜひ行ってみたいです。I'd love to visit! |
| Jessi: Definitely! Hopefully, we get the chance soon. Okay, now let's look at the vocab for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natsuko: どうぞ (dōzo) |
| Jessi: go ahead |
| Natsuko: どうぞ (dōzo) |
| Natsuko: すみません (sumimasen) |
| Jessi: Excuse me |
| Natsuko: すみません (sumimasen) |
| Natsuko: きます (kimasu) |
| Jessi: to come |
| Natsuko: きます (kimasu) |
| Natsuko: メートル (mētoru) |
| Jessi: meter |
| Natsuko: メートル (mētoru) |
| Natsuko: そうですか。 (Sō desu ka.) |
| Jessi: Really? Is that so? |
| Natsuko: そうですか。 (Sō desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: あれ (are) |
| Jessi: that (one over there) |
| Natsuko: あれ (are) |
| Natsuko: は (wa) |
| Jessi: topic marking particle |
| Natsuko: は (wa) |
| Natsuko: です (desu) |
| Jessi: roughly means 'to be' |
| Natsuko: です (desu) |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Jessi: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Natsuko: The first word/phrase we’ll look at is... |
| Natsuko: そうですか。 |
| Jessi: Meaning "Really?↓" or "Is that right?" This is such a useful Japanese phrase, I recommend that you memorize it IMMEDIATELY! （笑） |
| Natsuko: そうですか。（笑） |
| Jessi: そうです！（笑） You remember you learned そうです, meaning "that's right", in our Absolute Beginner series? Well, this phrase just adds the particle か on the end, which is the equivalent to a question mark. |
| Natsuko: そうですか literally means "Is that so?" The old lady in the dialogue said そうですか after Ken said オーストラリアのブリスベンからきました。 |
| Jessi: そうですか is a polite way to simply acknowledge someone's statement, or to close a topic when you have nothing in particular to add. Also, note the falling intonation. |
| Natsuko そうですか↓ |
| Jessi: When said this way, it’s really similar to how “Oh, is that so↓?” sounds in English. If the intonation changes... |
| Natsuko そうですか↑ |
| Jessi: That’s more like saying “really??” It almost sounds like you are surprised, or don’t believe something. So if you just want to acknowledge someone’s statement, use... |
| Natsuko そうですか↓ |
| Jessi: OK, so what's the next word we're looking at? |
| Natsuko: メートル. |
| Jessi: "Metres". In Japanese, loanwords such as this are usually pronounced close to their original language. The word "meter" is originally French, which is why the Japanese pronunciation doesn't sound like the English word "meter". Natsuko, how do we use this メートル in Japanese? |
| Natsuko: Just like in English, you say the number and then add メートル. |
| Jessi: So the height of Sky Tree, which we talked about in the dialogue, is...? |
| Natsuko 634メートル。 |
| Jessi: 634 meters. Simple enough, right? |
| Natsuko: Right! |
| Jessi: Now it's time for the Lesson Focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jessi: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask questions in Japanese using the A は B です pattern which you've already learned and which we reviewed in the previous lesson. |
| Natsuko: たとえば, for example, you have a glass of clear liquid in front of you, but you don't know what it is. |
| Jessi: So, of course, you'd want to ask what it is. It looks like water, but you're not sure. The word for "water" in Japanese is...? |
| Natsuko: 水. |
| Jessi: So to ask "Is this water?" you would say...? |
| Natsuko: これは水ですか？ |
| Jessi: Listeners, listen and repeat after [Natsuko]. "Is this water?". |
| Natsuko: これは水ですか？ |
| Jessi: (wait for 5 sec) Great. Now try saying "Is this water?" in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: (wait for 5 sec) これは水ですか？ |
| Jessi: Ｏｆ course you can replace 水 with any noun you like. For example, 出口, which means "exit". If you wanted to ask "Is that the exit?" you would say... |
| Natsuko: あれは出口ですか？ |
| Jessi: Note that we use the word あれ for "that over there" instead of これ, "this". |
| Natsuko: To review the ko-so-a-do words, please check out Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 11. |
| Jessi: OK, listeners, listen and repeat. "Is that the exit?" |
| Natsuko: あれは出口ですか？ |
| Jessi: （wait for 5 sec) Now say "Is that the exit?" in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: （wait for 5 sec) あれは出口ですか？ |
| Jessi: Great! Now, what's our next grammar point? |
| Natsuko: It's how to say "yes" and "no" in Japanese. |
| Jessi: Very simple but very useful! Do you remember そうです, our most basic phrase? Well, in order to give a decisive "yes" answer, all you do is add はい, "yes", to the beginning. So if you asked "Is that the exit?", you could get the reply "Yes, it is", or "yes, that's right", which would be... |
| Natsuko: はい、そうです。 |
| Jessi: Listeners, listen and repeat. "Yes, that's right", or "Yes, it is". |
| Natsuko: はい、そうです。 |
| Jessi: (wait 5 sec) Now conversely, how would we go about saying "No, that's incorrect" or "No, it isn't"? Let’s go back to our example with the glass of water. So you ask - Is this water? これは水ですか. If it is NOT, you would hear... |
| Natsuko: いいえ、違います。 |
| Jessi: This word 違います literally means "to be different". So what this phrase means is "No, it's different". OK, so now listen and repeat. "No, that's incorrect" or "no, it isn't". |
| Natsuko: いいえ、違えます。 |
| Jessi: (wait 5 secs) Now what's the next grammar point? |
| Natsuko: It's a different way of saying where you are from. |
| Jessi: So in the first lesson of this series, where we learned how to give a self-introduction, you learned the phrase... |
| Natsuko: 出身は日本の富山です。 |
| Jessi: ... which means "I'm from [city] in Japan." But in this lesson's dialogue, we heard another way of saying where you're from. And that was? |
| Natsuko: オーストラリアのブリスベンからきました。 |
| Jessi: "We come from Brisbane, in Australia." Let's break this down. |
| Natsuko: オーストラリアのブリスベン |
| Host "Brisbane, in Australia" |
| Natsuko: から |
| Jessi: from |
| Natsuko: きました。 |
| Jessi: "came". Did you notice that in Japanese, the word "from", or から, comes AFTER the place name, instead of before it as in English? In English, Natsuko would say... |
| Natsuko: I'm from Toyama. |
| Jessi: See how the order is "from" and then place name? But in Japanese, she would say... |
| Natsuko: 富山から来ました。 |
| Jessi: place name THEN から. Remember that! Now Listeners, listen and repeat. "I, or we, come from Brisbane, Australia". |
| Natsuko: オーストラリアのブリスベンからきました。 |
| Jessi: (wait 5 secs) Now you try saying where you're from using ~からきました。 |
| Natsuko: (wait 5 secs) できましたか？ |
| Jessi: Did you manage it? Great! Let us know in the comments where you're from! If you don’t know how to say the name of your city or country in Japanese, be sure to ask us. |
| Natsuko: That’s all the time we have for now, though. |
Outro |
| Natsuko: じゃ、また！ |
| Jessi: See you next time! |
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Comments
HideHI みなさん！
Let us know where you're from! :)
Mette Juul Frejdigさん
Thank you so much for your comment😄
You can just say I'm from Denmark, which is デンマークから きました。😉
Please let us know if you have any questions :)
Sincerely
Ryoma
Team JapanesePod101.com
Hi - I am from Denmark. How do I say that in Japanese?
And would I say Europe's Denmark?
Best regards
Mette
ショーンさん
Thank you for your posting :)
はじめまして！
パリに行ってみたいです😎
*しゅっしん
Please let us know if you have a further question :)
Sincerely
Ryoma
Team JapanesePod101.com
Konnichiwa Angie F.
Thank you for your posting.
カリフォルニアですか！いいですね～！👍
Sono
Team JapanesePod101.com
こんにちは、ショーンです
１９歳です
フランスのパリからきました
＋
私のしゅしんわフランスのパリです
Samuelさん、コメントありがとうございます!
Nice try:) Please find some little corrections below;
私のしゅっしんはカナダのアルバータです。
または、
私はカナダのアルバータしゅっしんです。
>How do you say I currently live in ______?
今は、______に住んでいます。
と言います。
Please let us know if you have any other question.
Sincerely,
Erica
Team JapanesePod101.com
Konnichiwa Anson
Thank you for your posting!
Your sentence is very good!
わたしはいつか香港に行きたいです！
Sono
Team JapanesePod101.com
私はしゅっしんはカナダのアルバアタです。
How do you say I currently live in ______?
アメリカのカリフォルニアからきました。😎
中国の香港から来ました
Saleeさん こんにちは。
Thank you for your comment!
Saleeさんはオーストラリアのダーウィンから来ましたか。
Your sentence is very good!
Let's try the other pattern, しゅっしんは [name of a country] の [name of a city] です。next.
Stay tuned,
Motoko
Team JapanesePod101.com
私はオーストラリアのダーウィンから来ました。
こんにちは、Anneさん
コメントありがとうございます！
シアトルに行ってみたいです😄
Miki(美希)
Team JapanesePod101.com
みなさん、こんにちは。
アメリカのシアトルからきました。
Kon'nichiwa, Diego Kenji-san
Sō desu ka. Burajiru wa ima samui desu ka?
Keep studying with JapanesePod101.com
Cheers,
Miki(美希)
Team JapanesePod101.com
Burajiru no Kuiaba kara kimashita
こんにちは、Leoさん、Tomさん
コメントありがとうございます！
そうですか。わたしは三重県（みえけん）からきました?
Miki(美希)
Team JapanesePod101.com
あめりかのポートランドからきました。
コロンビアのバランキヤからきました
Soy de Barranquilla, Colombia.✌
こんばんは、Ntoretaさん
コメントありがとうございます！
こちらこそ、よろしくお願いします。
Miki(美希)
Team JapanesePod101.com