Learn useful Japanese expressions that you can use when you experience problems in your apartment
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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 23 - A Japanese Plumbing Emergency |
| Natsuko: I think I smell some trouble here…Alisha, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Alisha: In this lesson, you’re going to learn some useful expressions that you can use when you’re in trouble. |
| Natsuko: And where does this lesson’s dialog take place? |
| Alisha: Emily’s got a problem in her apartment, and rings the caretaker. |
| Natsuko: では、聞きましょう。 |
| Alisha: Okay. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Natsuko: Any kind of trouble with water causes inconvenience, doesn’t it? |
| Alisha: It really does. Have you had any? |
| Natsuko: Yes. In my case, it was trouble with the toilet rather than the water itself, and I had to ring the caretaker from my building. |
| Alisha: Speaking of which, there are so many different ways to talk about the “toilet” in Japan. Sometimes it’s very confusing! |
| Natsuko: I know what you mean! When I heard “powder room” for the first time, I genuinely thought it was just a room for fixing makeup! |
| Alisha: Is there a more common way or a better way to refer to lavatory? |
| Natsuko: It’s usually トイレ, just like the English word “toilet”, but in polite speech, we often use the word お手洗い which literally means “a place to wash hands”. |
| Alisha: Are they both for men and women to use? Is there any word that mostly men use or mostly women use? |
| Natsuko: 化粧室, which literally means “a place to do makeup” is usually a word used by women, and perhaps there are posh ladies who use パウダールーム…who knows?! |
| Alisha: I see. There is always a story to tell when it comes to トイレ, right? Listeners, please tell us your story on the lessons page! Now, let’s move on to the vocabulary. |
| 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, what do we have for this lesson? |
| Natsuko: First is すぐ which means “right away” or “immediately”. |
| Alisha: In the dialog, it appeared in… |
| Natsuko: すぐ、行きます。”I’m coming right away”. This adverb すぐ can also be used as すぐに with the same meaning. |
| Alisha: I see. So, this expression can be added before any verb with the masu-form to say “I’ll do something immediately”. |
| Natsuko: Exactly. Shall we see some other example? |
| Alisha: How about “I’ll study immediately.” |
| Natsuko: I like it! すぐ、勉強します。 |
| Alisha: Or, maybe you have to rush to home. “I’ll come back home right away”. |
| Natsuko: すぐ、帰ります。 |
| Alisha: Easy, right? Let’s practice some useful sentences! Listeners, please repeat after Natsuko. First up, “I’m coming right away” or “I’m going right away”. |
| Natsuko: すぐ、行きます。 |
| Alisha: [wait 5 sec.] Next, “I’ll make a phone call immediately”. |
| Natsuko: すぐ、電話します。 |
| Alisha: [wait 5 sec.] Finally, “I’ll find out or I’ll check it immediately”. |
| Natsuko: すぐ、調べます。 |
| Alisha: [wait 5 sec.] Good! The last one with しらべます can be useful even at the office. |
| Natsuko: That’s right. When you have to find out, confirm or verify something, you can use this しらべます. If your boss tells you to do such a task, you can say すぐ、しらべます。 |
| Alisha: Ok, let’s move onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Alisha: In this lesson, we’re going to learn a useful survival expression when you’re having trouble at your apartment. |
| Natsuko: First, let’s learn how to report that something is broken. You can say “something is broken” with [item] が、こわれました。 こわれます means “to be broken” or “to be damaged” and we use the past tense here. |
| Alisha: You can use this expression with pretty much any home appliances. For example, |
| Natsuko: 冷蔵庫がこわれました。 |
| Alisha: The fridge is broken. |
| Natsuko: エアコンがこわれました。 |
| Alisha: “The air conditioner is broken.” This phrase is very useful, so let’s practice. Listeners, please repeat after Natsuko. First, let’s try “The computer is broken”. |
| Natsuko: パソコンがこわれました。 |
| Alisha: [wait 5 sec.] Now, “the clock or watch is broken”. |
| Natsuko: 時計がこわれました。 |
| Alisha: [wait 5 sec.] Finally, “the phone is broken”. |
| Natsuko: 電話がこわれました。 |
| Alisha: [wait 5 sec.] How did it go? After you tell someone that something is broken, you’ll probably need to explain what’s wrong or what the situation is like. In Emily’s case, the water kept running, so she said... |
| Natsuko: 水が止まりません。 |
| Alisha: Literally, “water doesn’t stop”. Using the negative form of the non-past verb, you can report the problem with detailed information. |
| Natsuko: That’s right. And you need to use the particle “ga” here as well, to mark the subject. |
| Alisha: Whether you’re speaking to someone on the phone, or you’re speaking to someone face to face, or if you’re talking to your building’s caretaker, you want to tell him or her your room number and your name. Emily said... |
| Natsuko: 401号室のエミリー・マーティンですが |
| Alisha: This means, “this is Emily Martin, from Apartment 401”. |
| Natsuko: First your room number with 号室, like ４０１号室, the particle の to link it to the next word, and then your name; by adding the particle が after that, you can continue the sentence, and move on to the next point. |
| Alisha: Are you confident about describing problems now? We have more useful information in the Lesson Notes, so please check them out! |
Outro |
| Alisha: Okay everyone. That’s about all we have time for this lesson! See you next time. |
| Natsuko: じゃ、また。 |
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