Learn how to use the Japanese suffix -kai to create the counter for asking for a floor or room number
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: Hi everyone! ジェシーです。Jessi here! |
| Natsuko: こんにちは！なつこです！Hi everyone, I'm Natsuko. |
| Jessi: Welcome to Lower Beginner series 1 lesson 6 - Which Floor of this Japanese Building Do You Live On? So Natsuko, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Natsuko: In this lesson we're going to learn how to say floor numbers of a building, as well as how to ask "which floor?" in an elevator. |
| Jessi: And where does this lesson's dialogue take place? |
| Natsuko: Emily gets into the elevator in her building, and meets another resident in there. |
| Natsuko: では聞きましょう。 |
| Jessi: Let's listen to the dialogue. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jessi: Natsuko, I have a question. |
| Natsuko: What is it? |
| Jessi: Well, you know how in the US the floor at ground level is called the "first floor", but in Europe and Australia it's called the "ground floor"? |
| Natsuko: Yes? |
| Jessi: Well, in Japan is it American or European style? |
| Natsuko: We say 一階 for the floor at ground level, or "first floor"... so I guess It's American style! |
| Jessi: We'll be looking at this in more detail later on, but 階 in Japanese means "floor". So Natsuko, in Tokyo there are lots of department stores with a few floors that go quite deep underground, but how would you call these in Japanese? |
| Natsuko: We say literally "Underground 1", "Underground 2" and so on. "Underground" is 地下, which literally means "ground" "below". So the floor directly under 一階, first floor, would be 地下一階. The next would be 地下二階. And so on! |
| Jessi: Did you get all that? （笑）Now let's move on to look at the vocabulary and phrases for this lesson. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Jessi: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. What's the first word we're looking at today? |
| Natsuko: 階 |
| Jessi: "Floor". We'll cover these later on in more detail, but in Japanese, whenever you count anything, you have to use a word called a "counter". Objects have different counters depending on their shape, size, characteristics, and so on. 階 is one of the easier counters to remember because it corresponds directly to the English "floor". Natsuko, in the dialogue Emily said... |
| Natsuko: 四かい、おねがいします。 |
| Jessi: "Fourth floor, please". She said よんかい for "fourth floor". Let's run through the floors one to ten now. First though, do you remember the numbers 1 - 10 in Japanese? See if you can say them quickly now. |
| Natsuko: (wait 10 secs) Did you remember them all? いち に さん よん ご ろく なな はち きゅう じゅう |
| Jessi: Now to say "first floor, second floor" and so on, all you do is add かい after the number. Note that the pronunciation of certain numbers can change when one of these counters is added, so be careful! |
| Natsuko: いっかい |
| Jessi: first floor. Be careful, because you can’t say いちかい. It has to be いっかい. Next is...? |
| Natsuko: にかい |
| Jessi: Second floor |
| Natsuko: さんがい or さんかい |
| Jessi: Third floor |
| Natsuko: よんかい |
| Jessi: Fourth floor. Be careful - you can't say しかい！ |
| Natsuko: ごかい |
| Jessi: Fifth floor |
| Natsuko: ろっかい |
| Jessi: Sixth floor. It's not ろくかい but ろっかい. |
| Natsuko: ななかい |
| Jessi: Seventh floor. You can't say しちかい. |
| Natsuko: はちかい or はっかい |
| Jessi: Eighth floor |
| Natsuko: きゅうかい |
| Jessi: Ninth floor |
| Natsuko: じゅっかい |
| Jessi: Tenth floor. Note it's not じゅうかい but じゅっかい. |
| Natsuko: Right. Remember that the numbers 1, 6, and 10 are irregular. |
| いっかい、ろっかい, and じゅっかい. |
| Jessi: And finally, how do we ask "which floor?" |
| Natsuko: なんかい |
| Jessi: Not なに かい but なんかい。Now in the dialogue we heard Mr. Hayashi say the number of his apartment. |
| Natsuko: ４０２号室. |
| Jessi: "Apartment 402". The word for "apartment" here is 号室, which literally means "number room". In English we say "Room 402" or "Apartment 402", but in Japanese the word for "Room" or "Apartment" comes after the number. |
| Natsuko: To ask "Which room number?" or "Which apartment?" you say なんごうしつですか。 |
| Jessi: Note also that if the room number has a 0 in the middle, you usually pronounce this まる (which literally means "circle") instead of ゼロ。 |
| Natsuko: That's right. |
| Jessi: You can check out more details on room numbers in the lesson notes. But now let's move on to this week's Lesson Focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jessi: In this lesson we're going to learn how to ask which floor, as in when asking someone which floor they want to go to in an elevator. So Natsuko, we mentioned this in the vocab section, but let's go into more detail here. How do we say "Which floor?" |
| Natsuko: なんかいですか？ |
| Jessi: なんかい is "which floor", and then we just add the polite question phrase ですか？ it's really easy. Remember again that なに, what, is shortened to なん when ですか comes after it. Listeners, listen and repeat. "Which floor?" |
| Natsuko: なんかいですか？ |
| Jessi: (wait 5 secs) Now listeners, try saying "Which floor?" in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: (wait 5 secs) なんかいですか？ |
| Jessi: And the answer? |
| Natsuko: Just say the number plus かい then add です. |
| Jessi: We ran through how to say the floors 1-10 in the vocab section, but let's quickly pick up a few of those in which the pronunciation of the number changes when you add the counter かい. Listeners, listen and repeat each one. First floor. |
| Natsuko: いっかい |
| Jessi: (wait 5 secs) Third floor. |
| Natsuko: さんがい (wait) or さんかい. |
| Jessi: (wait 5 secs) Sixth floor. |
| Natsuko: ろっかい |
| Jessi: (wait 5 secs) Eighth floor. |
| Natsuko: はっかい(wait) or はちかい. |
| Jessi: (wait 5 secs) Tenth floor. |
| Natsuko: じゅっかい. |
| Jessi: (wait 5 secs) Whew! Listeners, did you get all that? Let’s see how we saw these patterns used in the dialogue. When Emily got on the elevator, the man old asked her... |
| Natsuko: 何階ですか？ |
| Jessi: What floor? To which Emily replied... |
| Natsuko: 四階、お願いします。 |
| Jessi: Fourth floor, please. Okay, now let’s move on. You can of course use this なん[something]ですか pattern with other counter words. For example, to ask "which apartment?" or "which room number"... |
| Natsuko: なんごうしつ です か。 |
| Jessi: Listeners, listen and repeat. "Which apartment?" or "Which room number?" |
| Natsuko: なんごうしつ です か。 |
| Jessi: (wait 5 secs) Now listeners, try asking "Which apartment?" or "Which room number?" in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: (wait 5 secs) なんごうしつ です か。 |
| Jessi: And the reply is of course just saying the room number followed by ごうしつです。For example, "It's room 709" would be... |
| Natsuko: ななまるきゅう号室です。 |
| Jessi: Remember the "0" is pronounced まる! Listeners, listen and repeat. "It's room 709". |
| Natsuko: ななまるきゅう号室です。 |
| Jessi: (wait 5 secs) Now listeners, try saying "It's room 709" in Japanese. |
| Natsuko: (wait 5 secs) ななまるきゅう号室です。 |
| Jessi: Let’s see how this was used in the dialogue. So, the old man hears that Emily lives on the fourth floor, and asks... |
| Natsuko: ４０１号室？ |
| Jessi: Apartment 401? Then, he realizes that they’re neighbors, and he introduces himself and says - |
| Natsuko: わたしは４０２号室のはやしです。 |
| Jessi: I'm Hayashi from apartment four-oh-two. |
Outro |
| Jessi: Okay Natsuko, we covered a lot today, but we're almost out of time. |
| Natsuko: That's right... but if you have any questions about today's material, please feel free to ask us in the comments. |
| Jessi: Yes, please do. OK, see you next time! |
| Natsuko: じゃ、また！ |
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