Learn how to talk about your family
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Matt: Hi everyone, and welcome back to JapanesePod101.com. This is Lower Beginner, Season 2, Lesson 4 - Talking About Your Family in Japanese. I’m Matt. |
| Natsuko: こんにちは。 I'm Natsuko. |
| Matt: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask or talk about how many family members you have. The conversation takes place at lunch time with a co-worker. |
| Natsuko: The conversation is between Lucy and her co-worker, Mr. Tanaka. |
| Matt: The speakers are co-workers, so they’ll be using formal Japanese. Okay. Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| ルーシー: たなかさんは、何人かぞくですか。 |
| たなか: わたしは、5人かぞくです。りょうしんと、兄と妹がいます。 |
| ルーシー: お兄さんと妹さんですか。いいですね。 |
| たなか: ルーシーさんは、きょうだいはいますか。 |
| ルーシー: わたしは、ひとりっこです。5人かぞくは、たのしいですね。 |
| たなか: でも、今、兄と妹は、アメリカにいます。 |
| Matt: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| ルーシー: たなかさんは、何人かぞくですか。 |
| たなか: わたしは、5人かぞくです。りょうしんと、兄と妹がいます。 |
| ルーシー: お兄さんと妹さんですか。いいですね。 |
| たなか: ルーシーさんは、きょうだいはいますか。 |
| ルーシー: わたしは、ひとりっこです。5人かぞくは、たのしいですね。 |
| たなか: でも、今、兄と妹は、アメリカにいます。 |
| Matt: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Lucy: How many people are in your family? |
| Tanaka: We are a family of five. I have parents, a big brother, and a younger sister. |
| Lucy: You have a big brother and a younger sister. Good for you. |
| Tanaka: Do you have any siblings, Lucy? |
| Lucy: No, I don't have any siblings. A family of five must be fun! |
| Tanaka: But my brother and sister are in the United States now. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Matt: Natsuko, how big are Japanese families usually? |
| Natsuko: In Japan, most people have just one sibling so it’s getting smaller than in the past. In the past, let’s say about 50 years ago, many people had several siblings, such as four or five. |
| Matt: So things really have changed very quickly! |
| Natsuko: That’s very true. For example, my parents’ friends usually have five or six brothers or sisters. But, most of my friends have only one sibling, and some of them don't have any brothers or sisters. |
| Matt: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Matt: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Natsuko: 何人 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: how many people? |
| Natsuko: 何人[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 何人 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: 一人っ子 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: only child |
| Natsuko: 一人っ子[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 一人っ子 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: たのしい [natural native speed] |
| Matt: fun, amusing |
| Natsuko: たのしい[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: たのしい [natural native speed] |
| Matt: Next we have.. |
| Natsuko: 妹 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: younger sister |
| Natsuko: 妹[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 妹 [natural native speed] |
| Matt: And last we have.. |
| Natsuko: でも [natural native speed] |
| Matt: but, however |
| Natsuko: でも[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: でも [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Matt: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Natsuko: いいですね。 |
| Matt: meaning "It's good, isn't it?" Natsuko, can you break down this expression? |
| Natsuko: Sure. First, いいです (Ii desu) means, "It's good." And we have ね (ne) which is a sentence ending particle that acts as a question tag. It’s usually used to confirm or agree with the previous statement. |
| Matt: When you agree with an idea or you think that something is good, you can use this expression. |
| Natsuko: “いいですね (Ii desu ne)”, means "That's good." |
| Matt: Please note that you say this expression in a falling tone. |
| Natsuko: Also, remember to always add the ね (ne) particle at the end because いいです (ii desu) usually means, "No, thank you (I don't need it)." |
| Matt: When can you use this expression? |
| Natsuko: Well.. for example, when you are invited to do something, you can say ii desu ne, いいですね (Ii desu ne) to mean, "Sounds good." |
| Matt: When you hear a plan someone has and you think it sounds good, you can use the same expression, right? |
| Natsuko: Right. For example, if someone says 明日、りょこうに行きます。 |
| Matt: meaning “I'm going on a trip tomorrow.” |
| Natsuko: You can say いいですね。 |
| Matt: which means “That's good.” or something like “Oh, that's wonderful." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Natsuko: 5人かぞく |
| Matt: meaning "family of five" |
| Natsuko: Here we have the number 五, the word 人 meaning “person” and かぞくmeaning “family.” |
| Matt: Altogether, it means “family of five”. We can replace the number 5 with something else, right? |
| Natsuko: That’s right. If you have a family of three, you can say 三人家族 to mean “family of three.” 三人 is the word meaning “three people.” |
| Matt: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Natsuko: Sure. When you hear someone saying he has a family of ten, you might say.. 10人かぞくは、たのしいですね。 |
| Matt: which means ”A family of ten is fun, isn't it?” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Matt: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask how many family members another person has. |
| Natsuko: First, let’s learn how to ask the question. |
| Matt: That sounds good. Natsuko, how can you say.. “How many are in your family?” |
| Natsuko: 何人 かぞく です か。何人 means “how many people”, and かぞく means “family”. Then you can put です か which means “Is it” or Is there”? |
| Matt: It literally means something like “A family of how many people is it?” or “How many are in your family?” |
| Natsuko: If you have a family of four, you can use the phrase that we talked about in the previous section and say.. わたしは、 四人 かぞく です。 |
| Matt: which means “We are a family of four.” Of course, you can put a different number here. |
| Natsuko: In this sentence, 人 (nin) is a counter used for people. You can use this counter for anyone – men, women, children, and the elderly. |
| Matt: When you talk about the number of people that make up your family, make sure to use this counter. Natsuko, these days, there are more families made up of a single person, or two people. In that case, how can they talk about their family? |
| Natsuko: You can use the words hitori and futari. For these two words, you need to read them hitori and futari even though they have the Chinese character meaning 人 at the end. When you want to mean “one person” or “two people”, you cannot read as ichi-nin and ni-nin. |
| Matt: Okay. So how would you say “I have a family of two”? |
| Natsuko: You can say.. わたしは、 2人 かぞく です。 But listeners, note that we don’t have a word like hitori kazoku. |
| Matt: Then, what word can you use when you want to say “I live alone”? |
| Natsuko: You can say ひとりぐらし (hitori gurashi) instead. ひとり (hitori) means "one person," and ぐらし (gurashi) is a phonetic changed version of くらし(kurashi), meaning "life." So ひとりぐらし |
| Matt: means “living alone.” or literally “having the life of single.” Okay. What if we want to answer the question more specifically by saying “I have one older brother and one older sister?” |
| Natsuko: In that case, you can use the pattern がいます。In the last lesson, we learned the names of family members. You can use the words to explain what family members you have in your family. |
| Matt: Okay. So if I have one older brother, how can I say that in Japanese? |
| Natsuko: “Older brother” in Japanese is 兄. Using this word, you can say 兄がいます。 |
| Matt: Which means “I have one older brother.” |
| Natsuko: If you want to say “I have a younger brother and a younger sister”, you can connect two nouns, 弟 |
| Matt: meaning “younger brother” |
| Natsuko: and 妹 |
| Matt: meaning “younger sister.” |
| Natsuko: with the particle と meaning “and.” With these, you can say.. 弟と妹がいます。 |
| Matt: “I have a younger brother and a younger sister.” Listeners, make sure to check the PDF lesson notes to see more examples and explanations of this lesson focus. Now, let’s practice. Try to think of your own sentence during the pause, then Natsuko will give you the answer. Firstly, to ask your friend how many family members they have, you say, |
| (Pause) |
| Natsuko: 何人かぞくですか。 |
| Matt: How many family members do you have? |
| Matt: Next. If you have a family of five, what do you say? |
| (Pause) |
| Natsuko: わたしは、5人かぞくです。 |
| Matt: I have a family of five. |
| Matt: If you have a younger sister and a younger brother, you say |
| (Pause) |
| Natsuko: 妹と弟がいます。 |
| Matt: Which means “I have a younger sister and a younger brother.” |
Outro |
| Matt: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Natsuko: またねー |
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