Learn about using polite language; talking about plans
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: ナツコです。(Natsuko desu.) |
| Sachiko: さちこです。(Sachiko desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Okay, in today’s lesson, we are going to try and find a public phone. Nowadays, there aren’t too many public phones. |
| Natsuko: Yes, I don’t see them often. |
| Sachiko: I don’t see – I really don’t see them anywhere. |
| Peter: Yes, and if you are interested, our bonus track, which is not so newbie, kind of deals with this issue in a very interesting way. So you really don’t want to miss this. For those who view the PDF, there will be a translation there. So yeah, you are definitely going to have fun with this. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: Now can you just give us the word for public phone, Natsuko-san? |
| Natsuko: 公衆電話 (kōshū denwa) |
| Peter: Okay, now please pay attention to this word. Okay, today we are going to be talking about the verb ある (aru) and this will appear in the conversation as あります (arimasu), which is the polite form. This is the verb to exist for inanimate objects. Now with that said, this is a conversation between a person looking for a phone and a person who is trying to help. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| ジョン (Jon) : あの～、すみません。(Anō, sumimasen.) |
| 田中 (Tanaka) : はい。(Hai.) |
| ジョン (Jon) : この辺に公衆電話はありますか。(Kono hen ni kōshū denwa wa arimasu ka.) |
| 田中 (Tanaka) : 公衆電話ですか。(Kōshū denwa desu ka.) |
| ジョン (Jon) : ええ。(Ee.) |
| 田中 (Tanaka) : えーっと…ああ、コンビニの前に自動販売機がありますね。(Ētto... ā, konbini no mae ni jidō hanbaiki ga arimasu ne.) |
| 公衆電話はその隣にありますよ。(Kōshū denwa wa sono tonari ni arimasu yo.) |
| ジョン (Jon) : ありがとうございます。(Arigatō gozaimasu.) |
| もう一度お願いします。今度はゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu. Kondo wa yukuri onegai shimasu.) |
| ジョン (Jon) : あの～、すみません。(Anō, sumimasen.) |
| 田中 (Tanaka) : はい。(Hai.) |
| ジョン (Jon) : この辺に公衆電話はありますか。(Kono hen ni kōshū denwa wa arimasu ka.) |
| 田中 (Tanaka) : 公衆電話ですか。(Kōshū denwa desu ka.) |
| ジョン (Jon) : ええ。(Ee.) |
| 田中 (Tanaka) : えーっと…ああ、コンビニの前に自動販売機がありますね。(Ētto... ā, konbini no mae ni jidō hanbaiki ga arimasu ne.) |
| 公衆電話はその隣にありますよ。(Kōshū denwa wa sono tonari ni arimasu yo.) |
| ジョン (Jon) : ありがとうございます。(Arigatō gozaimasu.) |
| 次は英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| ジョン (Jon) : あの～、すみません。(Anō, sumimasen.)) |
| JOHN: Excuse me. |
| 田中 (Tanaka) : はい。(Hai.) |
| TANAKA: Yes? |
| ジョン (Jon) : この辺に公衆電話はありますか。(Kono hen ni kōshū denwa wa arimasu ka.) |
| JOHN: Is there a pay phone around here? |
| 田中 (Tanaka) : 公衆電話ですか。(Kōshū denwa desu ka.) |
| TANAKA: A pay phone? |
| ジョン (Jon) : ええ。(Ee.) |
| JOHN: Yeah. |
| 田中 (Tanaka) : えーっと…ああ、コンビニの前に自動販売機がありますね。(Ētto... ā, konbini no mae ni jidō hanbaiki ga arimasu ne.) |
| 公衆電話はその隣にありますよ。(Kōshū denwa wa sono tonari ni arimasu yo.) |
| TANAKA: Hmm... Oh yeah, there's a vending machine in front of the convenience store, right? There's a pay phone next to that. |
| ジョン (Jon) : ありがとうございます。(Arigatō gozaimasu.) |
| JOHN: Thanks a lot. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Natsuko-san, what did you think? |
| Natsuko: This person was lucky enough to find the public phone. |
| Peter: Yeah, I think so but the phone was kind of in there among some other electrical appliances that actually the words for these are quite complicated. Is this a newbie lesson? |
| Natsuko: I don’t know. Maybe it should be bumped up to intermediate. |
| Sachiko: Wow. |
| Peter: Intermediate. That’s right, big jump there. Okay, so what we are going to do now is take a look at these vocab words. Natsuko-san, give me the first word. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natsuko: 公衆電話 (kōshū denwa) |
| Sachiko: Public phone. |
| Natsuko: (slow) こうしゅうでんわ (kōshū denwa) (natural speed) 公衆電話 (kōshū denwa) |
| Peter: Okay, now this is made up of two words. The first word is |
| Natsuko: 公衆 (kōshū) |
| Peter: Meaning public. The second word, |
| Natsuko: 電話 (denwa) |
| Peter: Phone literally public phone. Okay, and again more and more rare now-a-days. |
| Peter: Sachiko-san, when you hear 電話 (denwa) phone, what do you think about instantly? |
| Sachiko: 携帯電話 (keitai denwa), which is cell phone. |
| Peter: Cell phone and actually the first part the 携帯 (keitai) is |
| Sachiko: Portable. |
| Peter: Portable phone. All right, next we have. |
| Natsuko: コンビニ (konbini) |
| Sachiko: Convenient store. |
| Natsuko: (slow) コンビニ (konbini) (natural speed) コンビニ (konbini) |
| Peter: Now you will find out, the more you study Japanese, that Japanese love to shorten words. |
| Sachiko: Definitely. Definitely because they can’t remember long ones. They can’t remember convenience. |
| Peter: Easy, Natsuko-san! Now that’s a thing. The perfect convenience but everything gets abbreviated. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Now コンビニ (konbini), convini if I guess we mean it in English, but コンビニ (conbini) which is four syllables actually shorten for |
| Natsuko: コンビニエンスストア (konbiniensu sutoa) |
| Peter: Two words, very long. So Japanese is very compact. |
| Natsuko: Yes, very convenient. |
| Peter: Very convenient indeed. Next we have |
| Natsuko: 自動販売機 (jidō hanbaiki) |
| Sachiko: Vending machine. |
| Natsuko: (slow) じどうはんばいき (jidō hanbaiki) (natural speed) 自動販売機 (jidō hanbaiki) |
| Peter: All right. Let’s break this down. What do we have first? |
| Natsuko: 自動 (jidō) |
| Peter: Which is? |
| Sachiko: Automatic. |
| Natsuko: 販売 (hanbai) |
| Sachiko: Sales. |
| Natsuko: 機 (ki) |
| Sachiko: Machine. |
| Natsuko: 自動販売機 (jidō hanbaiki) |
| Sachiko: Automatic sales machine. So a vending machine. Very straightforward, yeah. |
| Peter: And everywhere. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: And they are only mint condition. |
| Natsuko: They are and they offer hot drinks, too. In the winter time, they are great. I love it. |
| Peter: Next we have. |
| Natsuko: 隣 (tonari) |
| Sachiko: Next door, next to, beside. |
| Natsuko: (slow) となり (tonari) (natural speed) 隣 (tonari) |
| Peter: Okay, and in today’s conversation, it was explained as |
| Natsuko: その隣 (sono tonari) |
| Sachiko: Next to that. |
| Peter: Noticed how that came first. Literally that next to, but when you translate to English. |
| Natsuko: Next to that. |
| Sachiko: You also use this word for neighbors, お隣 (o-tonari). |
| Peter: But there we put the polite prefix お (o). |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: Next we have. |
| Natsuko: 前 (mae) |
| Sachiko: In front of. |
| Natsuko: (slow) まえ (mae) (natural speed) 前 (mae) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: Okay. Now let’s take a look at a few things. Natsuko-san, the first line in this. The person wants to get the attention of someone he doesn’t know. So what does he say here? |
| Natsuko: あの、すみません。(Ano, sumimasen.) |
| Peter: Now すみません (sumimasen), you are probably very familiar with, excuse me in this case. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: What is this あの (ano) in the front? |
| Natsuko: It’s just a way to attract attention. |
| Peter: Yeah, and kind of a filler before you start. Okay, then we have この辺 (kono hen). Sachiko-san, what do we have for this? |
| Sachiko: It means this area. |
| Peter: Yeah, which we could translate as nearby. |
| Sachiko: この辺に公衆電話はありますか。(Kono hen ni kōshū denwa wa arimasu ka.) |
| Peter: Is there a phone near here, is there a phone nearby? Literally we have “first this area, public phone, is there?” So the あります (arimasu), the verb comes at the end in Japanese. Now this verb is used with inanimate objects to show existence. Now when talking about location of objects, we use に (ni). Okay, this area in この辺に (kono hen ni) this area in, 公衆電話 (kōshū denwa) public phone. This is marked by the topic marking particle は (wa). Then we have あります (arimasu), does there exist? And finally it’s the question we have, the question marking particle か (ka). So in this area, is there a phone? The response to this is |
| Sachiko: 公衆電話ですか。(Kōshū denwa desu ka.) |
| Peter: A public phone, the respondent is kind of like, are you serious? Are you really looking for a public phone? He is kind of shaken back too because like it’s not that common now-a-days. |
| Natsuko: He is trying to remember what a 公衆電話 (kōshū denwa) is. |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: And then he points it out. That’s going to do for today. |
| Natsuko: じゃあ、また明日ね。(Jā, mata ashita ne.) |
| Sachiko: また明日。(Mata ashita.) |
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