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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sakura: さくらです。(Sakura desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Sakura-san, today we are going to find out where she is. |
| Sakura: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Now what’s interesting about today’s lesson, at first we are going to be using informal Japanese. Now since you are new to the language, we will go over this over and over again. There are many politeness levels. Getting used to which one you should speak in is very important, right Sakura-san? |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: The lesson starts out with the husband and wife talking. So Sakura-san, what kind of Japanese are we going to use here? |
| Sakura: Informal. |
| Peter: And this is used inside your circle. Now when we say circle, we refer to people with whom you have an intimate relationship and of course married couples, very informal. |
| Sakura: Right. |
| Peter: Now this type of Japanese is friends or classmates, coworkers who you have a good relationship with, good friends. |
| Sakura: Right. |
| Peter: The second part is a conversation between two people who are not so intimate. So what kind of Japanese will we be using? |
| Sakura: Polite. |
| Peter: So please pay attention not only to the Japanese but also to the politeness level. Now a lot of the Japanese we covered last week, there are going to be lots of new things in here but a lot we covered last week. With that said, let’s get into today’s lesson. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 夫 (otto) : わかった。(Wakatta.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 何？教えて。(Nani? Oshiete.) |
| （電話をかける音）(Denwa o kakeru oto) |
| 夫 (otto) : もしもし、高橋ですが、すみません。娘の高橋智子はそちらにいますか。(Moshimoshi, Takahashi desu ga, sumimasen. Musume no Takahashi Tomoko wa sochira ni imasu ka.) |
| ３:高橋様、どうもこんばんは。智子ちゃんはいますよ。(Takahashi-sama, dōmo konbanwa. Tomoko-chan wa imasu yo.) |
| 夫 (otto) : よかったです。図書館は何時までですか。(Yokatta desu. Toshokan wa nan-ji made desu ka.) |
| ３:１１時までです。(Jū ichi-ji made desu.) |
| 夫 (otto) : はい、ありがとうございます。(Hai, arigatō gozaimasu.) |
| もう一度お願いします。ゆっくりお願いします。(Mō ichi-do onegai shimasu. Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| 夫 (otto) : わかった。(Wakatta.) |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 何？教えて。(Nani? Oshiete.) |
| 夫 (otto) : もしもし、高橋ですが、すみません。娘の高橋智子はそちらに |
| いますか。(Moshimoshi, Takahashi desu ga, sumimasen. Musume no Takahashi Tomoko wa sochira ni imasu ka.) |
| ３:高橋様、どうもこんばんは。智子ちゃんはいますよ。(Takahashi-sama, dōmo konbanwa. Tomoko-chan wa imasu yo.) |
| 夫 (otto) : よかったです。図書館は何時までですか。(Yokatta desu. Toshokan wa nan-ji made desu ka.) |
| ３:１１時までです。(Jū ichi-ji made desu.) |
| 夫 (otto) : はい、ありがとうございます。(Hai, arigatō gozaimasu.) |
| 次は英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 夫 (otto) : わかった。(Wakatta.) |
| HUSBAND: I got it. |
| 妻 (tsuma) : 何？教えて。(Nani? Oshiete.) |
| WIFE: What? Tell me. |
| （電話をかける音）(Denwa o kakeru oto) |
| (Making a phone call) |
| 夫 (otto) : もしもし、高橋ですが、すみません。娘の高橋智子はそちらに |
| いますか。(Moshimoshi, Takahashi desu ga, sumimasen. Musume no Takahashi Tomoko wa sochira ni imasu ka.) |
| HUSBAND: Hello, this is Takahashi. Excuse me, but is my daughter Tomoko Takahashi there? |
| ３:高橋様、どうもこんばんは。智子ちゃんはいますよ。(Takahashi-sama, dōmo konbanwa. Tomoko-chan wa imasu yo.) |
| 3: Mr. Takahashi, good evening. Tomoko is here. |
| 夫 (otto) : よかったです。図書館は何時までですか。(Yokatta desu. Toshokan wa nan-ji made desu ka.) |
| HUSBAND: That's good. How late is the library open? |
| ３:１１時までです。(Jū ichi-ji made desu.) |
| 3: Until 11 o'clock. |
| 夫 (otto) : はい、ありがとうございます。(Hai, arigatō gozaimasu.) |
| HUSBAND: I see. Thank you very much. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Sakura-san, what did you think? |
| Sakura: There she was! |
| Peter: There she was. What a good daughter. |
| Sakura: ね。(Ne.) |
| Peter: Right, unlike myself. And 11 o'clock to the library? |
| Sakura: 素晴らしい。(Subarashii.) But would you call the library? I don’t know. |
| Peter: All right. So it twisted a bit. Let’s go over a few things about the library. Now normally are libraries open till 11 PM? |
| Sakura: If it was a school library, are open quite late. |
| Peter: Yeah, universities. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So this is okay. What about a regular library? |
| Sakura: They close at like 7 or 8. |
| Peter: Yeah, sometimes even earlier around 6. So yeah this is kind of – so we can tell from this conversation from the context that she is in college. |
| Sakura: Right. |
| Peter: One more thing I want to point out about the library and I think I point this out earlier. Now when the library starts to close down, they play a very interesting song. Most libraries, at least the public ones that I have been to. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: What’s that song? |
| Sakura: ホタルノヒカリ (Hotaru no hikari) |
| Peter: Yes. |
| Sakura: Also in restaurants and other places as well. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Sakura: Sometimes. |
| Peter: The Get Out Now music. |
| Sakura: Yes, yes, yes… |
| Peter: But it’s so gentle. |
| Sakura: Auld Lang Syne, ね (ne). |
| Peter: That’s the one. So for some reason, when I think of libraries, I think of this. We should have actually had the music going in the background. That would have been nice. |
| Sakura: You are studying late, ってことね (tte koto ne). |
| Peter: No. Showing up late. |
| Sakura: Oh… |
| Peter: All right. So what we are going to do now is go over this vocab really quickly. Then what we are going to do is take a look at the conversation because there are some interesting things in there. Sakura-san, first word, vocab word. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sakura: 教える (oshieru) |
| Peter: To teach, to inform. |
| Sakura: (slow) おしえる (oshieru) (natural speed) 教える (oshieru) |
| Peter: Next we have |
| Sakura: 娘 (musume) |
| Peter: Daughter. |
| Sakura: (slow) むすめ (musume) |
| Peter: And what about son? |
| Sakura: 息子 (musuko) |
| (slow) むすこ (musuko) (natural speed) 息子 (musuko) |
| Peter: Now this is referring to your own children. If you want to refer to someone else’s children, would you say oh you’re 息子 (musuko) or 娘 (musume)？ |
| Sakura: No. |
| Peter: What would you say? |
| Sakura: 娘さん (musume-san), 息子さん (musuko-san) |
| Peter: Yes, when referring to someone else’s children, you want to make sure to attach the suffix さん (san). |
| Sakura: さん (san) |
| Peter: To make it very polite. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: We will get into more of this later but again, something we just wanted to touch on now. Then we have |
| Sakura: 何時まで (nan-ji made) |
| Peter: Until when. |
| Sakura: (slow) なんじまで (nan-ji made) (natural speed) 何時まで (nan-ji made) |
| Peter: And we are going to take a closer look at this inside the dialog. Next we have |
| Sakura: 図書館 (toshokan) |
| Peter: Library. |
| Sakura: (slow) としょかん (toshokan) (natural speed) 図書館 (toshokan) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: Now let’s take a look at this conversation. And one of the reasons we are doing so is we want to take a look at the difference between informal and formal. Now we started out with the informal. Husband and wife talking. Sakura-san, what do we have first? |
| Sakura: わかった。(Wakatta.) |
| Peter: This is informal, I got it. This is actually the informal version of |
| Sakura: わかりました。(Wakarimashita.) |
| Peter: I understand. If this was a formal situation, if you are in the classroom speaking with your professor or your teacher and you understand what is said, you would say |
| Sakura: わかりました。(Wakarimashita.) |
| Peter: Very polite but if it’s among friends, an intimate friends, you would say |
| Sakura: わかった。(Wakatta.) |
| Peter: Here, here, they’re brainstorming. Where’s our daughter, where’s our daughter? And then it comes to them. Well it comes to him, わかった (wakatta), I got it. She comes back with |
| Sakura: 何？教えて。(Nani? Oshiete.) |
| Peter: What? Tell me. Now, it's all informal here. 何？ (Nani?) is short for |
| Sakura: 何ですか。(Nan desu ka.) |
| Peter: But in the informal situations, it’s 何？ (Nani?), like what’s wrong. Is something the matter? What? Tell me, 教えて (oshiete). Now this is the te-form of |
| Sakura: 教える (oshieru) |
| Peter: To teach, to inform. The polite Japanese would be |
| Sakura: 教えてください。(Oshiete kudasai.) |
| Peter: So if you want your professor to tell you something, you would say |
| Sakura: 教えてください。(Oshiete kudasai.) |
| Peter: But if you want a friend to tell you something, you would say |
| Sakura: 教えて。(Oshiete.) |
| Peter: The literal translation is teach me, inform me. But please think of this as tell me. Now one of the most common mistakes Japanese people make in English is saying teach me your phone number or teach me something. What they are doing is literally translating this word and what they want to say is tell me. So when you are using this word, please use it as tell me. |
| Sakura: Right. |
| Peter: Tell me your phone number. |
| Sakura: Good point. |
| Peter: Yeah. Now the answer is whether you will get what you want? That’s another story. Okay, then we move on to the polite Japanese. |
| Sakura: もしもし、高橋ですが、すみません。(Moshimoshi, Takahashi desu ga, sumimasen.) |
| Peter: Standard telephone greeting. Hello on the telephone it is |
| Sakura: もしもし (moshimoshi) |
| Peter: And not just hello, it’s used to acknowledge that someone else’s presence is on the line. Then it’s the last name 高橋 (Takahashi), followed by |
| Sakura: ですが (desu ga) |
| Peter: We have the です (desu), the polite form of the copula and the が (ga). Then we have |
| Sakura: すみません (sumimasen) |
| Peter: Excuse me. This is followed by |
| Sakura: 娘の高橋智子はそちらにいますか。(Musume no Takahashi Tomoko wa sochira ni imasu ka.) |
| Peter: Is my daughter Tomoko Takahashi there? Now let’s take a quick look at this. First we have |
| Sakura: 娘 (musume) |
| Peter: Daughter, followed by |
| Sakura: の (no) |
| Peter: Which is the possessive daughters, followed by |
| Sakura: 高橋ともこ (Takahashi Tomoko) |
| Peter: Last name, First name, Takahashi Tomoko, so literally daughters or daughter of Takahashi Tomoko but Sakura-san, help us out here. Whose daughter is it? |
| Sakura: The speaker. |
| Peter: So why did you say 娘の高橋ともこ (musume no Takahashi Tomoko)? |
| Sakura: If you want to introduce somebody like your wife, your daughter, your son, you would say 娘の (musume no) somebody, or of friend 友達の (tomodachi no) somebody. |
| Peter: So it’s a set pattern? |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: It’s their relation to you followed by の (no) and then their name. |
| Sakura: Right. |
| Peter: So this is a set pattern we are talking about intimate people and in this case, he wants to find out about his daughter. So 娘の高橋智子 (musume no Takahashi Tomoko). This is followed by |
| Sakura: は (wa) |
| Peter: Topic marking particle. |
| Sakura: そちら (sochira) |
| Peter: That area. |
| Sakura: に (ni) |
| Peter: Particle marking the position of Tomoko. |
| Sakura: いますか (imasu ka) |
| Peter: Polite form of the verb いる (iru), which is to exist for animate things used with people. So いる (iru) becomes います (imasu) and then of course we have the question marking particle か (ka). So literally we have “daughter’s Takahashi Tomoko there is.” Is my daughter Tomoko Takahashi there? |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Sakura: 高橋様、どうもこんばんは。(Takahashi-sama, dōmo konbanwa.) |
| Peter: Greetings between the two speakers. So judging by this greeting. Mr. Takashi, hello good evening. Would you say that they have spoken before? |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Definitely. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: How could you tell this? |
| Sakura: あ〜、そうか...。(Ā, sō ka...) Because she says どうも (dōmo). |
| Peter: Which is a way of saying hello and to someone who you’ve met before, here we have the most polite suffix 様 (sama), followed by hello どうも (dōmo), こんばんは (konbanwa) good evening. This is followed by |
| Sakura: 智子ちゃんはいますよ。(Tomoko-chan wa imasu yo.) |
| Peter: Tomoko is here. Now the suffix ちゃん (chan). What kind of relationship does the speaker and Tomoko have judging by the phone call, too? |
| Sakura: She knows Tomoko. |
| Peter: Yeah. How much time would you say Tomoko spends in the library? |
| Sakura: Maybe often. |
| Peter: Yeah, she is there a lot. So that’s why the dad called. That’s why ah 智子ちゃん (Tomoko-chan), you know they have a good relationship. This is followed by |
| Sakura: よかったです。(Yokatta desu.) |
| Peter: That’s good. Here we have the past tense of よい (yoi), the adjective 良い (yoi), meaning good. Now the conjugation is a bit beyond the scope of this lesson but this is a phrase you are going to need because if you hear some good news or something is good, you definitely want to say |
| Sakura: よかった。(Yokatta.) |
| Peter: Yes, informally or polite |
| Sakura: よかったです。(Yokatta desu.) |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Sakura: 図書館は何時までですか。(Toshokan wa nan-ji made desu ka.) |
| Peter: Literally we start with |
| Sakura: 図書館は (toshokan wa) |
| Peter: Library, and a topic marking particle |
| Sakura: 何時まで (nan-ji made) |
| Peter: What time until |
| Sakura: ですか (desu ka) |
| Peter: Is it. “Library, what time, until, is it.” How late is the library open? Now we have to translate and see what’s inferred there. What time is the library open until? You can ask this when you go to stores and different things. 何時までですか。(Nan-ji made desu ka.) |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Until what time is it literally but what time you open until. This is followed by the answer. |
| Sakura: 11時までです。(Jū ichi-ji made desu.) |
| Peter: 11 until it is, literally 11時 (jū ichi- ji) 11, まで (made) until, です (desu) it is, 11 until it is but of course until 11, followed by |
| Sakura: はい、ありがとうございます。(Hai, arigatō gozaimasu.) |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: Yes, thank you. All right, we will be back tomorrow. |
| Sakura: また明日ね。(Mata ashita ne.) |
| Peter: See you tomorrow. |
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