Learn about the days of the week and related time expressions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sakura: さくらです。(Sakura desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Sakura-san, how was your golden week? |
| Sakura: ゴールデンでした。(Gōruden deshita.) It was good. |
| Peter: さむっ。(Samu.) |
| Sakura: Yeah. |
| Peter: Oh boy! Yes, Sakura-san. Okay, let’s fill everybody in on what just transpired here. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So Sakura-san, how was your week and you said. |
| Sakura: ゴールデンでした。(Gōruden deshita.) |
| Peter: It was golden. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: And I responded by さむっ (samu), which is short for 寒い (samui) which means I had a cold feeling. |
| Sakura: そうね。(Sō ne.) |
| Peter: What was said? |
| Sakura: そうそうそう。(Sō sō sō.) |
| Peter: Kind of like not funny. |
| Sakura: そうだね。(Sō da ne.) |
| Peter: For me but I am sure your fans liked it very much. So I like to apologize to them. |
| Sakura: Peter-san, how was your golden week? |
| Peter: Yes, I had one day off, just Friday. |
| Sakura: Oh! |
| Peter: So it was not so golden for me. Yeah. |
| Sakura: お疲れさまでした。(Otsukare-sama deshita.) |
| Peter: But we made lots of good lessons, lots more content and so much more to make japanesepod101.com that much better. Some really exciting things are coming up in the short future. |
| Sakura: Great. |
| Peter: But let’s talk about today’s lesson. Sakura-san, what is on the agenda for today? |
| Sakura: The days of the week. |
| Peter: Yes. So that’s right. |
| Sakura: Okay. |
| Peter: Are you really relaxed? I really want to know but Sakura-san, focus, focus. |
| Sakura: Okay. |
| Peter: Now today’s conversation is between |
| Sakura: A teacher and a student. |
| Peter: So what kind of Japanese do we have? |
| Sakura: Polite Japanese. |
| Peter: Yes, the teacher here actually has the option to speak polite or informal while the student is required to speak formal Japanese but in today’s conversation, we have the teacher speaking formal Japanese. So polite Japanese, with that said, here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 歳三 (Toshizō) : すいません。竹内先生、今週の予定は何ですか。(Suimasen. Takeuchi-sensei, konshū no yotei wa nan desu ka.) |
| 竹内先生 (Takeuchi-sensei) : そうですね。今日は火曜日ですね。(Sō desu ne. Kyō wa ka-yōbi desu ne.) |
| 歳三 (Toshizō) : はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| 竹内先生 (Takeuchi-sensei) : えーと、今日は試験があります。明日はテストがあります。今週はゴールデンウィークですから、木曜日と金曜日は休みです。(Ēto, kyō wa shiken ga arimasu. Ashita wa tesuto ga arimasu. Konshū wa Gōruden wīku desu kara, moku-yōbi to kin-yōbi wa yasumi desu.) |
| 歳三 (Toshizō) : 木曜日が、待ち遠しいです。(Moku-yōbi ga, machidōshii desu.) |
| 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.) |
| 歳三 (Toshizō) : すみません。竹内先生、今週の予定は何ですか。(Sumimasen. Takeuchi-sensei, konshū no yotei wa nan desu ka.) |
| 竹内先生 (Takeuchi-sensei) : そうですね。今日は火曜日ですね。(Sō desu ne. Kyō wa ka-yōbi desu ne.) |
| 歳三 (Toshizō) : はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| 竹内先生 (Takeuchi-sensei) : えーと、今日は試験があります。明日はテストがあります。今週はゴールデンウィークですから、木曜日と金曜日は休みです。(Ēto, kyō wa shiken ga arimasu. Ashita wa tesuto ga arimasu. Konshū wa Gōruden wīku desu kara, moku-yōbi to kin-yōbi wa yasumi desu.) |
| 歳三 (Toshizō) : 木曜日が、待ち遠しいです。(Moku-yōbi ga, machidōshii desu.) |
| 次は英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| 歳三 (Toshizō) : すいません。竹内先生、今週の予定は何ですか。(Suimasen. Takeuchi-sensei, konshū no yotei wa nan desu ka.) |
| TOSHIZŌ: Excuse me. Ms. Takeuchi, what's the plan for this week? |
| 竹内先生 (Takeuchi-sensei) : そうですね。今日は火曜日ですね。(Sō desu ne. Kyō wa ka-yōbi desu ne.) |
| MS. TAKEUCHI: Ummm, today's Tuesday, isn't it? |
| 歳三 (Toshizō) : はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| TOSHIZŌ: Yes, it is. |
| 竹内先生 (Takeuchi-sensei) : えーと、今日は試験があります。(Ēto, kyō wa shiken ga arimasu.) |
| MS. TAKEUCHI: Well, there's a test today. |
| 竹内先生 (Takeuchi-sensei) : 明日はテストがあります。(Ashita wa tesuto ga arimasu.) |
| MS. TAKEUCHI: Tomorrow there's a test. |
| 竹内先生 (Takeuchi-sensei) : 今週はゴールデンウィークですから、木曜日と金曜日は休みです。(Konshū wa Gōruden wīku desu kara, moku-yōbi to kin-yōbi wa yasumi desu.) |
| MS. TAKEUCHI: As this week is Golden Week, Thursday and Friday are holidays. |
| 歳三 (Toshizō) : 木曜日が、待ち遠しいです。(Moku-yōbi ga, machidōshii desu.) |
| TOSHIZŌ: Thursday is a long way off. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: So Sakura-san, what did you think? |
| Sakura: うん...、何にも思いません。(Un... nannimo omoimasen.) |
| Peter: Nothing. |
| Sakura: Well… |
| Peter: Yes, so you cannot relate to this. |
| Sakura: But they are going to have tests, lots of tests, right? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Sakura: For them, 頑張って (ganbatte). |
| Peter: Try hard. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Yeah, I guess school was so far removed from daily life for us but yeah this, we don’t really think of anything. |
| Sakura: Sorry. |
| Peter: When we hear this. Oh boy! I can’t wait to hear this played back Sakura-san. This is going to be quite an interesting lesson. |
| Sakura: そうね。(Sō ne.) |
| Peter: But this is how fun Japanese is. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: First vocab word |
| Sakura: 今週 (konshū) |
| Peter: This week. |
| Sakura: (slow) こんしゅう (konshū) (natural speed) 今週 (konshū) |
| Peter: Character is making up this word. First, we have the character meaning |
| Sakura: Now. |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Sakura: Week. |
| Peter: Now, week is what it literally means. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: But it’s translated as this week. Now when talking about last week or next week, the only character we change is the first character. The second character week stays the same. For last week, we have |
| Sakura: 先週 (senshū) |
| Peter: And for next week, we have |
| Sakura: 来週 (raishū) |
| Peter: Okay, can we get a breakdown of last week? |
| Sakura: (slow) せんしゅう (senshū) (natural speed) 先週 (senshū) |
| Peter: And now for next week? |
| Sakura: (slow) らいしゅう (raishū) (natural speed) 来週 (raishū) |
| Peter: Next word. |
| Sakura: 予定 (yotei) |
| Peter: Plan, schedule. |
| Sakura: (slow) よてい (yotei) (natural speed) 予定 (yotei) |
| Peter: This is followed by |
| Sakura: 火曜日 (ka-yōbi) |
| Peter: Tuesday. |
| Sakura: (slow) かようび (ka-yōbi) (natural speed) 火曜日 (ka-yōbi) |
| Peter: Now the only thing that changes when talking about days of the week is the first character. The second two characters stay the same and the pronunciation also stays the same. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So give us Tuesday, one more time. |
| Sakura: 火曜日 (ka-yōbi) |
| Peter: So that 曜日 (yōbi) stays the same. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: The first character as it changes, what precedes that changes. Now we are going to skip ahead a bit. In the conversation, we also had Thursday and Friday. What’s Thursday? |
| Sakura: 木曜日 (moku-yōbi) |
| Peter: One more time, nice and slow. |
| Sakura: (slow) もくようび (moku-yōbi) (natural speed) 木曜日 (moku-yōbi) |
| Peter: The first part changes but 曜日 (yōbi) is the same and finally we have Friday. |
| Sakura: 金曜日 (kin-yōbi) |
| (slow) きんようび (kin-yōbi) (natural speed) 金曜日 (kin-yōbi) |
| Peter: Now let’s just go through the days of the week. We will just cover the weekdays. |
| Sakura: Okay. |
| Peter: So first we have Monday |
| Sakura: 月曜日 (getsu-yōbi) |
| (slow) げつようび (getsu-yōbi) (natural speed) 月曜日 (getsu-yōbi) |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Sakura: 火曜日 (ka-yōbi) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Sakura: 水曜日 (sui-yōbi) |
| (slow) すいようび (sui-yōbi) (natural speed) 水曜日 (sui-yōbi) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Sakura: 木曜日 (moku-yōbi) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Sakura: 金曜日 (kin-yōbi) |
| Peter: Now for me, always the tricky one is Wednesday. It sounds to me like すーようび (sū-yōbi), like you don’t even hear the い (i) in there because it’s actually すい (sui). |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: But I always hear すーようび (sū-yōbi). |
| Sakura: Ah 水曜日 (sui-yōbi). ノーマルスピードだと水曜日。(Nōmaru supdo dato sui-yōbi.) |
| Peter: Yeah. So but the い (i) is in there. |
| Sakura: Yes, yes, yes. |
| Peter: Okay, then we have |
| Sakura: 試験 (shiken) |
| Peter: Test. |
| Sakura: (slow) しけん (shiken) (natural speed) 試験 (shiken) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Sakura: テスト (tesuto) |
| Peter: Which is also a test. |
| Sakura: (slow) てすと (tesuto) (natural speed) テスト (tesuto) |
| Peter: Now Sakura-san, the difference between 試験 (shiken) and テスト (tesuto). From what I understand, 試験 (shiken) is a much bigger test. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: And テスト (tesuto) can be like a pop quiz or a short – something much shorter. Doesn’t have that nuance of the 試験 (shiken)? |
| Sakura: Right. |
| Peter: It’s like very heavy, like it’s a big test. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So those are the differences between those. So if you are taking a Japanese class out there and you walk in, what you have at the beginning of the lesson is like a pop quiz and this would be |
| Sakura: テスト (tesuto) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Sakura: ゴールデンウィーク (Gōruden wīku) |
| Peter: Golden week. |
| Sakura: (slow) ゴールデンウィーク (Gōruden wīku) (natural speed) ゴールデンウィーク (Gōruden wīku) |
| Peter: Yeah the pronunciation – can you give it to us two more times because even I have trouble with this one. |
| Sakura: ゴールデンウィーク (Gōruden wīku) |
| Peter: You want to hold the ゴ (go). Can you give it to us, one more time? |
| Sakura: ゴールデン (gōruden) |
| Peter: And then you want to hold the ウイー (wī) , the い (i) in there. |
| Sakura: ウィーク (wīku) |
| Peter: Golden week. We actually did a culture class related to this and this dates back to post World War II when somebody in the film industry coined this phrase Golden week and this is because this was the season with all the holidays around here. This was a season that many people went to see movies. |
| Sakura: Ah! |
| Peter: So for the industry, it was the golden week. |
| Sakura: なるほどね。面白い。(Naruhodo ne. Omoshiroi.) |
| Peter: And this golden phrase kind of comes from prime time. In English, we say prime time, prime time 8 to 10 but in Japanese, it’s golden time. This is where it comes from. Okay, we have a lot to cover. Okay, what do we have next, Sakura-san? |
| Sakura: 休み (yasumi) |
| Peter: Day off, rest, vacation. |
| Sakura: (slow) やすみ (yasumi) (natural speed) 休み (yasumi) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Sakura: 待ち遠しい (machidōshii) |
| Peter: Long-awaited. |
| Sakura: (slow) まちどおしい (machidōshii) (natural speed) 待ち遠しい (machidōshii) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: All right, Sakura-san. Let’s run through this dialogue. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: First we have |
| Sakura: すみません。(Sumimasen.) |
| Peter: Of course excuse me and used to get the teacher’s attention. The teacher is |
| Sakura: 竹内先生 (Takeuchi-sensei) |
| Peter: Okay, just break that name down one more time. Sometimes the name is coming at you so fast. |
| Sakura: (slow) たけうちせんせい (Takeuchi-sensei) (natural speed) 竹内先生 (Takeuchi-sensei) |
| Peter: Okay, notice how the last name comes first followed by 先生 (sensei). 竹内 (Takeuchi) is bamboo and inside, the two characters making up the name. 竹 (take) being bamboo and 内 (uchi) meaning inside. So Mr. Takeuchi, now it comes, Mr. because in lower grades in the states, we don’t say professor or teacher. So again even though 先生 (sensei) is teacher, it can be translated as mister, professor, teacher, many different things. Here we are going with mister. |
| Sakura: でも (demo), one thing I noticed is that Japanese people often say 先生 (sensei), 先生 (sensei) to call out someone, right? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Sakura: And when they speak in English, they sometimes say teacher, teacher. Do we say that in English as well すみません、先生 (sumimasen, sensei)? |
| Peter: No. |
| Sakura: No because students often say すいません、先生 (suimasen, sensei), like…. |
| Peter: Excuse me, teacher. Yo! Teach’! |
| Sakura: Oh…. |
| Peter: Which is short and not really correct but yeah “teacher Smith”. |
| Sakura: あー、そうだね。(Ā, sō da ne.) |
| Peter: That’s why it becomes Mr. Smith here. |
| Sakura: Ah I see, right. Okay. |
| Peter: All right, followed by |
| Sakura: 今週の予定は何ですか。(Konshū no yotei wa nan desu ka.) |
| Peter: What’s the plan for this week? Translation, let’s just back it up. First, we have |
| Sakura: 今週 (konshū) |
| Peter: This week. |
| Sakura: の (no) |
| Peter: Possessive. This week’s. |
| Sakura: 予定 (yotei) |
| Peter: Plan, schedule. This week’s plan or schedule, marked by the topic marking particle. |
| Sakura: は (wa) |
| Peter: This week’s plans. |
| Sakura: 何ですか (nan desu ka) |
| Peter: What are – well if it’s singular, what’s this week’s plan or what are the plans for this week? What is this week’s schedule? It can be translated in many ways but notice how we have first what’s being talked about followed by what. Then at the end is. “This week’s plan what is,” literally, but we translate what is this week’s plan. Then the teacher says. |
| Sakura: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Here he is thinking to himself, そうですね (sō desu ne). He is biting little time. He is thinking. Yeah, what is this week’s plan? |
| Sakura: Hmm yes. |
| Peter: Then he says |
| Sakura: 今日は火曜日ですね。(Kyō wa ka-yōbi desu ne.) |
| Peter: Today is Tuesday. Isn’t it? Here we have the tag question and we are going to show you how the particle at the end here is being used as a tag question. We have – first we have |
| Sakura: 今日 (kyō) |
| Peter: Today. |
| Sakura: は (wa) |
| Peter: Marked by the topic marking particle, は (wa). |
| Sakura: 火曜日 (ka-yōbi) |
| Peter: Tuesday. Today is Tuesday. |
| Sakura: ですね (desu ne) |
| Peter: Isn’t it? So today is Tuesday, isn’t it? And that ね (ne) at the end is translated as isn’t it? |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Here it’s not emphasizing. Here he is not sure so he is kind of thinking to himself. Today is Tuesday, isn’t it? |
| Sakura: Hmm… |
| Peter: And the kids are always so helpful kids. |
| Sakura: はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| Peter: Yeah, that’s right. Then we have a filler. |
| Sakura: えーと、(Ēto,) |
| Peter: Now before you speak instead with the silence, instead of waiting, rolling your eyes, you can use this interjection. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: You can use this filler to bite sometime, えーと (ēto). |
| Sakura: えーと (ēto), yes. |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Sakura: 今日は試験があります。(Kyō wa shiken ga arimasu.) |
| Peter: Today there is a test. First, we have |
| Sakura: 今日 (kyō) |
| Peter: Today. |
| Sakura: は (wa) |
| Peter: Marked by the topic marking particle は (wa). |
| Sakura: 試験 (shiken) |
| Peter: Test. |
| Sakura: が (ga) |
| Peter: And this is the subject. So we have the subject marker. |
| Sakura: あります (arimasu) |
| Peter: There is. “Today test there is.” There is a test today. Then what do we have tomorrow? |
| Sakura: 明日はテストがあります。(Ashita wa tesuto ga arimasu.) |
| Peter: Same pattern. Tomorrow, test, there is, but we can actually get it. Tomorrow, quiz, there is, translated there is a quiz tomorrow. Then, |
| Sakura: 今週はゴールデンウイークですから、(Konshū wa Gōruden wīku desu kara,) |
| Peter: As this is golden week |
| Sakura: 木曜日と金曜日は休みです。(Moku-yōbi to kin-yōbi wa yasumi desu.) |
| Peter: Wednesday and Friday are holidays. |
| Sakura: 今週 (konshū) |
| Peter: This week. |
| Sakura: は (wa) |
| Peter: Topic marking particle は (wa). |
| Sakura: ゴールデンウイーク (Gōruden wīku) |
| Peter: Golden week. |
| Sakura: です (desu) |
| Peter: Is. |
| Sakura: から (kara) |
| Peter: Because. Literally this week, Golden week is because. Notice how the because comes at the end but when we translate this as this week is Golden week, because this week is Golden week, comma |
| Sakura: 木曜日 (moku-yōbi) |
| Peter: Thursday. |
| Sakura: と (to) |
| Peter: And the と (to) in there and |
| Sakura: 金曜日 (kin-yōbi) |
| Peter: Friday. |
| Sakura: は (wa) |
| Peter: Topic marking particle. |
| Sakura: 休み (yasumi) |
| Peter: Holidays. |
| Sakura: です (desu) |
| Peter: Are. Literally, Thursday and Friday holidays are. Notice how at the end is where that verb would come but when we translate, Thursday and Friday are holidays. |
| Sakura: Right. |
| Peter: Next we have |
| Sakura: 木曜日が、待ち遠しいです。(Moku-yōbi ga, machidōshii desu.) |
| Peter: Thursday is a long way off. That’s how we translate it but now let’s just go back and look at that sentence. |
| Sakura: 木曜日 (moku-yōbi) |
| Peter: Thursday. |
| Sakura: が (ga) |
| Peter: Subject marker here. |
| Sakura: 待ち遠しい (machidōshii) |
| Peter: This is actually long-awaited. Thursday is long-awaited is the literal translation. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: But of course we interpret this as ah! Thursday is a long way off or wow! Thursday is far away. |
| Sakura: Yeah, or can’t wait for! |
| Peter: Yes. |
| Sakura: です (desu) |
| Peter: です (desu) |
| Sakura: Right. |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: All right Sakura-san, that’s going to do it for today. What a newbie lesson! |
| Sakura: ね！ (Ne!) |
| Peter: It’s nice. Laughing, joking, serious. I like serious Sakura-san. |
| Sakura: あ、そう。そうですか、はい。(A, sō. Sō desu ka, hai.) |
| Peter: Now well I like them all. All right, that’s going to do it for today. |
| Sakura: また明日ね。(Mata ashita ne.) |
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