Learn about using demonstrative adjectives "kono", "sono", "ano", "dono" to describe nouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sakura: さくらです。(Sakura desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Sakura-san, |
| Sakura: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Today we have a really bad lesson for you. |
| Sakura: Why? |
| Peter: No I just – we had some feedback from our great listener base and likes, how come every lesson is so great. So I figured I’d change it up a bit. So, but today’s lesson is also really good. Great, all right, it’s great. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: The reason it’s so good is because we are going to teach you how to ask about Japan. So you can use this anywhere in the world. So if you are in the US, if you are in Australia, wherever you are, you can ask your Japanese friends or some Japanese acquaintances about Japan. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Yes. We will be covering also today, numbers higher up. So we are going to get into the thousands and touch on 10,000. |
| Sakura: Hmm… |
| Peter: And what else are we talking about today, Sakura-san? |
| Sakura: Food. |
| Peter: Yes, and what kind of food? |
| Sakura: Meat. |
| Peter: Yes, Red meat. So apologies to all the vegetarians out there because today there is a lot of meat. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: All right, Sakura-san. Let’s get into today’s lesson. |
| Sakura: はい。(Hai.) |
| DIALOGUE |
| エセル (Eseru) : 鈴木さん、日本ではチーズバーガーはいくらですか。(Suzuki-san, Nihon de wa chīzubāgā wa ikura desu ka.) |
| 鈴木 (Suzuki) : そうですね、大体３００円くらいですね。(Sō desu ne, daitai san-byaku-en kurai desu ne.) |
| エセル (Eseru) : 焼肉の食べ放題は？(Yakiniku no tabehōdai wa?) |
| 鈴木 (Suzuki) : そうですね、大体５，０００円くらい。(Sō desu ne, daitai go-sen-en kurai.) |
| エセル (Eseru) : あの有名な神戸牛は？(Ano yūmei na Kōbegyū wa?) |
| 鈴木 (Suzuki) : 高いですよ！大体１万円くらいです。(Takai desu yo! Daitai ichi-man-en kurai 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.) |
| エセル (Eseru) : 鈴木さん、日本ではチーズバーガーはいくらですか。(Suzuki-san, Nihon de wa chīzubāgā wa ikura desu ka.) |
| 鈴木 (Suzuki) : そうですね、大体３００円くらいですね。(Sō desu ne, daitai san-byaku-en kurai desu ne.) |
| エセル (Eseru) : 焼肉の食べ放題は？(Yakiniku no tabehōdai wa?) |
| 鈴木 (Suzuki) : そうですね、大体５，０００円くらい。(Sō desu ne, daitai go-sen-en kurai.) |
| エセル (Eseru) : あの有名な神戸牛は？(Ano yūmei na Kōbegyū wa?) |
| 鈴木 (Suzuki) : 高いですよ！大体１万円くらいです。(Takai desu yo! Daitai ichi-man-en kurai desu.) |
| 次は英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| エセル (Eseru) : 鈴木さん、日本ではチーズバーガーはいくらですか。(Suzuki-san, Nihon de wa chīzubāgā wa ikura desu ka.) |
| ETHEL: Mr. Suzuki, how much is a cheeseburger in Japan? |
| 鈴木 (Suzuki) : そうですね、大体３００円くらいですね。(Sō desu ne, daitai san-byaku-en kurai desu ne.) |
| SUZUKI: Hmmm, about 300 Yen. |
| エセル (Eseru) : 焼肉の食べ放題は？(Yakiniku no tabehōdai wa?) |
| ETHEL: And all-you-can-eat Korean Barbecue is? |
| 鈴木 (Suzuki) : そうですね、大体５，０００円くらい。(Sō desu ne, daitai go-sen-en kurai.) |
| SUZUKI: Hmmm, let me see. About 5,000 Yen. |
| エセル (Eseru) : あの有名な神戸牛は？(Ano yūmei na Kōbegyū wa?) |
| ETHEL: And that famous Kobe beef is? |
| 鈴木 (Suzuki) : 高いですよ！大体１万円くらいです。(Takai desu yo! Daitai ichi-man-en kurai desu.) |
| SUZUKI: That's expensive! It's about 10,000 Yen! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Sakura-san, what did you think? |
| Sakura: 神戸牛ね。(Kōbegyū ne.) |
| Peter: Kobe beef. |
| Sakura: Never tried. I see it only on TV. |
| Peter: I have also never tried it. |
| Sakura: Really? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Sakura: あー、本当？(Ā, hontō?) |
| Peter: It’s one of the few that I haven’t tried. Recently as I said in the podcast a few months ago, we tried 飛騨牛 (Hidagyū). |
| Sakura: 飛騨牛 (Hidagyū) |
| Peter: Which is kind of close by, maybe the same family, kind of nearby Kobe but next store. So still very, very high quality. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: High grade beef but still yes, a year-and-a-half into the podcast and still we haven’t had Kobe beef. Sakurasan, I should take you to have Kobe beef. |
| Sakura: お願いします！よろしくお願いします。(Onegai shimasu! Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| Peter: Wow! はい。(Hai.) |
| Sakura: Yeah, so high quality beef in Japan has lots of those fat – streaks of fat, right? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Sakura: Called 霜降り (shimofuri). |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Sakura: Yeah. |
| Peter: So that’s what it’s called. One more time. |
| Sakura: 霜降り (shimofuri) |
| Peter: 霜 (shimo) meaning |
| Sakura: Frost. |
| Peter: And |
| Sakura: 降り (furi) |
| Peter: Meaning |
| Sakura: 雨が降る (ame ga furu), I don’t know 降る (furu). |
| Peter: Like falling frost. Hmm… |
| Sakura: Need a bit more research. |
| Peter: Yes. |
| Sakura: But it’s called 霜降り (shimofuri) anyway. |
| Peter: One more thing in today’s conversation that was a little surprising was the price of the 焼肉 (yakiniku), ¥5000. |
| Sakura: 食べ放題 (tabehōdai) |
| Peter: Yeah, All You Can Eat. |
| Sakura: All You Can Eat. Yes. |
| Peter: Yes. |
| Sakura: I remember. The last time I went it was about ¥3000. |
| Peter: Wow that’s even up there. I go yeah no about ¥3000 and the reason we chose ¥5000 is because it kind of depends again on the quality. |
| Sakura: Yes, it varies. |
| Peter: Now ¥3000 is the bottom of the barrel. |
| Sakura: ですね。(Desu ne.) Yes, I agree. |
| Peter: I agree, too. |
| Sakura: And yeah, I haven’t been there for a couple of years. |
| Peter: Oh Sakura-san, we have to take you out. |
| Sakura: I know. |
| Peter: Okay, we will get into a bit more detail about that but just to kind of recap yes, Kobe is the top. We will get into that in a bit and the ¥5000 was chosen as an average but if you are coming to Japan, you could probably expect to spend about ¥3000 and eat very well. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: All right, let’s check out these vocab. First word. |
| Sakura: 鈴木 (Suzuki) |
| Peter: Family name, Suzuki. |
| Sakura: (slow) すずき (Suzuki) (natural speed) 鈴木 (Suzuki) |
| Peter: And this happens to be the last name of the one and only. |
| Sakura: Me. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Sakura: 鈴木さくら (Suzuki Sakura) |
| Peter: Yes, you. |
| Sakura: Yes, it’s such a common name in Japan, isn’t it, Suzuki. |
| Peter: Yes, but let’s tell everybody what the characters mean. |
| Sakura: Oh yes. |
| Peter: Because it’s quite interesting. |
| Sakura: 鈴 (suzu) is bell, ring, ring bell. |
| Peter: Yep. |
| Sakura: And 木 (ki) is tree. |
| Peter: So bells tree. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: I just think of it like a wind chime. |
| Sakura: Ah! Nice. |
| Peter: So the next time you meet a Suzuki; you can tell them, I know the characters of your name because yeah as you said, it’s a very common name. So the chances are you will meet a Suzuki. |
| Sakura: そうだよね。(Sō da yo ne.) |
| Peter: Alright. next we have |
| Sakura: 日本 (Nihon) |
| Peter: Japan. |
| Sakura: (slow) にほん (Nihon) (natural speed) 日本 (Nihon) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Sakura: チーズバーガー (chīzubāgā) |
| Peter: Cheeseburger. |
| Sakura: (slow) チーズバーガー (chīzubāgā) (natural speed) チーズバーガー (chīzubāgā) |
| Peter: Now these katakana words are always so difficult for me. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Because I want to say the English cheeseburger, but to really get this – so we are going to take some time out. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: But to really get the pronunciation it is quite difficult for native English speakers. So let’s take a second here and go over this. I think the best way to break this into two words. First we have the cheese and then we have the burger. So can you give us cheese, one more time? |
| Sakura: チーズ (chīzu) |
| Peter: So you want to hold the first part, チーズ (chīzu). |
| Sakura: Yes. チーズ (chīzu) |
| Peter: Okay, and you will need this not just for the food but for taking |
| Sakura: Pictures, camera. |
| Peter: How does it go, Sakura-san? |
| Sakura: チーズ！(Chīzu!) |
| Peter: And... |
| Sakura: チーズ！ “カシャ” (Chīzu! “kasha”) |
| Peter: And you heard a little. Well you heard the Sakura shutter. |
| Sakura: Yes, “カシャ (kasha)” . |
| Peter: And this is used when taking pictures just like in English, Cheese. So this word, we will take by itself and of course this can also mean the food cheese. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Sakura: バーガー (bāgā) |
| Peter: Burger. Notice we are going to hold both vowels here. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: アーアー(āā). One more time. |
| Sakura: バーガー (bāgā) |
| Peter: So we have |
| Sakura: チーズバーガー (chīzubāgā) |
| Peter: Okay Sakura-san, let me know how my pronunciation is on this. チーズバーガー (chīzubāgā). |
| Sakura: Umm, okay. |
| Peter: All right, that is the first time. Usually I have trouble getting this out when I am ordering of course at MOS Burger. |
| Sakura: あ、本当？(A, hontō?) |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Sakura: そっか。(Sokka.) So チーズ (chīzu) on its own goes down like チーズ (chīzu), down. |
| Peter: Falls. |
| Sakura: But if it’s connected with バーガー (bāgā) or something, it goes チーズバーガー (chīzubāgā). It’s kind of held up, チーズバーガー (chīzubāgā). |
| Peter: That is some really critical information. Now you tell me, now you tell me. All right, let’s move on here. |
| Sakura: 大体 (daitai) |
| Peter: General, about. |
| Sakura: (slow) だいたい (daitai) (natural speed) 大体 (daitai) |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Sakura: 焼肉 (yakiniku) |
| Peter: Korean barbeque. Now I think this is the best way to sum it up for native English speakers, Korean Barbecue. |
| Sakura: (slow) やきにく (yakiniku) (natural speed) 焼肉 (yakiniku) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Sakura: くらい (kurai) |
| Peter: Approximately, about. |
| Sakura: (slow) くらい (kurai) (natural speed) くらい (kurai) |
| Peter: Then we have |
| Sakura: 有名 (yūmei) |
| Peter: Famous. |
| Sakura: (slow) ゆうめい (yūmei) (natural speed) 有名 (yūmei) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Sakura: 神戸 (Kōbe) |
| Peter: Port city in Southern Japan. |
| Sakura: Yes |
| Peter: Or which you’d probably say Southern 本州 (Honshū) |
| Sakura: (slow) こうべ (Kōbe) (natural speed) 神戸 (Kōbe) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Sakura: 牛 (ushi) |
| Peter: Cow. |
| Sakura: (slow) うし (ushi) (natural speed) 牛 (ushi) |
| Peter: Next we have |
| Sakura: 高い (takai) |
| Peter: It has two meanings. It can mean high or tall as in height or it can mean expensive. In this conversation, it was expensive. |
| Sakura: (slow) たかい (takai) (natural speed) 高い (takai) |
| Peter: Last we have |
| Sakura: 万 (man) |
| Peter: Counter for tens of thousands. |
| Sakura: (slow) まん (man) (natural speed) 万 (man) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: All right, now let’s get into the lesson. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Let’s really dissect what’s going on here. First we have |
| Sakura: 鈴木さん、日本ではチーズバーガーはいくらですか。(Suzuki-san, Nihon de wa chīzubāgā wa ikura desu ka.) |
| Peter: Suzuki, how much is the cheeseburger in Japan? Now let’s take apart this. First we have. |
| Sakura: 鈴木さん (Suzuki-san) |
| Peter: This is the last name followed by the prefix, the honorific prefix さん (san). So if we would equate this to English, it would be like Suzuki Mr. but when we translate it of course it is Mr. Suzuki, followed by |
| Sakura: 日本では (Nihon de wa) |
| Peter: In Japan. Now Sakura-san, you know, sometimes I get a little confused with the に (ni) and the で (de). So 日本には (Nihon ni wa) in Japan and 日本では (Nihon de wa) in Japan. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So I think for this one, you just kind of have to put it to memorization when asking about something in Japan for prices along this line. In this case, it’s では (de wa). |
| Sakura: Yes, like situation in Japan, whereas if you say 日本には (Nihon ni wa) you are going to talk about what is in Japan, right? |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Sakura: Existence or presence of something in Japan. |
| Peter: Whereas the では (de wa) is like a situation. All right, critical information. So for this pattern, when asking about how much something is in Japan, we are going to use では (de wa). |
| Sakura: では (de wa) |
| Peter: This is followed by |
| Sakura: チーズバーガー (chīzubāgā) |
| Peter: Cheeseburger. So to this point, we have Mr. Suzuki, in Japan, cheeseburger |
| Sakura: は (wa) |
| Peter: Now the cheeseburger is the topic. So we use the topic marking particle, は (wa). |
| Sakura: Yes. いくら (ikura) |
| Peter: How much? |
| Sakura: ですか (desu ka) |
| Peter: Is it. So literally, “Mr. Suzuki, in Japan, cheeseburger how much is it” Literal translation, but again when we put it into proper English, Mr. Suzuki, how much is the cheeseburger in Japan? The answer is |
| Sakura: そうですね。大体300円くらいですね。(Sō desu ne, daitai san-byaku-en kurai desu ne.) |
| Peter: About ¥300. It’s about ¥300. First we have |
| Sakura: そうですね (sō desu ne) |
| Peter: Which acts as a filler. So maybe Suzuki-san has been in the US for quite a while. So Suzuki-san is trying to recall how much it is. Let me think or maybe Suzukis-an is weighing all the possibilities, MOS Burgers, cheeseburger plus, McDonald’s and cheeseburger. So really giving an accurate assessment. So for some reason, just biting a little time. そうですね (sō desu ne.), thinking. So here this phrase そうですね (sō desu ne) is acting as a filler, followed by |
| Sakura: 大体 (daitai) |
| Peter: About. Now 大体 (daitai) can often be used in combination with くらい (kurai) which comes at the end. |
| Sakura: Yes. そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: そうですね (sō desu ne) in this case, the そうですね (sō desu ne) was that’s right. そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Sakura: Right. |
| Peter: 大体 (daitai) something, something くらい (kurai) |
| Sakura: くらい (kurai) |
| Peter: About this amount, about this many, giving an estimate. So first we have a general amount. So about, roughly, followed by the price, |
| Sakura: 300円 (san-byaku-en) |
| Peter: ¥300 |
| Sakura: くらい (kurai) |
| Peter: About. |
| Sakura: ですね (desu ne) |
| Peter: It is. So it’s about ¥300. Now pay attention to this next sentence because this is where you are going to fall in love with Japanese. Next we have |
| Sakura: 焼肉の食べ放題は？(Yakiniku no tabehōdai wa?) |
| Peter: And how much is it for Korean Barbecue in Japan? All that is said telepathically. It’s inferred. Literally we have, and yakiniku? But what’s inferred because we are on the topic. The question has already been established. We are asking about how much something is in Japan that all we need to keep this cycle going is the は (wa) and what comes after it is all inferred. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So let’s take a look at the first part. We have |
| Sakura: 焼肉 (yakiniku) |
| Peter: Korean barbeque. |
| Sakura: の (no) |
| Peter: Possessive Korean Barbeque’s. |
| Sakura: 食べ放題 (tabehōdai) |
| Peter: All you can eat. |
| Sakura: は (wa) |
| Peter: And. So that’s kind of a rough translation because you can kind of equate this to and in All You Can Eat Korean Barbeque is. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Along these lines but what’s inferred of course is いくらですか (ikura desu ka). |
| Sakura: Right. |
| Peter: How much is it because this is the topic we are on. That’s it, I love the は (wa). This is followed by |
| Sakura: そうですね、(Sō desu ne,) |
| Peter: Again thinking, hmm… |
| Sakura: 大体5000円くらい。(Daitai go-sen-en kurai.) |
| Peter: About ¥5000. Same pattern, 大体 (daitai) something, some amount. In between followed by くらい (kurai). About ¥5000. And again as we mentioned earlier, this is a bit on the high side. You can definitely get cheaper. Then we have |
| Sakura: あの有名な神戸牛は？(Ano yūmei na Kōbegyū wa?) |
| Peter: And that famous Kobe beef is? We start off with |
| Sakura: あの (ano) |
| Peter: That |
| Sakura: 有名な (yūmei na) |
| Peter: Famous. Now 有名 (yūmei) is a na-adjective. So when it’s placed in front of a noun which here in this case is the |
| Sakura: 神戸牛 (Kōbegyū) |
| Peter: We need that な (na) in there 有名な (yūmei na) |
| Sakura: 神戸牛 (Kōbegyū) |
| Peter: Kobe beef. |
| Sakura: は (wa) |
| Peter: Is. Now let’s just back up to this Kobe beef. The characters here are the characters for the city Kobe plus |
| Sakura: 牛 (gyū), beef |
| Peter: Beef. Now the 音読み (on’yomi) is ぎゅう (gyū). The 訓読み (kun’yomi), the Japanese reading is うし (ushi). |
| Sakura: うし (ushi) |
| Peter: But here we use ぎゅう (gyū) because it’s a type of beef. |
| Sakura: Yes. When you talk about like meat as you eat like beef, when you say beef, it’s usually ぎゅう (gyū) and うし (ushi) is like cow or cattle or the living ones. |
| Peter: So the past tense of cow. After... okay. |
| Sakura: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: うし (ushi) becomes ぎゅう (gyū). |
| Sakura: Yes, yes. |
| Peter: A little Sakura sadistic pneumatic. |
| Sakura: Yeah. |
| Peter: Okay, then finally we have. |
| Sakura: 高いですよ！ (Takai desu yo!) |
| Peter: It’s expensive. So also Japanese also have this image of Kobe beef being really expensive. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: You know, we want to convey that too. The average Japanese person doesn’t really eat Kobe beef. |
| Sakura: No, no. |
| Peter: It’s very customary for Americans to meet Japanese ah! Kobe Beef but most Japanese have not had it. |
| Sakura: Right. 大体１万円くらいです。(Daitai ichi-man-en kurai desu.) |
| Peter: It’s about ¥10,000 and again we have the about ¥10,000 about it is. Okay Sakura-san, that’s going to do for today. |
| Sakura: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: What do you think? |
| Sakura: 面白かったです。(Omoshirokatta desu.) フードはいつも。(Fūdo wa itsumo.) I always enjoy food lessons. |
| Peter: Me too. Now let’s kind of get a – let’s have a little guess here. How long it’s going to take for me to get you that Kobe beef. Within the next 5 years? |
| Sakura: よろしくお願いします。(Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| Peter: But yeah, I would. I think it will be great. We should go get that beef. |
| Sakura: よろしくお願いします。(Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
Outro |
|---|
| Peter: はい。(Hai.) All right. That’s going to do for today. |
| Sakura: またね。(Mata ne.) |
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