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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Lori’s Story 14. Do you know how to get what you want? Naomi-sensei, so it seems Lori is still at the department store. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Eric: She is looking for shoes, right? |
| Naomi: Uhoo. |
| Eric: Has she found some yet? |
| Naomi: I think she found one today. |
| Eric: Uh all right, let’s listen. |
| DIALOGUE |
| (靴売り場) (kutsu uriba) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : すみません。この靴の 大きいサイズを お願いします。(Sumimasen. Kono kutsu no ōkii saizu o onegai shimasu.) |
| 店員 (ten’in) : サイズは 何ですか。(Saizu wa nan desu ka.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ちょっと... 分かりません。(Chotto... wakarimasen.) |
| 店員 (ten’in) : そうですか...。じゃ、足を お願いします。うーん。26ですね。お待ちください。はい、どうぞ。 サイズはどうですか。(Sō desu ka... Ja, ashi o onegai shimasu. Ūn. Ni-jū roku desu ne. O-machi kudasai. Hai, dōzo. Saizu wa dō desu ka.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ちょうど いいです。これを ください。(Chōdo ii desu. Kore o kudasai.) |
| 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, yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : すみません。この靴の 大きいサイズを お願いします。(Sumimasen. Kono kutsu no ōkii saizu o onegai shimasu.) |
| 店員 (ten’in) : サイズは 何ですか。(Saizu wa nan desu ka.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ちょっと... 分かりません。(Chotto... wakarimasen.) |
| 店員 (ten’in) : そうですか...。じゃ、足を お願いします。うーん。26ですね。お待ちください。はい、どうぞ。 サイズはどうですか。(Sō desu ka... Ja, ashi o onegai shimasu. Ūn. Ni-jū roku desu ne. O-machi kudasai. Hai, dōzo. Saizu wa dō desu ka.) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ちょうど いいです。これを ください。(Chōdo ii desu. Kore o kudasai.) |
| 次は、英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| (靴売り場) (kutsu uriba) |
| (at the shoe department) |
| ロリー (Rorī) : すみません。この靴の 大きいサイズを お願いします。(Sumimasen. Kono kutsu no ōkii saizu o onegai shimasu.) |
| LORI: Excuse me. Can you please bring me a larger size? |
| 店員 (ten’in) : サイズは 何ですか。(Saizu wa nan desu ka.) |
| CLERK: What size are you? |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ちょっと... 分かりません。(Chotto... wakarimasen.) |
| LORI: Um, I...don't know. |
| 店員 (ten’in) : そうですか...。じゃ、足を お願いします。(Sō desu ka... Ja, ashi o onegai shimasu.) |
| CLERK: Is that right? Well, here, let me see your foot. |
| 店員 (ten’in) : うーん。26ですね。お待ちください。(Ūn. Ni-jū roku desu ne. O-machi kudasai.) |
| CLERK: Hmmm. You're a 26. Please wait. |
| 店員 (ten’in) : はい、どうぞ。 サイズはどうですか。(Hai, dōzo. Saizu wa dō desu ka.) |
| CLERK: Here you go. Is the size all right? |
| ロリー (Rorī) : ちょうど いいです。これを ください。(Chōdo ii desu. Kore o kudasai.) |
| LORI: The size is just right. I'll take these. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Naomi: ロリーのサイズは26ですね。 (Rorī no saizu wa ni-jū roku desu ne.) |
| Eric: Yeah, her shoe size is 26, right at least in Japanese size? |
| Naomi: Yeah, I think that 26 is 9 in American size? |
| Eric: For girls? |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Eric: Right but you know what, the truth to tell, I still don’t really understand Japanese shoe sizes. What’s it based on? |
| Naomi: Centimeters. |
| Eric: So the actual length of your foot, that’s going to be your shoe size in centimeters? |
| Naomi: Yeah, I think so but… |
| Eric: You never tried it? |
| Naomi: No. But I think it really depends on the shoemaker. Different shoemakers have different sizes. |
| Eric: So there is not really any real standard, is it? But you know what, I go to some stores looking for shoes and you are right, it does say centimeters after each shoe size but who knows but you know, I think each country or at least each region has their own shoe standard. In the states, it’s pretty low, like numbers at least most of them are under 10. Some people have size 10, 11, 12 but I don’t know where they get their numbers. I don’t think they are based on inches. |
| Naomi: ね。そうですね。(Ne. Sō desu ne.) |
| Eric: Breaking news. We just heard from our producer Yūki-san over here in the corner. He is a genius. We are here struggling trying to figure out what shoe sizes are all about and he mentioned, you know he doesn’t know the answer but he has a little tip for everybody who comes to Japan. At least if you are coming from the states, if you are a guy, add 18 to your shoe size and that will be your Japanese shoe size and if you are a girl, |
| Naomi: 十七 (jū nana) which is 17. |
| Eric: Right add 17 to whatever your American shoe size is and that will be your Japanese shoe size. Hey, that's a good tip, Yūki-san. |
| Naomi: ね～、すごいすごい。(Nē, sugoi sugoi.) And after the clerk measured Lori’s feet, she said, お待ちください (o-machi kudasai). |
| Eric: Which means please wait. |
| Naomi: Yeah, this phrase I think you hear this phrase a lot at department stores. |
| Eric: That’s right or any store. Any store where there is someone serving you, right? |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: Even though this is not the standard grammatical way to say, please wait to give an order right but this is the way that they use in the service industry to politely command people to do things. |
| Naomi: The grammar point of お待ちください (o-machi kudasai) is little bit too advanced for newbie. |
| Eric: It’s a special grammar construct that you will probably learn later on in the beginner or lower immediate series but for now, you should just memorize it as a set phrase, right? |
| Naomi: Right because you hear this expression a lot at shops. |
| Eric: Right it’s used a lot in the service industry when people tell you to wait or yeah when people tell you to wait politely. Of course, it can be used anywhere but again you are going to learn that later on. On to vocabulary. |
| Naomi: 次は単語です。(Tsugi wa tango desu.) |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: The first word is |
| Naomi: サイズ (saizu) |
| Eric: Size. |
| Naomi: (slow) サイズ (saizu) (natural speed) サイズ (saizu) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 大きい (ōkii) |
| Eric: Big, large. |
| Naomi: (slow) おおきい (ōkii) (natural speed) 大きい (ōkii) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: ちょっと (chotto) |
| Eric: A little. |
| Naomi: (slow) ちょっと (chotto) (natural speed) ちょっと (chotto) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: 足 (ashi) |
| Eric: Foot, leg. |
| Naomi: (slow) あし (ashi) (natural speed) 足 (ashi) |
| Eric: The next phrase is |
| Naomi: お待ちください (o-machi kudasai) |
| Eric: Please wait. |
| Naomi: (slow) おまちください (o-machi kudasai) (natural speed) お待ちください (o-machi kudasai) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: ちょうど (chōdo) |
| Eric: Just, right, exactly. |
| Naomi: (slow) ちょうど (chōdo) (natural speed) ちょうど (chōdo) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: いい (ii) |
| Eric: Good, well. |
| Naomi: (slow) いい (ii) (natural speed) いい (ii) |
| Eric: The next word is |
| Naomi: ください (kudasai) |
| Eric: Please. |
| Naomi: (slow) ください (kudasai) (natural speed) ください (kudasai) |
| Eric: And the last word is |
| Naomi: どう (dō) |
| Eric: How. |
| Naomi: (slow) どう (dō) (natural speed) どう (dō) |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Eric: Okay, let’s take a closer look at these words. First before we get into some of these phrases. The most important word here is foot right, because that’s what shoes are going. |
| Naomi: 足 (ashi) |
| Eric: But that word 足 (ashi), it means foot or leg. |
| Naomi: Right, we don’t have any difference between leg and foot in Japanese. |
| Eric: On to the next phrase. |
| Naomi: どう (dō) |
| Eric: How. |
| Naomi: Interrogative word, right? |
| Eric: Right it’s always going to be a question and you use it mainly when you are asking about the state of someone or something, right? |
| Naomi: Uhoo. In today’s dialogue, we have サイズはどうですか (saizu wa dō desu ka). |
| Eric: How is the size? How is it, does it fit well? That’s what she was trying to say. She was asking if the size was good but she only asked how was the size, but before she asked about the size, she asked her what her size was. |
| Naomi: サイズは何ですか。(Saizu wa nan desu ka.) |
| Eric: What’s your size and of course, as we’ve said many times, you omit the subject. So you don’t ask あなたのサイズは何ですか (anata no saizu wa nan desu ka). You just ask サイズは何ですか (saizu wa nan desu ka) and then Lori said that the size is just right. |
| Naomi: ちょうどいいです。(Chōdo ii desu.) |
| Eric: So the word いい (ii), it means good, right? |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: And this word that we learned today ちょうど (chōdo) it means just. It’s really hard to put into English because it has this connotation of fitting perfectly being a perfect fit not just for sizes, not just for shoes but anything that works out perfectly to like any plan that went exactly as planned or anything that happened the way that you wanted it. It could be ちょうどいい (chōdo ii) or ちょうど (chōdo) something. We can get into the other uses of ちょうど (chōdo) later on but for now, this is a good phrase to know. You could use it when something is perfectly good. For example, a shoe size. |
| Naomi: ちょうどいいです。(Chōdo ii desu.) |
| Eric: It’s perfectly good. It’s a good size. |
| Naomi: この靴はちょうどいいです。(Kono kutsu wa chōdo ii desu.) |
| Eric: These shoes are a perfect fit. |
| Naomi: 次は文法です。(Tsugi wa bunpō desu.) |
| Eric: On to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: So today’s target phrase is |
| Naomi: これをください (kore o kudasai) |
| Eric: I will take this. |
| Naomi: Literally I think give me this. |
| Eric: Right. Hand this down to me. |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: As literally as you can get. That’s what it means right but you know really it means give me this or I will take this. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Eric: Right, implying that there are two levels here right, two different class levels. What are they? |
| Naomi: Higher position and lower position. |
| Eric: So when you are speaking and you use this, you are supposedly in the lower position, right? |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: And you are asking someone who is higher than you to please graciously give you something or to do something for you. |
| Naomi: Hand it down to me. |
| Eric: So now let’s break this phrase down. |
| Naomi: これ (kore) |
| Eric: This. |
| Naomi: を (o) |
| Eric: Object marking particle. |
| Naomi: ください (kudasai) |
| Eric: Please. Give me, all right. So please give me this. That’s exactly literally what we are saying, right? We’ve already covered another phrase that you use to ask for things. In a previous lesson which was… |
| Naomi: お願いします (onegai shimasu) |
| Eric: Right which is very, very versatile. It’s very useful and you could use it in almost any situation, right? But that phrase is, does it mean the same thing as これをください (kore o kudasai)? |
| Naomi: If you say これをください (kore o kudasai) and これをお願いします (kore o onegai shimasu), I would say the meaning is the same but since お願いします (onegai shimasu) is more vague, it sounds more polite. |
| Eric: I see and what Naomi-sensei means by vague, let’s go over the meanings of ください (kudasai) and お願いします (onegai shimasu) one more time, right? ください (kudasai) means |
| Naomi: Please give it to me. |
| Eric: Right, please give me or literally |
| Naomi: Lower it. |
| Eric: And お願いします (onegai shimasu) means |
| Naomi: It is a bit difficult to translate but I think it’s kind of like I wish, I beg you, humbly request. |
| Eric: I humbly hope. Right, it’s a request. It’s more a personal wish, a hope and it’s not a command and that’s what Naomi-sensei means by vague and that’s why when you say お願いします (onegai shimasu), it’s less direct. So をください (o kudasai) is the most polite and most direct way to ask for an object, right? |
| Naomi: Uhoo. |
| Eric: So in this case, we said the most general one これ (kore) this, but what else can we say? |
| Naomi: それをください。(Sore o kudasai.) |
| Eric: Yeah, give me that right there close to you. |
| Naomi: あれをください。(Are o kudasai.) |
| Eric: Give me that thing that’s all the way over there. |
| Naomi: 水をください。(Mizu o kudasai.) |
| Eric: Give me water. |
| Naomi: 水とメニューをください。(Mizu to menyū o kudasai.) |
| Eric: Give me water and menu please. All right, and then all of these examples I think except for the last one, I didn’t say please but in Japanese, it’s really implied that there is a please in there because ください (kudasai) is just polite. Speaking of the word please, we learned in an earlier lesson that お願いします (onegai shimasu) means please, right? |
| Naomi: Uhoo. |
| Eric: So what if I say これをください、お願いします (kore o kudasai, onegai shimasu)? |
| Naomi: That’s redundancy I would say. |
| Eric: Exactly because in fact, they both mean please to different degrees. It’s not that お願いします (onegai shimasu) by itself means please and ください (kudasai) is asking for something like asking for a command. I mean or commanding somebody. It’s actually, they are both please for with different functions. Okay, ください (kudasai) is always attached to an object. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Eric: Right? Like the menu or water. |
| Naomi: Something tangible. |
| Eric: That’s right. So let’s say you want someone to speak slowly as we learned in the previous lesson, can I say ゆっくり、ください (yukkuri, kudasai)? |
| Naomi: ゆっくり (yukkuri) is not a tangible object. |
| Eric: Exactly it’s an adverb, right? |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Eric: So ゆっくりください (yukkuri kudasai) wouldn’t work. |
| Naomi: No. |
| Eric: How would you say it? |
| Naomi: ゆっくりお願いします。(Yukkuri onegai shimasu.) |
| Eric: Had to look at your notes, didn’t you? And I see you. And how about one more time, say it one more time please? How about もう一度ください (mō ichi-do kudasai)? |
| Naomi: It sounds a bit weird. |
| Eric: Because after all, even though it’s implied that ください (kudasai) is asking for someone to actually hand you something physically. |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Eric: To actually give you something, not a request for them to just do on action, right? In this case, right? So how would you say もう一度 (mō ichi-do) please, in Japanese of course. |
| Naomi: もう一度、お願いします。(Mō ichi-do, onegai shimasu.) |
| Eric: All right. This is pretty confusing Naomi-sensei for us to explain but here to sum it all up to try to make it as clear as possible. So we are going to see the differences between お願いします (onegai shimasu) and |
| Naomi: をください (o kudasai), both をください (o kudasai) and お願いします (onegai shimasu) can be used for tangible object, real object. |
| Eric: Real things right like real... like people, right? |
| Naomi: Uhoo. |
| Eric: So for example, how about this Naomi-sensei, how about you are on the phone and you are asking for you know, you want to talk to Mr. Mori on the phone and you say, 森さん、お願いします (Mori-san, onegai shimasu), that’s fine right? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: But how about 森さん、ください (Mori-san, kudasai)? That’s a tangible object. |
| Naomi: Good question but the point is you want to talk to Mr. Mori, not you want to get Mr. Mori forever as a possession. |
| Eric: As an object, as a gift Mr. Mori with a ribbon on top. So then what’s the point though? What’s the idea? |
| Naomi: You want to talk to Mr. Mori. You have to use the verb talk with ください (kudasai) but it’s bit complicated grammar for newbie level. So right now, 森さん、お願いします (Mori-san, onegai shimasu). |
| Eric: It’s fine. |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Eric: Well you heard it from the Sensei. You are going to learn that grammatical construct later on in later series like the beginner series. So for now, just stick with をお願いします (o onegai shimasu) when requesting even to speak with someone. Alright, so let’s practice everything we’ve learned so far. Okay, Naomi-sensei. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: It’s after work. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Eric: We had a long day of work. So we decide you know what, let’s go to a coffee shop. |
| Naomi: Good idea. |
| Eric: Have a nice cup of coffee. So we went, we sat down and all of a sudden, you sneezed and then the waiter walks up and says, are you cold? |
| Naomi: 寒いですか。(Samui desu ka.) |
| Eric: And then you reply, well it’s not too cold. It’s not too hot, it’s just right. |
| Naomi: ちょうどいいです。(Chōdo ii desu.) |
| Eric: This is one of those café’s that each drink has at least five names. So we don’t know what’s going on. We need a menu. |
| Naomi: メニューをください。(Menyū o kudasai.) |
| Eric: And the waiter brings us the menu, we take a look at it and since all the drinks have at least 5 words in them, we look at the pictures and then you decide that you want that one right there. So we ask the waiter, this one please. |
| Naomi: これをください。(Kore o kudasai.) |
| Eric: But then the waiter doesn’t know just from looking at the picture if you want the hot one or the cold one. So then he asks you, would you like the hot one or would you like the cold one? |
| Naomi: ホットコーヒーですか。アイスコーヒーですか。(Hotto kōhī desu ka. Aisu kōhī desu ka.) |
| Eric: And then you decide, it’s a hot day. I want an iced coffee. |
| Naomi: アイスコーヒー、お願いします。(Aisu kōhī, onegai shimasu.) |
| Eric: I ended up ordering the same thing but being as clumsy as I am, I spilled mine a little bit but don’t worry. I didn’t get wet, Naomi-sensei. All right, so then we ask for a towel. |
| Naomi: タオルをください。(Taoru o kudasai.) |
| Eric: But the waiter was on the other side of the café and he didn’t really hear you. So you have to say it one more time. |
| Naomi: すみません。タオル、お願いします。(Sumimasen. Taoru, onegai shimasu.) |
Outro |
| Eric: And as you see, we’ve asked for things almost interchangeably with お願いします (onegai shimasu) and ください (kudasai). Practice by yourself by asking for own things around your room and around your café but hey, don’t spill anything. I’ll see you next time. |
| Naomi: じゃ、また。(Ja, mata.) |
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