Learn how to ask for something politely
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Kat: Hi everyone, Kat here! |
| Naomi: こんにちは、みなさん！なおみです！(Kon’nichiwa, mina-san! Naomi desu!) |
| Kat: Want to shop for birthday presents in Japan? |
| Naomi: Thanks for joining us. Kat-san, please tell us what we're going to learn in this lesson. |
| Kat: In this lesson you will learn how to ask for something, as well as to ask for a certain number of things. |
| Naomi: Where does this conversation take place and who is it between? |
| Kat: This conversation takes place first at the flower shop, and then at the cake shop. And the first part is between Kent and a store clerk, and the second part is between Madoka and a store clerk. |
| Naomi: What’s the level of Japanese they will be speaking? |
| Kat: In both cases, they will be speaking formal Japanese. Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| (花屋）(hanaya) |
| 店員 (ten’in):いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.) |
| ケント (Kento):これ、ください。(Kore, kudasai.) |
| （ケーキ屋）(kēkiya) |
| 店員 (ten’in):いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.) |
| まどか (Madoka):すみません。(Sumimasen.) |
| まどか (Madoka):このチョコレートケーキを二つ、このチーズケーキを三つください。(Kono chokorēto kēki o futatsu, kono chīzukēki o mittsu kudasai.) |
| 店員 (ten’in):チョコレートケーキを二つとチーズケーキを三つですね。(Chokorēto kēki o futatsu to chīzukēki o mittsu desu ne.) |
| まどか (Madoka):はい。(Hai.) |
| 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.) |
| 店員 (ten’in):いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.) |
| ケント (Kento):これ、ください。(Kore, kudasai.) |
| 店員 (ten’in):いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.) |
| まどか (Madoka):すみません。(Sumimasen.) |
| まどか (Madoka):このチョコレートケーキを二つ、このチーズケーキを三つください。(Kono chokorēto kēki o futatsu, kono chīzukēki o mittsu kudasai.) |
| 店員 (ten’in):チョコレートケーキを二つとチーズケーキを三つですね。(Chokorēto kēki o futatsu to chīzukēki o mittsu desu ne.) |
| まどか (Madoka):はい。(Hai.) |
| 今度は英語が入ります。(Kondo wa Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| (花屋）(hanaya) |
| (At the flower shop) |
| 店員 (ten’in):いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.) |
| Kat: Welcome. |
| ケント (Kento):これ、ください。(Kore, kudasai.) |
| Kat: I'll take these, please. |
| （ケーキ屋）(kēkiya) |
| (At the cake shop) |
| 店員 (ten’in):いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.) |
| Kat: Welcome. |
| まどか (Madoka):すみません。(Sumimasen.) |
| Kat: Excuse me. |
| まどか (Madoka):このチョコレートケーキを二つ、このチーズケーキを三つください。(Kono chokorēto kēki o futatsu, kono chīzukēki o mittsu kudasai.) |
| Kat: Two of these chocolate cakes and three of these cheesecakes, please. |
| 店員 (ten’in):チョコレートケーキを二つとチーズケーキを三つですね。(Chokorēto kēki o futatsu to chīzukēki o mittsu desu ne.) |
| Kat: Two chocolate cakes and three cheesecakes, right? |
| まどか (Madoka):はい。(Hai.) |
| Kat: Yes. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Kat: Hmm, so Kent is buying flowers, and Madoka is buying a cake... it must be someone's birthday! |
| Naomi: そうです！(Sō desu!) That's right... if you remember, in the last conversation, Madoka said… 明日、ママの誕生日。(Ashita, mama no tanjōbi.) |
| Kat: "Tomorrow's my mum's birthday." Oh that's right! So they must be getting this for |
| her mother then. |
| Naomi: Right! |
| Kat: She's so lucky! Chocolate cake and cheesecake. They sound really good. |
| Naomi: ね〜。キャットさん、ケーキ好き？(Nē. Kyatto-san, kēki suki?) Do you like cake? |
| Kat: Yes! もちろん。(Mochiron.) Of course. チョコケーキが好きです。(Choko kēki ga suki desu.) I like chocolate cake! |
| Naomi: キャットさん、チョコレートケーキ好きだもんね。(Kyatto-san, chokorēto kēki suki da mon ne.) You love chocolate! |
| Kat: But, don’t say like that, it’s like I’m always eating it. なおみ先生はケーキ好きですか。(Naomi-sensei wa kēki suki desu ka.) |
| Naomi: うん。ケーキ大好きです。(Un. Kēki daisuki desu.) |
| Kat: You love cake, umm. |
| Naomi: はい。甘いものが好きです。(Hai. Amai mono ga suki desu.) |
| Kat: You like sweet things, anything. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Kat: Me too. OK, so now, let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Naomi: 花屋 (hanaya) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: flower shop, florist |
| Naomi: 花屋 (hanaya) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 花屋 (hanaya) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: And next. |
| Naomi: ケーキ (kēki) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: cake |
| Naomi: ケーキ (kēki) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: ケーキ (kēki) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: OK, next. |
| Naomi: いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: Welcome, May I help you? |
| Naomi: いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: And next. |
| Naomi: チョコレート (chokorēto) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: chocolate |
| Naomi: チョコレート (chokorēto) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: チョコレート (chokorēto) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Kat: Now, let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Naomi: The first phrase we are look at is いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase). |
| Kat: "Welcome", or "Hello. May I help you?" This phrase is used at shops and restaurants and bars etc. to welcome guests and customers. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Usually, the entire staff says it. |
| Kat: That’s right. We have to say this, at the bar and restaurant I worked at. It's really interesting, actually. One person will say it first, when the first person to notice the customer will say it, and then it will echo throughout the store. And they have to say it in a big, 元気 (genki) like cheerful voice. It actually functions as a warning to the other staff to get ready as there's a customer coming in, as well as welcoming the customer. It’s something I learned. |
| Naomi: OK, I didn’t know that. But if you go to an expensive store like a high and expensive store, they never do that though. Instead, a worker looks at your face and bow saying いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase) in rather quiet voice. |
| Kat: Like you mean in the high-end department stores like Takashimaya or I don’t know the Ginza department stores, they have very elegant way of saying, いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase). |
| Naomi: いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.) |
| Kat: Oh, it’s lovely. You could work there. So, Naomi-sensei, I think a lot of tourist and people coming to Japan for the first time they always want response so, can you say something back when someone says いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase) to you? |
| Naomi: Actually, you don't need to say anything. If you need help, you can ask, but if not, it's okay not to respond. |
| Kat: That’s right. Most people ignore the greeting. But you can also kind of me, the eye giving a little head bow with the neck or head, you know, just like thank you, kind of thing. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) And the shortened version of this is いらっしゃい (irasshai). You will hear this one sometimes, particularly from older men. |
| Kat: Right. I also have image of at festivals, まつり (matsuri). いらっしゃい (irasshai) like when they have little star or something and it’s like a big voice. いらっしゃい。(Irasshai.) |
| Naomi: いらっしゃい！(Irasshai!) |
| Kat: Okay, and our next word is... |
| Naomi: 屋 (ya) |
| Kat: Now, this is a suffix, rather than an actual word. It means "store" or "shop" and attaches to the name of an item to mean a shop that sells that item. |
| Naomi: For example, 花 (hana) means flower, and so 花屋 (hanaya) is a flower shop. |
| Kat: That's where Kent was. And then Madoka was at a cake shop. Cake is ケーキ (kēki), so a cake shop would be ケーキ屋 (kēkiya). |
| Naomi: Right. And sometimes, you might even hear さん (san) attached to these types of words, as in 花屋さん (hanaya-san) or ケーキ屋さん (kēkiya-san). |
| Kat: Ah, now that you mention it, you do hear さん (san) used with 屋 (ya) a lot like particularly by women, I think. |
| Naomi: It's kind of a way to show respect to the person doing that business. |
| Kat: And our last word is... |
| Naomi: 店員 (ten’in) |
| Kat: "Shop clerk" or “shop assistant.” So this is someone who works at one of the shops we’ve just mentioned. |
| Naomi: Right. And actually, when using this word in conversation, it's common to put さん (san) after it as well, like 店員さん (ten’in-san). |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Kat: In this lesson you will learn two things. The first is how to ask for something, and the second is how to ask for a certain number of things. |
| Naomi: In the dialogue, Kent and Madoka were at the shop asking for certain items. |
| Kat: How did they ask for them again? What phrase did they use? |
| Naomi: Kent said… これください。(Kore kudasai.) |
| Kat: "I'll take these, please." Remember that これ (kore) means "this" or "these". We can assume he was pointing to or holding something. |
| Naomi: So we had これ (kore) plus the word ください (kudasai), which means "please". これください。(Kore kudasai.) |
| Kat: You can also put the object marking particle を (o) in between them, which gives you これをください (kore o kudasai). But it's not necessary. |
| Naomi: So now, let's practice asking for different items using this structure. |
| Kat: Good idea! Pretend you are at a restaurant, and you want some water. What would you say? |
| Naomi: Well, the word for water is 水 (mizu), so you could say... 水ください。(Mizu kudasai). Or… 水をください。(Mizu o kudasai.) |
| Kat: "Water please." 水ください。(Mizu kudasai.) Now... let's say there's some yummy-looking curry on the menu. You remember the word for curry, right? |
| Naomi: Curry is カレー (karē). So that would be... カレーください。(Karē kudasai.) Or… カレーをください。(Karē o kudasai.) |
| Kat: カレーください。(Karē kudasai.) It's pretty simple and straightforward, don't you think? |
| Naomi: うん。そうですね。(Un. Sō desu ne.) Right! |
| Kat: So now… that means we're going to take a jump up note in difficulty. |
| Naomi: Okay! Everyone get ready! |
| Kat: This time, we're going to include how MANY items we want. Can we hear what Madoka said in the dialogue again? |
| Naomi: Sure. She said… このチョコレートケーキを二つ、このチーズケーキを三つください。(Kono chokorēto kēki o futatsu, kono chīzu kēki o mittsu kudasai.) |
| Kat: "Two of these chocolate cakes and three of these cheesecakes, please." Okay, so there were some keywords in there that specified how many of each she wanted. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Right, the word ふたつ (futatsu) and みっつ (mittsu). These are known as counter words. |
| Kat: Now, when counting objects in English we of course just say the number, as in "one cookie" or "two cookies." Japanese, though, has special words for counting. Let's go through them, shall we? |
| Naomi: Sounds like a good idea! |
| Kat: These counter words that we're going to introduce are known as general counting words - in other words, you can use them to count almost anything. Let's count up to 5. Okay, the word for one item? |
| Naomi: ひとつ (hitotsu) |
| Kat: Two items. |
| Naomi: ふたつ (futatsu) |
| Kat: Three items. |
| Naomi: みっつ (mittsu) |
| Kat: Four items. |
| Naomi: よっつ (yottsu) |
| Kat: And, five items. |
| Naomi: いつつ (itsutsu) |
| Kat: The rest are covered in the PDF, so we really recommend that you check that out. Okay, now let's see how we use these counter words together with ください (kudasai) to ask for a certain number of items. |
| Naomi: The pattern is - the name of the item, the optional particle を (o), plus the counter word, plus ください (kudasai). |
| Kat: Let's hear an example from the dialogue. |
| Naomi: Let's split her line into two parts. The first part is このチョコレートケーキをふたつください。(Kono chokorēto kēki o futatsu kudasai.) |
| Kat: Two of these chocolate cakes, please. Let's break this down. |
| Naomi: このチョコレートケーキ (kono chokorēto kēki) |
| Kat: This chocolate cake. |
| Naomi: を (o) |
| Kat: Object marking particle を (o). Remember that this is optional. |
| Naomi: ふたつ (futatsu) |
| Kat: Two. |
| Naomi: ください (kudasai) |
| Kat: Please. |
| Naomi: このチョコレートケーキをふたつください。(Kono chokorēto kēki o futatsu kudasai.) |
| Kat: Two of these chocolate cakes, please. And then after that, she said? |
| Naomi: このチーズケーキを三つください。(Kono chīzu kēki o mittsu kudasai.) |
| Kat: Three of these cheesecakes, please. Let's break this down as well. |
| Naomi: このチーズケーキ (kono chīzu kēki) |
| Kat: This cheesecake. |
| Naomi: を (o) |
| Kat: Optional object marking particle. |
| Naomi: みっつ (mittsu) |
| Kat: Three. |
| Naomi: ください (kudasai) |
| Kat: Please. |
| Naomi: このチーズケーキを三つください。(Kono chīzu kēki o mittsu kudasai.) |
| Kat: Three of these cheesecakes, please. |
| Naomi: Okay, are you getting the hang of it? |
| Kat: Now let's practice! It's your turn to order something in Japanese. |
| Naomi: We'll give you the phrase in English, and please say it in Japanese. |
| Kat: Here's the first one. "One Coke, please." |
| [short pause] |
| Kat: Here's a hint - remember that the counter for "one" is ひとつ (hitotsu). |
| [pause] |
| Kat: And the answer is? |
| Naomi: コーラを一つください。(Kōra o hitotsu kudasai.) Or… コーラ一つください。(Kōra hitotsu kudasai.) The particle を (o) is optional. |
| Kat: Great! And let's try one more. How about "three waters, please"? |
| [short pause] |
| Naomi: Here are some hints. Water is 水 (mizu), and "three" is みっつ (mittsu). |
| [pause] |
| Kat: Those were some pretty big hints! I hope you did get it. And the answer, |
| Naomi-sensei is? |
| Naomi: 水を三つください。(Mizu o mittsu kudasai.) Or… 水三つください。(Mizu mittsu kudasai.) |
| Kat: Great, so, how did you all do? |
Outro |
| Naomi: Now you are all ready to order something in Japanese! Well, that's all for this lesson, everyone. |
| Kat: Thanks for listening, until next time! |
| Naomi: じゃ、また♥ (Ja, mata.) |
| (花屋）(hanaya) |
| 店員 (ten’in):いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.) |
| ケント (Kento):これ、ください。(Kore, kudasai.) |
| （ケーキ屋）(kēkiya) |
| 店員 (ten’in):いらっしゃいませ。(Irasshaimase.) |
| まどか (Madoka):すみません。(Sumimasen.) |
| まどか (Madoka):このチョコレートケーキを二つ、このチーズケーキを三つください。(Kono chokorēto kēki o futatsu, kono chīzukēki o mittsu kudasai.) |
| 店員 (ten’in):チョコレートケーキを二つとチーズケーキを三つですね。(Chokorēto kēki o futatsu to chīzukēki o mittsu desu ne.) |
| まどか (Madoka):はい。(Hai.) |
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