Learn a new way to use the Japanese present tense
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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: How You Can Develop Good Japanese Habits. Thanks very much for joining us! |
| Naomi: Kat-san, please tell us what we're going to learn in this lesson. |
| Kat: In this lesson, you will learn how to talk about habitual actions like daily routines. Now, where does this conversation take place and who is it between? |
| Naomi: This conversation takes place at Madoka's house where Kent is staying, and it's between Madoka, Kent, and Madoka's mother. |
| Kat: And what's the politeness level? |
| Naomi: Madoka and her mother speak informally, but Kent speaks formally when speaking to Madoka's mother. |
| Kat: OK, so let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| ケント (Kento):このケーキ、めちゃくちゃうまい！(Kono kēki, mechakucha umai!) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):あら、ケント君、甘いもの食べるの？(Ara, Kento-kun, amai mono taberu no?) |
| ケント (Kento):はい。食べます。(Hai. Tabemasu.) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):もっと食べる？(Motto taberu?) |
| ケント (Kento):うん。おかわり。(Un. Okawari.) |
| ケント (Kento):・・・あ・・・おかわりおねがいします。(... A... okawari onegai shimasu.) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):はい、どうぞ。(Hai, dōzo.) |
| 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.) |
| ケント (Kento):このケーキ、めちゃくちゃうまい！(Kono kēki, mechakucha umai!) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):あら、ケント君、甘いもの食べるの？(Ara, Kento-kun, amai mono taberu no?) |
| ケント (Kento):はい。食べます。(Hai. Tabemasu.) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):もっと食べる？(Motto taberu?) |
| ケント (Kento):うん。おかわり。(Un. Okawari.) |
| ケント (Kento):・・・あ・・・おかわりおねがいします。(... A... okawari onegai shimasu.) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):はい、どうぞ。(Hai, dōzo.) |
| 今度は英語が入ります。(Kondo wa Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| ケント (Kento):このケーキ、めちゃくちゃうまい！(Kono kēki, mechakucha umai!) |
| Kat: This cake is totally amazing! |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):あら、ケント君、甘いもの食べるの？(Ara, Kento-kun, amai mono taberu no?) |
| Kat: Oh, Kent, you eat sweets? |
| ケント (Kento):はい。食べます。(Hai. Tabemasu.) |
| Kat: Yes, I do. |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):もっと食べる？(Motto taberu?) |
| Kat: Do you want some more? |
| ケント (Kento):うん。おかわり。(Un. Okawari.) |
| Kat: Yeah, I'll take seconds. |
| ケント (Kento):・・・あ・・・おかわりおねがいします。(... A... okawari onegai shimasu.) |
| Kat: ...Um, I mean, please may I have seconds? |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):はい、どうぞ。(Hai, dōzo.) |
| Kat: Here you go. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Naomi: Kent really liked the cake! Madoka's mother sounded surprised! ケント君、甘いもの食べるの？ (Kento-kun, amai mono taberu no?) |
| Kat: Kent, you eat sweets? Yeah, I've noticed that in Japan there seems to be this image that guys don't really eat sweets. Or if they do, it’s kind of feminine and not masculine. So that must be why Madoka’s mother was surprised, because she is from the slightly older generations. |
| Naomi: そうね。(Sō ne.) I'd say you're right! If a guy really likes sweets, it might surprise some people. |
| Kat: I was kind of surprised by this stereotype, image, actually when I came to Japan for the first time. |
| Naomi: あ〜、そっか、そっか。(Ā, sokka, sokka.) So it must be different in the West, right? |
| Kat: Well, yeah, at home, there is not really this discrimenation against men who like to eat cake. So, I think when I was actually researching my dissertation, which was about gender in Japan, I think it’s something that is quite particular to Japan, and also something that is found in the rest of Asia as well, that sweets are feminine, a hobby as it were, and not for men. |
| Naomi: そうね。(Sō ne.) We have a stereotype that men drink alcohol and don’t eat sweets. |
| Kat: Men eat spicy food and women eat sweet food. |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Kat: Because it’s kind of like personality-divided. |
| Naomi: おもしろいですね。(Omoshiroi desu ne.) Interesting. And I think we have to mention the adverb めちゃくちゃ (mechakucha). |
| Kat: Yes, めちゃくちゃ (mechakucha) means "extremely" or "insanely" or “amazingly,” and as you can tell, it's a slangy term that’s usually used in a very casual conversation, right? |
| Naomi: Right. I personally use めちゃくちゃ (mechakucha) a lot. Like… めちゃくちゃおいしい！(Mechakucha oishii!) |
| Kat: “Extremely delicious” or “amazingly delicious.” |
| Naomi: めちゃくちゃ甘い。(Mechakucha amai.) |
| Kat: “Incredibly sweet” or “extremely sweet.” |
| Naomi: Yeah, but only when I'm talking with my friends, of course. |
| Kat: Yes, please don’t go and say めちゃくちゃ難しい (mechakucha muzukashii) “really extremely difficult” to your teacher because it's really slangy. It’s a really good phrase to use to your friends, though, isn't it? And there are other variations, right? Like, just めっちゃ (metcha) or めちゃめちゃ (mechamecha). |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Right. So you might also hear めっちゃ おいしい (metcha oishii) or めちゃめちゃおいしい (mechamecha oishii). |
| Kat: So “incredibly delicious” or “amazingly delicious.” As you can see, they all mean the same, it's just that there are few different ways to say the same thing. |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) Right. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Kat: OK, so now, let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. The first word we are going to see is |
| Naomi: めちゃくちゃ (mechakucha) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: extremely, insanely |
| Naomi: めちゃくちゃ (mechakucha) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: めちゃくちゃ (mechakucha) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: And next. |
| Naomi: うまい (umai) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: delicious, tasty |
| Naomi: うまい (umai) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: うまい (umai) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: And next. |
| Naomi: 食べる (taberu) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: to eat |
| Naomi: 食べる (taberu) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 食べる (taberu) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: And next we have |
| Naomi: もっと (motto) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: more |
| Naomi: もっと (motto) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: もっと (motto) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: And finally. |
| Naomi: おかわり (okawari) [natural native speed] |
| Kat: a second helping, a refill |
| Naomi: おかわり (okawari) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: おかわり (okawari) [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Kat: OK, so now, let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Naomi: The first word we look at is うまい (umai). |
| Kat: “Delicious”, “good.” |
| Naomi: This word actually has two meanings, but we'll just focus on this meaning in this lesson. |
| Kat: We'll go over the second meaning in the next lesson. So this word means "delicious" or "good" or “tasty.” How does it differ from the word おいしい (oishii), which we learned way back in Lesson 5? |
| Naomi: Great question! Actually, both words mean delicious when talking about food. But I would say that guys mostly use うまい (umai). It has more casual feeling to it. |
| Kat: Yeah, that’s right, I would agree with that. You often hear guys saying うまい (umai) instead of おいしい (oishii) is particularly when with other men and eating together. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Of course guys can use both, but it might be more common for them to use うまい (umai) in a casual situation. |
| Kat: But that’s not to say that girls can’t use うまい (umai) at all, just that you might come of sounding a bit more masculine than you intended. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Kat: Speaking of うまい (umai), what's the next word? |
| Naomi: 食べる (taberu) |
| Kat: “To eat.” |
| Naomi: This is the dictionary form, also known as the informal form of the verb. In formal Japanese, it would be 食べます (tabemasu). |
| Kat: This is a really important word to know! If you come to Japan or talk to Japanese people, you will undoubtedly be asked about what you eat and what you like to eat and so on. |
| Naomi: Very true! |
| Kat: Japanese people love to talk about food. |
| Naomi: そうね。(Sō ne.) Because that is the safest topic! |
| Kat: Of course, of course, even more than the weather. Like, I would say about 80% of Japanese TV is about food. |
| Naomi and Kat : (laugh, laugh….) |
| Kat: Right? Would you agree, Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: That’s a bit exaggerated! But… 60%. |
| Kat: 60%? OK, and the next word is...? |
| Naomi: もっと (motto) |
| Kat: “More.” When paired with a verb, it means to do more of that verb. |
| Naomi: Right. So もっと食べる (motto taberu) would be... |
| Kat: To eat more. |
| Naomi: もっと寝る (motto neru) would be... |
| Kat: To sleep more. |
| Naomi: This is a pretty useful word. |
| Kat: And the last word is...? |
| Naomi: おかわり (okawari) |
| Kat: “A second helping”, “a refill.” If you just say |
| Naomi: おかわり！(Okawari!) |
| Kat: It means "seconds, please!" or "a refill, please” or “more, please!" |
| Naomi: This is used when you're eating something and you’d like to ask for more. |
| Kat: Just おかわり (okawari) by itself is pretty informal, isn’t it? With your family, it would be okay, but what could we say that's more polite? |
| Naomi: Well, just add お願いします (onegai shimasu) to it and say, おかわりお願いします (okawari onegai shimasu). |
| Kat: “Second helping, please!” or “a refill, please!” Kent liked the cake so much that he asked for seconds using おかわりお願いします (okawari onegai shimasu). |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Kat: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the present tense form of a verb to talk about habitual actions. You'll be able to talk about your daily routine, like, for example, I get up at 6, I eat breakfast, I go to sleep, etc. First, Naomi-sensei, let's go over a couple verbs that are used to talk about daily routines that we'll be using a lot in this lesson. |
| Naomi: Good idea! The first word you already know from the vocab section - 食べる (taberu). |
| Kat: “To eat.” |
| Naomi: The next verb is 見る (miru). |
| Kat: “To see”, “to watch.” |
| Naomi: We'll be re-using these verbs throughout the lesson, so make sure you remember them. |
| Kat: Okay, now in the last lesson, we went over how to talk about the future using the present tense form of the verb. Remember that Japanese has no future tense. This time, we're using the exact same form of the verb, but we're talking about the present this time. Things that you do in general, as opposed to something that you're going to do in the future. |
| Naomi: When you talk about habitual actions, it's common to use frequency adverbs, such as よく (yoku) |
| Kat: “Often.” |
| Naomi: Or いつも (itsumo) |
| Kat: “Always.” |
| Naomi: Let's go through some examples. Here's the first one. まどかはいつもニュースを見る。(Madoka wa itsumo nyūsu o miru.) |
| Kat: Madoka always watches the news. Let's break this down. |
| Naomi: まどかは (Madoka wa) |
| Kat: Madoka, name, plus topic marking particle は (wa). |
| Naomi: いつも (itsumo) |
| Kat: Always. |
| Naomi: ニュースを (nyūsu o) |
| Kat: News, plus object marking particle を (o). |
| Naomi: 見る (miru) |
| Kat: Watches. |
| Naomi: So altogether… まどかはいつもニュースを見る。(Madoka wa itsumo nyūsu o miru.) |
| Kat: Madoka always watches the news. |
| Naomi: Remember that the object of the verb, I mean… in this case what the person is looking at is marked by を (o). So ニュースを見る (nyūsu o miru). If she watches anime, that would be アニメを見る (anime o miru), of course. |
| Kat: Since we have the word いつも (itsumo), always, in there, we know that this is talking about a habitual action. |
| Naomi: Here's another one. ケントはよくカレーを食べる。(Kento wa yoku karē o taberu.) |
| Kat: Kent often eats curry. Let's break this down. |
| Naomi: ケントは (Kento wa) |
| Kat: Kent, plus は (wa). |
| Naomi: よく (yoku) |
| Kat: Often. |
| Naomi: カレーを食べる。(Karē o taberu.) |
| Kat: Eats curry. So altogether, Kent often eats curry. Same idea here - since we have the word よく (yoku), often, in here, we know that this is talking about a habitual action. |
| Naomi: That's right. いつも (itsumo) and よく (yoku) are two really useful words to know, so please remember them. |
| Kat: So now, let's look at the examples from the dialogue. |
| Naomi: In the dialogue, Madoka's mother said… ケント君、甘いもの食べるの？(Kento-kun, amai mono taberu no?) |
| Kat: Kent, you eat sweets? |
| Naomi: She means this in general. By the way, 甘いもの (amai mono) is sweet stuff or sweet thing. In this case, she's not asking him if he's going to eat sweets or anything like that. |
| Kat: Or if he is currently eating. She is asking him in general. And what does Kent say in response? |
| Naomi: はい、食べます。(Hai, tabemasu.) |
| Kat: "Yes, I do", meaning "yes, I do eat sweets." |
| Naomi: Notice how he only said the verb. |
| Kat: Yes! This is one of your keys to speaking natural Japanese. Leave out the information that isn't necessary. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Right. The full sentence would have been… はい、僕は甘いものを食べます。(Hai, boku wa amai mono o tabemasu.) |
| Kat: Yes, I do eat sweets. |
| Naomi: But we already know that they are talking about sweets, right? So he leaves that information out and just says はい、食べます (hai, tabemasu). |
| Kat: This is an important thing to remember in Japanese. You don't need to repeat what is already understood. |
| Naomi: Good advice! |
| Kat: Okay, so now that we know how to talk about habitual actions... Naomi-sensei, |
| what is something you often or always do? |
| Naomi: Me? うーん、わたしはよく甘いものを食べます。(Ūn, watashi wa amai mono o tabemasu.) |
| Kat: I was gonna say that, you stole my sentence. |
| Naomi: How about you, Kat? |
| Kat: うーん…。わたしはよく買い物に行きます。(Ūn… Watashi wa yoku kaimono ni ikimasu.) |
| Naomi: Ah, you often go shopping. |
| Kat: Yes, unfortunately. OK, another is one last thing I want to go over. |
| Naomi: What's that? |
| Kat: The particle の (no) in the line ケント君、甘いもの食べるの？(Kento-kun, amai mono taberu no?) |
| Naomi: Oh, great point! |
| Kat: Up until now, we have been saying that to make a question in informal speech, you just need to raise the intonation, for example, 行く？(iku?)↑ instead of 行く (iku) ↓ but you can just create questions using the particle の (no) as well. |
| Naomi: Right, so 甘いもの食べる (amai mono taberu) |
| Kat: “I eat sweet things” |
| Naomi: Becomes 甘いもの食べるの？(amai mono taberu no?) |
| Kat: ”Do you eat sweet things?” |
| Naomi: Of course you can just say, 甘いもの食べる？(amai mono taberu?) ↑ |
| Kat: ”Do you eat sweet things?” with the rising intonation that we discussed last time, but remember this usage of の (no), as you will see it in future dialogues in the series! |
Outro |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Okay, well that's all for this lesson. |
| Kat: Until next time everyone! |
| Naomi: じゃあまた！(Jā mata!) |
| ケント (Kento):このケーキ、めちゃくちゃうまい！(Kono kēki, mechakucha umai!) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):あら、ケント君、甘いもの食べるの？(Ara, Kento-kun, amai mono taberu no?) |
| ケント (Kento):はい。食べます。(Hai. Tabemasu.) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):もっと食べる？(Motto taberu?) |
| ケント (Kento):うん。おかわり。(Un. Okawari.) |
| ケント (Kento):・・・あ・・・おかわりおねがいします。(... A... okawari onegai shimasu.) |
| お母さん (o-kā-san):はい、どうぞ。(Hai, dōzo.) |
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