Learn about usage of -san and asking questions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: Asking The Right Questions in Japanese! |
| Peter: Peter here. |
| Naomi: ナオミです。(Naomi desu.) |
| Peter: ナオミ先生、こんにちは。(Naomi-sensei, kon’nichiwa.) |
| Naomi: こんにちは。(Kon’nichiwa.) |
| Peter: It is great to be back and today we have a special treat. |
| Naomi: What? 何ですか。(Nan desu ka.) |
| Peter: Not what, who. |
| Naomi: Who? |
| Peter: Who is here with us today? |
| Naomi: あぁ、アキヒロさん。(Ā, Akihiro-san.) |
| Akihiro: どうも、こんにちは、アキヒロです。(Dōmo, kon’nichiwa, Akihiro desu.) |
| Peter: よろしくお願いします。(Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| Akihiro: こちらこそ。(Kochirakoso.) |
| Peter: ナオミ先生？(Naomi-sensei?) |
| Naomi: はい？(Hai?) |
| Peter: ご挨拶… (Go-aisatsu…) |
| Naomi: ああ、すいません。よろしくお願いします、アキヒロさん。(Ā, suimasen. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu, Akihiro-san.) |
| Akihiro: よろしくお願いします。(Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| Naomi: すいません。(Suimasen.) |
| Peter: So yes, we have Akihiro-san joining us with Naomi-sensei and we are going to continue on with Naomi-sensei’s newbie series. Now, last week Naomi-sensei… |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: What did we cover? |
| Naomi: 私は東です。(Watashi wa Higashi desu.) |
| Peter: 私は (watashi wa) something, something, something です (desu). and what could be filled in in that something, something, something could be a name, job or |
| Naomi: Nationality. |
| Peter: Yes, we even touched on nationality last week. Now Naomi-sensei, what do we have this week? |
| Naomi: Yes/No questions. |
| Peter: And when we talk about questions, what sentence ending particle do we need? |
| Naomi: か (ka) |
| Peter: One syllable, か (ka). |
| Naomi: Easy isn’t it? |
| Peter: Very easy. So today’s dialogue has a lot of reviews plus something new. Now Naomi-sensei, can you give us the setting and the background to today’s dialogue? |
| Naomi: Okay, they are in the office of スタイルユー (Sutairu Yū). |
| Peter: Style You. |
| Naomi: This is Kim Mi Yeon-san’s first day at work. |
| Peter: Okay, so let’s find out what happens. Are you ready? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Akihiro: Yes, I am. |
| Peter: All right. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : おはようございます。私は、キム ミ ヨンです。インターンです。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。(Ohayō gozaimasu. Watashi wa, Kimu Mi Yon desu. Intān desu. Dōzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| 東春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : あ、おはようございます。キム・・・ん？えっと・・・。(A, ohayō gozaimasu. Kimu... n? Etto…) |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : ミ ヨンです。(Mi Yon desu.) |
| 東春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : ミ ヨンさんですか。(Mi Yon-san desu ka.) |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : はい。ミ ヨンです。(Hai. Mi Yon desu.) |
| 東春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : えっと、東春人です。ひがしです。ミ ヨンさんは、アメリカ人ですか。(Etto, Higashi Haruhito desu. Higashi desu. Mi Yon-san wa, Amerika-jin desu ka.) |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : はい、そうです。(Hai, sō 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.) |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : おはようございます。私は、キム ミ ヨンです。インターンです。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。(Ohayō gozaimasu. Watashi wa, Kimu Mi Yon desu. Intān desu. Dōzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| 東春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : あ、おはようございます。キム・・・ん？えっと・・・。(A, ohayō gozaimasu. Kimu... n? Etto…) |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : ミ ヨンです。(Mi Yon desu.) |
| 東春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : ミ ヨンさんですか。(Mi Yon-san desu ka.) |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : はい。ミ ヨンです。(Hai. Mi Yon desu.) |
| 東春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : えっと、東春人です。ひがしです。ミ ヨンさんは、アメリカ人ですか。(Etto, Higashi Haruhito desu. Higashi desu. Mi Yon-san wa, Amerika-jin desu ka.) |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| 次は、英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : おはようございます。私は、キム ミ ヨンです。インターンです。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。(Ohayō gozaimasu. Watashi wa, Kimu Mi Yon desu. Intān desu. Dōzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| MI YEON KIM: Good morning. I am Kim Mi Yeon. I'm an intern. It's very nice to meet you. |
| 東春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : あ、おはようございます。キム・・・ん？えっと・・・。(A, ohayō gozaimasu. Kimu... n? Etto…) |
| HARUHITO HIGASHI: Oh, good morning. Kim Mi...ummm... |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : ミ ヨンです。(Mi Yon desu.) |
| MI YEON KIM: It's Mi Yeon. |
| 東春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : ミ ヨンさんですか。(Mi Yon-san desu ka.) |
| HARUHITO HIGASHI: Mi Yeon? |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : はい。ミ ヨンです。(Hai. Mi Yon desu.) |
| MI YEON KIM: Yes. That's right. I'm Mi Yeon. |
| 東春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : えっと、東春人です。ひがしです。ミ ヨンさんは、アメリカ人ですか。(Etto, Higashi Haruhito desu. Higashi desu. Mi Yon-san wa, Amerika-jin desu ka.) |
| HARUHITO HIGASHI: Uh...I'm Haruhito Higashi. Call me Higashi. Are you American, Mi Yeon? |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| MI YEON KIM: Yes, I am. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Naomi-sensei, what did you think? |
| Naomi: I thought it’s interesting because Mi Yeon-san said ミヨンです (Mi Yon desu), which is her first name and Higashi-san said 東です (Higashi desu), which is his family name. |
| Peter: Again there is this difference where a lot of foreigners tend to say their first name followed by です (desu). |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Peter: Okay, let’s take a look at today’s vocab. We have to make this lesson quicker than the last one. Right, Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Akihiro-san? |
| Akihiro: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Start us off. What is our first – well actually, the first one is an expression. お願いします。(Onegai shimasu.) |
| Akihiro: おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) |
| Peter: Good morning. |
| Akihiro: (slow) おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) (natural speed) おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) |
| Peter: Good morning. Now Akihiro-san, we were just chatting about this. This expression in formal situations such as work |
| Akihiro: Right. |
| Peter: Can be used pretty much throughout the day? |
| Akihiro: That’s right. When you see your coworker for the first time in the day, you can actually use this おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) expression like any time. |
| Peter: Like today it’s – what is the time? It is about 2 o’ clock now and when everyone came to the studio, it was おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu). |
| Naomi: おはようございます。(Ohayō gozaimasu.) |
| Peter: So yeah this all day notion when you go to especially work or something like this, you can say おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu). Now what about the short casual version of good morning? |
| Akihiro: おはよう (ohayō) |
| Akihiro: We drop the |
| Akihiro: ございます (gozaimasu) |
| Peter: And we are left with just? |
| Akihiro: おはよう (ohayō) |
| Peter: Akihiro-san, who would you use this expression with? Your boss? |
| Akihiro: To my friends. |
| Peter: Yeah, not the boss, right? |
| Akihiro: Ah no, yeah I would choose to add the ございます (gozaimasu) to my boss. |
| Peter: But friends, family. Throughout this newbie series, we will be talking about an inner circle and in Japanese, relationships are the basis of so many things and especially the politeness level you use. Now we will talk about inner circle and Naomi-sensei, in inner circle of intimate people, who would you include in there? |
| Naomi: Friends, family. |
| Peter: Family. Akihiro-san, anybody else to add to that? |
| Akihiro: Girlfriends, boyfriends. |
| Peter: Yeah, people who are very close to you. So you can speak casually with them but people older than you or at work or in formal situations, being polite and using polite Japanese is very important. So we want to stress that too, but again we will cover that more and more. Next we have |
| Naomi: インターン (intān) |
| Peter: Intern. |
| Naomi: (slow) いんたーん (intān) (natural speed) インターン (intān) |
| Peter: Based off the English word, intern. |
| Naomi: If you pronounce インターン (*intān), Japanese people wouldn’t understand. |
| Peter: So give us the proper pronunciation. |
| Naomi: インターン (intān) |
| Peter: So it stays high. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: インターン (intān) |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| Peter: Ah インターン (*intān) wouldn’t go. |
| Naomi: No. |
| Peter: So you stay high the whole time. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) (slow) いんたーん (intān) (natural speed) インターン (intān) |
| Peter: Break it down by syllable. |
| Naomi: (slow) いんたーん (intān) (natural speed) インターン (intān) |
| Peter: インターン (intān) |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: So it’s the hard accent on the アーン (ān). |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: インターン (intān) |
| Naomi: インターン (intān) |
| Peter: Yes. The pitch accent is very difficult but… |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Hmm…So kind of rising up, flat and rising インターン (intān). |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: Boo! This is going to be a very interesting series. Naomi-sensei, |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Have you ever done an internship? |
| Naomi: I did actually. I was an intern teacher, an intern teacher. I was an intern teacher in Australia. |
| Peter: Really? |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Peter: Akihiro-san? |
| Akihiro: わたしは、ないですね。インターンは。(Watashi wa , nai desu ne. Intān wa.) |
| Peter: No internships? |
| Akihiro: はい。未経験です。(Hai. Mikeiken desu.) |
| Peter: No experience. |
| Akihiro: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: But what’s very interesting for me is Japanese internships are paid. |
| Naomi: ああ、そうですか。(Ā, sō desu ka.) |
| Peter: Yeah. Where western internships are not usually paid. |
| Akihiro: Oh really? |
| Peter: Yeah. So Japanese interns, they do quite well for themselves. |
| Naomi: うーん、いいですね。(Ūn, ii desu ne.) |
| Peter: Okay, then we have next. |
| Akihiro: さん (san) |
| Peter: Polite suffix. |
| Akihiro: (slow) さん (san) (natural speed) さん (san) |
| Peter: And this can be attached to many different things. First names, last names, jobs. |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Peter: Pretty much anything. |
| Naomi: そうですね、ピーターさん。(Sō desu ne, Pītā-san.) |
| Peter: Mr. Peter. |
| Naomi: So it sounds bit strange in here. |
| Peter: So you can kind of think of it as just a polite way to refer to Peter and… |
| Naomi: You can’t attach さん (san) to your own name. |
| Peter: ナオミ先生、さすが先生。(Naomi-sensei, sasuga sensei.) Yes this is an issue that some of our listeners have. How can we put that they have? You never attach さん (san) to your own name. |
| Naomi: Unless you are joking. |
| Peter: Or multiple personalities or like something along these lines but yeah usually you don’t, never. Next we have |
| Naomi: アメリカ人 (Amerika-jin) |
| Peter: American. |
| Naomi: (slow) あめりかじん (Amerika-jin) (natural speed) アメリカ人 (Amerika-jin) |
| Peter: And this goes back to last week. You take country’s name and you follow it with |
| Naomi: 人 (jin) |
| Peter: To get the nationality. In this case, we have America which is the US. This is actually short for the proper name for the US which is quite long. |
| Akihiro: アメリカ合衆国 (Amerika gasshūkoku) |
| Peter: The United States of America. Yeah, so it gets shortened down. Just give it to us one more time nice and slow. |
| Akihiro: (slow) あめりかがっしゅこく (Amerika gasshūkoku) |
| Peter: This gets shortened to just |
| Akihiro: アメリカ (Amerika) |
| Peter: And then we follow this with? |
| Naomi: 人 (jin) |
| Peter: To get American. Inside the PDF, we will take a look at this but Naomi-san, is there a country in particular you want to cover? |
| Naomi: ドイツ (Doitsu) |
| Peter: Germany. |
| Naomi: (slow) ドイツ (Doitsu) (natural speed) ドイツ (Doitsu) |
| And German is ドイツ人 (Doitsu-jin). |
| Peter: Akihiro-san, country in particular you want to cover? |
| Akihiro: 中国 (Chūgoku) |
| Peter: China. |
| Akihiro: 中国人 (Chūgoku-jin) |
| Peter: Chinese. |
| Naomi: And 日本 (Nihon)! |
| Peter: Japan. |
| Naomi: 日本人 (Nihon-jin) |
| Peter: Japanese. Now also we have 日本 (Nippon) and 日本人 (Nippon-jin). What is the difference here between にほんじん (Nihon-jin) and にっぽんじん (Nippon-jin)? |
| Naomi: We usually use にほんじん (Nihon-jin) rather than にっぽんじん (Nippon-jin). When we cheer someone in the sports for example, we say にっぽん (Nippon). |
| Peter: Hearing you say it, the “p” sound makes that stop much easier. にっぽん (Nippon) rather than にほん (Nihon). So maybe that’s why when it’s cheering, when you are cheering, that’s why it becomes that sound. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) That’s right, yeah. You are right that way. |
| Peter: I know. It’s right. |
| Naomi: I think you are right. |
| Peter: Because just hearing it now was like it seems rather – I don’t know it’s like a に (ni) like it’s にほん (Nihon), kind of flows where as にっぽん (Nippon) is like a stop in there, that pause in there. Hohoho. |
| Naomi: すごい。(Sugoi.) Great, Peter-san. |
| Akihiro: にっぽんの方がなんか力強い感じがしますね。(Nippon no hō ga nanka chikarazuyoi kanji ga shimasu ne.) |
| Peter: Yeah. It seems like that’s a lot stronger and you could put a lot more into saying it. Hah! We have to check into that interesting, interesting things. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Okay, and finally we have |
| Akihiro: はい (hai) |
| Peter: Yes. |
| Akihiro: (slow) はい (hai) (natural speed) はい (hai) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Okay, so now let’s take a look at the conversation. Now the best thing about this conversation is between last week’s conversation and this week’s vocab, we covered almost everything. So we are just going to go through it and point out some things that we haven’t gotten around to yet. So you want to start us off? |
| Naomi: はい。おはようございます。(Hai. Ohayō gozaimasu.) |
| Peter: Good morning or remember in this case, it could be good afternoon. Here as we are talking about a company as we have that established, we can understand from this context that the person is saying おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu) has just arrived at the company. |
| Naomi: 私はキムミヨンです。 (Watashi wa Kimu Mi Yon desu.) |
| Peter: I am Mi Yeon Kim. Now she reverses her name. So she says it the Japanese way with the last name first and the first name following. Interesting. Pattern straightforward 私は (watashi wa) something, something です (desu). Here we have her name. This is followed by |
| Naomi: インターンです。(Intān desu.) |
| Peter: Literally intern am, but again I am an intern, I am the intern and here, no 私 (watashi) because it’s already established that she is speaking about herself and finally we have |
| Naomi: どうぞよろしくお願いします。(Dōzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| Peter: Please be kind to me and I think in this case, we can literally translate it because she is an intern as please be kind to me because I have the mercy of her superiors. Next we have |
| Akihiro: あ、おはようございます。(A, ohayō gozaimasu.) |
| Peter: Good morning. |
| Akihiro: キム、うーん、えっと。(Kimu, ūn, etto.) |
| Peter: Kim, umm, umm so…. A little trouble with the last name. |
| Naomi: ミヨンです。(Mi Yon desu.) |
| Peter: It’s Mi Yeon. Now here translated as it’s Mi Yeon. Now that it is inferred, literally we have Mi Yeon is but in English, it would be it is Mi Yeon. So we have it’s Mi Yeon. |
| Akihiro: ミヨンさんですか。(Mi Yon-san desu ka.) |
| Peter: Is it Ms. Mi Yeon. Here are we asking if the person is married? Is it that type of question? |
| Naomi: No, I think he is confirming the pronunciation. |
| Peter: Here it’s being used to just confirm and the intonation kind of gives it away too. ミヨンですか (Mi Yon desu ka), like… |
| Naomi: ミヨンさんですか。ピーターさんですか。(Mi Yon-san desu ka. Pītā-san desu ka.) |
| Peter: Yeah, just confirming but still at the same time sentence ending particle か (ka) makes it into a question. So we have, is it Mi Yeon? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Followed by |
| Naomi: はい。ミヨンです。(Hai. Mi Yon desu.) |
| Peter: Yes, it’s Mi Yeon. |
| Akihiro: えっと、東春人です。(Etto, Higashi Haruhito desu.) |
| Peter: Umm I am Haruhito Higashi and again he is having a little trouble getting it out there, followed by |
| Akihiro: 東です。(Higashi desu.) |
| Peter: I am Higashi, but here kind of call me Higashi. |
| Naomi: Right. |
| Peter: Refer to me as Higashi. Then we have |
| Akihiro: ミヨンさんはアメリカ人ですか。(Mi Yon-san wa Amerika-jin desu ka.) |
| Peter: Are you American Mi Yeon? Sensei, what’s the literal meaning of this sentence? |
| Naomi: Is Mi Yeon American? |
| Peter: Mi Yeon American are you, literally. We translate it as are you American Ms. Mi Yeon? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: And interesting here that the Japanese person switched to her first name. Now I could think of several reasons. In her introduction, she intentionally reversed the names. So Japanese people are very used to foreigners saying, listen to foreigners say their first name and last name. So maybe he reserved it thinking that that was the last name. So that’s where this cultural confusion kind of came in. So we are back to the first name. So it’s still like Mr. Peter or Ms. Peter, Ms. Mi Yeon which is the first name but it’s good enough. Ms. Mi Yeon, are you American? Literally Ms. Mi Yeon American are you, and the answer? |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| Peter: Yes, that’s right. Now a quick question. What if it was no? |
| Naomi: いいえ、違います。(Iie, chigaimasu.) |
| Peter: No it’s different which we translate it’s incorrect or that’s wrong. |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Peter: Okay, again now you want to stop by and check out the PDF. Naomi-sensei has written up such phenomenal PDFs and there is so much more in there. Naomi-sensei, is there anything you want to include? |
| Naomi: We have an expression for you. You is あなた (anata) |
| (slow) あなた (anata) (natural speed) あなた (anata) |
| But we don’t use あなた (anata) very often. |
| Peter: Yeah. This is a bit of a tricky subject because of it’s a bit direct right you. |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Peter: And Japanese is a bit indirect. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Around about. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: So rather than you, usually the person’s name or their title but again it’s not this Mr. Ms. it’s this nuance of you are showing the person you are speaking to more respect. So it’s not Mr. Peter in my case. It’s Peter… |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Peter: But the intonation is in English. |
| Naomi: Peter, dear? みたいなね。(Mitai na ne.) |
| Peter: I like that dear, Peter dear. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Oh! |
| Akihiro: So we practiced the basic phrase, おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu). Have you heard of the origin of that expression? |
| Peter: No. |
| Akihiro: No. What does おはよう (ohayō), はよう (hayō), you know, it came as in the kanji, what does it mean おはよう (ohayō)? |
| Peter: I don’t know. What does it mean? |
| Akihiro: It means early, 早い (hayai). It comes from 早い (hayai). |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Akihiro: So this expression comes from greeting phrases among farmers growing rice and they have to wake up early and work hard to grow rice. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Akihiro: So they kind of admired each other’s early rising. That’s the origin of おはようございます (ohayō gozaimasu). |
| Peter: Oh!! |
| Akihiro: Yeah, so it’s quite different from good morning. |
| Peter: ワオ、勉強になりました。(Wao, benkyō ni narimashita.) Wow! That was great! |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Akihiro: ちょっと豆知識です。(Chotto mamechishiki desu.) |
| Peter: And what was that last expression, 豆知識 (mamechishiki), you know about beans? |
| Naomi: Beans! Beans knowledge, knowledge of beans |
| Peter: Knowledge of beans. |
| Akihiro: One point lesson? |
| Naomi: One point lesson! |
Outro |
| Peter: Oh! These newbies are really interesting! Long, but interesting. All right, that is going to do for today. |
| Naomi: じゃあ、また。(Jā, mata.) |
| Akihiro: お疲れさま。(Otsukare-sama.) |
| DIALOGUE |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : おはようございます。私は、キム ミ ヨンです。インターンです。どうぞよろしくおねがいします。(Ohayō gozaimasu. Watashi wa, Kimu Mi Yon desu. Intān desu. Dōzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.) |
| 東春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : あ、おはようございます。キム・・・ん？えっと・・・。(A, ohayō gozaimasu. Kimu... n? Etto…) |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : ミ ヨンです。(Mi Yon desu.) |
| 東春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : ミ ヨンさんですか。(Mi Yon-san desu ka.) |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : はい。ミ ヨンです。(Hai. Mi Yon desu.) |
| 東春人 (Higashi Haruhito) : えっと、東春人です。ひがしです。ミ ヨンさんは、アメリカ人ですか。(Etto, Higashi Haruhito desu. Higashi desu. Mi Yon-san wa, Amerika-jin desu ka.) |
| キムミヨン (Kimu Mi Yon) : はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
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