Learn about inviting someone to do something
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Naomi: なおみです。(Naomi desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here, Sights and Sounds, Lesson 9, Taking a Photograph. Naomi-Sensei? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: この写真、どうなってますか。(Kono shashin, dō natte masu ka.) |
| Naomi: えーっと、これは…。鳥居がありますね。(Ētto, kore wa… Torii ga arimasu ne.) There’s a torii gate in the middle. |
| Peter: Can you give us the pronunciation here? |
| Naomi: 鳥居 (torii) 鳥居 (torii) |
| Peter: 鳥居 (torii) |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: And what is this? |
| Naomi: It’s a gate for a shrine. |
| Peter: Only shrines? |
| Naomi: I think so. Yeah! Yeah. |
| Peter: Yeah. だと思います。(Da to omoimasu.) |
| Naomi: だと思います。(Da to omoimasu.) |
| Peter: One more time. Give us that nice pronunciation. |
| Naomi: 鳥居 (torii) |
| Peter: Is there something special you do with this gate or what’s going on? Do most people take pictures here? Here, two people are taking a picture. |
| Naomi: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: One person is taking another person’s picture. Is this common at these gates? |
| Naomi: Sometimes, people take pictures at 鳥居 (torii). |
| Peter: Now, Naomi-Sensei, is it okay to take pictures at a shrine? |
| Naomi: Outside a shrine, I’d say it’s okay, but not inside the shrine. |
| Peter: I think, for me, when I go to a shrine, being a westerner, I go to the shrine and have my camera out and I’m snapping pictures, it seems kind of natural for me, but sometimes when I do go with Japanese people or, you know, my wife, she says too that basically, she wouldn’t take pictures in a shrine. |
| Naomi: Okay. そうね。(Sō ne.) It’s like a church, right? Do you take pictures in a church? Same kind of question. |
| Peter: Yeah. So, we’ll leave it to your discretion, but, you know, you coming to Japan, if you just want these pictures, I say take them. |
| Naomi: そうね。そうね。(Sō ne. Sō ne.) |
| Peter: Yeah, the proper protocol is probably not to take them. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) But taking pictures at the torii gate is no problem. |
| Peter: So, our advice to you, but if that’s a shot that you have to have, go for it. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) And also, can you see a little sign on the right side of the picture? |
| Peter: No. |
| Naomi: It says 鯉のぼり (koinobori), 子供大会 (kodomo taikai). |
| Peter: Now, I see it. What does that mean? |
| Naomi: Do you know こどもの日 (kodomo no hi)? |
| Peter: Children’s Day. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) May 5th is こどもの日 (kodomo no hi) in Japan. ５月５日 (go-gatsu itsuka) is こどもの日 (kodomo no hi) and people celebrate on that day. |
| Peter: And on this day, at this particular shrine, they’re having a 大会 (taikai), which is kind of like a contest. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: And 鯉のぼり (koinobori) are those things you see blowing in the wind. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: What it is, is it’s made of cloth, and on the top part, there’s a ring. And through that ring, the wind blows. And on the other end, there’s a hole. So it’s this long, thin cloth that when the wind blows through it, it makes a circular shape when it’s kind of inflated with the wind passing through it. |
| Naomi: Mm. |
| Peter: And on the outside, there’s a picture of… |
| Naomi: 魚 (sakana) which is fish. |
| Peter: And this particular fish is… |
| Naomi: 鯉 (koi) |
| Peter: Carp. So, it kind of looks like it’s swimming in the air. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: And it’s very popular on this day and in May. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: All right. Well, that was a long intro. Are we ready to get into the lesson? |
| Naomi: はい！ (Hai!) |
| Peter: All right. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: ねえ。せっかくだから、写真撮ろうか。 (Nee. Sekkaku da kara, shashin torō ka.) |
| B: OK。私が撮ってあげる。なんたって、お父さんカメラマンだからね、デジカメかして。 (Okkē. Watashi ga totte ageru. Nantatte, o-tō-san kameraman da kara ne, dejikame kashite.) |
| A: サンキュー。 (Sankyū.) |
| B: はい、チーズ。撮れたよ。どう？ (Hai, chīzu. Toreta yo. Dō?) |
| A: えーっ何これー。私こんなにブスじゃないわよ！ (Ē nani korē. Watashi konna ni busu ja nai wa yo!) |
| B: じゃあ、もう一回。はい、チーズ。今度はどう？ (Jā, mō ikkai. Hai, chīzu. Kondo wa dō?) |
| A: いい感じじゃない。私らしさがすごくでてるわ。さすが、ヒカルね。 (Ii kanji ja nai. Watashi rashisa ga sugoku dete ru wa. Sasuga, Hikaru ne.) |
| B: サンキュー。 (Sankyū.) |
| 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.) |
| A: ねえ。せっかくだから、写真撮ろうか。 (Nee. Sekkaku da kara, shashin torō ka.) |
| B: OK。私が撮ってあげる。なんたって、お父さんカメラマンだからね、デジカメかして。 (Okkē. Watashi ga totte ageru. Nantatte, o-tō-san kameraman da kara ne, dejikame kashite.) |
| A: サンキュー。 (Sankyū.) |
| B: はい、チーズ。撮れたよ。どう？ (Hai, chīzu. Toreta yo. Dō?) |
| A: えーっ何これー。私こんなにブスじゃないわよ！ (Ē nani korē. Watashi konna ni busu ja nai wa yo!) |
| B: じゃあ、もう一回。はい、チーズ。今度はどう？ (Jā, mō ikkai. Hai, chīzu. Kondo wa dō?) |
| A: いい感じじゃない。私らしさがすごくでてるわ。さすが、ヒカルね。 (Ii kanji ja nai. Watashi rashisa ga sugoku dete ru wa. Sasuga, Hikaru ne.) |
| B: サンキュー。 (Sankyū.) |
| 次は、英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| A: ねえ。せっかくだから、写真撮ろうか。 (Nē. Sekkaku da kara, shashin torō ka.) |
| Hey, let's take a picture. It's a good occasion. |
| B: OK。私が撮ってあげる。なんたって、お父さんカメラマンだからね、デジカメかして。 (Okkē. Watashi ga totte ageru. Nantatte, o-tō-san kameraman da kara ne, dejikame kashite.) |
| Okay. I'll take the picture for you. My dad is a cameraman, you know. Give me your camera. |
| A: サンキュー。 (Sankyū.) |
| Thank you. |
| B: はい、チーズ。撮れたよ。どう？ (Hai, chīzu. Toreta yo. Dō?) |
| Okay. Say cheese! Got it. How do you like it? |
| A: えーっ何これー。私こんなにブスじゃないわよ！ (Ē nani korē. Watashi konna ni busu ja nai wa yo!) |
| What is this? I don't look this ugly! |
| B: じゃあ、もう一回。はい、チーズ。今度はどう？ (Jā, mō ikkai. Hai, chīzu. Kondo wa dō?) |
| Okay. Then we'll take it again. Say cheese! How about this time? |
| A: いい感じじゃない。私らしさがすごくでてるわ。さすが、ヒカルね。 (Ii kanji ja nai. Watashi rashisa ga sugoku dete ru wa. Sasuga, Hikaru ne.) |
| It looks good. It really brings out the best in me. You're a good photographer, Akira. |
| B: サンキュー。 (Sankyū.) |
| Thank you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: なおみ先生、この会話どう思いましたか。(Naomi-Sensei, kono kaiwa dō omoimashita ka.) |
| Naomi: 「私こんなにブスじゃないわよ！」(”Watashi konna ni busu ja nai wa yo!”) |
| Peter: I’m not that ugly. |
| Naomi: It’s not a very polite word. |
| Peter: Yes. ちょっと... ですね。(Chotto... desu ne.) Like, mmm. But, I think it’s good that you know this word. |
| Naomi: はい、もちろん。(Hai, mochiron.) Yeah, of course. |
| Peter: もちろん。(Mochiron.) |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Peter: Maybe they figured out why, but we’ll get to that in a minute. For now, let’s just take a look at some of the vocab. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| VOCAB LIST AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: First, we have… |
| Naomi: 写真 (shashin) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: photograph |
| Naomi: 写真 (shashin) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 写真 (shashin) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Sample sentence, please. |
| Naomi: 東京タワーで写真を撮る。(Tōkyō Tawā de shashin o toru.) |
| Peter: “I will take a picture at Tokyo Tower.” Here, we have a common pattern, 写真を撮る (shashin o toru). |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: “To take a picture.” |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) なので (nanode), “Take a picture at a torii” is 鳥居で写真を撮る (torii de shashin o toru). |
| Peter: So, the picture is what you’re taking and the で (de), the particle で (de) here is marking where you’re taking that picture. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: In this picture, they’re taking the picture at the torii. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: In the sample sentence, they’re taking it at Tokyo Tower. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: All right. Next, we have… |
| Naomi: とる (toru) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: to take |
| Naomi: とる (toru) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: とる (toru) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: とる (toru) can mean many different things. |
| Naomi: あ〜、そうですね。(Ā, sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: And two ways to tell; one by context and one by the kanji, the character. So, you gotta check out the PDF for this because it’s quite important to know the writing of this character. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Next, we have… |
| Naomi: カメラマン (kameraman) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: cameraman |
| Naomi: カメラマン (kameraman) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: カメラマン (kameraman) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Very straightforward. Let’s go to the next word. What do we have next? |
| Naomi: デジカメ (dejikame) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: digital camera |
| Naomi: デジカメ (dejikame) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: デジカメ (dejikame) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: So, start out low and go up and then stay flat. |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) |
| Peter: デジカメ (dejikame) |
| Naomi: そうそう。そうです。(Sō sō. Sō desu.) |
| Peter: デジカメ (dejikame) |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) デジカメ (dejikame) |
| Peter: デジカメ (dejikame) |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: It’s tough to say it slow. Everyone out there should practice this, say it nice and slow because yeah, that’s really how you refine it. I’m so used to saying it at such a quick speed. Okay, next we have a very interesting word. |
| Naomi: サンキュー (sankyū) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: thank you |
| Naomi: サンキュー (sankyū) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: サンキュー (sankyū) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: You know, it just hit me now ‘cause I always heard this word and I hear it so often, サンキュー (sankyū). |
| Naomi: そう。(Sō.) サンキュー (sankyū). |
| Peter: But you know what it is, actually, SAN-KYU. |
| Naomi: そうね。(Sō ne.) |
| Peter: But the pitch accent is a bit different. |
| Naomi: サンキュー (sankyū) |
| Peter: サンキュー (sankyū) |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: It sounds a lot like Level 3, 三級 (sankyū). |
| Naomi: Level 3 is 三級 (sankyū). |
| Peter: The pitch accent is where? |
| Naomi: 三級 (sankyū) [slowly - broken down by syllable] goes flat. |
| Peter: 三級 (sankyū) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: サンキュー (sankyū) |
| Naomi: あれ、ちょっと待って？(Are, chotto matte?) |
| Peter: あれ？(Are?) |
| Naomi: Start low and goes up at ん (n) sound and stay high. 三級 (sankyū), that’s grade 3. “Thank you” is サンキュー (sankyū), サンキュー (sankyū). |
| Peter: Going down. |
| Naomi: はい、そうです。(Hai, sō desu.) サ (sa) is high, but ンキュー (nkyū) is low. |
| Peter: So, let’s see if I can get it. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: サンキュー (sankyū) |
| Naomi: はい！(Hai!) |
| Peter: Thank you. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: And サンキュー (sankyū). |
| Naomi: そうです！(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: なるほど。(Naruhodo.) So you kind of go up on the end. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: サンキュー (sankyū) |
| Naomi: Maternity leave is also called 産休 (sankyū). |
| Peter: Got it. |
| Naomi: Which you might not need it. |
| Peter: 必要ではないですね。(Hitsuyō de wa nai desu ne.) |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: But no, actually, in some countries, they have male maternity leave. |
| Naomi: あ〜、そうですね。(Ā, sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Is that still 産休 (sankyū)? |
| Naomi: でも「産」は (demo “san” wa), delivering children. |
| Peter: 副産休。(Fukusankyū.) |
| Naomi: 副産休…。(Fukusankyū…) |
| Peter: Like assisting delivering. |
| Naomi: I don’t know. 多分「育児休暇」、「育休」です。(Tabun “ikuji kyūka”, “ikukyū” desu.) |
| Peter: Which means… |
| Naomi: 育児 (ikuji) |
| Peter: Rearing children. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Childrearing break. |
| Naomi: はい。で、育休。(Hai. De, ikukyū.) |
| Peter: Ah...a break to raise a child. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Oh boy. All right. Let’s, kind of, let’s pick up the pace here. Next, we have… |
| Naomi: チーズ (chīzu) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: cheese (as in smile) |
| Naomi: チーズ (chīzu) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: チーズ (chīzu) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: The food product? |
| Naomi: Same pronunciation. |
| Peter: Okay. Next, we have… |
| Naomi: ブス (busu) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Ugly woman. Ugly woman, and this is very rude. |
| Naomi: Cannot be polite. |
| Peter: Yes. It can’t be polite. 彼女はブスですけど、いい方です。(Kanojo wa busu desu kedo, ii hō desu.) Something along those lines. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: But anyway, yeah, not a polite word. Can we break this down? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Naomi: ブス (busu) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: ブス (busu) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Now, there’s another word related to this, ブサイク (busaiku). |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: What does this mean? |
| Naomi: “ugly” |
| Peter: Ugly. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: ブス (busu) is just a shorter version of this or are there different meanings? |
| Naomi: ブス (busu) is strictly for woman and ブサイク (busaiku) could be for man and woman and for anything. |
| Peter: For anything. |
| Naomi: Yeah. For example, animals. |
| Peter: Really? |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Peter: So, can you give us an example sentence? “That baby giraffe is ugly.” |
| Naomi: あの子どものキリンはブサイクです。(Ano kodomo no kirin wa busaiku desu.) |
| Peter: “That baby giraffe is ugly.” |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Maybe like the legs aren’t even so it’s tilted a bit. |
| Naomi: あ〜、そうですね。(Ā, sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: So ブサイク (busaiku). And pitch accent is on the アイ (ai). You’re gonna hit the high point at the アイ (ai). |
| Naomi: ブサイク (busaiku) |
| Peter: ブサイク (busaiku) |
| Naomi: そうです。(Sō desu.) |
| Peter: Mm, this is getting fun. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Next, we have… |
| Naomi: もう一回 (mō ikkai) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: one more time |
| Naomi: もう一回 (mō ikkai) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: もう一回 (mō ikkai) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Followed by… |
| Naomi: 今度 (kondo) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: this time |
| Naomi: 今度 (kondo) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 今度 (kondo) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Next… |
| Naomi: 感じ (kanji) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: feel, impression |
| Naomi: 感じ (kanji) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 感じ (kanji) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Okay, let’s take a look at the conversation. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: First, we have… |
| Naomi: ねえ。せっかくだから、写真撮ろうか。 (Nee. Sekkaku da kara, shashin torō ka.) |
| Peter: “Hey, since we’re here, let’s take a picture.” Now, the first part, what do we have, Naomi-Sensei? |
| Naomi: ねえ (nee) |
| Peter: Again, two females speaking here and they’re speaking very casual, so getting the attention of the other person. But guys can also use this too. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: ねえ (nee) |
| Naomi: ねえ (nee) |
| Peter: Like, “Hey!” |
| Naomi: はい、そうですね。(Hai, sō desu ne.) |
| Peter; And for casual situations. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: So, if you’re in a business meeting negotiating and you’re waiting on someone to come back with a number or something, you don’t wanna prompt them with ねえ (nee). |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) And sometimes, people say it twice, ねえねえ (nee nee) “hey, hey.” |
| Peter: Yeah, to get that person’s attention. |
| Naomi: はい。ねえねえ。(Hai. Nee nee.) |
| Peter: ねえねえ、なおみ先生。(Nee nee, Naomi-sensei.) |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: But I don’t know if you should call your teacher like this. |
| Naomi: あー、そうですね。とてもカジュアルですね。(Ā, sō desu ne. Totemo kajuaru desu ne.) |
| Peter: Very informal. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: So, in the case you wanna get your teacher’s attention, あ、すみません先生 (a, sumimasen sensei) would probably be better. |
| Naomi: はい、そうですね。(Hai, sō desu ne.) At least in the classroom, yeah. |
| Peter: Yeah. As soon as you leave in the hallway, ねえねえ、先生 (nee nee, sensei). |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Okay, next we have… |
| Naomi: せっかくだから (sekkaku da kara) |
| Peter: せっかく (sekkaku) is a phrase that means very…case by case, you have to interpret it. That can change meaning depending on context. Here, since we came all this way, since we’re here, so they’re visiting the shrine and it’s not something you do every day, so they came all this way since they’re here on a special occasion (something, something). So, kind of a special occasion. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: I like that, the special occasion, せっかく (sekkaku). せっかく誕生日ですから (sekkaku tanjōbi desu kara), since it’s your birthday… |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: It’s a special occasion, inferred. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Then we have… |
| Naomi: 写真撮ろうか (shashin torō ka) |
| Peter: “Shall we take a picture?” Can you give us what we will find in a textbook ‘cause I think it’s really relevant to kind of show this difference. |
| Naomi: はい。写真を撮りましょう。(Hai. Shashin o torimashō.) Or... 写真を撮りましょうか。(Shashin o torimashō ka.) |
| Peter: First, 写真 (shashin) is marked by the object marker… |
| Naomi: を (o) |
| Peter: And then we have the volitional form… |
| Naomi: 撮りましょう (torimashō) |
| Peter: Now, this pattern is used when you wanna suggest something. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: So, the speaker is suggesting something and this can be compared with when asking someone if they wanna do something, let’s take a picture, because we’re at a tourist spot and we have a camera. If it’s lunchtime and we’re walking down the street and we’re surrounded by restaurants, how could I say, let’s have lunch? |
| Naomi: お昼ご飯食べようか。(O-hirugohan tabeyō ka.) |
| Peter: Literally, “Shall we have lunch?” but it’s kind of more definite. Rather than asking, suggesting. As we’re walking down the street with all these restaurants, as it’s lunchtime, shall we eat? And that’s kind of the main difference between this pattern, the volitional plus か (ka) and another pattern we introduced earlier ませんか (masen ka). The ませんか (masen ka) is...it more depends on the listener’s response. If they give you the okay, then we’ll go do this. But this pattern, it’s...the tools to accomplish what you’re suggesting or the situation that you’re in would allow you to execute your suggestion very quickly. So that’s the main key difference here. Okay, this is followed by… |
| Naomi: OK. |
| Peter: “Okay.” |
| Naomi: 私が撮ってあげる。 (Watashi ga totte ageru.) |
| Peter: “I’ll take it for you.” Literally, I’ll give you the taking. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) てあげる (te ageru) means “I” or somebody will do something for somebody else. |
| Peter: Yeah. あげる (ageru) means someone will give somebody else something. |
| Naomi: そう。難しいですね。例えば、本をあげます。(Sō. Muzukashii desu ne. Tatoeba, hon o agemasu.) |
| Peter: “Somebody will give somebody a book.” |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: And the subject is marked with は (wa). The object is marked with… |
| Naomi: を (o) |
| Peter: In this case, it’s the book. And finally, we have the verb あげる (ageru). |
| Naomi: そうですね。私はピーターさんに本を買ってあげる。(Sō desu ne. Watashi wa Pītā-san ni hon o katte ageru.) |
| Peter: “I’ll buy a book for Peter.” |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Now, everything is the same here, except for the final part. Again, we have the subject, Naomi, marked with… |
| Naomi: は (wa) |
| Peter: The indirect object, Peter, marked with… |
| Naomi: に (ni) |
| Peter: The book, marked with… |
| Naomi: を (o) |
| Peter: And finally, the action... |
| Naomi: 買ってあげる (katte ageru) |
| Peter: So we need 買って (katte), comes from 買う (kau), the dictionary form of “to buy.” |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: And when you do an action for somebody, you need the te-form plus あげる (ageru). |
| Naomi: そうです。 (Sō desu.) |
| Peter: So. 買ってあげる。(Katte ageru.) |
| Naomi: 食べてあげる。(Tabete ageru.) |
| Peter: “I’ll eat it for you.” |
| Naomi: うん、そうそうそう。(Un, sō sō sō.) You can’t finish it? Okay. 食べてあげる。(Tabete ageru.) You can’t drink beer? Okay. 飲んであげる。(Nonde ageru.) |
| Peter: “I’ll drink it for you.” |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: In this case, the friend will take the picture for her. |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Then we have… |
| Naomi: なんたって、お父さんカメラマンだからね。 (Nantatte, o-tō-san kameraman da kara ne.) |
| Peter: “My dad is a cameraman, you know.” Followed by… |
| Naomi: デジカメかして。 (Dejikame kashite.) |
| Peter: “Lend me your digital camera.” |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Now, this is so typical Japanese. |
| Naomi: そう。(Sō.) |
| Peter: Literally, we have “camera lend” me. |
| Naomi: そうです。はい。(Sō desu. Hai.) |
| Peter: With the “me” inferred. So, can we have the sentence in its complete proper textbook style? |
| Naomi: In this case, I don’t think we need to say the subject part because it’s a command. |
| Peter: Got it. |
| Naomi: Okay, so... ジェニーさん、私にデジカメをかしてください。(Jenī-san, watashi ni dejikame o kashite kudasai.) |
| Peter: “Jenny, please lend me your camera.” |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: So, even though we don’t say the subject, we kind of identify who we’re talking to, but you could see how the parts work, 私にデジカメをかしてください (watashi ni dejikame o kashite kudasai.) |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: “To me, camera lend please.” “Please lend me your camera.” |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: And then we get our favorite Japanese word. |
| Naomi: サンキュー。 (Sankyū.) |
| Peter: “Thank you.” Followed by… |
| Naomi: はい、チーズ。 (Hai, chīzu.) |
| Peter: “Okay, smile.” Then… |
| Naomi: 撮れたよ。 (Toreta yo.) |
| Peter: “I took it.” Followed by… |
| Naomi: どう？ (Dō?) |
| Peter: “What do you think?” |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) How is it? とか (toka), what do you think? |
| Peter: どう (dō), being the interrogative “how.” |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Then we have… |
| Naomi: えーっ何これー。 (Ē nani korē.) |
| Peter: “Huh, what’s this?” Now, this 何これ (nani kore), in textbook Japanese, it would be これは何ですか (kore wa nan desu ka). |
| Naomi: そうです。そうですね。(Sō desu. Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: But what happens here? |
| Naomi: これは…。(Kore wa…) Since Jenny is speaking casual, she reversed the word order. |
| Peter: Which is not uncommon when speaking in this manner. It’s kind of more natural towards English ‘cause literally, it’s “What this?” |
| Naomi: あ〜、そうですね。(Ā, sō desu ne.) Of course, Jenny could say... えーっこれ何？(Ē kore nani?) That’s okay too. |
| Peter: Both ways are perfectly all right. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Then we have… |
| Naomi: 私こんなにブスじゃないわよ！ (Watashi konna ni busu ja nai wa yo!) |
| Peter: “I’m not this ugly.” So, you kind of get the picture. What we wanna point out here is 私 (watashi) is the subject. Now, what would normally come after this if this was a proper sentence? |
| Naomi: Topic-marking particle は (wa). |
| Peter: So, it would be… |
| Naomi: 私は (watashi wa) |
| Peter: Then we have こんな (konna) “like this.” |
| Naomi: そう、えーとね。(Sō, ēto ne.) Formal Japanese, we would say このように (kono yō ni). |
| Peter: But the よう (yō) gets dropped and we keep the に (ni). |
| Naomi: うん。(Un.) |
| Peter: So, when こんな (konna) is modifying an adjective like this, this is ugly or something like this, we usually have the particle に (ni), こんなにきれい (konna ni kirei). |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: “This beautiful.” |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: こんなにブス (konna ni busu) “this ugly.” |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) But since she’s talking about herself, it’s perfectly okay to call herself ブス (busu). |
| Peter: Yes. |
| Naomi: Yeah. As long as you’re calling yourself ブス (busu), that’s okay. |
| Peter: ジェニーちゃん、もっと自信持ってください。(Jenī-chan, motto jishin motte kudasai.) Be more confident, Jenny. So, then we have じゃない (ja nai) “I’m not.” Here, not a tag question. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: So, yeah, not a tag question. This is a straightforward “I’m not.” |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: This is followed by… |
| Naomi: じゃあ、もう一回。 (Jā, mō ikkai.) |
| Peter: “One more time.” |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) Instead of もう一回 (mō ikkai), of course, you can say もう一度 (mō ichi-do). |
| Peter: Also, “one more time.” |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Next. |
| Naomi: はい、チーズ。 (Hai, chīzu.) |
| Peter: And as we had before, “smile.” Next... |
| Naomi: 今度はどう？ (Kondo wa dō?) |
| Peter: “What do you think of this one?” Followed by… |
| Naomi: いい感じじゃない。 (Ii kanji ja nai.) |
| Peter: “It looks good, doesn’t it?” And here, the じゃない (ja nai) is the tag question. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: And you could tell by that intonation. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: One more time. |
| Naomi: いい感じじゃない！(Ii kanji ja nai!) Or... いい感じじゃない。(Ii kanji ja nai.) |
| Peter: Then we have… |
| Naomi: 私らしさがすごくでてるわ。 (Watashi rashisa ga sugoku dete ru wa.) |
| Peter: “It really brings out the best in me.” So, 私らしい (watashi rashii) is “like me.” |
| Naomi: It’s very me. |
| Peter: So, when you attach らしい (rashii), it kind of comes out to the English like “like.” |
| Naomi: 例えば。あ〜、ピーターさんらしいですね。(Tatoeba. Ā, Pītā-san rashii desu ne.) |
| Peter: “Ah, that’s like Peter.” |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Or something Peter would do. |
| Naomi: はい、そうですね。(Hai, sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Now, to change this into a noun or kind of a measurable amount of something, the い (i) gets changed to… |
| Naomi: さ (sa) |
| Peter: So, kind of a good example is if we take 大きい (ōkii) “big” and we change 大きい (ōkii) to… |
| Naomi: 大きさ (ōkisa) |
| Peter: “the bigness” |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: So here, my “selfness.” |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: And すごくでてる (sugoku dete ru), it means it’s really appearing, really brings out me. |
| Naomi: Sounds like she’s a professional model or something. |
| Peter: Yeah, well, whatever she is, she’s something special. So, one other key point here, でてる (dete ru). In formal Japanese, it would be でている (dete iru). The い (i) would be in there, but as it’s casual Japanese and things speed up, the い (i) gets dropped, so it’s just でてる (dete ru). |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Finally, we have… |
| Naomi: さすが、アキラね。 (Sasuga, Akira ne.) |
| Peter: “Just like you, Akira.” So, because her father is a cameraman, she should be good at this. She took a good picture, so just like her to do something like that. And finally, we have… |
| Naomi: サンキュー。 (Sankyū.) |
| Peter: “Thank you.” |
Outro |
| Peter: All right, long lesson today, but pretty interesting. Lots of really good stuff in there. So, Naomi-Sensei. 毎度ありがとうございます。(Maido arigatō gozaimasu.) |
| Naomi: 毎度ありがとうございます。(Maido arigatō gozaimasu.) Where did you catch that phrase? |
| Peter: I don’t know. |
| Naomi: Sounds like, 大阪人 (Ōsaka-jin). |
| Peter: Ah, must be the recent trip down there. |
| Naomi: あ〜、そうですか。(Ā, sō desu ka.) |
| Peter: But a topic for another day. All right, that is gonna do it. We are out of here. See you next time. |
| Naomi: じゃあね。(Jā ne.) |
| A: ねえ。せっかくだから、写真撮ろうか。 (Nee. Sekkaku da kara, shashin torō ka.) |
| B: OK。私が撮ってあげる。なんたって、お父さんカメラマンだからね、デジカメかして。 (Okkē. Watashi ga totte ageru. Nantatte, o-tō-san kameraman da kara ne, dejikame kashite.) |
| A: サンキュー。 (Sankyū.) |
| B: はい、チーズ。撮れたよ。どう？ (Hai, chīzu. Toreta yo. Dō?) |
| A: えーっ何これー。私こんなにブスじゃないわよ！ (Ē nani korē. Watashi konna ni busu ja nai wa yo!) |
| B: じゃあ、もう一回。はい、チーズ。今度はどう？ (Jā, mō ikkai. Hai, chīzu. Kondo wa dō?) |
| A: いい感じじゃない。私らしさがすごくでてるわ。さすが、ヒカルね。 (Ii kanji ja nai. Watashi rashisa ga sugoku deteru wa. Sasuga, Hikaru ne.) |
| B: サンキュー。 (Sankyū.) |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get complete breakdowns, review with quizzes and download printable practice sheets! Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide