Learn about making decision, asking things
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. |
| Naomi: Wow, exciting! |
| Peter: Naomi-San, what are we talking about today? |
| Naomi: Sake. |
| Peter: Yes. What a great topic! |
| Naomi: Yeah. |
| Peter: Now, we’re not gonna mention who suggested this topic, but yes, it’s on the agenda. Now, what we wanna point out first is the pronunciation. Can you give it to us one more time? |
| Naomi: 酒 (sake) |
| Peter: And just break it down. |
| Naomi: 酒 (sake) [enunciated] |
| Peter: And one more time, fast. |
| Naomi: 酒 (sake) |
| Peter: The け (ke), not さき (saki), as I said before I came to Japan. |
| Naomi: あ〜、そうですね。(Ā, sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Quite a common mistake, I think. When I first came to Japan, I said to my friends, let’s go get some さき (saki). They didn’t really...they kind of got it. |
| Naomi: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Japanese people wouldn’t understand, if you pronounce 酒 (sake) as さき (saki). |
| Peter: Yeah, kind of like karaoke. |
| Naomi: あ〜、そうですね。(Ā, sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Let’s go to karaoke. |
| Naomi: What’s karaoke? |
| Peter: Yes. |
| Naomi: カラオケ (karaoke) |
| Peter: There we go. So, the pronunciation, feel free to correct your friends when they’re talking about さき (saki) because it’s actually, Naomi-San, one more time. |
| Naomi: 酒 (sake) |
| Peter: While you’re looking at the picture, play the conversation and it will all make sense. All right, with that said, are you ready for today’s lesson, Naomi-San? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: うわーすごい。何あれー。 (Uwā sugoi. Nani arē.) |
| B: なんだろうね。行こう。 (Nan darō ne. Ikō.) |
| A: うわー、酒樽だあ。すごい数だね。数えよう。 (Uwā, sakadaru dā. Sugoi kazu da ne. Kazoeyō.) |
| B: 1.2.3.4......180個もあるよ。スッゲー。 (Ichi.Ni.San.Yon......Hyaku hachi-jukko mo aru yo. Suggē.) |
| A: なんでここに、こんなにあるんだろう。 (Nande koko ni, konna ni aru n darō.) |
| B: なんでだろうね。 (Nande darō ne.) |
| A: でも日本酒って、銘柄いくつあるんだろうね。 (Demo Nihonshu tte, meigara ikutsu aru n darō ne.) |
| B: 全国に、約2000の蔵元（酒を作る場所）があるらしいよ。だから、銘柄は数えられないくらいあるんじゃないかな。じゃあ、マモル調べてみてよ。 (Zenkoku ni, yaku ni-sen no kuramoto (sake o tsukuru basho) ga aru rashii yo. Dakara, meigara wa kazoerarenai kurai aru n ja nai ka na. Jā, Mamoru shirabete mite yo.) |
| A: えーっ。嫌だよ。 (Ē. Iya da yo.) |
| 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: うわーすごい。何あれー。 (Uwā sugoi. Nani arē.) |
| B: なんだろうね。行こう。 (Nan darō ne. Ikō.) |
| A: うわー、酒樽だあ。すごい数だね。数えよう。 (Uwā, sakadaru dā. Sugoi kazu da ne. Kazoeyō.) |
| B: 1.2.3.4......180個もあるよ。スッゲー。 (Ichi.Ni.San.Yon......Hyaku hachi-jukko mo aru yo. Suggē.) |
| A: なんでここに、こんなにあるんだろう。 (Nande koko ni, konna ni aru n darō.) |
| B: なんでだろうね。 (Nande darō ne.) |
| A: でも日本酒って、銘柄いくつあるんだろうね。 (Demo Nihonshu tte, meigara ikutsu aru n darō ne.) |
| B: 全国に、約2000の蔵元（酒を作る場所）があるらしいよ。だから、銘柄は数えられないくらいあるんじゃないかな。じゃあ、マモル調べてみてよ。 (Zenkoku ni, yaku ni-sen no kuramoto (sake o tsukuru basho) ga aru rashii yo. Dakara, meigara wa kazoerarenai kurai aru n ja nai ka na. Jā, Mamoru shirabete mite yo.) |
| A: えーっ。嫌だよ。 (Ē. Iya da yo.) |
| A: うわーすごい。何あれー。 (Uwā sugoi. Nani arē.) |
| Wow. What's that? |
| B: なんだろうね。行こう。 (Nan darō ne. Ikō.) |
| I wonder what that is. Let's go. |
| A: うわー、酒樽だあ。すごい数だね。数えよう。 (Uwā, sakadaru dā. Sugoi kazu da ne. Kazoeyō.) |
| Wow. It's a sake barrel. Look at the size of that thing! Let's count how many there are! |
| B: 1.2.3.4......180個もあるよ。スッゲー。 (Ichi.Ni.San.Yon......Hyaku hachi-jukko mo aru yo. Suggē.) |
| One, two, three, four... There's 180 of them. Wow! |
| A: なんでここに、こんなにあるんだろう。 (Nande koko ni, konna ni aru n darō.) |
| Why are there so many here? |
| B: なんでだろうね。 (Nande darō ne.) |
| I don't know. |
| A: でも日本酒って、銘柄いくつあるんだろうね。 (Demo Nihonshu tte, meigara ikutsu aru n darō ne.) |
| I wonder how many brands of sake there are. |
| B: 全国に、約2000の蔵元（酒を作る場所）があるらしいよ。だから、銘柄は数えられないくらいあるんじゃないかな。(Zenkoku ni, yaku ni-sen no kuramoto (sake o tsukuru basho) ga aru rashii yo. Dakara, meigara wa kazoerarenai kurai aru n ja nai ka na.) |
| Apparently, there are about 2,000 sake brewers across Japan. So we probably can't count the number of sake brands out there. |
| B: じゃあ、マモル調べてみてよ。 (Jā, Mamoru shirabete mite yo.) |
| Mamoru, why don't you look it up. |
| A: えーっ。嫌だよ。 (Ē. Iya da yo.) |
| What? I don't want to. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Naomi-San? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: 今日の会話、どう思いましたか。(Kyō no kaiwa, dō omoimashita ka.) |
| Naomi: そうですね…。(Sō desu ne.) I’m not really a big sake fan, but is this picture… I’m sorry. |
| Peter: You just said さき (saki). |
| Naomi: I’m sorry. I’m not really a 酒 (sake) fan. Yeah. Where was this picture taken? |
| Peter: Naomi-San, let’s ask questions that I can answer. I don’t know. That’s what you’re supposed to… I should ask you, where is this picture taken? |
| Naomi: Ah, okay. ‘Cause my friend and I went to the Meiji Shrine some weeks ago and we saw sake barrels just like this picture. |
| Peter: You say the Meiji Shrine? |
| Naomi: Yeah, Meiji Shrine. |
| Peter: You got it. This picture was taken at the Meiji Shrine. |
| Naomi: Bingo! |
| Peter: Bingo! Why don’t you tell the listeners what that means? Why would you say “bingo” right now? |
| Naomi: 当たり (atari) |
| Peter: It means to guess something correctly. So, Japanese people, if I ask, “Naomi, what do you think it is?” and she guessed correctly, so she said… |
| Naomi: Bingo. |
| Peter: Which means 当たり (atari) or to hit the mark. Yes, this was taken at Meiji Shrine. Now, can you tell us a little bit about this picture? What are we looking at here? |
| Naomi: They’re sake barrels. I think they were donated by people to that shrine. |
| Peter: Now, let’s just back up a second. Is there actually sake in them? |
| Naomi: I don’t think so. I’ve never opened them, so I’m not sure, but… |
| Peter: You never tried to drink from one? |
| Naomi: Yeah, but when we went to the Meiji Shrine the other day, there were some wine barrels on the other side of the street. |
| Peter: Ah...so the other side of this picture. If you’re looking across from this picture, you would see wine barrels. |
| Naomi: Wine barrels and we knocked their wine barrels and we heard the sound and figured out they’re empty, so... |
| Peter: Yup, but you wanted to try to drink from the barrels. |
| Naomi: 美味しそうですもんね。(Oishisō desu mon ne.) |
| Peter: Okay. Now, inside this picture, I can see, all the way on the right side of this picture, the top three barrels going from right to left, the corner barrel, the upper corner barrel, the one next to that, and the one next to that, they all say the same thing. What do they say? |
| Naomi: 白鹿 (hakushika) |
| Peter: Which is “white deer.” |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: What does this mean? Is this a person’s name? |
| Naomi: I think it’s the name of the sake brand. |
| Peter: Yes, so maybe these are companies that donated money to the shrine or sake to the shrine. |
| Naomi: Sake to the shrine, かなあ (ka nā). |
| Peter: I wonder why they’re up there. Well, something for us to check out, investigate. Naomi-San, you’re gonna have to call the shrine to find out what’s going on here. |
| Naomi: はい、私の宿題ですね。(Hai, watashi no shukudai desu ne.) |
| Peter: Homework for you. |
| VOCAB LIST AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Peter: All right, now let’s get into the vocab. First, we have… |
| Naomi: すごい (sugoi) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: amazing, awesome, great |
| Naomi: すごい (sugoi) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: すごい (sugoi) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: This is followed by… |
| Naomi: 酒樽 (sakadaru) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: wine cask or barrel |
| Naomi: 酒樽 (sakadaru) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 酒樽 (sakadaru) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: We should probably say “alcohol barrel.” I guess in English, it’s wine barrel, but alcohol barrel because sake is not wine. Next, we have… |
| Naomi: 銘柄 (meigara) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: brand |
| Naomi: 銘柄 (meigara) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 銘柄 (meigara) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Next, we have… |
| Naomi: 全国 (zenkoku) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: countrywide, across the country |
| Naomi: 全国 (zenkoku) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 全国 (zenkoku) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Followed by… |
| Naomi: 蔵元 (kuramoto) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: sake brewer |
| Naomi: 蔵元 (kuramoto) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 蔵元 (kuramoto) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Next, we have… |
| Naomi: 約 (yaku) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: approximately |
| Naomi: 約 (yaku) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 約 (yaku) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Followed by… |
| Naomi: 調べる (shiraberu) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: to investigate |
| Naomi: 調べる (shiraberu) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 調べる (shiraberu) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: And last… |
| Naomi: 嫌 (iya) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: unpleasant |
| Naomi: 嫌 (iya) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 嫌 (iya) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Followed by… |
| Naomi: 数える (kazoeru) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: to count |
| Naomi: 数える (kazoeru) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Naomi: 数える (kazoeru) [natural native speed] |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: All right. Now, onto the conversation. |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: First line, we have… |
| Naomi: うわーすごい。何あれー。 (Uwā sugoi. Nani arē.) |
| Peter: Nice intonation. First part is… |
| Naomi: うわー (uwā) |
| Peter: This is an interjection expressing surprise or amazement or awe at something. So, think about it, two guys walking in the park and they come across 2000 barrels of sake. This is something pretty exciting for them. Followed up by… |
| Naomi: すごい (sugoi) |
| Peter: “Amazing.” So we translate this as, “Wow, amazing.” Then we have… |
| Naomi: 何あれー。(Nani arē.) |
| Peter: “What’s that?” And here, we have “that” being something that’s far away. So we can tell by the word usage here that they’re not very close. They came upon it, saw it, but it’s still some distance. Now, what’s interesting about this sentence is that since they’re speaking informal Japanese, they’re friends, we have the word order reversed from what would be in a textbook. In a textbook, if we wanna say “What’s that over there?” Naomi-San, how do we say that? |
| Naomi: あれは何ですか。(Are wa nan desu ka.) |
| Peter: “That what is?” But here, we have… |
| Naomi: 何あれー。(Nani arē.) |
| Peter: “What that?” literally, but “What’s that?” The word order is actually the same as in English, but this is the case for informal Japanese. Again, in Japanese, the word order is quite flexible, especially in informal Japanese. All right, next we have… |
| Naomi: なんだろうね。 (Nan darō ne.) |
| Peter: “Yeah, I wonder what that is?” Yeah, what’s that? |
| Naomi: 行こう。 (Ikō.) |
| Peter: “Let’s go.” So, of course, they’re going for a closer look. Now, first we have? |
| Naomi: なんだろうね。 (Nan darō ne.) |
| Peter: “What’s that?” Now, the なん (nan) is a contraction of… |
| Naomi: 何 (nani) |
| Peter: Then we have the informal version of でしょう (deshō). |
| Naomi: だろう (darō) |
| Peter: So, when you hear だろう (darō), if it’s new to you, just think of でしょう (deshō). It means the same thing. It’s just an informal version. And finally, we have… |
| Naomi: ね (ne) |
| Peter: The sentence-ending particle. And here, he’s kind of acknowledging that I don’t know what that is. Yeah, I wonder what that is, yeah. What’s that? Then we have “let’s go,” the informal form of the volitional. In polite Japanese, we would have… |
| Naomi: 行きましょう (ikimashō) |
| Peter: But in informal Japanese… |
| Naomi: 行こう (ikō) |
| Peter: Now, for a detailed explanation, check out the grammar point inside the PDF. No time to get into that here. Then we have… |
| Naomi: うわー (uwā) |
| Peter: Again, expressing that excitement about sake. |
| Naomi: 酒樽だあ。 (Sakadaru dā.) |
| Peter: “Barrels of sake.” |
| Naomi: すごい数だね。 (Sugoi kazu da ne.) |
| Peter: “What a number.” Now here, literally, we have “amazing number.” すごい数 (sugoi kazu) “amazing number” literally, but it means “What a large amount.” What a huge number. Followed by… |
| Naomi: 数えよう。 (Kazoeyō.) |
| Peter: “Let’s count them.” Again here, the informal form of the volitional. So they start and they get to… |
| Naomi: 1.2.3.4......180個もあるよ。 (Ichi.Ni.San.Shi......Hyaku-hachi-ju-kko mo aru yo.) |
| Peter: “There’s 180.” |
| Naomi: スッゲー。 (Suggē.) |
| Peter: Lovely, Naomi-San. |
| Naomi: I...I personally never say this スッゲー (suggē), like スッゲー (suggē). I say すごい (sugoi) ‘cause I’m a female, so… |
| Peter: So, this is a guy’s word, right? |
| Naomi: Yeah, right. |
| Peter: All right. Just one more time ‘cause I really liked your スッゲー (suggē). |
| Naomi: Okay. Okay, just pretend that I’m a boy. スッゲー。 (Suggē.) |
| Peter: Lovely. Now, I wanna point something out here. The counter, we use 個 (ko). Now, would you use 個 (ko) to count barrels? |
| Naomi: Mm…yeah, ‘cause it’s round, you can use 個 (ko). |
| Peter: Are there any other counters? |
| Naomi: １樽、２樽、３樽…。180樽！(Hito-taru, ni-taru, san-taru… Hyaku hachi-juttaru!) |
| Peter: One barrel, two barrels, three barrels. Now, maybe, I think what the author did here was he was looking at the picture and that’s why he used actually 個 (ko). But if they were really there, they probably wouldn’t use 個 (ko). |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) Yeah, maybe...yeah, you’re right. 180樽。あ、そうですね。(Hyaku hachi-juttaru. A, sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: You’ll have to ask someone in the sake business. All right, here we go. Next, we have… |
| Naomi: なんでここに、こんなにあるんだろう。 (Nande koko ni, konna ni aru n darō.) |
| Peter: Literally, “Why there so many barrels here?” And literally we have… |
| Naomi: なんで (nande) |
| Peter: “why” |
| Naomi: ここに (koko ni) |
| Peter: “here” |
| Naomi: こんなに (konna ni) |
| Peter: “this many” |
| Naomi: あるんだろう (aru n darō) |
| Peter: “There are.” Mm, so, I wonder why there are so many here, or probably, “Why are there so many here?” would be a good literal translation, but it can be kind of interpreted as, “Why are there so many here?” I wonder why there are so many here. Followed by… |
| Naomi: なんでだろうね。 (Nande darō ne.) |
| Peter: Yeah, I wonder why, hmm. Why? Next... |
| Naomi: でも日本酒って、銘柄いくつあるんだろうね。 (Demo Nihonshu tte, meigara ikutsu aru n darō ne.) |
| Peter: “Japanese sake, how many makers are there?” How many brands are there? Now, what’s interesting about this sentence is the way the question is asked. There’s actually a question being asked here, but there is no sentence-ending particle か (ka) and it’s not the intonation. And while it is the intonation, it’s also the sentence structure. Notice right before...well, let’s just go to the sentence. First, we have… |
| Naomi: でも (demo) |
| Peter: “But” or changing the topic. |
| Naomi: 日本酒って (Nihonshu tte) |
| Peter: “Japanese sake” |
| Naomi: 銘柄 (meigara) |
| Peter: “brand” |
| Naomi: いくつ (ikutsu) |
| Peter: “how many” |
| Naomi: あるんだろうね (aru n darō ne) |
| Peter: “There are.” And then we have んだろうね (n darō ne). So, the ね (ne) is emphasizing that he wants a response out of the listening party, so he’s throwing out, how many brands are there? But the ね (ne) indicates that if someone has feedback, please give it to me and his friend has feedback, so… |
| Naomi: 全国に、約2000の蔵元 があるらしいよ。 (Zenkoku ni, yaku ni-sen no kuramoto ga aru rashii yo.) |
| Peter: “There are about 2000 makers across the country.” |
| Naomi: だから、銘柄は数えられないくらいあるんじゃないかな。 (Dakara, meigara wa kazoerarenai kurai aru n ja nai ka na.) |
| Peter: “So there is enough that you can’t count the brands.” All right, interesting points here. Let’s just back up to sake brewer. Can you give it to us one more time? |
| Naomi: 蔵元 (kuramoto) |
| Peter: What’s interesting here is the kanji. The first character means? |
| Naomi: Storage. |
| Peter: As in a warehouse or somewhere to store something. Then the next character means? |
| Naomi: Origin. |
| Peter: So, the “warehouse origin.” The sake comes from the warehouse. Another interesting point here is くらい (kurai), 数えられないくらい (kazoerarenai kurai), “about you can’t count,” to the point where they can’t be counted, up to the point where they can’t be counted. That’s how many there are. And finally, we have the structure, んじゃないかな (n ja nai ka na), which is used to soften something the speaker says ‘cause they’re not exactly sure. Maybe equate this to like “hmm, kinda” in English. “I think about kinda.” |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: And then we finish it off with… |
| Naomi: じゃあ、マモル調べてみてよ。 (Jā, Mamoru shirabete mite yo.) |
| Peter: So we ask his friend to check it out. And his friend’s response is… |
| Naomi: えーっ。嫌だよ。 (Ē. Iya da yo.) |
| Peter: “No, I don’t wanna do that.” |
Outro |
| Peter: All right, this lesson was really long, but there was so much information in there. Now, Naomi-San, before we head out… |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: Do you like your sake hot or cold? |
| Naomi: Ah, I like my- |
| Peter: Because you can get them both ways, right? |
| Naomi: Yeah. I like my sake cold. |
| Peter: Really? |
| Naomi: Yeah. The only occasion I have my sake hot is New Year’s Day. In other times, I drink sake cold. |
| Peter: Why is that? What just New Year’s Day? |
| Naomi: ‘Cause that’s a family tradition. Nobody drinks- it’s… |
| Peter: Your family or lots of families? |
| Naomi: Lots of families ‘cause in Japan, New Year’s Day is in winter, so nobody drinks...nobody wants to drink cold drinks in a...yeah, cold day. |
| Peter: Naomi-San, I hate to catch you here, but what about Okinawa? |
| Naomi: あー、ごめんなさい。沖縄はわからないです。東京の人は。(Ā, gomen nasai. Okinawa wa wakaranai desu. Tōkyō no hito wa.) |
| Peter: Yes, so we don’t know about Okinawa. Anybody down there in Okinawa, we’d love to hear from you, but in Tokyo, yes, we drink it hot. I usually get my sake hot. And to get it hot, I say 熱燗、お願いします (atsukan, onegai shimasu). |
| Naomi: そうですね。(Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: And what is 熱燗 (atsukan)? |
| Naomi: Heated sake. |
| Peter: And can you just give us that once in Japanese. |
| Naomi: 熱燗お願いします。(Atsukan onegai shimasu.) |
| Peter: This will be the way to order your sake hot. All right, that’s gonna do it for today. Naomi-San, thank you for joining us today. |
| Naomi: どういたしまして！(Dōitashimashite!) |
| Peter: All right. See you next week. |
| A: うわーすごい。何あれー。 (Uwā sugoi. Nani arē.) |
| B: なんだろうね。行こう。 (Nan darō ne. Ikō.) |
| A: うわー、酒樽だあ。すごい数だね。数えよう。 (Uwā, sakadaru dā. Sugoi kazu da ne. Kazoeyō.) |
| B: 1.2.3.4......180個もあるよ。スッゲー。 (Ichi.Ni.San.Yon......Hyaku hachi-jukko mo aru yo. Suggē.) |
| A: なんでここに、こんなにあるんだろう。 (Nande koko ni, konna ni aru n darō.) |
| B: なんでだろうね。 (Nande darō ne.) |
| A: でも日本酒って、銘柄いくつあるんだろうね。 (Demo Nihonshu tte, meigara ikutsu aru n darō ne.) |
| B: 全国に、約2000の蔵元（酒を作る場所）があるらしいよ。だから、銘柄は数えられないくらいあるんじゃないかな。じゃあ、マモル調べてみてよ。 (Zenkoku ni, yaku ni-sen no kuramoto (sake o tsukuru basho) ga aru rashii yo. Dakara, meigara wa kazoerarenai kurai aru n ja nai ka na. Jā, Mamoru shirabete mite yo.) |
| A: えーっ。嫌だよ。 (Ē. Iya da yo.) |
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