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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natsuko: こんにちは、 なつこ です。 (Kon’nichiwa, Natsuko desu.) |
| Peter: Peter here. Sights and Sounds, Lesson 5, Taxi... Bus... or...? Natsuko-San, どうですか (dō desu ka), or? |
| Natsuko: 何だろう。電車かな。(Nan darō. Densha ka na.) |
| Peter: Yeah, maybe the train. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: I don’t know. We’re gonna have to find out what’s going on in this story. |
| Natsuko: Okay. |
| Peter: But before that, 写真を見ましょう (shashin o mimashō). |
| Natsuko: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: What do you think? この写真、どうですか。(Kono shashin, dō desu ka.) |
| Natsuko: あ、渋谷駅ですね。(A, Shibuya Eki desu ne.) |
| Peter: Yeah. Shibuya Station? |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. タクシーもバスも見えますね。(Takushī mo miemasu.) |
| Peter: Taxi and a bus...and the train because it’s the station. |
| Natsuko: そうですね。 (Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: And we can’t see the train, but it’s there. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm, yes. |
| Peter: So, what about this taxi? This is a nice shot, nice action shot, about to turn? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: 曲がってるところですね。(Magatte ru tokoro desu ne.) |
| Natsuko: そうですね。 (Sō desu ne.) |
| Peter: Anything you wanna point out about the taxi? |
| Natsuko: Because it says 空車 (kūsha), you can take this taxi. |
| Peter: Okay, where is that in the picture though? |
| Natsuko: It’s shown inside the window, inside the front window. |
| Peter: So, if you’re looking at the picture, you can see it to the right of the driver. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: And it’s two kanji characters. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: The first character means? |
| Natsuko: “empty” |
| Peter: Second? |
| Natsuko: “car” |
| Peter: So, “empty car.” |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: Kind of like a vacancy sign at a hotel. |
| Natsuko: Oh yes, right. |
| Peter: And you can look for the red which is interesting for me because red usually means “stop,” but here, red is “empty.” |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: And what this means though is that you can grab this cab. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: You can stop him. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: You can flag him down, although sometimes, flagging cabs down doesn’t really work because they only pick people up at…? |
| Natsuko: At the taxi stand. |
| Peter: Yeah, but if you see this, you can flag them down. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: So if you see a cab with the red and with the 空車 (kūsha), that means you’re good to go. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Grab that cab. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: Next, we also have…? |
| Natsuko: カードOK (kādo ōkē) |
| Peter: On the top of the cab. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: And this means, of course… |
| Natsuko: You can pay it by credit card. |
| Peter: Yeah. So in the past, not so many cabs took cards, credit cards, but nowadays, most do. |
| Natsuko: Yeah, usually. |
| Peter: So, two things to look out for. Again, check out the PDF. Inside the PDF, we have a nice picture, really nice shot and this should go a long way. These are really nice pictures, so much going on here. So, today’s conversation, two people and what kind of relationship do they have? |
| Natsuko: Ah, are they friends? |
| Peter: I think so because what kind of Japanese are they speaking? |
| Natsuko: Casual Japanese. |
| Peter: So, and they are deciding on what, Natsuko-San? |
| Natsuko: Ah...they’re trying to go to Ebisu. |
| Peter: Which is how far from Shibuya? |
| Natsuko: Pretty near. |
| Peter: Yeah, one stop on the 山手線 (Yamanotesen). |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: Yamanote Line which runs in a big circle around Tokyo. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So, you’re ready to find out what happens? |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: All right. Here we go. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: 恵比寿までどうやって行こうか。 (Ebisu made dō yatte ikō ka.) |
| B: タクシーで行こうか。 (Takushī de ikō ka.) |
| A: んん、、、いや、速いけど高いでしょ。バスは安いけど、ちょっと遅いし。 (Nn,,, iya, hayai kedo takai desho. Basu wa yasui kedo, chotto osoi shi.) |
| B: じゃあ、やっぱり電車で行こうか。 (Jā, yappari densha de ikō ka.) |
| A: そうだね、やっぱり速くて安いしね。満員電車乗るの嫌だけど。。。 (Sō da ne, yappari hayakute yasui shi ne. man’in densha noru no iya da kedo...) |
| Natsuko: 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.) |
| A: 恵比寿までどうやって行こうか。 (Ebisu made dō yatte ikō ka.) |
| B: タクシーで行こうか。 (Takushī de ikō ka.) |
| A: んん、、、いや、速いけど高いでしょ。バスは安いけど、ちょっと遅いし。 (Nn,,, iya, hayai kedo takai desho. Basu wa yasui kedo, chotto osoi shi.) |
| B: じゃあ、やっぱり電車で行こうか。 (Jā, yappari densha de ikō ka.) |
| A: そうだね、やっぱり速くて安いしね。満員電車乗るの嫌だけど。。。 (Sō da ne, yappari hayakute yasui shi ne. man’in densha noru no iya da kedo...) |
| Natsuko: 次は、英語が入ります。(Tsugi wa, Eigo ga hairimasu.) |
| A: 恵比寿までどうやって行こうか。 (Ebisu made dō yatte ikō ka.) |
| How should we get to Ebisu? |
| B: タクシーで行こうか。 (Takushī de ikō ka.) |
| Let's take a cab. |
| A: んん、、、いや、速いけど高いでしょ。バスは安いけど、ちょっと遅いし。 (Nn,,, iya, hayai kedo takai desho. Basu wa yasui kedo, chotto osoi shi.) |
| Hmmm. That will be quick, but expensive. Buses are cheap but they're slow. |
| B: じゃあ、やっぱり電車で行こうか。 (Jā, yappari densha de ikō ka.) |
| Then shall we take a train? |
| A: そうだね、やっぱり速くて安いしね。満員電車乗るの嫌だけど。。。 (Sō da ne, yappari hayakute yasui shi ne. man’in densha noru no iya da kedo...) |
| I guess so. Trains are fast and cheap, I don’t like riding on packed trains though…. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Peter: Natsuko-San. この会話、どう思いましたか。(Kono kaiwa, dō omoimashita ka.) |
| Natsuko: うん、やっぱり電車で行くのが一番いいと思いますよ。(Un, yappari densha de iku no ga ichi-ban ii to omoimasu yo.) |
| Peter: Yeah. I think going by train is the best way too. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: So fast. |
| Natsuko: Yes and pretty convenient because Yamanote Line, it comes like once every 2 minutes or something. |
| Peter: Yeah. Basically just connected, you know. It does not have separate trains. It’s just one big connected train. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: Let’s take a look at some vocab. Natsuko-San, what do we have first? |
| VOCAB LIST AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Natsuko: タクシー (takushī) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: taxi |
| Natsuko: タクシー (takushī) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: タクシー (takushī) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Could we have the pitch accent here? |
| Natsuko: タクシー (takushī) |
| Peter: タクシー (takushī) |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: So, emphasis on the タ(ta). |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: タクシー (takushī) |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: And you got a whole of that. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: Could we have a sample sentence? |
| Natsuko: タクシーをつかまえる。(Takushī o tsukamaeru.) |
| Peter: “To catch a cab.” Now, this verb つかまえる (tsukamaeru) means…? |
| Natsuko: “to catch” |
| Peter: So, the expression is the same. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: Except in English, we have “catch a cab.” In Japanese literally, “cab catch.” |
| Natsuko: Yes. The order is opposite. |
| Peter: This is followed by…? |
| Natsuko: 速い (hayai) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: fast, quick, early |
| Natsuko: 速い (hayai) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 速い (hayai) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Sample sentence, please. |
| Natsuko: はやい時間に家を出る。(Hayai jikan ni ie o deru.) |
| Peter: “To leave the house at an early time.” Now, the character for “early” and “quick,” it’s the same? |
| Natsuko: Ah... it’s different. |
| Peter: Yeah, the pronunciation is the same. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: But the character is different. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Quick and fast are the same character? |
| Natsuko: Oh yes, I think so. |
| Peter: So, check out the PDF for that. Next, we have…? |
| Natsuko: 高い (takai) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: high or in the case of talking about someone’s height, tall. |
| Natsuko: 高い (takai) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 高い (takai) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Next, we have…? |
| Natsuko: 安い (yasui) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: cheap |
| Natsuko: 安い (yasui) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 安い (yasui) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Followed by…? |
| Natsuko: 遅い (osoi) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: late or slow |
| Natsuko: 遅い (osoi) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 遅い (osoi) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Followed by…? |
| Natsuko: 電車 (densha) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: train |
| Natsuko: 電車 (densha) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 電車 (densha) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Natsuko-San, I have a question for you. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: ちょっと質問があります。(Chotto shitsumon ga arimasu.) |
| Natsuko: はい。 (Hai.) |
| Peter: The kanji for train is...the first character means? |
| Natsuko: “electric, electricity” |
| Peter: The second character means…? |
| Natsuko: “car” |
| Peter: So, “electric car” means train? |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: What do you call an electric car, now that they have this? |
| Natsuko: 電気自動車 (denki jidōsha) |
| Peter: 電気自動車 (denki jidōsha) where 自動車 (jidōsha) is…? |
| Natsuko: “automobile” |
| Peter: And 電気 (denki) is “electric.” |
| Natsuko: Electric, yes. |
| Peter: あー、なるほど。ありがとうございます。(Ā, naruhodo. Arigatō gozaimasu.) |
| Natsuko: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: 今度はもっと難しい質問させていただきます。 (Kondo wa motto muzukashii shitsumon sasete itadakimasu.) Next, we have…? |
| Natsuko: 満員 (man’in) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: full |
| Natsuko: 満員 (man’in) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 満員 (man’in) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: And Natsuko-San, where do you come across this word, 満員 (man’in)? |
| Natsuko: 満員電車 (man’in densha) |
| Peter: “a packed train” |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. Literally packed. |
| Peter: Literally. |
| Natsuko: Yes. Very crowded. |
| Peter: I have a good story coming up in a little bit. Okay, do we have anything left with the vocab? |
| Natsuko: 嫌 (iya) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: dislike |
| Natsuko: 嫌 (iya) [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Natsuko: 嫌 (iya) [natural native speed] |
| Peter: Now, when you hear a Japanese will say this, it might just sound like や (ya). |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: The い (i) gets kind of passed over so quickly. |
| Natsuko: Right. |
| Peter: Especially the younger the age, the less emphasis on the い (i). |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: It’s kind of just like や (ya). |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: や。(Ya.) |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Let’s take a look at the conversation. First, we have…? |
| Natsuko: 恵比寿までどうやって行こうか。 (Ebisu made dō yatte ikō ka.) |
| Peter: “How should we get to Ebisu?” So, first we have… |
| Natsuko: 恵比寿 (Ebisu) |
| Peter: Location, followed by… |
| Natsuko: まで (made) |
| Peter: So “to Ebisu” in English, but literally, “Ebisu to,” in Japanese. Followed by… |
| Natsuko: どうやって行こうか (dō yatte ikō ka) |
| Peter: “How should we go?” Now, before we look at this, let’s take a look at どうやって行く (dō yatte iku), which is what this phrase is based on. So, first we have… |
| Natsuko: どう (dō) |
| Peter: “How.” Followed by… |
| Natsuko: やって (yatte) |
| Peter: The -te form of… |
| Natsuko: やる (yaru) |
| Peter: Which is “to do.” So, “how do” followed by… |
| Natsuko: 行く (iku) |
| Peter: “Go.” “How do go.” So, kind of close to the English, “How do you go?” |
| Natsuko: Yes. Or how do we go? |
| Peter: Yeah, depending on who’s speaking. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: So, if you think about it like that, it makes perfect sense. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: どうやって行く (dō yatte iku) |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: “How do you go?” And in this case, he’s talking about us and he switches to the volitional, “How do we go?” How should we go? So the 行く (iku) from どうやって行く (dō yatte iku) becomes… |
| Natsuko: 行こう (ikō) |
| Peter: “Shall we?” And then the volitional, the plain volitional; we go, we’ll go. And finally, we have… |
| Natsuko: か (ka) |
| Peter: So, as he’s thinking and he wants the person he’s with to think too, it becomes か (ka), so どうやって行こうか (dō yatte ikō ka) “how should we go?” Literally, “How do will go?” |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: How do we go? And it’s implied here that he wants his friend’s input. “How should we go?” is how we translate it. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Now, this is a great phrase. Natsuko-San, when you ask someone for directions, how would you ask them? How do you get to Ebisu? |
| Natsuko: 恵比寿までどうやっていけばいいですか。(Ebisu made dō yatte ikeba ii desu ka.) |
| Peter: Yeah, based off this どうやって (dō yatte). And then we have いけばいいですか (ikeba ii desu ka), the conditional. But again, どうやって行く (dō yatte iku) is a very common phrase. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: And this どうやって (dō yatte) is the basis for asking how to do something in many other instances. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: For example, how do we eat? |
| Natsuko: どうやって食べる (dō yatte taberu) |
| Peter: Yeah. Natsuko-San. すみません、これをどうやって食べますか。(Sumimasen, kore o dō yatte tabemasu ka.) “How do I eat this, Natsuko?” |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. Maybe some strange Japanese food. |
| Peter: Yeah. And the first time you grab a newspaper... すみません、なつこさん。どうやって読みますか。(Sumimasen, Natsuko-san. Dō yatte yomimasu ka.) “How do you read this?” Is it left to right, up to down? What’s going on here, Natsuko-San? So this is どうやって (dō yatte). Then we have… |
| Natsuko: タクシーで行こうか。 (Takushī de ikō ka.) |
| Peter: So, “let’s take a cab,” but I think kind of here is “Shall we take a cab?” |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: Or, “Should we go by a cab?” |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: The person using this, 行こうか (ikō ka), he’s suggesting it, but he’s open to negotiations. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm, right, exactly. |
| Peter: タクシーで行こうか。 (Takushī de ikō ka.) Okay, “Shall we go by cab?” Then, this is why his friend responds with… |
| Natsuko: んん、、、いや、速いけど高いでしょ。 (Nn,,, iya, hayai kedo takai desho. ) |
| Peter: “Hmmm, it’s quick, but it’s expensive.” So, that’s why with the 行こうか (ikō ka), it was open to negotiation, so he’s expressing, well, you know, it’s kind of expensive, quick but expensive. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: Let’s just take a quick look at this. This いや (iya) here means not dislike, but… |
| Natsuko: Um, deny. |
| Peter: Kind of like a negation. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: No. |
| Natsuko: No. |
| Peter: Hmmm, nah. Fast, but expensive, right? And here, でしょ (desho) is acting as a tag question. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: And we have… |
| Natsuko: バスは安いけど、ちょっと遅いし。 (Basu wa yasui kedo, chotto osoi shi.) |
| Peter: “Bus is cheap, but it’s a little slow.” And among other things, the し (shi) here is emphasizing that it’s not just slow, but you can’t get a seat or it stops too much. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: Or there’s always somebody, something going on the bus. You can tell. よくバス乗ってますから。(Yoku basu notte masu kara.) |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: Then we have… |
| Natsuko: じゃあ、やっぱり電車で行こうか。 (Jā, yappari densha de ikō ka.) |
| Peter: Mm, yeah, “then shall we take the train?” Notice here, what particle marks the vehicle or the means of transportation? |
| Natsuko: で (de) |
| Peter: 電車で行こうか (densha de ikō ka). Literally, this means “Okay, by train, let’s go?” “Shall we go by train?” |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: Then we have… |
| Natsuko: そうだね、やっぱり速くて安いしね。 (Sō da ne, yappari hayakute yasui shi ne.) |
| Peter: “Yeah, it’s fast and cheap” and among other things, it only stops once, etc. etc. Then we have… |
| Natsuko: 満員電車乗るの嫌だけど。。。 (Man’in densha noru no iya da kedo...) |
| Peter: “But I don’t like crowded trains…” I wanna take a look here at the nominalizer の (no). The sentence, the last sentence of the final speaker, he says, one more time, Natsuko-San? |
| Natsuko: 満員電車乗るの嫌だけど。。。 (Man’in densha noru no iya da kedo...) |
| Peter: “Yeah, full trains to ride, I don’t like to, not pleasant.” |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: Unpleasant or unpleasant. But Natsuko-San, where are all the particles here? Can we put the particles back into the sentence, please? |
| Natsuko: Yeah, okay. |
| Peter: So, what do we have here? |
| Natsuko: 満員電車に乗るのは嫌だけど。(Man’in densha ni noru no wa iya da kedo.) |
| Peter: Perfect. So, the vehicle that you’re going to ride or the vehicle to be rode is marked with? |
| Natsuko: に (ni) |
| Peter: So, 電車に乗る (densha ni noru). |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: 電車に乗る (densha ni noru), this is followed by the nominalizer の (no), but it’s really のは (no wa). |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: But in spoken Japanese, it gets dropped. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: Okay. Another instance you hear, this is if you have the normalizer の (no), followed by the particle を (o), usually that’s dropped. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: 聞くのを忘れた。(Kiku no o wasureta.) “I forgot to ask”, but in many cases, it will just be… |
| Natsuko: 聞くの忘れた。(Kiku no wasureta.) |
| Peter: “I forgot to ask.” Because it’s the same thing. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: But just gets dropped. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: And then 嫌だけど (iya da kedo) “unpleasant but…” and that’s just to soften it. |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
Outro |
| Peter: So, Natsuko-San… |
| Natsuko: はい。(Hai.) |
| Peter: What do you think? |
| Natsuko: うーん、満員電車でも、一駅だから大丈夫ですよ。(Ūn, man’in densha demo, hito-eki da kara daijōbu desu yo.) |
| Peter: Yeah, it’s a full train, but just one stop. That’s all right. あー、場合によってですね。(Ā, bāi ni yotte desu ne.) Oh, sometimes...oh, my story. So one time, it’s the 12 o’clock Friday night 12 o’clock train from 赤坂見附 (Akasaka-mitsuke), which is very close to our place of work. |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: It’s going to 新宿 (Shinjuku) and Natsuko-San? |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: Five people... |
| Natsuko: Yes. |
| Peter: Five people working for the train station, pushing people into the train. |
| Natsuko: Oh yes, right. |
| Peter: And it was only one stop, Natsuko-San, but let me tell you, it was not pleasant, like when they got it shut… |
| Natsuko: Mm-hmm. |
| Peter: There was the initial pushback. |
| Natsuko: Yeah. |
| Peter: Everyone looked okay, and then they started moving, everyone was pushed forward. |
| Natsuko: Oh yes. |
| Peter: And it was just like out of a movie, where you see the guy splattered against the glass. |
| Natsuko: I know. |
| Peter: So... 彼には、一駅だけと言ったら怒られると思いますよ。(Kare ni wa hito-eki dake to ittara okorareru to omoimasu yo.) I think you’ll be a little angry if you tell him that. |
| Natsuko: But he made the choice. |
| Peter: No, no, no. They grabbed him and pushed him in. |
| Natsuko: No way. Resist them. |
| Peter: Okay. So, we’ll continue on with this series, Sights and Sounds. That’s gonna do it for today. |
| Natsuko: じゃ、また今度。(Ja, mata kondo.) |
| A: 恵比寿までどうやって行こうか。 (Ebisu made dō yatte ikō ka.) |
| B: タクシーで行こうか。 (Takushī de ikō ka.) |
| A: んん、、、いや、速いけど高いでしょ。バスは安いけど、ちょっと遅いし。 (Nn,,, iya, hayai kedo takai desho. Basu wa yasui kedo, chotto osoi shi.) |
| B: じゃあ、やっぱり電車で行こうか。 (Jā, yappari densha de ikō ka.) |
| A: そうだね、やっぱり速くて安いしね。満員電車乗るの嫌だけど。。。 (Sō da ne, yappari hayakute yasui shi ne. man’in densha noru no iya da kedo...) |
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