Learn about asking how to read something and asking what something is called
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sakura: おはよう東京。サクラです。 |
| Peter: Peter here and we are back with the 8th edition of survival phrases. Now these are the phrases that are going to get you through your trip, get you more out of your trip. And not only for that, if you’ve been here a short while or if you just haven’t had the time to get around to the Japanese, if you’ve been living in Tokyo or another big city for a while, we know how easy it is just to get by in English. So these two give you a chance. These are the key phrases that are not only going to help you learn the language. They are specifically designed and well thought out to provide you with the tools to make opportunities and in any language, after you’ve learned a certain amount, it’s all about meeting people. |
| Sakura: Yes I think so. |
| Peter: And here what we want to do is we want to give you the tools to do that. Now today we have another great phrase for you. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Now it’s very related to last week’s phrase but in a way, this one is almost too good to be true. And I will get into the reasons why later. |
| Sakura: Okay. |
| Peter: Why was that okay? |
| Sakura: We want to know. |
| Peter: You are going to have to wait, Sakura. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Peter: Okay so let’s start out. What was the phrase last week? |
| Sakura: これは何と言いますか？ |
| Peter: One more time. |
| Sakura: これは何と言いますか？ |
| Peter: And what did this mean? |
| Sakura: How do you say this? |
| Peter: Yes. Now listen closely. We are about to give you this week’s phrase. Now see if you can find the similarities and the differences. Here we go. |
| Sakura: これは何と読みますか？ |
| Peter: One more time. |
| Sakura: これは何と読みますか？ |
| Peter: A little slower. |
| Sakura: これは、なんと、よみますか？ |
| Peter: Okay and what does this mean? |
| Sakura: How do you read this? |
| Peter: Yes. Okay now what’s the same in there? |
| Sakura: これは何と and か. |
| Peter: Yes and what’s different? |
| Sakura: 読みます |
| Peter: Okay and what does this mean? |
| Sakura: Read. |
| Peter: Yes, to read. Okay can you break this down? |
| Sakura: よ・み・ま・す |
| Peter: And one time fast. |
| Sakura: 読みます |
| Peter: Again this is a great phrase and the best part about it is it’s so similar. You just take out one word and you put it in the next. So now you can say, how do you read this? |
| Sakura: Right. |
| Peter: And the best part about this is, in Japanese, there are so many different characters and lots of different ways to read things and looking through a dictionary takes time. So now with this phrase, again you have access to 128 – well maybe the kids can’t read so much. So we will give you about – all right, just give or take 100 million people. |
| Sakura: Yeah. |
| Peter: Willing to help you read. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: I cannot stress enough how great this phrase is. When I first came to Japan, I used this phrase 5 to 6 times a day. |
| Sakura: Oh. |
| Peter: I still even now I still use it a few times a day. When I am on the train. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: And I am trying to read the advertisements. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: I don’t know. So rather than let it go, I just turned to the person beside me and I say すみません。これは何と読みますか？ |
| Sakura: Hmm… |
| Peter: And as to date – to date, I’ve not been turned down. |
| Sakura: Wow! |
| Peter: Yep. |
| Sakura: Umm… |
| Peter: And the best part about it is, it gives you the ability to turn every moment in Japan into a learning experience. |
| Sakura: Umm great. |
| Peter: Right. This is my favorite phrase. |
| Sakura: Ahh… |
| Peter: You know, the last week’s phrase. |
| Sakura: Yes, yes. |
| Peter: これは何と言いますか？ That one is very useful too. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: However it doesn’t create the opportunity to start a conversation as well because with the reading, every single thing turns into an opportunity. |
| Sakura: Hmm… |
| Peter: And it turns into a great studying experience because you have the word right in front of you. |
| Sakura: Yeah. |
| Peter: With 何と言いますか？ you need an object and most of the time, there are a lot more words than objects. |
| Sakura: Yeah, yeah. |
| Peter: So it’s just one of the best expressions. |
| Sakura: Ah that’s interesting. |
| Peter: Right. |
| Sakura: Yeah. |
| Peter: So you can use it on the train. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: You can use it in the restaurant. |
| Sakura: Hmm. |
| Peter: I mean I go to different places to eat. I can’t – I still cannot read the whole menu. So all I do is, I call the waitress over. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: And I say すいません。これは何と読みますか？ |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: And never turn down |
| Sakura: Actually I use this about twice a month. I am Japanese but I use it because when I am translating Japanese into English and there are kanji that you can’t read. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Sakura: Yeah and so I go – I call the person sitting next to me これは何と読みますか？ |
| Peter: Yep. |
| Sakura: Yeah. |
| Peter: This phrase as you said, the last week’s phrase and this week’s phrase combined together. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: You are taking these two phrases and you are turning Japan into a one big learning center. |
| Sakura: Wow! |
| Peter: Yep. It’s just now it’s just an open game. Anything goes. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: And then just get out there, give it a try. You can use them in combination. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: With these two tools, with these two phrases, Japan is your playground or if you have Japanese friends, someone Japanese, you can start asking them all the questions, all in Japanese now. Maintains the flow of the conversation. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: It just helps so much. Okay so give us that phrase one more time. |
| Sakura: これは何と読みますか？ |
| Peter: How do you read this? |
| Sakura: これは何と読みますか？ |
| Peter: How do you read this? Last week we had |
| Sakura: これは何と言いますか？ |
| Peter: Yeah. How do you say this and last week, we could drop the |
| Sakura: これは |
| Peter: Yeah and then it becomes |
| Sakura: 何と言いますか？ |
| Peter: Okay. So this week we have |
| Sakura: これは何と読みますか？ |
| Peter: So obviously we could do the same thing right? |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: And it becomes |
| Sakura: 何と読みますか？ |
| Peter: Yep. Now what we are going to do here is we are going to give you the word for that there. Last week we gave you |
| Sakura: これ |
| Peter: This. So now, how do we say those things over there? |
| Sakura: それ |
| Peter: One more time. |
| Sakura: それ |
| Peter: Break it down. |
| Sakura: そ・れ |
| Peter: Okay. One time fast. |
| Sakura: それ |
| Peter: So now, we can take out this and put in that for these phrases, right? |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So can you give me in Japanese how do you read that? |
| Sakura: それは何と読みますか？ |
| Peter: Okay one more time. |
| Sakura: それは何と読みますか？ |
| Peter: Okay and ゆっくりお願いします。 |
| Sakura: それは、なんと、よみますか？ |
| Peter: Okay and this is, how do you read that? |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: We can also say, how do you say that? |
| Sakura: それは何と言いますか？ |
| Peter: Excellent. So now what we are going to do is give you some practical situations to use this stuff in. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Okay. The example I gave before was the train. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: In Japanese trains, there are advertisements everywhere. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: And while you are waiting, you know maybe you are curious. You are reading or you want to read. You want to see what – you know, you want to know what the news is, you want to know what this is about. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So what we are going to do now is we are going to go back to what I was talking about on the train. Okay so let’s just imagine that I am a foreigner and I get on the train. That should be hard to imagine. Me a foreigner….So doors close, I start looking at the advertisements and I see something very interesting and I want to know what that is. So I could write it down and find out later but that would take me and I have to write it down. Then I would have to translate it, look in the dictionaries. Rather than do that, I decide you know what, I am going to try my phrases. |
| Sakura: Uh. |
| Peter: So I turned to the person next to me and I say すみません。それは何と読みますか？ |
| Sakura: それは、日本です。 |
| Peter: すいません。ゆっくりお願いします。 |
| Sakura: それは、にほんです。 |
| Peter: ゆっくり、お願いします。 |
| Sakura: に・ほ・ん・です。 |
| Peter: にほんです。 |
| Sakura: はい。 |
| Peter: 英語で何と言いますか？ |
| Sakura: Japan |
| Peter: Japan. Oh, do you speak English? |
| Sakura: A little. |
| Peter: Thank you so much. Japan and what’s the rest of this and something, something. So you get the idea of how this kind of conversation would flow. |
| Sakura: Yes, yes… |
| Peter: Again let’s do the restaurant. すみません。これは何と読みますか？ |
| Sakura: これは肉です。 |
| Peter: ゆっくりお願いします。 |
| Sakura: これは、にくです。 |
| Peter: にく、にく、にく……英語で何と言いますか？ |
| Sakura: うーん……ミート？ ミート？ |
| Peter: ミート？Ah,meat,meat! |
| Sakura: ああ、そうですね。 |
| Peter: ああ、ありがとうございます。 |
| Sakura: Hehe. |
| Peter: Okay again, you can see how this kind of creates the opportunities to get into speaking and using the Japanese that you learned here. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So today this phrase gets a whole lesson to itself because it’s that important. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Unlike 言います where you need an object. 読みます you just need a word and there are so many words. Just take a look around and if you can’t find any words, you should bring some kind of reading material with you. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: So you have opportunities all the time. You can be reading your own book. I’ve done this. |
| Sakura: Yeah. |
| Peter: I am reading my own book and I don’t know the character. |
| Sakura: Yeah. |
| Peter: I turned to the person beside me す、すいません。何と読みますか？ And you know sometimes they are a little surprised or something but they always answer. |
| Sakura: And it’s so much easier for Japanese people to answer how you read it. |
| Peter: Yeah. |
| Sakura: Than how you say something you know. You have to think about it but read it, it’s so easy to answer. So it’s a good idea. |
| Peter: This is the best phrase to date and it gets its own monopoly lesson. |
| Sakura: I think so. |
| Peter: Okay. So please anybody out there who uses this, let us know about it. We live for that stuff and also last week, we gave you this and now we gave you that. So now you have a whole range of things to ask about. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Now you are not limited to just things around you. You can ask about this, that. |
| Sakura: Yes. |
| Peter: Okay. To sum up, we will have Sakura give us how to say this, how to say that, how to read this, how to read that. |
| Sakura: Okay. |
| Peter: Okay here we go! |
| Sakura: これは何と言いますか？ |
| Peter: How do you say this? |
| Sakura: それは何と言いますか？ |
| Peter: How do you say that? |
| Sakura: これは何と読みますか？ |
| Peter: How do you read this? |
| Sakura: それは何と読みますか？ |
| Peter: How do you read that? |
Outro |
| Peter: Okay that’s going to wrap it up. |
| Sakura: また明日ね！ |
| Peter: See you tomorrow. |
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