Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

みなさんこんにちは。(Mina-san, konnichiwa) Hi everyone, I am Chihiro and welcome back to JapanesePod.com’s Kantan kana. In the last lesson, we learned the katakana characters ヤ(ya), ユ(yu) and ヨ(yo). Now there are less than 10 left and you will learn all of them now. How is your studies coming along? If you see some characters you don’t know, be sure to go back and review. Now let’s take a look at the next five katakana characters.
We will begin with ラ(ra) 1, 2. It looks like a フ(fu) that has a line above it. Here is ケラケラ(kerakera), onomatopoeia for the sound of laughter and this is カラオケ(karaoke), “karaoke” which is actually two words put together. カラ(kara) is short for 空っぽ(karappo) meaning empty and オケ(oke) is short for オーケストラ(ōkesutora) “orchestra”.
Next up is リ(ri). 1, 2. If you remember the hiragana り(ri) this one looks quite similar but unlike hiragana, the two strokes on the katakana リ(ri) are never connected and the first stroke doesn’t have a はね(hane). Here is リスト(risuto), “list” and here is イタリア(Itaria), “Italy”.
Okay next up is ル(ru). 1, 2. Now you can write アルコール(arukōru), “alcohol” and サルサ(sarusa) “salsa” as in the sauce or the dance.
Here is レ(re) just one stroke. Think of it as the last stroke of ル(ru) on its own since it comes right after ル(ru) it should be easy to remember. Let’s write オムレツ(omuretsu) “omelet” and エクレア(ekurea) “Éclairs”, a sweet French dessert filled with custard.
Our last character for today is ロ(ro). 1, 2, 3. A nice way to remember this is, squares don’t “ロー(rō).” Now you can write メトロ(metoro), “metro”, a good one to remember if you are in Tokyo. And カロリー(karorī) “calorie”.
Now let’s have a short quiz. I will show you a word in katakana and you read it. Bonus points if you remember what it means.
サルサ(sarusa) “salsa”
カラオケ(karaoke), “karaoke”
メトロ(metoro), “metro”
Now it’s time for Chihiro’s tip. On many formal documents, there will be a space to write your name in katakana on top of the row, you would usually write it. Since a similar kanji has several different ways to read it, this is important for the Japanese to write their names in kanji so that their names won’t be mispronounced.
This is also important if you write your name in Roman letters so that the Japanese can read your name properly. So do you know how to write your name in katakana yet? For those who don’t, we will be learning the last katakana letters in the next lesson. So you will know how to after that. I will see you then.

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JapanesePod101.com
2010-12-03 18:30:00

みなさん、

Can you pronounce these characters? The Japanese "r" sound can be a little tricky for English speakers!

JapanesePod101.com
2024-04-23 03:38:22

こんにちは、ティファニーさん! (Konnichiwa, Tiffanī-san! "Hello, Tiffany!")

Your introduction is almost perfect! But there's a small correction to be made. Instead of "Watashi no onamae wa Tiffany desu," it should be "Watashi no namae wa Tiffany desu." The term "onamae" is used when you're asking someone else's name. When introducing yourself, you should use "namae."

So your introduction should be: "Watashi no namae wa Tiffanī desu." (私の名前はティファニーです。 "My name is Tiffany.")

If you want to use your short form, you should say: "Watashi no namae wa Tifu desu." (私の名前はティフです。 "My name is Tif.")

Keep practicing, Tiffany-san! You're doing great!

ありがとうございます! (Arigatō gozaimasu! "Thank you!")

Yoshimi

Team JapanesePod101.com

Tiffany
2024-04-06 02:43:38

Hmmm. Watashi no onamae wa Tiffany desu.

eto... ティファニー

I think I might just use my short form... ティフ desu

JapanesePod101.com
2022-10-28 10:24:08

Hi Jennifer,

Thank you for studying with us.

ありがとうございます😁

Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.

Cheers,

Ryoma

Team JapanesePod101.com

Jennifer
2022-10-27 00:15:46

Arigato gozaimasu!😄

JapanesePod101.com
2021-10-12 15:32:08

Rusmiaさん

Thank you so much for your comment😄

You can say どういたしまして👍

Please let us know if you have any questions :)

Sincerely

りょうま(Ryoma)

Team JapanesePod101.com

Rusmia
2021-10-08 16:41:26

I have a question, how do I say "you're welcome" or just "welcome" when someone thanks me?

JapanesePod101.com
2021-05-15 15:34:24

Hi ナタリヤ,

Thank you for your comment!

I'm sorry for the late reply.

I googled ラキヤ and wow, it's very strong alcohol!

I'd love to try it😊

Yes, you put your name correct in katakana:)

We are so glad that you enjoy learning Japanese with us.

Sincerely,

Miho

Team JapanesePod101.com

ナタリヤ (Natalija)
2021-03-01 18:55:29

fun fact now you can write a Serbian national drink called rakija which I assume would go like this ラキヤ just taught it was fun.

I love these lessons so much and I am making real progress thank you so much. ❤️️👍

hope I translated my name well

JapanesePod101.com
2020-10-22 15:42:15

Hi Jonah,

Thank you for your comment!

お酒 and アルコール are sometimes used as same meaning, "alcohol" or "alcoholic beverage."

However, they are slightly different in the usage.

We say "drink (alcohol)" as お酒を飲む (o-sake o nome)

but usually don't say アルコールを飲む (arukōru o nomu.)

Strictly, アルコール means a chemical substance found in liquor, such as wine and beer.

And お酒 means the whole liquor or alcoholic drink, such as wine, beer, whisky and etc.

(Sometimes it just means Japanese sake.)

Thank you for learning Japanese with us!

Your name is ジョナ in Japanese:)

Sincerely,

Miho

Team JapanesePod101.com

Jonah
2020-10-05 15:04:30

Hi,

I have a couple of questions:

Does お酒 (Osake) and アルコール mean the exact same thing but one is hiragana and one katakana?

Which one is more commonly used if say a group is going out for a round of drinks?

And, why use a loan word if an authentic japanese word already exists? ie. れっき (rekki) and リスト?

Lastly, would "Jonah" be written ジョナ?

JapanesePod101.com
2020-07-18 23:39:08

Krishnan Sriramさん、こんにちは!

Thank you for your comment.

I love your nickname, クリツナ!

In Japan, one's nickname usually includes his/her name, but not full name necessarily.

Or sometimes it's completely different from the own name.

Hope you enjoy learning Japanese with us!

Sincerely,

Miho

Team JapanesePod101.com

Krishnan Sriram
2020-07-04 18:17:48

クリシュナン シュリラム ( Kurishunan Shuriramu)

I made a mistake in writing my name correctly in the previous comment. Please consider this as the correct one.

Krishnan Sriram
2020-07-04 18:13:41

こんにちは!

My name is クリシュナん シュリム (Kurishunan Shuriramu - the nearest pronounciation of my name). I have chosen my nickname to be クリツナ (kuritsuna). I have included tsu which is not present in my full name. Is it common in Japan for the nickname to only have characters from your full name? Or can it be a completely different one?

JapanesePod101.com
2020-06-11 00:29:12

こんにちは、Leonardo

Thank you for asking!

It depends on the original pronunciation, But generally we write Leonardo as レオナルド.

For example, Leonardo DiCaprio in Japanese is レオナルド・ディカプリオ as well 😉

Feel free to ask us any questions!

Sono

Team JapanesePod101.com

Leonardo
2020-04-25 01:15:56

こんにちは!

I'm not sure how to write my name (Leonardo) in Japanese. Should it be レオナルド or レナアド?

JapanesePod101.com
2020-01-08 12:24:10

Adamさん

コメントありがとうございます😄

Yes, your name will be written as アダム.

Please let us know if you have any question :)

Sincerely

Ryoma

Team JapanesePod101.com

Adam
2020-01-06 07:07:52

I realised that your name was just as close to the original in katakana, so mine is 'アダム', which all look like misshapen 'A's at different angles lol

JapanesePod101.com
2018-10-23 01:34:52

Hi Learner,

Thank you very much for the comment. Looks like you are going through this lesson series pretty quickly!

Thank you for studying with us!

Sincerely,

Miki H

Team JapanesePod101.com

Learner
2018-10-21 18:21:32

Good lesson and very pretty teacher :-)

JapanesePod101.com
2017-02-01 19:07:58

Nathanial Howard san,

Konnichiwa.:smile:

Japanese ら,り,る,れ andろ are actually close to la, li, lu, le and lo.

When you pronounce ‘l’, your tongue touches behind your front teeth and when you pronounce ‘d’, the tongue position is similar to ‘l.’

That is the reason why you hear ‘du.’

If you stick to ‘l’, you can pronounce Japanese ら, り,る, れ andろ well.

Yuki 由紀

Team JapanesePod101.com

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