Episode 1 – Japanese Made Easy

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Japanese Made Easy Episode 01

Hi, this is Greg.. Welcome to Japanese Made Easy. If you have any doubts about your ability to learn Japanese, you can set them aside right now. The fact is, your success in the language has nothing to do with whether or not you’re good at languages. It all comes down to the methods you use.

In these podcasts we’ll be using Modern language learning techniques such as contextual learning, and pattern recognition so you don’t have to rely on memorizing vocabulary and grammar rules, but can instead start acquiring Japanese naturally, and in a fraction of the time it will otherwise take.

And yes, I realize that sounds like a pretty big promise, but stick around and you will see that speaking Japanese doesn’t really doesn’t have to be something you struggle with.

If you are a beginner or intermediate speaker you probably still have trouble with particles. So we’ll be learning them in a way that makes them easy to understand and easy to use when you speak, starting with the “ga” particle in this very first episode.

Finally, we’ll cover casual and polite Japanese side by side, so you can speak politely when the situation calls for it, or casually with friends. All you need to do is just follow along and be sure to speak out-loud when prompted.

Alright lets jump right in. I’d like you to listen to the following three Japanese words and try to guess what they could possibly mean. Even if you have no experience at all, I bet you’ll get them.

ピザ、(piza)  ケーキ、(Kēki)  クッキー  (Kukkī)  

Our native speaker will say them one more time, and this time be sure to repeat them out-loud. The thing is, learning a language requires participation. If you just passively listen to theses podcasts you won’t do to well. So, please repeat after the speaker.

ピザ、(piza) ケーキ、(Kēki)  クッキー (Kukkī) 

You probably found it easy to understand the meaning of those Japanese words. That’s because they’re cognates, that is, words that sound very similar between two languages and have the same meaning.

So in English we say pizza, but in Japanese it’s

ピザ ピザ   (piza)

We say cake, in Japanese it’s　

ケーキ ケーキ (Kēki) 

and in English we’d say cookie or cookies in Japanese it’s just　

クッキー クッキー (Kukkī) 

And, now it’s your turn, finish the following sentences using a word we just learned. Remember to say it out-loud.

Last night for the party I bought five pepperoni and mushroom

ピザ (piza) 

Timmy is 7 years old today, so of course there are 7 candles on his birthday

ケーキ (Kēki)

According to the label this package contains 25 chocolate chip

クッキー (Kukkī) 

A quick note on the number of things, in English we can say one cookie, two cookies, adding an “s”, but we also say one deer, or two deer, one sheep two sheep. In Japanese word endings don’t change when there’s more than one.

Again, those are cognates. And the good news is there are hundreds of cognates between Japanese and English. In essence, it means you come into the language already knowing hundreds of useful words. We just need to change the pronunciation a bit.

Alright, now lets look at a couple purely Japanese words. Repeat after the speaker.

ある、ある  (aru)

What does it mean? Well, the best way to learn the meaning is to let your brain figure it out on its own, by how it’s used in a sentence. This is what we call “learning from context” and is based on a language acquisition principle called comprehensible input. Let’s give it a try.

Imagine you and friend walk to a park and your friend wants to sit down. You notice a park-bench, so you bring it to his attention by pointing and saying.. “Oh, look. Over there a bench ある. (aru)

So you sit down. Then, your friend mentions being thirsty, you look around and you spot a drinking fountain. You want to let your friend know so you gesture in the general direction and say.. Hey, over there a drinking fountain ある. I bet you are getting a feel for the meaning, but let’s do one more just in case.

At your friends house, you mention being hungry. Your friend looks in the fridge and says “Hmm… not so much in here.. but oh.. left over spaghetti

ある. (aru)  Notice I never told you the meaning, but you now have a feel for the word.

So in Japanese to express that there “is something” or more literally, that something “exists” in a place… we use

ある  (aru) 

If you have any experience with Japanese at all, you are likely already familiar with the polite form..

あります あります  (Arimasu) 

…as most books and courses start by teaching polite Japanese, while pretty much ignoring casual speech. As I mentioned in the intro we’ll be learning polite and casual speech in these podcasts. Anyway,

ある (aru)  is the dictionary form of the word for “existence” and is used in casual speech while

あります  (arimasu) 　is the “masu” form which is used in polite speech.

Generally speaking we’ll use the masu form with adults we don’t know, superiors in the workplace and the elderly, and we’ll use the dictionary form with good friends and family members. Let’s work with what we have so far.

Imagine the following situation. Kenji is at home and mentions that he’s hungry. His mom gestures toward the cake on the counter and says..

ケーキあるよ。 ケーキあるよ。(Kēki aruyo.)  Sounds good, so Kenji has some cake…

What we heard there was simply.. “Cake, exists” and on the end “yo”. In this type of situation this sentence ending “yo” is softening the statement or making it sound friendly.

Continuing on… Kenji is sitting on the couch in the living room eating some

クッキー (Kukkī)  His brother walks in.. Kenji always shares with his brother so he says…

クッキーあるよ。 クッキーあるよ。(Kukkī aruyo.) 

Literally just “cookies exist”, with the softening or friendly sounding “yo”.

Ok, now you give it a try, with just those two examples I bet you won’t have any trouble. Imagine you get home and the smell of pizza is in the air… How would a family member bring to your attention, or mention the fact that there is pizza?

ピザあるよ。 ピザあるよ。(Piza aruyo.) 

Again, literally just “pizza exists” a natural English translation could be “There’s pizza”, or we might say “We have pizza.”

If Japanese is the first foreign language you are learning, something to keep in mind is that natural translations are often very different from what is being said literally, and this is why I will always try to point out both translations. And just to practice, tell a good friend.. “There’s cake.” Literally just “Cake exists.”

ケーキあるよ。 ケーキあるよ。(Kēki aruyo.) 

Keep in mind, there is no rule that says exactly when you should or shouldn’t use the friendly sounding “yo” it’s more of a feel thing you will get used to. One more and we’ll move on.. Mention to a hungry family member that there are cookies.

クッキーあるよ。 クッキーあるよ。(Kukkī aruyo.)  

Before we get into a little more complicated material, lets add a couple of easy cognates that are drinks. Just listen…

コーラ, コーラ (Kōra) 

I like Pepsi コーラ. (Kōra)   My friend likes coke-a コーラ (Kōra) 

In Japan, pretty much any brown carbonated drink, such as Pepsi or Coke is referred to as

コーラ (Kōra)   So we’d say cola. In Japanese it’s slightly different..

コーラ (Kōra)  And a quick note on the pronunciation. Listen carefully and hopefully you can hear that it’s not really a pure L sound.

コーラ (Kōra)  It’s close to an L, but more is similar to a light D sound, very light though. Just kind of bounce your tongue off the roof of your mouth just behind your upper front teeth.

コーラ コーラ (Kōra)  ok, next…

コーヒー、コーヒー (Kōhī)  

When I wake up in the morning I make a pot of hot コーヒー(Kōhī) 

and admittedly, I do like my caffeine so I usually drink a couple cups of

コーヒー (Kōhī)  throughout the day.

So we say coffee, but in Japanese there isn’t a pure F sound, and so there is no fee sound. So instead of “fee” they go with “hee” and o’s are always long.. giving us…

コーヒー (Kōhī) 

In English, “coffee” In Japanese,

コーヒー (Kōhī) 

On a sunny hot day, a good friend drops by your place and looks in need of something to drink. He asks for water, but you don’t have any. How would you bring up the fact that there’s cola? Basically saying… “I have cola.” or “There’s cola” literally though.. “Cola exists…”

コーラあるよ。 コーラあるよ。 コーラあるよ。 (Kōra aruyo.) 

Ok, One more. At home you ran out of coffee. Having bought some while you were out, how would a family member bring up and mention that there’s coffee?

コーヒーあるよ。 コーヒーあるよ。(Kōhī aruyo.)  

Alright, so far so good. Let’s take a break and when we come back we’ll get into the “ga” particle.

————————————– Tip Of The Day ————————————

This is roughly the halfway point of this podcast and I’d like to share some thoughts about memory. In a nutshell, when learning a new language, here’s the trick to developing your long term memory: You start by learning anywhere from three to seven new words. You need to learn them from context, and then use them in a sentence or two.

So you learn it, then use it. And then, here’s the key: Think about something else. Look out the window, for example, and describe what you see. Or go to a website and read about something you are interested in.

Do something requiring all your attention. That, of course, is what I’m making you do at this very moment. The big variable is how longyou’re able to concentrate on this other task and still retain the information you learned. But even a minute or two will suffice. Then the final step after that brief time out is to try to recall as much as you can of what you just learned. If you’re able to, try writing everything out. Otherwise, just say things out loud.

So take a moment and ask yourself what were the new words and phrases we learned so far in this podcast. I’ll wait, while you find the PAUSE button.

————————————– Tip Of The Day ————————————

So far, by my count we’ve learned 6 new words, and one particle.

ピザ, (piza)  ケーキ, (Kēki)  クッキー, (Kukkī)  コーヒー (Kōhī)  and コーラ (Kōra)  

we also learned a verb for “existence”

ある (aru) and the friendly sounding “よ” (yo)  particle.

Ok, let’s get into the really fun stuff. Of course I have no way of knowing what your level is but I’m going to assume you are either a beginner with limited experience, or you have some experience but are still having trouble with particle usage.

Particles are often dropped in very casual speech, so to work with them we’ll need to switch to polite speech for a bit. With that in mind… Imagine the following situation.

You’re in Japan and are invited to a get together a the local community center. Some friends are there, and a lot of adults that you don’t know. So, we are going to want to use polite Japanese with adults we don’t really know.

The event organizer hands you a cup and brings up the fact that there is coffee on a nearby table, saying…

コーヒーがありますよ。 コーヒーがありますよ。 (Kōhī ga arimasuyo.) 

So, you have some coffee. You strike up a conversation with a Japanese person you don’t know, and suddenly your stomach growls. Being helpful, the person brings up the fact that pizza exists by pointing to the table and saying…

ピザがありますよ。 ピザがありますよ。(Piza ga arimasuyo.)  

We’ll break the meaning down literally in just a minute, but with just that, using polite Japanese how would bring up the fact that cookies exist, saying essentially “There’re cookies.”

クッキーがありますよ。 クッキーがありますよ。 (Kukkī ga arimasuyo.)  

All of the example sentences we’ve done so far have had a common theme. Yes, food or drinks was a common theme, but what else? If you recall this line from early on..

How would a family member bring to your attention, or mention the fact that there’s pizza?

…and this line from the polite example…

The event organizer hands you a cup and brings up the fact that there is coffee…

We’ll get back to that point in just a minute. Let’s compare the polite longer versions and the casual shorter versions. For example, we just heard the polite

ピザがありますよ。(Piza ga arimasuyo.)   Literally this is pizza, the が (ga) particle, then あります (arimasu)  which is the ます (masu)   form of ある (aru)  then the friendly yo. Listen one more time.

ピザがありますよ。 (Piza ga arimasuyo.)  Compared to the casual version…

ピザあるよ。(Piza aruyo.)  pizza, the が (ga) particle is dropped, but it’s usage is implied, then the dictionary form of exists which is justある,(aru)  then よ. (yo)

We also heard

コーヒーがありますよ。(Kōhī ga arimasuyo.)   Literally , coffee, the ga particle, masu form of exists, and よ. Then the casual…

コーヒーあるよ。(Kōhī aruyo.)  Coffee, ga is implied but dropped, exists. yo.

In every example whether polite or casual, I was careful to mentioned the intention behind the words.. which was to bring up and point out that fact that something existsthat the listener may or may not have been aware of.

For example, mentioning or pointing out.. “There’s cake.” Mentioning or pointing out.. “We have cookies.” Mentioning or pointing out the fact that.. “There’s pizza.”

Whether が was spoken or dropped, there was something else that was in every example, and that was our verb for “exists” ある or the more polite

ます (masu) form which is あります. (arimasu) 

So, let’s give this pattern a name, so that you won’t be able to mix it up with other particles uses. We’ll call this pattern “Bringing up and pointing out that something exists with ga aru.” Not just が, (ga) but が ある  (ga aru) which brings us to a very important point.

A major reason students struggle with particles is because any given particle can have a wide variety of uses. The particle “ni” has at least 11 different entries in the particle dictionary that I have. が doesn’t have that many, but there isn’t just one universal usage of it.

So today we are learning just this one specific use of が, and it’s important to master the ability to use it when speaking, before moving on. It’s not enough to generally understand it, or to get it conceptually. It’s really important to practice until you don’t have to think about it when you speak. So, I’m going to help you with that by including practice audios that you can download at the end of the episode.

It’s worth repeating one more time, we’ll call this pattern “bringing up and pointing out that something exists with ga aru.”

Again, not just が, (ga) but が ある(ga aru)  or が あります (ga arimasu) 

So, in the polite versions we actually say the particle が but in the very casual speech particles are often dropped and so が is in there grammatically speaking, but it’s being dropped.

This isn’t a rule, it’s just a tendency when speech is very casual.

Now that you are aware of the pattern, let’s try a couple. At a get-together speaking to an adult that you don’t know, and so using polite Japanese, bring up and mention the fact that there’s cake.

ケーキがありますよ。 ケーキがありますよ。(Kēki ga arimasuyo.) 

First we heard, cake, and then because we are pointing out the cake and bringing the fact that it exists to somebody’s attention we used が あります , then we added よ at the end.

Now, tell a close friend..

There’s pizza.

ピザあるよ。 (Piza aruyo.) 

Again, literally just pizza, then we didn’t hear が because it’s often dropped in very casual speech.

This time no analysis. Politely point out the drinks, in particular the cola on the table.

コーラがありますよ。(Kōra ga arimasuyo.) 

and very casually to a family member, point out the cola.

コーラあるよ。(Kōra aruyo.) 

Bring up and point out the existence of something with が ある, in very casual Japanese. In this case.. coffee.

コーヒーあるよ。コーヒーあるよ。　(Kōhī aruyo.) 　　and polite.

コーヒーがありますよ。　　コーヒーがありますよ。(Kōhī  ga arimasuyo.) 

The ability to do this typically takes years to develop because most courses figure it’s just too overwhelming, so it’s skipped entirely. But here we are in the first episode using levels of politeness and mastering a usage of the が (ga)  particle. So all I can say is, if you are getting this so far, you are making great progress.

Ok, that’s the end of the episode and with that I’d like you to do some speaking homework. As you go about your day, practice very casual, and polite versions of bringing things to people’s attention and pointing them out with がある (ga aru)  or があります。(ga arimasu)  And don’t worry about whether or not you know a particular vocabulary word in Japanese.

If you want to point out that there’s ketchup for example, it’s ok to say the word in English, as in “Ketchup あるよ.”(aruyo)   or “Ketchup がありますよ.” (ga arimasuyo.) 

We want to concentrate on making this pattern second nature by using it as much as possible throughout the day. So don’t worry about the actual vocabulary, just practice the pattern.

Also, if you can’t read Hiragana or Katakana yet, check out my 2 Hour Hiragana or Katakana apps.

They are free in the app stores and using context and mnemonics, I promise… will have you reading and remembering all 46 characters in whichever you are learning, in just 2 Hours.

As I mentioned, I made a much shorter, practice version of this podcast. It has just the exercises, without the explanations.. So head over to

Japanese Made Easy.com

to grab a copy of those, and a full transcript of this podcast.

Alright, see you in the next episode.