Episode 13 – Japanese Made Easy

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Hi this is Greg, welcome to Japanese Made Easy Episode 13. In Japanese counters, seem to be an area of stress for students. So, moving forward in the podcast in addition to more particle uses, I want to start introducing counters so that by the end, they too are no big deal.

First though, let’s jump right in and do some review that we’ll need for today’s episode.

A friend of yours went to lunch with another friend. In casual Japanese, only two words. Ask them, “Who with?”

誰(だれ)と？

Including the word “go”, try saying, “Who’d you go with?”

誰と行(い)ったの？ First in polite Japanese and then casual.

Say, I saw a movie…

映画(えいが)を見(み)ました。And casual…

映画見た。

Polite Japanese, other sports aside, ask somebody if they can play golf.

ゴルフはできますか？Casual Japanese, say… I can’t play golf.

ゴルフできない。 There was no “wa” in there so no nuance or implication about other sports.

Translate this into natural English

サッカーはできますか？ I’d translate that as… Can you play soccer?

Politely answer, Yes. I can play soccer.

はい。サッカーはできますよ。Yes. Soccer, now that I can do.” Implying other sports not so much.

Three more. Casual Japanese. We’ll ask somebody what they did. First how would you ask… What’d ya drink?

何(なに)飲(の)んだ？ What’d ya eat?

何食(た)べた？ What’d ya watch or see?

何見(み)た？

In Japanese there are a variety of words related to the idea of “person.” We’ve heard one already…

日本人

So we use “jin” in this case for nationality. See if you can figure out the meaning of these two words used together.

Steve talks about a party and mentioned the number of people that were there, but his friend was texting and didn’t really hear him. His friend asks..

何人(なんにん)？Steve replies, “Mmm.. 5 people”.

Later Steve’s friend is talking about an online game, called “Lot’s of us”. She said it’s cool, and mentions how many people are on a team. Steve didn’t hear the number of people on a team, so clarifying he asks…

何人？ his friend answers.. “8 people”.

What you are hearing there is a variation on the word “what”, as in

何(なに) 飲んだ？ What did you drink? But shorter, just

なん　（何） and the counter or counting word for people…

にん（人）何人(なんにん)？

By counter, I mean a word used when talking about amounts of things, in this case people.

So, we’re literally asking, “What people?” but because this is the common way to ask the number of something, the idea of “number of” is implied by the speaker and completely understood by the listener.

何人？

In English we use, “How many”, in Japanese they go with “What number of…”

So that’s the question, but we need to understand the answer.

This far along in your Japanese studies..

I assume you know the numbers 1 – 10,

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 so we’ll work with those.

Thinking back to our examples… Asking to clarify the number of people when She didn’t hear it.

何人？and Steve’s answer, “5 people.” Had it been in Japanese…

五人(ごにん) 五(ご) or 5, and the counter for people.

人(にん)　Then we didn’t clearly hear the number of people on a “Lot’s of us” team. Try clarifying, “What number of people?”

何人？ …and the answer, just “8 people.”

八人 (はちにん) Ok, you try it. You didn’t hear the number of people mentioned, so how would you ask, “What number of people?”

何人？ and how would they reply… “3 people.”

三人 (さんにん) Throwing a bit of a curve ball, try this one. Still casual. A person mentions, seeing a movie. Ask.. What did you see?

何(なに)見た？ They answer, and mention how many people went. You didn’t hear the number clearly, so ask.. How many people?

何人？ How would they answer, “6 people.”

六人(ろくにん)

Let’s expand on this idea using our verb for existence. Steve is talking about the party and says there weren’t very many people there. So his friend asks…

何人いた？ He replies…

七人(ななにん)いたよ。How would you translate literally

何人いた？We have “what” then, “number of people”, “existed.”

More naturally.. How many people were there? And the answer…

七人いたよ。7 people existed with the よ on the end giving the feeling that this is friendly, or likely new or perspective changing information.

Imagine two people are on the phone, and there’s a get together, using our time word

今(いま) or now.. and keeping in mind that time words tend to go at the beginning of sentences… How might a person ask. “How many people are there right now?” Think through it literally if necessary.

今、何人いる？Now, what number of people, exist? …and how would you translate this answer into natural English?

今、十人(じゅうにん)いるよ。There are 10 people here right now. The “here, and there”, are implied and not really necessary.

Ok, so far so good.

I think there are a couple reasons people tend to think counters are difficult and we’ll talk about those later. But one of the reasons is this;

Typically from the number three and on, we can just use normal Japanese numbers. But for one or two, we don’t typically use the numbers

一(いち) or 二(に)

and what we do use can change slightly depending on what counter we are using. That being said, the words aren’t difficult or anything, the problem really just comes from a person thinking “I’m going to study counters.” and then looking at the over-view of all of them that are involved, and it then seems overwhelming.

If we take them one at a time though and do one every couple of lessons, it really won’t be a big deal.

Continuing on.

You know how sometimes you ask a person a question and they just draw a blank. So you might prompt them to jog their memory. Let’s imagine that’s the situation, so a Japanese person asks you how many people were at a place…

何人いた？

They know your Japanese is good enough that you understand the question, but you are drawing a blank on how many people were actually there. So.. to help you recall, they hold up 1 finger and ask

一人(ひとり)？ No response from you. They hold up two fingers and say…

二人(ふたり)？You’re still drawing a blank. They hold up three fingers and say…

三人(さんにん)？Ah that’s it. So you tell them…

そう。三人いたよ。”That’s right. There were three people.”

Now that you’ve heard them once, let’s get the pronunciation and then remember them. If you aren’t driving in your car, hold up one finger to represent one person and say…

一人　 一人 now two fingers and say…

二人 二人 This hee of hitori and fu of futari is somewhat of a pattern we can use for other things when we get to them.

For now, just listen and hold up the appropriate number of fingers as we go.

一人 二人 三人 Now repeat at the same speed.

一人 二人 三人 Ok try saying, “There was one person.”

一人いたよ。 There were two people

二人いたよ。There are three people.

三人いるよ。Listen to the polite versions real quick. There’s one person…

一人います。There was one person.

一人いました。Both there is, and there were, two people.

二人います。 二人いました。Ok, you try saying both for three people.

三人います。 三人いました。

There wasn’t any setup for those but based on who you were talking to and feel, you could have attached よ.

One more time before we take a brake. Polite Japanese, ask somebody, “How many people are there right now?”

今、何人いますか？ Tell them, “There are four people.”

四人(よにん)いますよ。You could have included 今, either way is fine.

———————————- Tip Of The day

Today’s tip is quick ‘n’ easy: When you’re in Japan and you’re using your Japanese, try asking questions that you already know the answer to.

That might sound like a dumb thing to do, or a waste of a person’s time, but it’s not. Because since you already know the information, you can relax and focus all your attention on listening to the native speaker.

For example, if you notice a person on the street who doesn’t seem busy, or not in a hurry, and you’re headed to a place, say… Starbucks. Try asking where the nearest Starbucks is.

Again, even though you may know exactly how to get there, because we want to analyze their answers and their word choice, and so on, without that stress of, “Man, I gotta make sure I remember all this.”

So that’s the tip of the day: From time to time, ask questions you already know the answer to. But, of course ask somebody who doesn’t look too busy with something else. What you’ll find is that generally speaking, people are glad they were able to help. I’d done that a few times and the person ended up literally walking me to the Starbucks, and we chatted along the way.

So, don’t be shy. Most people will be glad to help.

———————————- Tip Of The day

Continuing on, we are going to learn a new particle and I imagine you already know this usage as it’s learned fairly early on. We do have to officially cover it though, but we’ll go quick. Recalling our question word..

どこ　Remember a few episodes back, when John asked Carol out and she said she was going to a movie with Slash? Well, Slash had to go on tour so that date never happened. Carol decided to give John another shot.

So, John planned an awesome dinner and a movie date and they went out. The next day Carol is talking to Emi on the phone about the big date. Carol says they went to a restaurant and …

ハンバーガー食べた。 Can you guess what she ate? Listen one more time.

ハンバーガー食べた。 Sounds pretty close to the English version. Hamburger. But not with an “m” it’s the Japanese ン.

ハンバーガー。。。and then like a “ba” “ga” ba…ga…

ハンバーガー

Then Emi wants to know where so she asks…

どこで？

So there we are hearing, where and our new particle

で

Let’s get right to the Super Literal Translation for this one.

We’ll think of で as…the location that was utilized when doing the action.

We’ll come back to John and Carol’s awesome date in a second. First, listen to these three examples. Kenji mentions the place and what he had to drink there saying…

スタバでコーヒー飲んだ。

Starbucks, the location utilized when doing the action, coffee drank.

レストランでサンドイッチを食べました。

Restaurant, location utilized when doing the action, sandwich を ate.

We didn’t drop the “を” particle because it was polite. With just that… in casual Japanese, try saying.. I ate a hamburger or hamburgers at Burger king. Start with the place…

バーガーキングでハンバーガー食べた。

So back to the hot date. Carol mentioned to Emi that she had a hamburger, and Emi asked..

どこで？

How would you translate Carol’s reply into natural English?

She says…

マック Yeah, just the short version of McDonald’s. And, let’s have a moment of silence for John.

Ok, if you are a Japanese Mastery Method student you probably already know this word, or if you are already in Japan you certainly know this word.

But let’s get it from context anyway. When the train stopped at

Tokyo 駅(えき) a bunch of people go off the train. One more. If you are going to take a train somewhere, you can buy tickets at the ticket counter located in the 駅。

When we hear this word we typically think of train stations.

京都駅(きょうとえき) Kyoto Station.

As with any airport or large station there are usually places to eat in or around the station. Using the easy cognate..

ラーメン ラーメン or Ramen… Casual Japanese,

Try saying, “I ate ramen at Tokyo station.” Again, start with the place.

東京駅(とうきょうえき)でラーメンを食べた。

Repeat after our native speaker…

寿司(すし)　 寿司　　　

Pronouncing it exactly as you did just now, tell somebody in polite Japanese, “I ate sushi at the station.”

駅で寿司を食べました。 A person didn’t hear what you said, so they ask the entire sentence… Where did you eat?

どこで食べましたか？ Repeat what you said, “I ate sushi at the station.”

駅で寿司を食べました。

Going back to review a bit before we move on, How would you translate this question..

何人いた？ What, number of people, existed. How many people were there? How would you answer.. “One person existed.” or “There was one person.”

一人いた。

…Two people.

二人いた。

…Three people.

三人いた。

Now that John is out of the picture, Kenji asks Carol if she wants to meet up for coffee. Carol and Emi, hadn’t talked in a while so catching up on latest events Carol mentions…

健司(けんじ)と大阪駅(おおさかえき)でコーヒー飲んだ。 Let’s walk through that literally. Listen one more time.

健司と大阪駅でコーヒー飲んだ。

Kenji with, Osaka station で.. or place that was utilized, coffee drank.

I had coffee with Kenji at Osaka station.　Technically speaking, the word order could have been switched to..

大阪駅で健司とコーヒー飲んだ。

Speaking of tomorrow’s plans, polite Japanese, for example you need to buy train tickets for an upcoming trip. Try saying, “I’ll go to the station.”

駅に行(い)きます。 I went to the station.

駅に行きました。

Then speaking of what happened on the weekend how would Carol tell Emi, “I had ramen with Kenji at a restaurant.” Start with Kenji…

健司とレストランでラーメン食べた。

健司とレストランでラーメン食べた。

Seems like Carol and Kenji are getting along pretty well. Carol tells Emi…

健司と札幌(さっぽろ)で寿司食べる。

健司と札幌(さっぽろ)で寿司食べる。

Literally, Kenji with, (the English pronunciation) Sapporo, the location utilized to do the action, will eat. More naturally…

I’m going to have sushi with Kenji in Sapporo. It’s a bit of a stretch to say the city of Sapporo was used, so we can also think of this usage of

で as “The place where the action occurred.”

“Let’s get one more easy place word and we’ll wrap it up. Some well known ones are.. the Sheraton, and Hilton…

ホテル　ホテル So you might hear..

ヒルトンホテル or シェラトンホテル any of the more well known hotels will be understood in Japan.

Polite Japanese, try saying… I ate a sandwich and a hamburger at the hotel.

ホテルで、サンドイッチとハンバーガーを食べました。　

ホテルで、サンドイッチとハンバーガーを食べました。

And finally, couple days later Carol calls Emi and asks what she’s up to.

Emi mentions her plans for tomorrow night. How would you translate what she says into natural English…

ヒルトンホテルで健司とネットフリックス見る。

I’d translate that as… “I’m going to watch Netflix with Kenji at the Hilton.”

Ok, your homework for this one is to practice counting people.

Try to be discreet, but as you encounter a person or people throughout the day, try counting how many there are.

Just for the bit of physical input, as you say one person, two people, three people or more, at least twitch one, or two, or three of your fingers corresponding to the amount of people you’re counting.

This little bit of physical activity while trying to remember something kind of helps. Alright, see you in the next episode.