Episode 2- Japanese Made Easy

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Exercises Only

Welcome to Japanese Made Easy episode 2. A quick reminder, all lessons are cumulative so if you are just joining us be sure to start with Episode 1. In the last episode we learned the が particle and how to bring up, and mention the fact that something exists with

がある or があります. Before we jump in, let’s make sure you are solid with the core ideas so far.

Tell a family member… “There’s coffee.” or “We have coffee.” Literally, “Coffee exists.”

コーヒーあるよ。

Now point out the fact that coffee exists to an adult you don’t know at a company party.

コーヒーがありますよ。

Ok, and do you recall the name we gave this pattern? It was

“Bringing up the fact that something exists with がある or があります.”

Time for a new vocabulary word… just listen

*(We will provide the reading in parenthesis the first time a kanji is used in an episode)

犬(いぬ） 犬

As always, let’s get the meaning from context. I never want to just tell you the meaning up front. That’s lazy teaching. Better for your retention and understanding is to guide your brain to make a conclusion on it’s own.

So…Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds are examples of large 犬　While chihuahuas and toy poodles are examples of smaller 犬

So in English we`d say “dog”, in Japanese it’s…

犬 犬

The next sentence will be a “stating the existence” example just as we did in the last lesson, but look for one major change.

Your friend is crazy about dogs, and so at the park you see one, but your friend hasn’t noticed yet. You want to bring it up and point it out, so you say..

犬いるよ。 犬いるよ。

Let’s try another one… Your calligraphy teacher

小川(おがわ)せんせい

is also at the park and your friend notices. Then, brings this fact up and points it out to you saying…

小川先生(せんせい)いるよ。 小川先生(せんせい)いるよ。

So, I’m sure you figured it out by now.

For non living things we use ある or the polite あります　

For living things, such as animals, insects, and people we use

いる いる

or the polite います Which of course is the “masu” form.

Ok, let’s practice side by side…　For now just say

ある、あります or いる、います

Megumi our native speaker will do the first one. Ok, Megumi, which verb should we use for

sandwich … ある　あります

an annoying mosquito flying around いる います　

there’s an athlete, or a person who plays sports near by… いる　います

There are some donuts available and we want to

point them out ある　あります

Some weird dude at the park… いる　います

Ok, let’s work with this a bit before moving on.

Walking down the street with a family member, you see a menacing chihuahua. Bring up the fact that there is a dog to a family member.

犬いるよ。 犬いるよ。

And mention the dog to an older lady that you don’t know.

犬がいますよ。 犬がいますよ。

One more and we’ll move on.

Mr. Yoshikawa is at the company barbeque. Politely bring up and mention this fact. Like saying “Mr. Yoshikawa is here.”

吉川(よしかわ)さんがいますよ。and very casual to a good friend.

吉川さんいるよ。

You don’t have to necessarily change the pattern name, but at a minimum make a mental note… what we are doing now is

Bringing up and pointing out the fact that something, or somebody exists with がある or がいる

Let’s learn one more vocabulary word we can work with. Just listen.

猫(ねこ) 猫

Chances are you already know the meaning of this one, but let’s get the meaning through context.

“And this is my little 猫 Mr. Fluffy. All he ever wants is some cold milk and a warm lap to lay in.” “Yeah? Well your precious 猫 Mr. Fluffy, coughed up a fur-ball in my sneaker.”

Let’s work with it a bit. You notice a cat stuck up in a tree, you point it out to a friend. Saying…

猫いるよ。猫いるよ。 How would you translate the

猫いるよ。part.

In natural English we’d likely say, “There’s a cat.”

Point out the cat in the tree to an elderly lady who is passing by…

猫がいますよ。 猫がいますよ。

It must be escaped pets day or something… You notice a dog running down the street. Point it out to the elderly lady…

犬がいますよ。And you overheard a group of teenagers who are friends point out the dog to each other.

犬いるよ。 犬いるよ。

Ok, let’s do an all polite Japanese review.

Point out and mention that there’s coffee.

コーヒーがありますよ。

Point out and mention the dog.

犬がいますよ。

Bring somebody’s attention to the cake on the table.

ケーキがありますよ。

Bring up and mention a cat you just noticed.

猫がいますよ。

Now all very casual. Your friend was wondering if Kenji was at the party or not. You already saw him so mention that he exists at the party .

けんじいるよ。

There’s a dog at the park, bring this fact up to a family member.

犬いる。 犬いる。 and a friendly cat walks up… point it out.

猫いる。 猫いる。

—————————TOD —————————

An important point about Japanese particles is to never try to memorize multiple uses of the same particle all at once. This will make sense if looking at it from a teaching point of view.

Imagine a person who is learning English, asked you about the difference between “a” and “the” two easily confused words.

Would it be good idea to teach them all the differences at once? …for example Use “a” or “an” with a singular count noun when you mean “one of many,” “any,” or “in general.” Use “the” with any noun when the meaning is specific. Use “a” or “an” the first time you use a noun in a paragraph. Use “the” the second time you use that same noun in the same paragraph. Don’t Use “a,” “an,” or “the” with a plural count noun when you mean “some of many things,” “any,” “in general. “Ok, I’ll stop there, but these rules go on and on and on.

What tends to happen with particles in Japanese, is that students end up overwhelming themselves. They don’t realize that any given particle has multiple uses, and so they try and learn about them all at once, and then start comparing the various uses with other particles.

As a teacher, you probably wouldn’t teach this way as it confuses and overwhelms students, but for some reason as students we tend to do this to ourselves which leads directly to confusion and overwhelm.

So.. following my own advice, we will be mastering one major usage at a time, and we won’t do it with rules. The superior method, the Efficient method, that is modeled after how language is naturally acquired is to learn through patterns and to have speaking practice that is pattern focused.

—————————TOD —————————

Let’s expand on what we can do with ある and いる。If you’ve studied Japanese for more than .. I dunno.. 10 minutes, you’ve likely heard that the way to ask a question is to use か？ For example…

コーヒーがありますか？

Litterally, coffee then asking about it’s existence with

がありますか? More naturally.. Is there any coffee or does coffee exist? Or for a living thing..

犬がいますか？Is there a dog, are there any dogs?

That’s not the only way though. Listen to the following. You ask your roommate Masaharu in very-casual speech, if he wants something to drink. He then asks you..

コーヒーある？

Literally just. Coffee exists? There is coffee, so you reply..

あるよ。

Literally just “exists “yo” Recalling the left over cake he saw.. he asks…

ケーキある？ There is cake. So, how would you reply in the affirmative… essentially just saying.. “Exists.”

あるよ。 あるよ。

So, as you likely concluded, in casual Japanese we can just use tone of voice to form a question, just as we often do in English.

Back to our scenario. It seems Masaharu changed his mind about the coffee and asks “cola exists?” or in natural English.. Do you have any cola? Is there any cola?

Try asking that..

コーラある？

There is some, so how would you answer?

あるよ。If we translated that into natural English, we might say.. Yeah, there is.

So, speaking of that let’s get the “Yeah.” equivalent in Japanese… A person asks if there is any pizza.

ピザある？ Listen to the reply…

うん、あるよ。 うん、あるよ。

So this “un” is basically a very casual affirmative response that we could translate as “Yeah.” as in “Yeah, there is some.”

うん、あるよ。

How would a person ask very casually “Is there any coffee?”

コーヒーある？How would you reply… “Yeah, there is.”

うん、あるよ。 うん、あるよ。

Just about done, but need to tie up a couple lose ends… Mellissa has a cat allergy. She knows her friend has a cat, so before going into her friend’s house she asks…

猫いる？ Her friend doesn’t know about the allergy, so enthusiastically answers “Yeah, there is.” Literally.. just “Yeah, exists.”

うん、いるよ。 うん、いるよ。

What if it were a dog allergy, try asking.. Is there a dog, or are there any dogs?

犬いる？ How would a person answer literally, “Exists.” but for living things…

いるよ。 いるよ。

We touched upon the idea of using か to form questions. So let’s make sure we can do that to keep a good balance.

Mellissa, who we recall had a cat allergy, is in a situation that calls for polite speech, so she asks..

猫がいますか？ 猫がいますか？

She’s worried about cats, but wants some cookies.. How would she ask “Do cookies exists?” or “Are there any cookies?”

クッキーがありますか？And a positive polite response… the person answers…

はい。ありますよ。 はい。ありますよ。

Again, what we are doing here is asking if something exists with

がある or がいる

Try asking in polite Japanese.. Is there a dog?

犬がいますか？and what would an affirmative polite response be..

はい、いますよ。 はい、いますよ。

はい, Of course translates as “yes”. Two more and we’re done.

Ask in polite Japanese… Is there any pizza.

ピザがありますか？answer “Yes, there is.”

はい、ありますよ。Now casual. Any pizza?

ピザある？ Yeah, there is.

うん、あるよ。 Polite.. Is Ogawa sensei here

小川先生がいますか？ 小川先生がいますか？ Yes, exists.

はい、いますよ。and very casual.. is Ogawa sensei here?

小川先生いる？ Yeah, exists.

うん、いるよ。

Ok, so how’d you do? I bet you did great with that, and in doing it this way it would actually be hard to mess up this usage of the “ga” particle. But let’s make sure.

Choose the best answer… A.B.C. D. or E.

Two people are walking down the street and one of them spots Chris who they both know. How would the person bring up and mention it.. as in..

“Oh.. There’s Chris.” Which of the following is best?

A.クリスにいるよ。B.クリスをいるよ。C.クリスはいるよ。D.クリスでいるよ。E. クリスがいるよ。

Of course the answer is.. E. No way did you get that wrong and this is why we want to master one particle usage at a time, with the situation it’s used in as part of the practice.

That’s the end of the episode, and with that do the same type of speaking homework that you did with

がある, but switch it up to include がいる and がいます equally.

Having mentioned dogs and cats, when we were recording this episode, it occurred to me that I didn’t actually know which one Megumi truly prefers. So, I asked. Keep in mind we’ve known each other for years, so we are on completely casual speaking terms.

Greg: 犬と猫どっちがすきなん？

Megumi: hmm… 犬二匹(にひき)かってるから。。。犬かな。。。 グレッグは？

Greg: 私(わたし)も犬のほうかな。。。

I was going to edit this out and we won’t study it yet, but decided to include this little conversation to give an idea of what you will be able to do by the end of this podcast series.

If you have questions or comments, or just want to say hello, feel free to leave a comment or get in touch at Greg at Japanese Made Easy.com.

As always, I’ve 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 and grab a copy of those plus a full transcript of this podcast. See you in the next episode.