Episode 20 – Japanese Made Easy

Full Episode Audio (download link is to the right of the volume icon)

Exercises Only

Hi Greg here, welcome to Episode #20 of the Japanese Made Easy podcast. In this episode we’ll be expanding on what we can do with verbs we already know, in particular changing our suggestion to do things, into casual Japanese. We’ll also work on our fluency with a technique called construction branching.

Let’s start things off by running through verb endings from our last episode.

First we have “to drink” which we know is…

飲(の)む (nomu) Changing that to “Let’s drink…”

飲みましょう。(nomimashou) 

Finally, if you can catch the cognate, try and translate the Japanese that follows.

We’re tired of orange juice, so instead of that…

トマトジュースを飲みましょう。(Tomato jyūsu o nomimashou.) 

トマトジュースを飲みましょう。(Tomato jyūsu o nomimashou.) 

That would be… “Let’s drink some tomato juice.” One more time…

トマトジュースを飲みましょう。(Tomato jyūsu o nomimashou.)  Ok, next…

食(た)べる (taberu) 

Change that to let’s eat…

食べましょう。(tabemashou)  Been eating meat all week so let’s go green…

サラダを食べましょう。(Sarada o tabemashou.)  

サラダを食べましょう。(Sarada o tabemashou.)  Means… Let’s eat salad.

サラダを食べましょう。(Sarada o tabemashou. )

Keep in mind, this is the polite version of “let’s”

食べる。(taberu) 食べます。(tabemasu)  食べましょう。(tabemashou)   For fluency, it’s best to go from the dictionary form,

食べる。(taberu)  to 食べましょう。(tabemashou) And just keep in mind that it’s polite. Ok, next.

買(か)う (kau) 

Again, polite… Change that to let’s buy

買いましょう (kaimashou)  I want to dress like Simon Cowell, so.

T-シャツを買いましょう。(T-shatsu o kaimashou.)  

T-シャツを買いましょう。(T-shatsu o kaimashou.)  Means, “Let’s buy a t-shirt or t-shirts.”

T-シャツを買いましょう。(T-shatsu o kaimashou.)  Next…

行(い)く (iku) 

Change that to let’s go

行きましょう (ikimashou)   About out of gas so… Let’s go to a gas station.

ガソリンスタンドに行きましょう。 (Gasorinsutando ni ikimashou.)  What you heard there was and approximation of..

gasoline stand… listen again.

ガ ソ リ ン ス タ ン ド に行きましょう。(Gasorinsutando ni ikimashou.) 

ガソリンスタンドに行きましょう。(Gasorinsutando ni ikimashou.)  Ok, next

会(あ)う (au) 

Let’s meet , Let’ gather, Let’s get together.

会いましょう (Aimashou.)  Tokyo is pretty big, so let’s meet up outside of an easy place to find.

東京(とうきょう)タワーで会(あ)いましょう。(Toukyoutawā de aimashou.)  Means, let’s meet at Tokyo Tower.

東京タワーで会いましょう。(Toukyoutawā de aimashou.)  and next…

見(み)る (miru)

Let’s watch something…

見(み)ましょう (mimashou)　I like scary science fiction movies so…

エイリアンを見みましょう。(Eirian o mimashou.)  Means… “Let’s see or watch Alien.”

エイリアンを見みましょう。 (Eirian o mimashou.)  Next…

する (suru)

Let’s do… something

しましょう (shimashou)　Kumiko wanted to show off her singing skills so she asked…

カラオケしましょうか？ (Karaoke shimashouka? )  Shall we do some karaoke?

カラオケしましょうか？ (Karaoke shimashouka? )

She could have said…

カラオケに行きましょうか？(Karaoke ni ikimashouka?)  Wanna go to Karaoke? Implied of course is that you will go the place, and then do the activity.

Ok, let that simmer for a bit…

In the intro I mentioned construction branching to help with fluency. Some of you may already be familiar with this type of practice since we do a lot of it in the Fluency in Casual Japanese course over at Japanese Mastery Method.

For those of you that are new to the idea, the key here is to practice expanding the sentences, but only to make one substitution at a time, so it doesn’t become overwhelming.

So, we just heard a core basic construction.. Let’s buy a t-shirt.

T-シャツを買いましょう。(T-shatsu o kaimashou.)  We could of course substitute either the word t-shirt for other things we can buy, or we can keep t-shirt and substitute different verbs. For example, “Let’s wash the t-shirt.” “Let’s clean the t-shirt.” and things like that. Let’s skip that and go to a branch on this construction.

We’ll branch it out by adding a day of the week. Again, a day of the week is somewhat time related, so it goes at the front.

To start, try saying… Let’s buy a t-shirt on Monday.

月曜日(げつようび)にT-シャツを買(か)いましょう。(Getsuyoubi ni T-shatsu o kaimashou.)  One more time…

月曜日にT-シャツを買いましょう。(Getsuyoubi ni T-shatsu o kaimashou.)  

For the first round, we’ll only substitute days of the week. Try saying, Let’s buy a t-shirt on Tuesday.

火曜日(かようび)にT-シャツを買いましょう。(Kayoubi ni T-shatsu o kaimashou. )  Wednesday

水曜日(すいようび)にT-シャツを買いましょう。(Suiyoubi ni T-shatsu o kaimashou.) 

Now, we’ll only change the thing we are buying. Sticking with Wednesday, say let’s buy a TV on Wednesday.

水曜日にテレビを買いましょう。 (Suiyoubi ni terebi o kaimashou.)  …some golf balls

水曜日にゴルフボールを買いましょう。(Suiyoubi ni gorufubōru o kaimashou.)   …a coffee maker

水曜日にコーヒーメーカーを買いましょう。(Suiyoubi ni kōhīmēkā o kaimashou.)   Try saying, On Thursday, let’s buy a coffee maker.

木曜日(もくようび)にコーヒーメーカーを買いましょう。(Mokuyoubi ni kōhīmēkā o kaimashou.)  Friday…

金曜日(きんようび)にコーヒーメーカーを買いましょう。(Kinyoubi ni kōhīmēkā o kaimashou.) 

Now we’ll branch it out even further… let’s add “with Kenji” Just listen.

金曜日に健司(けんじ)と、コーヒーメーカーを買いましょう。(Kinyoubi ni Kenji to kōhīmēkā o kaimashou.)  Ok, you try it. Friday ni, Kenji with, coffee maker, let’s buy.

金曜日に健司と、コーヒーメーカーを買いましょう。 (Kinyoubi ni Kenji to kōhīmēkā o kaimashou.)  Now, just one change. instead of “with Kenji”, “with Yamashita-san”.

金曜日に山下(やました)さんと、コーヒーメーカーを買いましょう。(Kinyoubi ni Yamashita-san to kōhīmēkā o kaimashou.) 

Imagine if we were changing the day of the week, the person, the item, and the verb. It would likely fall apart. So again, we only change one thing at a time. Continuing on…with Mayumi-chan.

金曜日にまゆみちゃんと、コーヒーメーカーを買いましょう。 (Kinyoubi ni Mayumi-chan to kōhīmēkā o kaimashou.)  Just a little more, hang in there.

Same thing, but change to Saturday.

土曜日(どようび)にまゆみちゃんと、コーヒーメーカーを買いましょう。(Doyoubi ni Mayumi-chan to kōhīmēkā o kaimashou.)   Sunday…

日曜日(にちようび)にまゆみちゃんと、コーヒーメーカーを買いましょう。(Nichiyoubi ni Mayumi-chan to kōhīmēkā o kaimashou.)  

Ok, take a breather…

So, again some of you already know this technique, from our fluency course, and I used this technique a lot in my own studies, as it’s definitely a good way to ease into making longer sentences.

Another thing I like about it is that it really engrains Japanese word order. If you do this type of thing enough, eventually you just get a feel for word order without having to think about it too much.

Are you up for taking it up one more level? We could branch it even further by adding… a place, or we could add more time, such as next Tuesday…

For now, let’s try a place. We’ll add… “At a department store”.

デパートで (Depāto de)  First, listen to the previous version…

日曜日にまゆみちゃんと、コーヒーメーカーを買いましょう。(Nichiyoubi ni Mayumi-chan to kōhīmēkā o kaimashou.)  Adding, at a department store we get this.

日曜日にデパートで、まゆみちゃんと、コーヒーメーカーを買いましょう。(Nichiyoubi ni depāto de Mayumi-chan to kōhīmēkā o kaimashou.)  

Try saying that …

日曜日にデパートで、まゆみちゃんと、コーヒーメーカーを買いましょう。(Nichiyoubi ni depāto de, Mayumi-chan to kōhīmēkā o kaimashou.)  

Ok, let’s change to supermarket

日曜日にスーパーで、まゆみちゃんと、コーヒーメーカーを買いましょう。(Nichiyoubi ni sūpā de Mayumi-chan to kōhīmēkā o kaimashou. )

convenience store

日曜日にコンビニで、まゆみちゃんと、コーヒーメーカーを買いましょう。(Nichiyoubi ni konbini de Mayumi-chan to kōhīmēkā o kaimashou.) 

So that was a good workout with the polite version of making suggestions. So let’s work on the equally important casual version. First just listen.

トマトジュースを飲(の)みましょう。(Tomatojyūsu o nomimashou.)   That was let’s drink tomato juice. Saying that casually we’ll often hear just…

トマトジュース飲もう。(Tomatojyūsu nomou.)  Let’s try converting polite to casual.

トマトジュースを飲みましょう。(Tomatojyūsu o nomimashou.)  

トマトジュース飲もう。(Tomatojyūsu nomou.)  Again, with particle dropping no rules, just tendencies.

Just listen…

サラダ　サラダ (sarada) Pretty much just like it sounds.. “salad”

サラダ サラダ  (sarada) 

サラダを食(た)べましょう。(Sarada o tabemashou.)  That would be… Let’s eat or have salad. And changing to casual…

サラダ食べよう。(Sarada tabeyou.) 

サラダを食べましょう。(Sarada o tabemashou.) 

サラダ食べよう。(Sarada tabeyou.) 

Another easy cognate… something we can buy, and wear….

T-シャツ T-シャツ (T-shatsu) 

T-シャツを買(か)いましょう。(T-shatsu o kaimashou.)  Let’s buy a t-shirt. Casual…

T-シャツ買おう。(T-shatsu kaou.)  

T-シャツを買いましょう。(T-shatsu o kaimashou.)  

T-シャツ買おう。 (T-shatsu kaou.)  

You may be thinking… I couldn’t remember the casual endings. Well, that’s natural as you may be hearing them for the first time. But, notice that at a minimum, these suggestion endings all have an “ou” sound to them.

買いましょう (kaimashou)

買おう (kaou) 

Let’s further engrain these patterns and get a bit more practice by making them into questions.

A group of friends are eating, and one will suggest something, while another confirms by asking everybody. Kenji suggests eating salad…

サラダ食べよう。(Sarada tabeyou.)  Mayumi looks around and kind of confirms with everybody…

サラダ食べようか？ (Sarada tabeyouka?)  

We can make a question in casual Japanese with tone of voice or by adding “ka” on the end. Then everybody agrees…

うん, 食べよう。(Un, tabeyou.)  Yeah, let’s eat

うん, 食べよう。(Un, tabeyou.)  (with salad being implied at this point). Let’s do another one.

トマトジュース飲もう。(Tomatojyūsu nomou.)  Make that into a casual question.

トマトジュース飲もうか。(Tomatojyūsu nomouka)  Tomato juice being understood, try saying,

“Yeah, let’s drink.”

うん、飲もう。(Un, nomou)  Last one of this set…

T-シャツ買(か)おう。(T-shatsu kaou.)  Make a question…

T-シャツ買おうか。(T-shatsu kaouka.) Yeah, lets…

うん、買おう。(Un, kaou.) 

Same general idea, but this time we’ll add some concepts we’ve learned recently, and see if you can do most of the speaking…First, can you guess what this word means… it’s something we can eat…

オリーブ オリーブ (Orību) So, that’s an olive, or olives. Now, considering that they are little small objects that easily fit into the palm of our hands. If I point to one olive and ask my son how many there are he’d say…

一個(いっこ) (ikko) if pointing to two…

二個(にこ) (niko)  if pointing to three

三個(さんこ)(sanko) 

一個、(ikko) 二個、(niko) 三個 (sanko) 

And recalling out last episode, we can ask somebody how something is with just one word… For example, I give some

なっとう (nattou) to a friend to try for the first time. They put a spoonful in their mouth, then make a “tastes just like motor oil” face, I eagerly ask…

どう？ (Dou?) or How was it?

Still in casual Japanese, suggest eating some olives generally.

オリーブ 食(た)べよう。(Orību tabeyou.)  Make it into a question…

オリーブ 食べようか？ (Orību tabeyouka?)  Olives being implied, using our counter for small objects say “Yeah, let’s eat two.”

うん, 二個(にこ)食べよう。(Un, niko tabeyou.)  After eating them, follow up with… “How is it?” or… “How are they?” or… “What do you think?”

どう？ (Dou?)  The person likes them and regarding how they taste says….

美味(おい)しい。(Oishii)

That’s something you will constantly hear in Japan. Listen again…

美味しい　　美味しい。 美味しい。(Oishii)

Here Megumi, I think this cake is wonderful.

どう？ (Dou?) 

美味しい。(Oishii) The typical translation for this is “delicious” Here’s a silly way to remember, just think…

“Oh eat sheep! Delicious.” Oh eat sheep…. delicious.

お　い　し　い　(o… i… shi… i…)

美味しい。(Oishii)

Let’s try another one. Something we can drink.

グレープフルーツジュース グレープフルーツジュース (Gurēpufurūtsu)

Suggest drinking some grapefruit juice.

グレープフルーツジュース飲もう。 (Gurēpufurūtsu nomou.) Make that into a casual question.

グレープフルーツジュース飲もうか。 (Gurēpufurūtsu nomouka.) Try saying, “Yeah, let’s drink.”

うん、飲もう。(Un, nomou.)  Ask… How is it?

どう？ (Dou?) Say.. it’s delicious.

美味(おい)しい。(Oishii) 

At a shop, suggest buying a t-shirt.

T-シャツ買おう。(T-shatsu kaou.) Make a question…

T-シャツ買おうか。(T-shatsu kaouka.) Yeah, lets…

うん、買おう。(Un, kaou.) Trying the t-shirt on at home, your friend shows it to you and asks

どう？ (Dou?) Take the safe route, and say… “cute”.

可愛(かわい)い。 (kawaii) 

Ok, with that we’ll start to wrap it up, so let’s go through the other four verbs.

ガソリンスタンドに行きましょう。(Gasorinsutando ni ikimashou.) 

Let’s go to the gasoline stand… more naturally the gas station.

ガソリンスタンドに行こう。(Gasorinsutando ni ikou.) One more time…

ガソリンスタンドに行きましょう。(Gasorinsutando ni ikimashou.) 

ガソリンスタンドに行こう。(Gasorinsutando ni ikou.) 

東京(とうきょう)タワーで会(あ)いましょう。(Toukyoutawā de aimashou.) 

Let’s meet at Tokyo Tower..

東京タワーで会おう。(Toukyoutawā de aou.) 

東京タワーで会いましょう。(Toukyoutawā de aimashou.) 

東京タワーで会おう。(Toukyoutawā de aou.) 

エイリアンを見(み)ましょう。(Eirian o mimashou.) 

Let’s see or watch Alien,

エイリアンを見(み)よう。(Eirian o miyou.) 

エイリアンを見みましょう。(Eirian o mimashou.) 

エイリアンを見よう。(Eirian o miyou.) 

Let’s do karaoke…

カラオケしましょう。(Karaoke shimashou.) 

カラオケしよう。(Karaoke shiyou.) Now it’s up to you to take that natural English pronunciation of karaoke and change it to natural Japanese.

Karaoke カラオケ Karaoke カラオケ (karaoke) 

カラオケしましょう。(Karaoke shimashou.) 

カラオケしよう。(Karaoke shiyou.) 

As I mentioned, the endings are all some variation on an “ou” sound. But, don’t try to remember them per se. Instead, use the practice audio to say them and repeat them so many times that you just end up being able to say them correctly by default.

Expect it to take a few days. This isn’t a one time listen and done kind of thing. Use the practice audio and just listen and repeat to the point that they sink in. Once you have these down, most verbs you learn from here on out, will easily fall into place.

Alright that’s it for this episode, you can find the practice audios over at Japanese Made Easy, As always, feel free to get in touch and if you are liking this podcast please let others know about it if the opportunity arises. Word of mouth or word of internet really helps.

See you in the next episode.