Episode 3 – Japanese Made Easy

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

Exercises Only

Welcome to episode 3 of the Japanese made Easy Podcast. If you’re just joining us I want to mention that all episodes are cumulative, so please start with Episode 1. Let’s jump in and do some review. If you did your speaking homework, this will be pretty easy.

Speaking to an elderly person, point out or bring up the fact that there is a cat.

猫(ねこ)がいますよ。

Polite Japanese ask, “Is there a dog?”

犬がいますか？Answer, “Yes, there is.”

はい、いますよ。In casual Japanese, how would you ask.. “Is there a cat?”

猫いる？There is one, so how might we answer?

うん、いるよ。

Ok, let’s get into todays lesson.

Recalling the meaning of cognate, words that have similar sound and meaning between two languages, lets learn the name of some countries.

Starting with North America and working our way south. I’m sure you’ll get these. Just listen.

カナダ　カナダ The country North of the United states is カナダ. So we say Canada, in Japanese it’s

カナダ カナダ

This word is a great opportunity to point out the consistencies in Japanese pronunciation. The English spelling has has three a’s Ca. na. da. But in North American English at least, the a’s are pronounced differently… Ca na da. I’ll only say the vowels to make the point. I went to a. uh. uh. Canada.

Compared to Japanese…ka. na. da. I went to ka. na. da.

This is a nice point about Japanese, in that the vowel sounds don’t really change, and so you can self check your own pronunciation. So a pronunciation tip is to only say the vowel sounds, and check to make sure they are similar. Ah ah ah.. Kanada Kanada

New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, are all large cities located in

アメリカ アメリカ

in other words The United States of…アメリカ

Let’s check to make sure we are pronouncing it correctly using our vowels only technique…

ア. メ. リ. カ. a e i a

the a sound at the beginning should be the same as the a sound at the end…

ア. メ. リ. カ. ア メ リ カ

And again we encounter the

リ リ

which isn’t really an R, but Almost like saying the capital D but softly.

ア メ リ カ アメリカ アメリカ

So far so good, of the two countries we just heard, which one has a white flag with a red maple leaf on it?

カナダ

And which country will you find New York city in?

アメリカ

Moving even further South, the country on the Southern border of

アメリカ is メキシコ

メキシコ メ キ シ コ メ キ シ コ

This is kind of tricky at first, so repeat this super slow version.

メ キ シ コ メ キ シ コ

And if you hadn’t noticed Japanese is very consistent with regard to consonant vowel, consonant vowel, pronunciation.

メ キ シ コ

カ　ナ　ダ.　

ア　メ　リ　カ

So keeping that in mind you can kind of self check your pronunciation when saying things slowly.

So those are three easy cognates which is why we are doing them first, we’ll move over to other parts of the world in a bit.

Lets attach a sound to these place related words and see how the meaning changes.

My friend Annie was born and raised in Toronto カナダ

So if somebody asked about her nationality she would refer to herself as

カナダ人(じん).

In fact, everybody from her family were born and raised in Canada, so they are all

カナダ人.

Like all other nouns we don’t do anything to the word regardless of how many there are, so one Canadian is

カナダ人 and a group of Canadians is still just. カナダ人

Lets try another one…

I’m from アメリカ and so if nationality comes up I say I’m

アメリカ人(じん). アメリカ人

My parents and sister were born and raised in the U.S. so we are all..

アメリカ人

So, no grammar rules to remember, just following pattern you try the next one… At the time of the writing of this podcast episode the president of

メキシコ was born and raised there, so regarding his nationality he would be what?

メキシコ人(じん) メキシコ人 メキシコ人

Try answering the question before our native speaker does.

Annie who was raised in Toronto is

カナダ人 because she’s from what country?

カナダ I was born and raised in the USA, so I’m

アメリカ人 because I’m from where?

アメリカ The president of Mexico is

メキシコ人 because he’s from the country of

メキシコ.

So, as you have probably figured out, we can just attach jin to the country name to get nationality. It means person, but it’s not a standalone word for person. Just as in English we combine the country name with an ending, for example… Canada, Canadian the ending “dian” part isn’t a standalone word for person.

So just think of jin as an attachment, giving us literally “Canada person”, “United States of America person”, “Mexico person”, but not used as a standalone wordas in… “He’s an interesting person.”

——————————– Tip Of The Day—————————-

I’ll get right to the tip. Don’t hesitate to speak because you are worried about making mistakes. Don’t let the fear of making a mistake hold you back.

For some students this is a big deal. Of all the mistakes I’ve made while living in Japan, here are a couple of my favorites that will hopefully inspire you to not worry about it.

My first week in Japan, at a fast food restaurant, after placing my order the employee asked me a question. I didn’t understand even one word of it. Since I didn’t have a drink, I gambled, saying…“Uhmm… kola?” I could tell by her reaction that I had guessed completely wrong.

She thought about it for a second, then pointed at the counter, and then at the door and then at the counter, and then at the door… “Ah.. for here or to go..” I thought. So I “replied” in fluent charades and pointed at the door. She bagged everything up and I was on my way, no big deal.

This next one is my favorite though… Having been in Japan for years and built up a lot of vocabulary, I walked into a drug-store that sells things like shampoo, aspirin, band-aids, and that kind of thing. Not able to find what I was there to buy, I asked a young woman who was stocking the shelves… and this is all in Japanese at the time…

I said essentially… “Excuse me, where are the kamakiri?” She looked completely confused. I was thinking.. “Hmm.. must be my pronunciation.” So, this time, making a shaving motion around my face I tried again saying, “You know.. kamakiri? Do you sell any?”

No reply. Just a look of even more confusion, followed by a blank stare, and then deep thought. Finally, she replied… “You mean kamisori?” （かみそりですか？）

Ah, there’s the word. Yes, that’s right. Kamisori.. or razors.

Then I thought… “Wait.. so what had I been asking for?” I mentally worked it out real quick. “kamisori.. kamakiri. kamisori.. kamakiri..” Hmm.. then it dawned on me… and I laughed, and she did too. The words have a similar cadence, same amount of syllables, and they both contain the idea of cutting something. So my brain had mixed them up.

I had asked… “Excuse me, where are the praying mantises?” And then.. making the shaving motion to clarify.. “You know.. praying mantises? Do you sell any?” …and all that happened was two people got a laugh, and I eventually got what I was there to buy. Again, no big deal.

So if you are worried about mistakes, well… that one is pretty hard to beat and it all turned out ok.

——————————– Tip Of The Day—————————-

Let’s learn a super easy particle that will get a lot of use. I was talking to a friend and told him that I recently went to a baseball game. I mentioned that they had really good hotdogs. He said. So.. you put mustard on it? I said.. “Just mustard?? No, of course I put mustardとketchup on it. ”

Then he asked, “Who’d you go with.” I answered, a couple of friends, “JohnとJeff.” Let that simmer in the brain for just a second…

While we learn two more easy food cognates… Just listen.

サンドイッチ サ ン ド イ ッチ

When I was young I liked peanut-butter and jelly

サンドイッチ Now that I’m older, I like bacon lettuce and tomato

サンドイッチ With just that, I think you can get these next ones… Somebody asks you what you had for lunch. Tell them… a sandwich and coffee

サンドイッチとコーヒー サンドイッチとコーヒー サンドイッチとコーヒー

I’ll toss an easy cognate in there to add to our sweets collection.

ケーキとドーナツ ケーキとドーナツ

Did you catch it?

ドーナツ ドーナツ or.. donuts.

One more time. How would you translate…

ケーキとドーナツ? I’d say… “Cake and donuts.”

Try saying…“cookies and donuts”.

クッキーとドーナツ How about “pizza and cola…”

ピザとコーラ ピザとコーラ

So, you are probably wondering.. can we only say two things, or can we say list of things. Here’s the answer. Megumi, what countries have we studied so far?

カナダと。。メキシコと。。アメリカ。

There you have it. Canada and Mexico and America or The United States.

カナダと。。メキシコと。。アメリカ。

Alright now that we have more vocabulary, we can expand on what we can say. At an international party, everybody is dressed in clothes that are the color of their country flag. Wearing white and red are the

カナダ人 wearing red white and blue are the

アメリカ人 and wearing white green and red are the

メキシコ人 So, you spot an American, before an acquaintance does and you want to bring up this fact and mention it. In polite Japanese, how would you say… There’s an American.

アメリカ人がいます。 アメリカ人がいます。

The よ, ending is optional, so let’s practice without it for now. But a quick note. Regarding the よ particle, I mentioned previously that it gives a friendly feeling, and that’s one use of it.

Also, if a person is just stating the facts and there is no feeling behind what is being said, then it likely won’t be used. Kind of like the difference in feeling between saying “They have hotdogs, hamburgers, and fries.” In that case, it’s just the facts. There’s no emotion behind it.

But if I think the information is likely to change the listeners perspective on things, or be interesting to them in some way, it kind of serves that purpose.

For example… If I know my friend is hungry I might deliver it this way, “Hey, they’ve got hamburgers.” “Hey, hamburgers exist yo.”

So it’s purely a feeling thing, and you’ll get used to it, and really there isn’t a right or wrong with this necessarily.

How about a person from Canada exists?

カナダ人がいます。A person from Mexico exists …

メキシコ人がいます。

and over there on the table.. mention “There are donuts…”

ドーナツがあります。 ドーナツがあります。

Still using polite Japanese, bring up and mention that there is pizza and sandwiches.

ピザとサンドイッチがあります。That there are cookies and cake

クッキーとケーキがあります。

Gesture to pizza and sandwiches and donuts and mention that they exist. Take your time…

ピザとサンドイッチとドーナツがあります。

ピザとサンドイッチとドーナツがあります。

Gesture to and mention the three people who are chatting. There’s a person from Mexico, from Canada, and the USA.

メキシコ人とカナダ人とアメリカ人がいます。

And the last one, the grand finale.. Point out that there is coffee and cola and sandwiches and donuts.

コーヒーとコーラとサンドイッチとドーナツがあります。

コーヒーとコーラとサンドイッチとドーナツがあります。

To a very close friend, and so using casual Japanese, point out the fact that there is a cat and dog…

猫と犬(いぬ）いるよ。Same thing but to a person you feel you should speak politely to…

猫と犬がいますよ。 猫と犬がいますよ。

Ask very casually.. “Are there sandwiches and donuts? “

サンドイッチとドーナツある？ サンドイッチとドーナツある？

Very casual, at an international party… for some reason a person wants to know… “Are there Americans and Canadians?”

アメリカ人とカナダ人いる？

Then another person asks “Are there “Canadians and Mexicans?”

カナダ人とメキシコ人いる？

カナダ人とメキシコ人いる？Answer.. “Yeah, there are.”

うん、いるよ。　Oops, based on the person you are talking to you realized a polite response would have been better.. Switch it up to, “Yes, there are.”

はい、いますよ。 はい、いますよ。

Point out all the awesome food to a good friend. Bring up the fact that there’s pizza, sandwiches and donuts.

ピザとサンドイッチとドーナツあるよ。

ピザとサンドイッチとドーナツあるよ。

Alright if you got all of that you are doing great. Your homework for this will be to listen to the practice exercise version of the podcast a couple times before moving on to the next episode.

You can grab that over at Japanese Made Easy.com and remember for questions or comments, feel free to drop me an e-mail at greg @ Japanese Made Easy (dot) com. Or just leave a comment in the comments section. See you in the next episode.