Episode 8 – Japanese Made Easy

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Exercises Only

Welcome to Japanese Made Easy Episode 8. In this lesson we’ll be adding some more verbs and another important particle.

Let’s start by getting our first exposure to three new Japanese words. If you have some experience you likely already know these, but it’s likely most of your exposure so far has been with the polite forms. So, we’ll go with mostly practice in casual situations.

First, just listen

飲む（のむ）　飲む (nomu) 

If you are headed to the desert, you should bring enough food to eat and plenty of water to

飲む (nomu)  Are you thirsty from all that jogging? We have Gatorade you can

飲む (nomu) 

In English we say drink, in Japanese

飲む (nomu) 

Let’s work with this word a bit and learn a new particle at the same time. And remember we are learning the dictionary form of verbs which is used in casual speech, and is also for what we do generally and what we will do.

So, speaking of your daily routine, can you guess what is being communicated?

Speaking of myself, in the morning with breakfast usually…

コーヒーを飲む (Kōhī o nomu.) 

On more time… at breakfast…

コーヒーを飲む (Kōhī o nomu.)  In the afternoon with a burger and fries…

コーラを飲む。(Kōra o nomu.) One more time. Generally, or usually with a burger and fries..

コーラを飲む。(Kōra o nomu.) 

So that would translate to, “I drink cola.”

For now, even though these sentences are short and casual, I don’t want to drop the particle until you get used to where it belongs in the sentence. It will of course be used in polite speech when we get to that. So what we’ve heard so far is…

Speaking about myself, in the morning…

Coffee を drink, and with a burger and fries

cola を drink…

While that sinks in, lets add a few more drink options. I’m sure you’ll guess the meaning of this cognate without any trouble

オレンジジュース オレンジジュース (Orenji jyūsu)

So two words for the price of one there. We have the Japanese word for orange…

オレンジ オレンジ (Orenji)  

and the Japanese word for juice…

ジュース ジュース (Jyūsu) both are cognates.

Same as in English if we put them, or sqeeeeze them together we get…

オレンジジュース オレンジジュース (Orenji jyūsu) 

We haven’t talked about the “を” that we are hearing between the thing and the action to drink, but just going by the pattern try saying.. I drink juice

ジュースを飲む。 (Jyūsu o nomu.) 

Speaking about himself and what he normally does every morning, how would Kevin say… “I drink orange juice.”

オレンジジュースを飲む。(Orenji jyūsu o nomu.) 

If Kevin were at a friends house and talking to a friend’s parents, polite Japanese would be best. So just listen to how 飲む changes.

オレンジジュースを飲みます。(Orenji jyūsu o nomimasu.)  Still polite, somebody adds “I drink coffee.”

コーヒーを飲みます。(Kōhī o nomimasu.) 

Tell somebody in polite Japanese, that when you cram for a test you drink cola and coffee.

コーラとコーヒーを飲みます。 (Kōra to kōhī o nomimasu.) 

Alright, let’s look back at some of our past constructions and work with our new words real quick.

At the grocery store, point out and mention with ga aru… “They have oranges…”, or “There’re oranges…”

オレンジがある。 (Orenji ga aru.) 

A person you live with asks if there is any juice. You look in the fridge and no juice… How would you say that?

ジュースがないよ。(Jyūsu ga naiyo.) 

They were certain there was juice. So shocked they say… “Huhh.. no juice?”

え？ジュースがない？？(E? Jyūsu ga nai?) 

Ok next, let’s add to our collection of verbs that we can use with our new particle.

見る（みる）　見る (miru)　and as always context instead of memorization.

What do you want to do this weekend? “Well, I heard that new movie Titantic 5 is coming out. Let’s go 見る (miru) that.

Sounds good… Do you want to 見る (miru) it, at the new Imax, or the theater by your house? And let’s do one more…

It helps me to fall asleep, so I usually get into bed then 見る(miru)  TV for a few minutes.

In English we might say see, as in “to see a movie” or watch, as in “to watch TV.” In Japanese they use 見る (miru) for both. So this is a nice one, kind of getting two words for the price of one or what I like to think of as “effort cost”, that is how much effort is required.

Anyway, thinking back to the previous grammar pattern… Every morning

コーヒーを飲む。(Kōhī o nomu.)  With just that try to complete this idea..

Talking about what you do every night, using the word

テレビ テレビ(terebi)  and 見る (miru) Wow would you say.. “I watch TV?”

テレビを見る。(Terebi o miru.) If we want to change that to polite Japanese,

テレビを見ます。(Terebi o mimasu.)  Now that we are a bit used to the を particle, lets drop it for very short casual sentences. Relax and just listen.

A mother complains to her daughter that the daughter doesn’t get enough vitamin C. She responds, “I’ll drink some orange juice.”

オレンジジュース飲む。(Orenji jyūsu nomu.)  Changing that to polite..

オレンジジュースを飲みます。(Orenji jyūsu o nomimasu.)  and for “I watch TV..” or “I’ll watch TV.” casually..

テレビ見る。(Terebi miru.)  But telling somebody politely..

テレビを見ます。(Terebi o mimasu. ) 

Alright, let’s get a new word, here’s a hint.. It’s something we can 見る (miru) 

映画(えいが) 映画  (eiga) 

When I was a kid, Star Wars was my favorite 映画。(eiga)

John, really liked Carol. John finally got up the nerve to ask her out, saying…

Do you want to go to dinner and an 映画？ (eiga?)

In polite Japanese tell somebody you’ll watch a movie.

映画を見ます。(Eiga o mimasu.)  Still polite, change it to “drink orange juice”

オレンジジュースを飲みます。(Orenji jyūsu o nomimasu.)  

In casual Japanese, Masaharu mentions what he’s going to do a little later, he says.. “Watch a movie.”

映画見る。(Eiga miru.) 

Talking about what she does on Wednesday nights Mayumi says..

“I watch TV.”

テレビ見る。(Terebi miru.)  Kenji adds.. “I watch TV and Movies.”

テレビと映画みる。(Terebi to eiga miru.) 

Give that pattern a try. Try saying… “I drink coffee and orange juice.”

コーヒーとオレンジジュース飲む。(Kōhī to orenji jyūsu nomu.)  and same thing but polite…

コーヒーとオレンジジュースを飲みます。(Kōhī to orenji jyūsu o nomimasu.)  

Masaharu mentioned that he’ll watch a movie.

映画見る。(Eiga miru.) His friend then asks…

誰(だれ)と？ (Dare to?)  Masaharu replies…

健司(けんじ)と 。 (Kenji to.) Casual Japanese, how would somebody tell you they will watch TV?

テレビ見る。(Terebi miru.)  Ask them “Who with?”

誰と？(Dare to?) answer… “With Kenji”.

健司と。(Kenji to.)

Alright let’s take a break and let that sink in a bit…

———————- Tip Of The Day ——————–

In a previous episode we learned Doko… and the PowerPhrase that can help you remember. Where are you going? Don’t go…

I’d like to give another tip which is to use your visual memory as well. I remember being on a train here in Japan, and I was learning vocabulary. I was learning basic body parts. So I come across the word for “head” atama.

I wanted to commit it to memory. So, I immediately asked myself…What does that kind of sound like in English? So, I thought ok.. atama, automatic, automobile.

Close enough. So, I quickly visualized an old toy automobile, sitting on top of my head. I remember that it was red, and it had two doors and a tire on the front hood. I really visualized it. Right there in the train.

The point being, if I forget the word for “head”, I just think of what it is I attached to my head, which was an automobile which reminds me.. au..to..mobile.. “a..ta..ma”. atama.

Not only did it help me remember the word, but over a decade later, as I record this, I still remember the word and how I remembered the word. This is the power of visual association.

So, PowerPhrases and these one to one visual associations are a great tool for quickly memorizing a ton of words. When I was first learning Japanese I did this for just about every new word I learned.

It’s amazing how much you can remember that way. And I use those same ones in our Japanese Mastery Method videos, along with funny pictures to really drive home each phrase. The visual part is really important, and it’s a limitation of an audio-only format. Because you really want to associate an image so things are memorable.

These kinds of mnemonic devices are used by all memory experts and advanced language students. Ask anyone who’s learned a 2nd or 3rd language quickly, and they’ll admit they used these kinds of memorable phrases and associations to help them recall words.

———————- Tip Of The Day ——————–

A quick listen to what we heard so far and then let’s talk about the “を” that we are hearing.

テレビを見ます。(Terebi o mimasu.) 

オレンジジュースを飲みます。(Orenji jyūsu o nomimasu.) 

Essentially we have a thing.. a TV, or juice.. and as far as the Japanese language is concerned, we are “doing something to the thing”. In this case, watching it, or drinking it.

With that in mind, let’s get the one that’s still missing…

食べる(たべる)　食べる (Taberu) 

When you are thirsty you 飲む. When you are hungry you 食べる. (taberu) 

I had the stomach flu, but for some reason my mom kept asking me if I wanted various foods. She asked me if I wanted a tuna sandwich, with some greasy sausages. I said, “No, I still don’t feel very well. I really don’t want to 食べる anything right now.”

So in English we say eat, in Japanese it’s

食べる　(taberu) 

A friend asks what you are planning to eat for lunch.. as you usually do, tell them.. “I’m going to eat a sandwich..”

サンドイッチ食べる。(Sandoicchi taberu.) 

Tell a friend, “I’m going to eat some pizza.”

ピザ食べる。(Piza taberu.) 

Again, these are very short, quick casual sentences, so we can drop the particle.

This is one of the very first verbs taught in every beginner video or course, so I guess you can do this already. So real quick… just listen.

サンドイッチ食べる。(Sandoicchi taberu.)  polite…

サンドイッチを食べます。(Sandoicchi o tabemasu.) 

ピザ食べる。(Piza taberu.) polite…

ピザを食べます。(Piza o tabemasu.) 

Let’s tell somebody in casual Japanese, “I’ll eat donuts.” or “I’ll eat a donut.”

ドーナツ食べる。(Dōnatsu taberu.) Same thing but polite.

ドーナツを食べます。(Dōnatsu o tabemasu.) 

Why did we use the を particle here? Because we have a thing, a donut and we are going to do something to it. In this case, eat it.

A friend heard from a friend of a friend that you never eat junk food. That’s not really correct, and so if you tell them that you do in fact eat cookies, this would be information you expect will change their perspective of a situation.

This is a nuance of the “よ” particle. It would be like saying it with this tone of voice in English…

“I eat cookies.” Letting them know, that “yeah..” you do this thing.

クッキー食べるよ。(Kukkī taberuyo.) 

Earlier we didn’t hear the answer when John, who was madly in love with Carol, asked her to dinner and an 映画 . (eiga)

When she says yes, he’ll tell all his friends the good news. Let’s listen to her reply. She says..

スラッシュと映画見るよ。(Surasshu to eiga miruyo.) Literally, that’s Slash, a guitarists name, with, movie will see. More naturally, “I’m gonna see a movie with Slash.”

Already speaking of Ronnie and Steve you add, they drink or will drink…cola and orange juice.

コーラとオレンジジュース飲むよ。(Kōra to orenji jyūsu nomuyo.)  

Let’s run through the idea of what counts as doing something to something in English just to get a feel for it. Speaking of what we will do tomorrow…

オレンジを (orenji o) … buy. ケーキを (kēki o) …eat. テレビを (terebi o) …watch. テレビを (terebi o) …buy.

For now, let’s add something healthy that we can 食べる。(taberu)

A hint, is that it’s something generally eaten in the morning, vs other times of the day…

シリアル シリアル (shiriaru) 

Tell somebody that you eat cereal, or will eat cereal.

シリアル食べる。(Shiriaru taberu.) Tell them you do, or will, eat cereal and a donut.

シリアルとドーナツ食べる。(Shiriaru to dōnatsu taberu.) 

…and why not, another breakfast food, super easy..

トースト トースト (Tōsuto)  Tell somebody, “I eat toast and cereal.”

トーストとシリアル食べる。(Tōsuto to shiriaru taberu.) 

On those you could leave the “を” particle in there or it’s probably short enough you can drop it. Again, there are no absolute rules, it’s purely a feel thing. Super short and casual, highly likely to drop.

Let’s review the other usage of と that we learned and then put these all together. The conversation is about next weekend, and you tell Mayumi your plans. How would you translate this?

健司と映画を見る。(Kenji to eiga o miru.) Literally, that would be Kenji with, movie を see.

Try saying, I’ll eat toast with Mayumi

真由美(まゆみ)とトースト食べる。(Mayumi to tōsuto taberu.) 

So with that, this double usage of “と” in the same sentence will seem a bit weird, but how would you say…

“I’m going to eat toast and a donut with Mayumi. “

真由美と、トーストとドーナツ食べる。(Mayumi to tōsuto to dōnatsu taberu.) 

真由美と、トーストとドーナツ食べる。 (Mayumi to, tōsuto to dōnatsu taberu.) 

Same sentence but polite. Try that.

真由美と、トーストとドーナツを食べます。 (Mayumi to, tōsuto to dōnatsu o tabemasu.) 

真由美と…トーストと… ドーナツを… 食べます。(Mayumi to… tōsuto to … dōnatsu o… tabemasu.) 

Final review and we’ll wrap it up. Using casual Japanese for all of these…

It’s your day off and you are seriously going to take it easy. Tell somebody..

“I’ll watch TV and movies.”

テレビと映画見る。(Terebi to eiga miru.) 

Well, all that action makes us hungry so next say, “I’ll eat a donut and a sandwich.”

ドーナツとサンドイッチ食べる。(Dōnatsu to sandoicchi taberu.)  I’m going to eat an orange

オレンジ食べる。(Orenji taberu.)  

It’s not a trick question go with what you feel is right. I’ m going to eat some oranges…　

オレンジ食べる。(Orenji taberu.) Yep. No change. Does that still feel a little weird or are you used to it by now?

Alright if you got all of that you are doing great. Your speaking homework for this will be to tell people what you plan to eat, drink, or see. You can use movie titles too, for example..

スターウォーズ を見る。(Sutāwōzu o miru.)  or other foods and drinks you might know in Japanese. But, if not don’t worry about the vocabulary too much, that will come later.

Flowing speech comes with being quick with the grammar patterns, so still if you see for example an artichoke in the kitchen just say.. “I’m thinking later tonight.. artichoke 食べる。” and of course… switch to polite.

artichokeを食べます。(o tabemasu.) 

As always, I’ve made an extra practice version of todays lesson. You can grab that over at JapaneseMadeeasy.com and, see you in the next episode.