Episode 22 – Japanese Made Easy

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Exercises Only

Welcome to Episode 22 of the Japanese Made Easy podcast. In this episode we’ll be learning some new verbs you will often hear and use if living in Japan. And, along with a few new vocabulary words and expressions, we’ll be adding another counter.

Let’s jump right in. Just listen…

つける つける (tsukeru) 

See if you can figure out the meaning of

つける (tsukeru)

Want to make coffee? Well, first put water in the coffee maker, put in a new filter, add coffee, then make sure to turn it on so power…

つける (tsukeru) In order to power

つける, (tsukeru)  you just flip the switch. Let’s try another one…

My younger brother is afraid of the dark, so I always go into a room first and lights

つける (tsukeru)  so that he’s not afraid. So…

つける (tsukeru) means to turn something on. Japanese is interesting though, in English we say turn on the lights or turn on the power, etc. In Japanese they often just use the word for “electricity” as in.. “Turn on the electricity.” which we’ll officially learn now.

Recalling last episode, we heard a lot of words that started with “den” for example.. electric talk or phone…

電話(でんわ)　(denwa)　　Have you ever heard of the Japanese form of energy healing called reiki?

or how about using your “ki” in karate class.. putting your energy or spirit into it. So let’s combine the core concept of electric, with spirit to get

電気(でんき) 電気 (denki) Which is the actual word in Japanese for electricity. Think.. electric spirit.. electric flow.

You tell me. What’s the word in Japanese for electricity?

電気 (denki)  Ok, moving..

Using the coffee example… we put the coffee in the filter, put water in the coffee maker, then

電気(でんき)をつける (denki o tsukeru) by flipping the switch.

So that my younger brother wasn’t afraid of the dark, I would always go into the room first, reach over to the light switch and

電気をつける (denki o tsukeru) The word

つける (tsukeru) is often used in the sense of to attach something to something.

So, it’s worth learning early on, so in a sense this is like literally saying.. “electricity o attach”… it would translate as for example.. turn on the lights, or turn on the coffee machine, turn on the power, basically turning on anything electrical.

Let’s make that past tense… How might you ask…. “Did you turn on the lights?” literally “Electricity o attached”?

電気(でんき)をつけた? (Denki o tsuketa?) 

Even though it’s casual, we’ll leave the を in there for now, just to get a feel for where it belongs.

You go to pour a cup of coffee, but “Oops”. No coffee in the pot. You ask your roommate, “Did you turn on the power?”

電気をつけた? (Denki o tsuketa?) There are specific words for lights, lamps, power, etc. but this is just how the idea of turning something on generally is expressed.

Your roommate replies…Yeah, turned on.

うん、つけたよ。(Un, tsuketayo.)  Including the word coffee maker, try asking “Did you turn on the coffee maker?”

コーヒーメーカーをつけた？ (KōhīMēkā o tsuketa?) 　How might you say… I turned on the TV?

テレビをつけた。(Terebi o tsuketa. ) Here’s an easy cognate…

エアコン　エアコン (eakon) or…air conditioner…

エ. ア. コ. ン. (e…a…ko…n..) another example of the tendency to shorten words.

エアコン (eakon)

To cool off a room, we can

エアコンをつける。(Eakon o tsukeru.)  or turn on the air conditioner.

Ask a family member, “Did you turn on the air conditioner?”

エアコンをつけた？ (Eakon o tsuketa?)  

Think fast.. the Japanese word for electricity is made up of what two core ideas…

electric and spirit… What’s the word?

電気(でんき) (denki) 

So, now we know how to turn things on. Let’s ask if they turned something off. Please repeat…

消(け)す　消す (kesu)  Oh no, turn the car around. I think I forgot to

消す (kesu)  the burners in the kitchen.

Let’s make some shadow puppets with our hands. First

消す (kesu)  all the lights. This word means to put out, extinguish, and also

to erase.

From here on out we’ll drop the を ‘s in casual speech, so it’s completely natural.

What is Megumi asking?

エアコン消(け)した？(Eakon keshita?)  Air-conditioned turned off, extinguished, put out, erased? Naturally, of course just “Did you turn off the air-conditioner?

Yes, turned it off.

うん、消したよ。(Un, keshitayo.)  Remember, instead of a specific word for lights, we use “electricity”…So how would you ask, “Did you turn off the lights?”

電気(でんき)消(け)した？(Denki keshita?)  say… Yeah, turned off.

うん、消したよ。(Un, keshitayo.) 

Let’s run through the polite versions really quick.

To turn on the power, or turn on the lights…

電気(でんき)つける。(Denki tsukeru.) Polite…

電気をつけます。(Denki o tsukemasu.)  Ask somebody, Did you turn on the power?

電気をつけましたか？(Denki o tsukemashitaka?)  Answer… Yes, I turned it on.

はい。つけました。(Hai, tsukemashita.)  Still polite Japanese, ask somebody if they turned on the TV.

テレビをつけましたか？ (Terebi o tsukemashitaka?)  Answer,“Yes, I did.” More literally,

“Yes, I turned it on.”

はい。つけました。(Hai, tsukemashita.) 

Casual Japanese try saying, “I’ll turn off the lights.”

電気を消(け)す。(Denki o kesu.)  polite

電気を消します。(Denki o keshimasu.)  Ask.. Did you turn off the power, or did you turn off the lights?

電気を消しましたか？ (Denki o keshimashitaka?)  Did you turn off the air conditioning, or air conditioner…

エアコンを消しましたか？(Eakon o keshimashitaka?)  

Alright let’s take a break…

———————————— Tip Of The Day

And back to the driving test. So, two weeks passed and I was ready to take the driving test again. An unexpected and funny aspect was that other people who are going to take the driving test, are passengers in the car. I know.. weird right? Fortunately, I got to be the passenger, while a young woman took her test. So, I got to see the course one more time.

So, she made it about three minutes into the course, then when asked to back up, didn’t realize that the back tire had gone up onto the curb. She continued to go back, which is an automatic fail.

The instructor told her to go back to the start. We changed places, and it was my turn. Lot’s of pressure. It was raining fairly hard too. At a glance that seems like a bad thing, but actually it meant that the windshield wipers were on the entire time. So, I didn’t have to worry about turning them on when I wanted to signal. Lucky actually.

I start driving the course, following directions, parallel park, back in and out of tight spaces, doing really well, and make it all the way to the very end. The home stretch, and the instructor asks me to change lanes and then pull into the final parking spot.

I messed up the lane change. I think I didn’t signal at the right time, or something. Not sure actually. But, I could tell when he was writing the final evaluation he was thinking about whether or not he should let me pass. Kind of shaking his head. In Japanese of course, he started to say.. “Well, there was that final mistake and…”

With that my mind was racing. I could feel the fail was coming. I was thinking.. “No way do I want to come back in two weeks and go through this again, only to possibly fail on the smallest mistake. I have to convince him.” And so I tried. I said, “But, I passed right?” Again he says, “Well, that lane change was…” I interjected, “I know it wasn’t great, but I did the whole course well, so I passed right?” Then, light hearted of course this is all Japanese I said, “Oh come on. I drove well. Let’s just call it a pass. Just a small mistake, come on, I passed yes?” He sighed and said.. “Ok”. and marked it as passing.

After that, I went into the facility to get my license and the young who woman also took the test was there. She said that it had been her eleventh try. That’s how strict the test was. Anyway, what’s the tip? Persistence. I don’t mean persistence in persuading somebody to do something. I mean, stick to it. When I came to Japan, I only knew a couple phrases. Later, after sticking with it, I was able to convince a driving instructor to let me pass a test I had actually failed, but all in Japanese. I was actually more proud of that than anything.

———————————— Tip Of The Day

It’s been a while, so let’s learn another counter now that the others should be well under control.

How many pieces of paper on the table?

一枚(いちまい) (ichimai)  we heard ichi… and then.. something… so we’ll assume one.

How many old CD’s on the table.

一枚 (ichimai)  

Also, just one…

How many envelopes?

二枚(にまい) (nimai) 　　Two… Three people will be eating dinner, so how many placemats do we need?

三枚(さんまい) (sanmai)  One more person joins us for dinner, making four. How many plates do we need?

四枚(よんまい) (yonmai)  What do, pieces of paper, plates, music CD’s, placemats and envelopes have in common?

Of course, they are relatively thin, flat objects. What you are hearing is

ま。い。まい (m…i… mai) 

一枚(いちまい)(ichimai),  二枚(にまい) (nimai),  三枚(さんまい) (sanmai),  四枚(よんまい) (yonmai) 

Speaking of envelopes that are left in the package, how would you translate this question?

何枚(なんまい)ある？ (Nanmai aru?) 　Literally, what, then the counter for the type of thing, in this case flat objects, exists?

What number of flat things in question, exist?

何枚ある？ (Nanmai aru?) 

Tell them, Three exist. Naturally, “There are three.”

三枚(さんまい)あるよ。 (Sanmai aruyo.) Oops, we miss counted. You notice and say… “Oh.. Sorry, there were only two.”

あ。。ごめん、二枚(にまい)だった。(A…Gomen, nimai datta.)  This

あ。。 (A…)　is just a sound,

ごめん (Gomen) 　is a short casual form of a more serious formal apology..

ごめんなさい  (Gomennasai)  Megumi, what did you say to the older lady when you stepped on her toe?

ごめんなさい (Gomennasai)  A serious apology was called for. How about when you stepped on my toe…

あ。。ごめん。(A… gomen.)  Uh huh… anyway…

Referring to plates on the table, ask how many there are.

何枚(なんまい)ある？(Nanmai aru?)   Answer, “There are four. “

四枚(よんまい)あるよ。(Yonmai aruyo.)  Oops, you noticed there are actually only three. “Oh, sorry… There were only three.”

あ。。ごめん、三枚(さんまい)だった。 (A…Gomen. Sanmai datta.) 

Try asking… How many 9 volt

電池(でんち) (denchi) there are. Start with, “batteries regarding… “

電池は何個(なんこ)ある？(Denchi nanko aru?)  Same question but polite.

電池は何個ありますか？ (Denchi wa nanko arimasu ka?)  　a 9 volt denchi is small, fits in the palm of your hand, so like a small tomato.. will count it with “ko”

Answer.. There’s one.

一個(いっこ)あるよ。(Ikko aruyo.) There are only two.

二個(にこ)あるよ。(Niko aruyo.) There are only three.

三個(さんこ)あるよ。(Sanko aruyo.)   So.. What if there weren’t any? Listen to the question and answer…

電池(でんち)は何個(なんこ)ある？ (Denchi wa nanko aru?) 

電池？。。。(Denchi?)  mmm。。電池ないよ。(Denchi naiyo.) There we used the casual version of

ありません (arimasen)  which is just

ない　(nai)  doesn’t exist.

I’ll say some vocabulary in English, you think of the word in Japanese, and then say there aren’t any, using this really natural delivery in Japanese… For example… I say

Battery… you say…

電池(でんち)？(Denchi?) 。。。mmm。。電池ないよ。 (Denchi naiyo.) Ok, light bulb

電球(でんきゅう)？(Denkyuu?) 。。。ｍｍｍ。。電球ないよ。(Denkyuu naiyo.) Smart phones

スマホ？(Sumaho?) 。。。ｍｍｍ。。スマホないよ。(Sumaho naiyo.) Be careful with this next one…

People from France…

フランス人(じん)？(Furansu-jin?) 。。。ｍｍｍ。。フランス人いないよ。(Furansu-jin inaiyo.) Did you remember to change it from nai to inai? If so, very well done.

Say, there aren’t any T-shirts.

Tシャツ？(T-shatsu?) 。。。ｍｍｍ。。Tシャツないよ。(T-shatsu naiyo.)  Last one. At the electronics shop… No microwave ovens.

電子(でんし)レンジ？(Denshirenji? ) 。。。ｍｍｍ。。電子レンジないよ。(Denshirenji naiyo.) 

Just about done. Using the counter we just learned earlier, counting for example.. tickets, or pieces of paper, plates, napkins, maybe even i-pads.

Talking about pieces of paper, how would you say “There’s one.” in casual, and then polite Japanese.

一枚(いちまい)あるよ。(Ichimai aruyo.) 

一枚ありますよ。(Ichimai arimasuyo.) two..

二枚(にまい)あるよ。(Nimai aruyo.) 

二枚ありますよ。(Nimai arimasuyo.) three

三枚(さんまい)あるよ。(Sanmai aruyo.) 

三枚ありますよ。(Sanmai arimasuyo.) 

Last little section and we’ll wrap it up. Recalling from the beginning of this lesson… For all of these, we are the person doing the action. Given that… How would you translate…

エアコンつけた。(Eakon tsuketa.) I turned on the air conditioner. Try translating this…

エアコンをつけました。(Eakon o tsukemashita.) Same thing, but it was polite. Translate this…

電子(でんし)レンジ消(け)した。(Denshirenji keshita.) I turned off the microwave oven. And this…

電子レンジを消しました。(Denshirenji o keshimashita.) Same thing, but polite. … and how about this.

電気(でんき)つけた。(Denki tsuketa.) I turned on the lights, or I turned on the power to something…

Polite Japanese, try saying.. I turned on the lights, or I turned on the power to something…

電気をつけました。(Denki o tsukemashita.) 

Alright, that about does it. For the shorter practice exercise version go to JapaneseMadeEasy.com and practice practice practice.

See you in the next episode.