dropping hints in japanese
November 28th, 2005 by heatheri’m enjoying the ‘learning japanese’ podcast. i think it’s interesting because, while it is easy to follow for the beginner, it apparently gives access to more complex forms.
the free NHK japanese audio lessons are very highly crafted. forms are introduced slowly, and brought up again in subsequent lessons, with an ever-increasing complexity. however, this format assumes a clear obvious progression through this one syllabus. when in reality, the learner may not listen from start to finish in one sitting, may repeat, may move ahead, and may be listening to or using other materials.
i just think it’s interesting that the learning japanese podcasts are doing some of that- “this week we use the word ‘monday’, listen to lesson five to get the days of the week”. regardless of this referencing, they have progressed from the requisite simple greeting lesson 1 to more advanced grammar. and they make it easy for a beginner to understand and use practically.
in lesson 7 they introduce a way to say “i was thinking of going shopping. are you free?”. this softens what i might say as a beginner, and helps make a hint of something you want to do, and see if someone else wants to go along. and softening expression seems a very important part of effective communication in japanese.
as a beginner i might say: “i *want* to go shopping. do you?” or no, i’d probably point to myself and say “shopping” and make little ‘fingers walking away’ hand motion, then point to between you and me and say “shopping” again. and i’d smile alot and nod my head up and down till you did the same. effective, but not very nice.
so instead of asking someone “lets go shopping” or using miming tricks, you can say:
かいも の したいな と おもてったけど。いっしょに いかへん。
i was thinking about going shopping. won’t you?
いいよ yes
うめだ / umeda / Umeda
で / de / at
かいもの / kaimono / shopping
したいな / shitaina / want to
と / to /
おもててんけど / omotetenkedo / was thinking however
いっしょに / isshoni / together
いかへん / ikahen / not go ?
now it would be good to play the replacement game.
November 28th, 2005 at 6:46 pm
I’m having trouble getting the 『いしょいいかない』. I know 『いっしょに いかない(か)』 can be “why don’t you we go together” or some such, but I don’t understand the usage you have above. Could you explain it a little further?
November 28th, 2005 at 8:08 pm
you’re being too generous, scott! it’s my mistake.
i have fixed it now. i wrote it without access to the show notes.
i don’t know what i was thinking.
in case anyone else missed it, the show notes are available from the site:
http://japanese.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=31851
November 28th, 2005 at 8:33 pm
No no, I honestly didn’t know. If I recall correctly, Alex has had a couple of episodes that include Kansai dialect and I think lesson 7 was one of them. I have basically decided to leave Kansai dialect for “later” and I ended up skipping over the Kansai episodes( read: I’m totally lazy! ). I have enough on my plate to struggle with without learning a second dialect!
November 28th, 2005 at 8:40 pm
i read somewhere that kansai-ben was a “most powerfiul dialect”
what exactly does that mean??
November 28th, 2005 at 8:42 pm
oh i go looking for the link and find loads: here’s two:
Kansai Ben is a dialect of Kansai area,and the most powerful dialect.
http://www.ox.compsoc.net/~gemini/kansai_ben/osaka.html
http://japanese.about.com/od/japaneselessons/
Probably the most powerful dialect In Japan is Kansai-ben
http://www.hatano-es.com/kiyo/journal/archives/000212.html (deadlink but google saw it)
November 28th, 2005 at 8:46 pm
Shazbot! I’m having enough difficulty learning the “regular”( if that is even apropos ) dialect!
November 28th, 2005 at 8:58 pm
Shazbot?! what does that mean?
what dialect of english do you speak?
;)
November 28th, 2005 at 9:58 pm
Heh. Shazbot was an expletive used on Mork and Mindy and then later on in the Simpsons. So sayeth the WIKIPEDIA!
November 29th, 2005 at 1:23 am
Hi, Heather
>Kansai Ben is a dialect of Kansai area,and the most powerful dialect.
I partly agree with this idea, but you know we mostly use 標準語
in our converstations. Kansai ben is mostley used in Kansai areas.
Beseides Kansai ben, we have Hakata ben, Tohou ben, Nagoya ben,
etc. They are so interesting. I’m Japnese, but I sometimes don’t
understand them at all…. I’m afraind I couldn’t find why the author
of “Kansai Ben is a dialet of Kansai are” thought Kansai ben was
the most powerful dialet. Let me know if you find the reason.
I can give you the example sentece about いっしょにいかないか
１．おいしい レストラン が できたんだって。いっしょにいかない？
２．この えいが おもしろそう。 いっしょにいかない？
いっしょにいかないか is the same meaning of いっしょにいかない.
Men tend to use いっしょにいかないか？ or いっしょにいこうぜ？.
Women tend to use いっしょにいかない？. We say these phrases in up
tones. And if you think you want to ask a person to go together more
strongly, we say いっしょに いこうよ！(for women) or いっしょにいこうぜ
(for men) in DOWN tones. I hope this helps you a lot.
I’m having difficulty learning ENGLISH….hahaha.
November 30th, 2005 at 11:57 pm
Thank you for that feedback!
It’s nice having a native speaker offer corrections.
And the podcast made no distinction between male or female speech
Thanks very much.
Your English is very good, maybe you feel you’re not making progress since your English is already so advanced!
December 3rd, 2005 at 12:36 pm
Hey, this site has some japanese language information http://misaiato.blogspot.com/