Archive for the 'Audio Podcasts' Category

 

 Episode 13 - Greetings [29:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Good manners and proper etiquette is a cultural value very important to Japanese society. Key components of this are greetings said throughout the day and in various situations, such as “good morning” or “good evening”. Knowing these greetings and when to say them will be quite useful when speaking with Japanese or visiting Japan. Not only will Japanese appreciate your knowledge of these greetings and will think that you have good manners, they might even be impressed or shocked that you know them. Either way, one thing is for certain, knowing some of these phrases and using them at the appropriate moment will impress the average Japanese person. The word for greetings in Japanese is “aisatsu”.

Episode Topics:
Phrases for: meeting people, greeting people at different times of day, greeting people whom you have not seen in a long time, parting or ending a conversation, leaving from and returning to your home, someone else’s home or room, leaving work, welcome, thanks, apology, offering guests refreshments, meal times.

Kaa-chan Corner:
Topic: Japanese government (a brief overview of the system).

Vocabulary List:
(Taro) Aso – current prime minister of Japan. (since September 2008)
麻生太郎 [あそうたろう]
baton tacchi – “baton touch”, pass the baton. バトンタッチ
bikkuri shita – was surprised. びっくり
daitouryou – president. 大統領 [だいとうりょう]
igai – besides (such and such), in addition to (such and such). 以外 [いがい]
iikagen na shigoto shinai – won’t be irresponsible at the job. いい加減な仕事しない [いいかげんなしごとしない]
jimintou – Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). 自民党 [じみんとう]
kazu – numbers. 数 [かず]
kokujin – black person. 黒人 [こくじん]
meiji jidai: Meiji period (1868-1912). 明治時代 [めいじじだい]
mezurashii – rare. 珍しい [めずらしい]
minshutou – Democratic Party of Japan. 民主党 [みんしゅとう]
motenai – can’t have/hold. 持てない [もてない]
mukashi – a long time ago. 昔 [むかし]
nigiru – grasp. 握る [にぎる]
ninzuu – number of people. 人数 [にんずう]
ooi – more of (something). 多い [おおい]
saikin – recently. 最近 [さいきん]
seifu – government. 政府 [せいふ]
seiken – political power, right to run government. 政権 [せいけん]
seitou – political party. 政党 [せいとう]
senkyo – election. 選挙 [せんきょ]
shushou – prime minister. 首相 [しゅしょう]
yameru – quit, resign. 辞める [やめる]

Further Reading:
Greetings at about.com
Greetings at learn-japanese.info
Greetings at ABC Brisbane
Gomenkudasai example
Japanese Bowing
Bowing etiquette in Japan
How to politely bow in Japan
Wikipedia entry on the Liberal Democratic Party
Wikipedia entry on the Democratic Party of Japan

Transcript:
Episode transcript PDF (Japanese portion includes furigana) (interview not transcribed)

Download Podcast:
Episode 13 – Greetings

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 

 Episode 11 - Countries and Places [29:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In Episode 6, I listed 10 basic sentences and questions as a means to start practicing conversations in Japanese. These sentences involved fill in the blanks so you could tailor them for your needs. Some of the questions required the names of countries and places, therefore today’s episode is all about countries, places, and related words so that you can complete the sentences.

Episode Topics:
directions, hemispheres, continents, oceans, countries, states/provinces, territories, cities

Nikkei Discussion:
An Okinawan-descent Issei, Nisei, Sansei discussion about identity with Yuko, Mariko, and Lesley.

Vocabulary List:
hougen – dialect. 方言 [ほうげん]
hyoujungo – standard Japanese. 標準語 [ひょうじゅんご]
uchinaanchu – Okinawan person (in Okinawan dialect). ウチナーンチュ

Further Reading:
Wikipedia Japan entry on
大陸 (continent)
World Navigator (map in English and Japanese)
世界の地図から国を検索 (Japanese clickable map)
世界地図 (Japanese maps and basic facts of countries)
世界地図 – 世界の国々 (world map Japanese quiz)

Transcript:
Episode transcript PDF (Japanese portion includes furigana) (interview not transcribed)

Download Podcast:
Episode 11 – Countries and Places

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 

 Episode 9 - Time and Dates [52:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In the previous episode we covered how to count in general as well as how to count specific objects. Building upon those counting skills, we will now go over dates and time. It may be said that dates and time use counters as well but dates and time do not use nearly as many counters as were featured in the previous episode. That is why I think that once you learn how to count up to 59, learning how to say dates and time in Japanese is fairly easy, however there are a few sticky points. For saying the year, one must be able to count up to the number that the current year is but we’ll get to that in moment. Once we go over these counters, you should have the basics down to use simple sentences related to dates and time, such as asking what time it is and stating your age or birthday.

Episode Topics:
Time: ji (hour), fun (minutes), byou (seconds)
Dates: gatsu (month), nichi (day), days of the week, Western years, Japanese Imperial eras
Counting dates and times: kagetsu (months), shuu (weeks), nichi (day)
bonus: previous/current/next (yesterday/today/tomorrow), seasons

Kaa-chan Corner:
The return of Kaa-chan Corner! Since my mom just returned from Japan for a funeral, today’s topic on Kaa-chan Corner is: Japanese funerals. I just wanted to remind everyone that my mom is from Okinawa so the culture is a bit different from mainland Japan.

Vocabulary List:
butsudan – Buddhist altar. 仏壇 [ぶつだん]
chikai shinseki – close relatives. 近い親戚 [ちかいしんせき]
junjyo – order. 順序 [じゅんじょ]
kotsu tsubo – urn. 骨壺 [こつつぼ]
mago – grandchildren. 孫 [まご]
moshu – the family member in charge of organizing the funeral. 喪主 [もしゅ]
nachizu – Nazis. ナチズ
obousan – monk. お坊さん [おぼうさん]
ohaka – tomb. お墓 [おはか]
okama – chamber for cremations. お罐 [おかま]
okan – coffin, casket. お管 [おかん]
senkou – incense sticks. 線香 [せんこう]
shibaraku – for a little while. 暫く [しばらく]
shonanuka – the first seven days after someone’s death. 初七日 [しょなぬか]
soushiki – funeral. 葬式 [そうしき]
toi shinseki – distant relatives. 問い親戚 [といしんせき]
umeru – bury. 埋める [うめる]
yoisho, yoisho – what Japanese say when they are exerting physical
effort, kind of like “heave-ho”. よいしょ よいしょ

Further Reading:
Japanese calendar entry at Wikipedia
The Japanese Calendar
Japanese era name entry at Wikipedia
Japanese Year Converter
NengoCalc (Japanese year converter application)
Basic Japanese words and numbers
Japanese funeral entry at Wikipedia
Japanese Buddhist Funeral Customs
Sushilog blog entry on the Chronicles of a Japanese Funeral
Wikipedia Japan entry on 火葬場 (crematory, has a few pictures)

Transcript:
Episode transcript PDF (Japanese portion includes furigana) (interview not transcribed)

Download Podcast:
Episode 9 – Time and Dates

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 

 Episode 7 - Particles [19:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Particles, known as joshi, are probably one of the trickiest aspects of Japanese language for a beginner to master. I see countless questions on Yahoo Answers regarding particles. Sometimes I see similarities between English and Japanese but this is one of the cases where this is a Japanese issue that cannot be explained simply. Some say they are like English prepositions but since they occur after the word or subject, they are post-positions. As I’ve mentioned, I’m not a technical person when it comes to language so “preposition” means nothing to me. If you’re not big into grammar like that then you’ve come to the right place. At least I hope so.

Episode Topics:
Particles: to, no, na (mitai na, no you na), de, ya vs. shi vs. mo, wa vs. ga, e vs. ni (no you ni), wo, question particles (ka, wa, no), to ka

Kaa-chan Corner:
Cancelled for a few episodes as there has been a death in the family and my mother has gone back to Japan for a few weeks.

Vocabulary List:
The vocabulary lists are generated from Kaa-chan Corner so there is not a vocabulary list for this episode.

Further Reading:
Wikipedia entry on particles
Japanese Particles
A Guide to the Functions of
Structural Particles in Japanese
Forming Sentences in Japanese: Introducing Particles (for Dummies

Transcript:
Episode transcript PDF (Japanese portion includes furigana) (interviews not transcribed)

Download Podcast:
Episode 7 – Particles

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

 

 Episode 5 - You and I [17:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In the previous episode we discussed honorifics, for which there was almost no bias towards gender. Today however we discuss the various ways to say “You” and “I”, or what you technical people might refer to as pronouns, for which the majority of these words are gender-biased. While some people do cross the gender line, as a foreigner I would suggest avoiding crossing the gender line when you speak or you will come across as being ignorant of Japanese. And as always in Japanese, there are various levels of politeness and to not be polite is to be rude so please be aware to speak casually only with close family and friends.

Episode Topics:
Different ways to say I, me, myself, mine, my, we, us, our, ours: watashi vs. watakushi (atashi vs. atakushi), jibun, ware, ore, boku, kochira vs. kocchi, uchi.
Different ways to say you, your, he, his, she, hers, them, they, their, theirs: anata vs. anta, kimi, omae, otaku, sochira vs. socchi, ano kata, kanojyo, kare, yatsu, koitsu vs. soitsu vs. aitsu.

Kaa-chan Corner:
Religion in Japan: Shinto-ism and Buddhism (mostly in English to help explain to those who are not strong in Japanese)

Vocabulary List:
bukkyo – Buddhism. 仏教 [ぶっきょう]
jinjya – shrine (Shinto). 神社 [じんじゃ]
kitsune – fox, shape-shifting animal in Japanese mythology. 狐 [きつね]
kyoukai – church (Christian). 協会 [きょうかい]
(o)jizou – Jizo, guardian deity of children (Shinto). (お)地蔵 [(お)じぞう]
otera – temple (Buddhist). お寺 [おてら]
shintou – Shinto. 神道 [しんとう]

Further Reading:
Japanese pronouns entry at Wikipedia
Japanese Pronouns
8.1.Pronouns
Japanese Language: Personal Pronouns
Shinto entry at Wikipedia
Buddhism entry at Wikipedia
Kitsune entry at Wikipedia
Jizo Bodhisattva

Transcript:
Episode transcript PDF (Japanese portion includes furigana) (interviews not transcribed)

Download Podcast:
Episode 5 – You and I

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.