Absolute Pimsleur's Japanese I - Lesson 7 Transcript

Here's the transcript for Absolute Pimsleur’s Japanese I Lesson 7 with the usual random notes from me. I'm churning these out fairly regularly, but don't feel like you need to be moving at the same speed as my posts. If you're a beginner, you'll probably want to redo lessons two or three times or even go back a couple lessons to get a better grasp of what you've learned. When doing new lessons, I find the first time is mostly hearing the words and I don't get a real grasp of them and their useage until at least the second time I hear them. If I move on to new lessons, I end up learning the previous lesson more than I do the current one and end up having to go back and recap anyways.

Everyone learns differently, so you may not need to do this, but I do recommend relistening to older chapters at least once before moving along. The first couple lessons are routine and fairly easy, but, around lesson four or five, as it starts piling more and more new material on, you might find yourself overwhelmed by the time lesson ten comes along if you 'think' you know the material and end up not understanding half the new stuff being covered.

One more thing before going on to the transcript. I put some hefty notes at the end of the post on rather simple stuff. Don't focus too heavily on it. It's more or less there if you want some more background or the odd little tidbit on certain words. Some do, however, contain genuine warnings on useages of words, so don't ignore all the notes I post either. =p

Opening Conversation

いまなにかたべますか。

Are you going to eat something now?

いいえあとで。でもなにかのみます。

No, later. But I'll have something to drink / I'm going to drink something.

どこで。

Where at?

わかりません。

I don't know.

わたしのところで。

At my place?

ええいいですね。

Ya / Yes, that's / It's fine.


Previous Lesson's Vocabulary

なにか

something

たべます

eat, going to eat

のみます

drink, going to drink

いま

now

あとで

later

いいです。

It’s fine/alright.


New Vocabulary

で

at (see Notes)

レストラン

restaurant

レストランで。

at the restaurant

なに

what (see Notes)

なにをのみますか。

What are you going to drink?

なにをたべますか。

What are you going to eat?

さけ

sake, which is literally rice wine, general term for alcohol

おさけ

polite form of sake, general term for alcohol (see Notes)

おさけをのみます。

I am going to drink sake.

ビール

beer

ビールをのみます。

I am going to drink beer.

ほしい

I want (see Notes)

ほしくありません

I don't want

わたしはほしくありません。

I don't want it / any. (emphatically)

おさけがほしいです。

I want sake.

ビールがほしいです。

I want beer

ビールをのみますか。

Are you going to drink beer?

いいですか。

Is it alright / okay?

いまほしくありません。

I don't want any / it now.

レストランなんばんてで。

At the restuarant Nanbante.

レストランはどこですか。

Where is the restaurant?


Notes

で

This was introduced last lesson, but I forgot to touch on it in the notes. This means far more than just a simple 'at', but I left it as that because that's what the lessons will primarily use it as. で is a noun following particle, as in it doesn't follow 'drinking', 'to eat', 'want' or so on. It can be used to mean 'at', 'in' or 'on' and is used to indicate the site or place of an activity. "I was born in Japan.", "We met at the restaurant." or "Kirby's working on the blog, isn't he?" are all example useages for で. It would follow the nouns that are the locations in question, 'Japan', 'restaurant' and 'blog', and not the verbs 'born', 'met' or 'working' or the subjects, 'I', "We" and "Kirby" as they are not the locations being discussed.


レストラン & ビール

Both restaurant and beer are written using katakana because they are not native Japanese words. They are taken from English and, like many Japanese words, are written in katakana. You can't pronounce them like you do in English either. Even though they are "English words", you are still speaking Japanese and they don't use the same pronounciations as we do. Restaurant, to us, is not the same as レストラン to them, in terms of pronounciation. Notice there is no 't' sound at the end like in the English version. Don't get sloppy and just say 'restaurant'. Pronounce every katakana word the way you would any other Japanese word.


なに & なん

Like I said in the previous lesson, なに has two forms. なに is usually followed by a particle and the verb while なん is usually followed by ですか or time counters and comes near the end of a sentence. It's pretty easy to figure out when each is used as you can just try saying なんを or なんは or any other particle and you'll see it doesn't flow properly and is harder to pronounce than なにを and the like.

Basically, なん is in a sentence structure like, "That book, what is it?" [Subject - What is it?], while なに is in sentences like, "What are you going to drink?" [What is/are Subject Verb?]. One relates to nouns and what they are and the other relates to verbs and what you are or are not going to do to something. Again, exceptions to everything, just like in English, but I don't want to make this a grammer lesson, so this is just a simple introduction and basic explanation of both uses. You'll see なん in coming units when we get to time related subjects and other questions.


お-

お- was last seen in おてんき where it made 'weather' more polite. Guess what it does to sake? Yes, it makes it more polite. お- is used in many words for this purposes and I don't really know the rhyme or reason to its useage to tell you when to expect it other than that it does show up fairly often.


ほしい

ほしい is an adjective and what is wanted is treated as a grammatical subject and marked with が. The word is not used to describe the wants of someone else. For others, you'd use ほしいがる. Think something like, "My brother wants to eat.", instead of how ほしい is always used for singular expressions, such as, "I want to eat.".

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