Kirby no Nihongo Japanese Resource Store

In preparation for the relaunching of Kirby no Nihongo, I've set up an online store at Amazon.com featuring the various texts, flashcards, dictionaries and grammar books that I've found to be useful in learning Japanese. I'm still in the process of adding more books and resources, but that doesn't stop you from taking a look at what's offered there already.

Remember, these are simply the tools I've used to learn Japanese and it should provide you with a concise and easily located collection of resources at your fingertips whenever you feel the itch to buy a new Japanese text.

Stop searching in vain for a book that might fit your needs and just go to the appropriate sub-section of my store for a comprhensive list of tried and tested Japanese texts that fit your needs, not whatever the search engine spits out at you.

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The Return of Kirby no Nihongo

Seeing as I just relaunched Kirby no Nihongo a couple of days ago, I was surprised at the amount of traffic and RSS feed subscribers I've been getting. I haven't quite got the site up to snuff, but I finished moving all the posts from the old Wordpress site over to this one and should be ready to start officially updating again next week sometime.

First, I have to finish the site design by fixing the rounded corners and create the archive pages for the Absolute Pimsleur's Japanese I and Vocabulary posts. If you stumbled upon this site or were wondering when new updates were coming, know that I'll be trying to update once a week with the Pimsleur transcripts and once or twice more with vocabulary and other Japanese language resources.

However, finishing the backend site design comes first and I should wrap that up on the weekend. For now, feel free to browse through the older transcripts and vocabulary posts.

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Absolute Pimsleur’s Japanese I - Lesson 13 Transcript

Moving right along, here's the transcript for Absolute Pimsleur's Japanese I - Lesson 13. We're just shy of the half way point for this section. This lesson expands upon our knowledge of money and how to ask how much people have, which we started last lesson.

As always, my transcript consists of liberal translations with optional, additional text, which may flesh out a particular sentence to make it more natural in English, contained in "[ ]". Alternate translations can be seen seperated by "/" and either translations would be acceptible to use in any given sentence. Finally, I don't provide translations for every single thing the lesson's say. I don't think it is necessary to list six or seven alternate sentences that only change a number value for when asking how much money you have or so on. So, I only provide the new words, phrases and any pertinent words from previous lessons that may apply to this particular lesson.

Feel free to let me know if there's any mistakes, and I'm far from perfect, so I wouldn't doubt if I made any.

Intro Conversation

もしもし。いとうさんおねがいします。ああいとうさんですか。こんにちは。たなかです。

Hello, [can I speak to] Ito-san, please. Ah, is this Ito-san? Hello / Good day / afternoon. It's / This is Tanaka.

たなかさん。こんにちは。

Tanaka-san, Hello / Good day / afternoon.

いとうさん。こんばんわたしとばんごはんをたべませんか。

Ito-san, won't you have supper / dinner with me tonight?

すみません。こんばんはちょっと。。。

Sorry, tonight is a little...

じゃああしたのばんは。

Then / Alright, how about tomorrow night?

ええ。どこで。なんじに。

Yes / Sounds good / Sure, where at? At what time?

わたしのところで。しちじは。

At my place. How about seven o'clock?

ええ。いいですね。じゃああしたのばん。しちじに。

Sure, that's fine. Alright, tomorrow night at seven o'clock.

じゃあまたあした。

See you tomorrow.


Previous Lesson's Vocabulary

こんばん

this evening / tonight

ばんごはん

evening meal / dinner / supper

もしもし

hello (only used when answering the telephone)

いくら

how much

いくらですか。

How much is it?

¥ or　円 or　えｎ

yen

そして

and, and then / also

あした

tomorrow

きょう

today


New Vocabulary

こんばんは

good evening

かね

money (see Notes)

もっています

I have/I have got

もっていません

don't have

おかねをもっています

I have money

いくらもっていますか。

How much do you have?

おかねをいくらもっていますか。

How much money do you have? (see Notes)

いくらおかねをもっていますか。

How much money do you have? (see Notes)

えんをもっていません。

I don't have any yen.

すみませんえんをもっていません。

Sorry, I don't have any yen.

さんぜんえんもっています。

I have 3000¥.

よんせんえんもっています。

I have 4000¥.

きょうはごせんえんもっています。

[As for] Today, I have 5000¥.

いっぽん

one bottle (see Notes)

ビールいっぽんおねがいします。

One bottle of beer could you please.

はいどうぞ

here you are / go (see Notes)

ドル

dollars

ドルで

in dollars

ドルでいくらですか。

In dollars, how much is it?

ドルでけっこです。

In dollars is fine.

ビールいっぽんいくらですか。

How much is one bottle of beer?

ドルをいくらもっていますか。

How many dollars do you have? (see Notes)

じゅうごドルもっています。

I have $15.

じゅうろくドルもっています。

I have $16.

ドルでいいですか。

In dollars, is it fine? (see Notes)


Notes

かね

Money is かね. In the lessons, you'll hear おかね, which simply uses the honourific, お-, much like many other words, for politeness sake. You could say it either way, but stick with the おかね version from the tapes for now.


おかねをいくらもっていますか。 vs. いくらおかねをもっていますか。

They state this in the lesson, but I'll reiterate here. Japanese is a fluid language that allows for many different word orders for sentences. The above two sentences mean the same thing and use the same words, but are spoken in different orders. Think of it like, "As for today, what do you want to do?" vs. "What do you want to do today?". Both are identical in meaning, but written differently. Same for many things in Japanese.


はいどうぞ

This is literally, "Yes, please". However, the useage here is for handing someone something and, in later chapters, will be used to invite people into your home. The どうぞ is the main word and はい can be dropped in most cases. It is basically adding politeness to what you are doing. Here, it makes the offering of something a polite jesutre, equivilent to "here you are, sir" or what have you. This is the typical saying when a waiter gives you your order or someone passes you something you asked for and so on, despite it not meaning anything that you would associate as a response to that situation.


ドルをいくらもっていますか。

This is more of a translation problem than anything. What I Have listed is perfectly correct, but it doesn't sound right to me when I read it. I'd ask someone, "How much money do you have?" or "How much American / Canadian money do you have?" if I was looking for information on dollar amounts. However, this is for beginners learning, so I guess they are just getting simple sentences and words out of the way first.


ドルでいいですか。

Like the previous note, this is an English translation problem. I just can't see anyone saying something like this in English, as it sounds awkward. The translation is correct for what is written, but I'd probably word it as "Is it alright if0 I pay with American / Canadian money?" or something similar.

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Absolute Pimsleur’s Japanese I - Lesson 12 Transcript

Lesson 12 of Absolute Pimsleur's Japanese I focuses on teaching you numbers for use with currency, in this case, in yen. It's actually a pretty easy set of new vocabulary and the hardest part this time around is with the previous lesson's vocabulary they use for the majority of this lesson.

I just want to remind everyone, I try to translate this the exact way Pimsleur's does, but sometimes I'm slightly off or more liberal with the English translation. Also, I try to provide alternate phrasings or additional words to help flesh out a proper English translation whenever possible. If a translation uses a "/" between words, those are two definitions that could be interchanged for that sentence. If it uses a word(s) between "[ ]", those are additional words that a literal translation would not include and are things I feel flesh out and provide a better translation for English audiences. Japanese is very context sensitive and they leave out lots of words and some sayings don't carry over in literal translations, in my opinion. You can choose to use or ignore these additions if you wish.

Intro Conversation

もしもし。いとうさんですか。

Hello, is Ito-san there? (lit. It's more like "Hello, is it / this Ito-san?", In English, it'd probably be what I wrote or "Can I speak to Ito-san?" or something similar, but that's no where near what is actually said.)

はいいとうです。

Yes, it is / I am Ito. (again, kind of odd in English. I'd use "Speaking" or "This is she" or something similar, but not even close to a literal translation)

すずきです。こんにちは。

[This is / I'm] It's Suzuki. Good afternoon / day.

ああ。。。すずきさん。こんにちは。

Ahhh...Suzuki-san. Good afternoon / day.

いとうさんこんばんわたしとばんごはんをたべませんか。

Ito-san, won't you have your dinner / supper with me this evening / tonight? (Ito-san could be subbed at the beginning or end here when translating to English, as could the "this evening / tonight" part)

すみません。こんばんはちょっと。。。

Sorry, this evening / tonight is a little...

じゃああしたのばんは。

Alright / then, [how about] tomorrow evening / night?

あしたのばん。なんじ。しちじ。

Tomorrow evening / night? [At] What time? Seven o'clock?

はちじは。

[How about] Eight o'clock?

ええいいです。

Ya, that's fine / good / alright.

じゃああしたのばんしちじわたしのところで。

Alright / Then, tomorrow night / evening, eight o'clock at my place. (I'd probably use "At my place tomorrow night at eight o'clock" for a more liberal translation. Almost the same thing, but a few words that weren't used in Japanese and some order changing for English speakers.)

はいわかりました。

Yes, understood. (see Notes)


Previous Lesson's Vocabulary

じゃあ

in that case/ then / alright

きいてください

listen please / please listen

もいちどきいてください。

Please listen one more time / Please listen again. (note the one more / again in this version)

くりかえしてください。

Please repeat [after me] / Repeat [the following] please.

きいてくりかえしてください

Please listen and repeat. (please could go at the beginning or end)

こんばん

this evening / tonight

ばんごはん

evening meal / dinner / supper

あした

tomorrow

きょう

today

じゃあまたあした。

See you tomorrow.


New Vocabulary

もしもし

hello (only used when answering the telephone)

いくら

how much

いくらですか。

How much is it?

¥　or 円　or えｎ

yen (see Notes)

せん

1000

にせん

2000

さんぜん

3000

よんせん

4000

ろくせん

6000

ななせん

7000

"X"えん

"X"¥ (fill in any number for "X")

"X"えんです。

It's "X"¥. (fill in any number for "X")

"X"ですか。

Is it "X"¥? (fill in any number for "X")

いいえ。"X"えんです。

No, it's "X"¥. (fill in any number for "X")

"X"えんじゃありません。

It's not "X"¥. (fill in any number for "X")

"X"えんじゃありませんか。

Isn't it "X"¥? (fill in any number for "X")

そして

and, and then / also (see Notes)


Notes

はいわかりました。

Like I said in other posts, this is a Japanese thing and most English speakers would never say "Yes, understood." in any conversation, especially to end one the way this is. A more liberal translation would be "Got it." or "Sounds good." or some variation of that. We're all a little too inexperienced to go adapting the translations to sound better in English, so I'll leave it as it is.


¥ or　円　or えん

¥ is the currency symbol for yen, much like $ is for dollars. 円 is the kanji for yen and would be the equivilent of writing out 'dollars' in English (it's a little different than that, but for simplicity sake, go with the crude metaphor). えん is simply the hiragana based pronounciation of 円. 円 can also mean circle or round object (like a coin, hence it's also the name of their money or, at least, that's where I surmise the useage came from), but, as far as I know, Pimsleur's never goes into that useage of the kanji, so you can pretty much ignore everything except the yen part of it for now.

Also, I'll be using ¥ in the English translations and えん for the Japanese.


そして

The narrator says this is only "and" when used for counting, but it's always used in that way. The actual English translations for it would be "and, and then, after that, and also". An example sentence could be, "I went to Kanji-Step, Nihongo o Narau and then Kirby no Nihongo." where the bolded green text would represent そして.

I think the reason he distinguishes it for numbers only is that there are a couple version of "and" in Japanese and they eventually end up using the other version in later lessons. For reference, it's simply the particle と, as in さけとビール, which would be "sake and beer". There's a slight difference in their useage, so I'd stick with what Pimsleur's is telling you for the time being, as you'll only confuse yourself later if you try and force a strict definition on it or argue semantics this early in the game.

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Absolute Pimsleur’s Japanese I - Lesson 11 Transcript

Sorry for the layoff in the new lessons. I put out two in one day last week and let it slack after that. It's not so bad transcribing these. It actually takes more work typing them up and switching back and forth between English and Japanese. I have to do it in notepad first, as well, and that makes it harder to see the Japanese characters. Putting it in Word or some other processor messes up the formatting for the web. I'll try and put out a couple more transcripts this week to make up for the week without updates.

Intro Conversation

たなかさんわたしとひるごはんをたべませんか。

Tanaka-san, won't you have [your] lunch with me?

ええなんじに。

Ya / Sure, at what time?

いちじは。

How about one o'clock?

すみません。いちじはちょっと。。。

Sorry, one o'clock is a little bit...

じゃあにじは。

Alright / Then, how about two o'clock?

ええいいですね。どこでたべますか。

Alright / Ya, that's fine. Where do you want to eat at?

ホテルのレストランは。

How about the hotel['s] restaurant? (I'd just say 'hotel restaurant', but, literally, this is probably 'hotel's restaurant'.)

ええいいです。じゃあにじに。

Sure / Ya, that's fine. Then, at 2 o'clock.


Previous Lesson's Vocabulary

じ

time, o’clock

に

at

か

or (when used between two comparable words, ie. “Beer or sake?”)

それとも

or (when used at the start of a sentence, ie. “Or beer?”)

たべたい

want to eat

たべたくありません

don’t want to eat

のみたい

want to drink

のみたくありません

don’t want to drink

なんじですか。

What time is it?

ちょっと

a little bit


New Vocabulary

じゃあ

in that case/ then / alright

きいてください

listen please / please listen

もいちどきいてください。

Please listen one more time / Please listen again. (note the one more / again in this version)

くりかえしてください。

Please repeat [after me] / Repeat [the following] please.

きいてくりかえしてください

Please listen and repeat. (please could go at the beginning or end)

ろくじ

six o'clock

ろくじに

at six o'clock

それともしちじに。

Or at seven o'clock?

ろくじかしちじに

at six o'clock or seven o'clock

じゃあしちじに。

Then / in that case, at seven o'clock.

こんばん

this evening / tonight

ばんごはん

evening meal / dinner / supper

すずきさんこんばんばんごはんをたべませんか。

Won't you have dinner tonight, Suzuki-san?

じゅうじに

at ten o'clock

じゃあじゅうじに

then / in that case, at ten o'clock

じゅうじにたべたいです。

I want to eat at ten o'clock.

こんばんじゅうじにばんごはんをたべます。

[As for] This evening, I'm going to have dinner at ten o'clock.

あした

tomorrow

あしたは。

How about tomorrow?

あしたたなかさんとばんごはんをたべます。

[As for] Tomorrow, I'm going to have dinner with Tanaka-san.

あしたのばん

tomorrow evening

あしたのばんしちじに。

tomorrow evening, at seven o'clock / at seven o'clock tomorrow evening

きょう

today

じゃあまたあした。

See you tomorrow.


Notes

Nothing really to add to this one. It's mostly new numbers and the introduction of 'evening', 'today', 'tomorrow' and a couple other simple words. The last few lessons have focused on similar things and it's more of a review in my opinion. Only thing to be worried about is the introduction of the instructions they randomly threw at you last lesson. Now you actually learn what they mean and they are moderately difficult because they still don't slow down to let you hear it properly. I guess they figure you'll be hearing it enough over the next 20 or so lessons that you'll pick it up eventually.

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Absolute Pimsleur’s Japanese I - Lesson 10 Transcript

This lesson has a little hiccup in it. The people at Pimsleur must have been sleeping on the job because they randomly decide to start using Japanese for some of the announcers commands without ever explaining it or telling you they are doing it in this lesson. They eventually go over the commands, but it's really confusing when you start this lesson and you hear the English tell you to listen to a new word and then a Japanese voice comes on and says some long sentence really fast. I tried to repeat it thinking it was the word and then the actual word is said, leaving me wondering what's going on. I forget the actual lesson they explain what these seemingly random sentences mean, so I've translated them here for you.

Also, this lesson includes even more new time and number based words and phrases. So, like last lesson, make sure to check out the vocabulary posts I've made about time and numbers for more details concerning those. Also, I know all the numbers and times, so I'm never 100% sure if I got all the new numbers from a particular lesson. If I missed a number that was introduced in a particular lesson, let me know and I'll add it in. I think I got all the ones introduced in the last few lessons, though.

Japanese Narrator Commands

つぎ

next (in order), following

かいわ

conversation

きいて

listen

も

another, again, an additional (see Notes)

つぎのかいわをきいてください。

Please listen to the following conversation. (Please could go at the beginning or end of this sentence)

もいちどきいてください。

Please listen one more time / Please listen again. (Please could go at the beginning or end of this sentence)


Intro Conversation

さとうさんわたしとひるごはんをたべませんか。

Sato-san, would you like to / won't you eat lunch with me?

ええでもなんじに。いちじ。

Ya, but at what time? One o'clock?

いいえあとで。

No, later.

ああわかりました。にじ。

Ah, understood. Two o'clock?

ええにじに。

Ya, at two o'clock.

はいわかりました。

Okay / Yes, understood. (see Notes)


Previous Vocabulary

ひるごはん

lunch / dinner / noon time meal

じ

time, o’clock

に

at

いちじ

one o’clock

にじ

two o’clock

はちじ

eight o’clock

くじ

nine o’clock

か

or (between two comparable words, ie. "Beer or sake?")

それとも

or (start of a sentence, ie. "Or beer?")

わかりました

understood


New Vocabulary

ちょっと

a little bit

すみませんいちじはちょっと。

Sorry, one o'clock is a little bit...

くじはちょっと。

Nine o'clock is a little bit...

はちじは。

How about eight o'clock? (see Notes)

たべたい

want to eat

たべたくありません

don't want to eat

なにかたべたいです。

I want to eat something.

たべますか。

Would you like to eat?, Are you going to eat?

なにかたべますか。

Would you like / Are you going to eat something?

いいえいまたべたくありません。

No, I don't want to eat now.

わたしはたべたくありません。

I don't want to eat. (emphatically)

のみたい

want to drink

のみたくありません

don't want to drink

なにかのみたいです。

I want to drink something.

のみますか。

Would you like to drink?, Are you going to drink?

なにかのみますか。

Would you like / Are you going to drink something?

いいえいまのみたくありません。

No, I don't want to drink now.

わたしはのみたくありません。

I don't want to drink. (emphatically)

なんじですか。

What time is it?

いまなんじですか。

What time is it now?

ごじです。

[It's] five o'clock.

さんじです。

[It's] three o'clock.

よじです。

[It's] four o'clock.


Notes

も

も, like most particles, has many uses. A common use is as "too" or "also". It is used to indicate an additional small quantity of something. When used in this fashion, も must precede the additional quantity, one (いち) in this case. Note that the word isn't もいち. It is the particle も followed by the quantity いち.


はい

はい usually means 'yes'. The はい in はいわかりました。 is more of an acknowledgement here than something that could actually be translated to 'yes'. The entire statement is more like "Got it" or "Understood" or some other English form of acknowledgment. "Yes, understood", as it would be literally translated, sounds awkward and isn't something most English speaking people, or me at least, would respond with to being told what time to meet. I wouldn't recommend making up your own variations or liberal translations this early in the game, but I just felt like making it known that, while this is a simple statement in Japanese, it doesn't translate well into regular English conversation.


はちじは。

The "How about" in "How about eight o'clock?" is implied. Literally, this sentence is basically just 'eight o'clock'. The は would just indicate 'eight o'clock' is the subject or that the time was what we were already talking about. As you're probably figuring out, Japanese leaves out a lot of words and leaves it up to the context to figure out what the speaker means. This line came from a conversation about when to meet or eat (I forget), so you'd know we were talking about a time we should meet up and saying the above line would be suggesting eight o'clock as the new time, allowing you to leave out the "How about" since I know what we're talking about. Phew, so much to say about so little. Hopefully someone found that useful, ahaha.

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Absolute Pimsleur’s Japanese I - Lesson 9 Transcript

The next few lessons for Absolute Pimsleur's Japanese I deal heavily with numbers. I covered most of the numbers in my vocabulary post on numbers, so please refer to that post if you'd like to get a quick overview.

Coincidently, I've also covered how to tell time in my vocabulary posts and that is also what this lesson is about. Because of that, I don't list every single variation of what they say in this lesson, so please refer to the vocabulary post on how to tell time, as well.

As we go on, I might start using the kanji for the numbers, as they are pretty straight forward and easy to read, but for now I'll simply use the hiragana readings.

Intro Conversation

さとうさんこんにちは。

Hello / Good afternoon, Sato-san.

すずきさんこんにちは。

Hello / Good afternoon, Suzuki-san.

さとうさんいまなにをしますか。

What are you going to do now, Sato-san?

ひるごはんをたべます。すずきさんもたべませんか。

I'm going to eat lunch. Won't you eat too, Suzuki-san?

ええどこでたべますか。

Ya, where [do you want to eat] at?

そうですね。なんばんては。

Let's see / I don't know / *stalling for time or thinking*. [At] Nanbante / How about Nanbante?

ええいいですね。

Ya, that's fine / that sounds good.


Previous Vocabulary

-さん

Mr./Mrs./Ms.

ひるごはん

lunch / dinner / noon time meal

おねがいします

please / could you please [do me a favour]

か

or

します

to do

だれ

who


New Vocabulary

に

at

じ

time, o'clock

なんじに。

at what time?

いちじ

one o'clock

いちじに

at one o'clock

いちじにおねがいします。

At one o'clock, could you please?

にじ

two o'clock

にじに

at two o'clock

はちじ

eight o'clock

はちじに

at eight o'clock

くじにおねがいします。

At nine o'clock, could you please?

いいえくじに。

No, at nine o'clock.

いちじかにじに。

At one o'clock or two o'clock.

さとうじゃありません。たなかです。

[My name / It is ] Not Sato. It's Tanaka.

それとも

or (see Notes)

それともくじ。

Or at nine o'clock?

はちじかくじ。

At eight o'clock or nine o'clock?

わかりました

understood (see Notes)

ええわかりました。

Yes, understood.

ああわかりましたね。

Ah, you understood, right / didn't you?


Notes

それとも

We already learned that か means 'or' when used between two words. それとも is used typically at the start of a sentence and for questions, such as, "How about 8? Or maybe 9?". Both mean the same thing, but be careful not to confuse when to use each.


わかりました

This is just another variation of わかる, much like わかります and わかりません. You'll more than likely learn the different tenses and conjugations of verbs as we go along, but you should be starting to notice the verb stems of some of the words being used by now.

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