Lesson Dialogues
Situation
Two 30-year old women (Yatchi and Naru-chan) are having a conversation at an izakaya bar.
PDF version is 
MP3 version is ナルちゃん：今年は平成が終わって令和が始まったね。
ナルちゃん：今年(ことし)は平成(へいせい)が終(お)わって令和(れいわ)が始(はじ)まったね。
Naru-chan: The Heisei era ended this year, and the Reiwa era began.
今年 ことし this year
平成 へいせい Heisei era (1989.1.8-2019.4.30)
令和 れいわ Reiwa era (May 1, 2019-)
ヤッチ：そうだね。私たち、平成元年に生まれたから、なんか平成が終わるって悲しかったな。
ヤッチ：そうだね。私(わたし)たち、平成(へいせい)元年(がんねん)に生(う)まれたから、なんか平成(へいせい)が終(お)わるって悲(かな)しかったな。
Yatchi: It sure did. We were born in the first year of the Heisei era, so it felt kind of sad seeing that era end.
そうだね you're right
元年 がんねん first year (of an imperial era)
悲しい かなしい sad; miserable
ナルちゃん：自分たちの時代が終わっちゃうみたいな？
ナルちゃん：自分(じぶん)たちの時代(じだい)が終(お)わっちゃうみたいな？
Naru-chan: Like our own era is coming to an end?
自分たち じぶんたち we; you; ourselves; yourselves
ちゃう colloquial form of "てしまう (to do sth completely or accidentaly)"
みたいな like (casual)
ヤッチ：うん。まあね。今年は令和ベイビーってよく言われてたけど、私たち平成ベイビーだったんだね。
ヤッチ：うん。まあね。今年(ことし)は令和(れいわ)ベイビーってよく言(い)われてたけど、私(わたし)たち平成(へいせい)ベイビーだったんだね。
Yatchi: Well, yeah. There was a lot of talk this year about Reiwa babies, but we were Heisei babies.
まあね I must admit; yes (could indicate the speaker doesn't fully agree)
ベイビー baby
ナルちゃん：成子（ナルコ）の「成」なんて明らかに平成から取ったんだよ。
ナルちゃん：成子（なるこ）の「成(なる)」なんて明(あき)らかに平成(へいせい)から取(と)ったんだよ。
Naru-chan: The kanji character for "Naru" in my name, "Naruko", was obviously taken from the Heisei characters.
明らか あきらか clear; obvious
ヤッチ：だろうね。令和も「令」のつく名前、「和」のつく名前が多いのかな。
ヤッチ：だろうね。令和(れいわ)も「令(れい)」のつく名前(なまえ)、「和(わ)」のつく名前(なまえ)が多(おお)いのかな。
Yatchi: I'm sure it was. So in the Reiwa era, I wonder if there will be a lot of babies with names that include "Rei" and "Wa"?
だろうね I think so, too; I agree
ナルちゃん：きっとそうなんじゃない？
ナルちゃん：きっとそうなんじゃない？
Naru-chan: I'm sure there will be, right?
きっと surely; certainly
んじゃない colloquial form of "のではない(か) I think; I guess"
ヤッチ：平成はナルちゃんにとってどんな年だった？
ヤッチ：平成(へいせい)はナルちゃんにとってどんな年(とし)だった？
Yatchi: What were the Heisei years like for you, Naru-chan?
年 とし year; age
ナルちゃん：うーん、難しいな。30年もあるからね。確かに言えるのはヤッチと会うことができて幸せってこと。
ナルちゃん：うーん、難(むずか)しいな。30年(ねん)もあるからね。確(たし)かに言(い)えるのはヤッチと会(あ)うことができて幸(しあわ)せってこと。
Naru-chan: Hmm, that's a hard one to answer. After all, there were 30 years there. I can definitely say that meeting you was a happy thing for me.
難しい むずかしい hard; difficult
も as much as; as many as; no less than
幸せ happiness; luck; good fortune
ヤッチ：何うれしいこと言ってくれてるの。お酒飲みすぎた？
ヤッチ：何(なに)うれしいこと言(い)ってくれてるの。お酒(さけ)飲(の)みすぎた？
Yatchi: Why are you saying such a joyful thing like that? Have you had too much to drink?
何 なに what; why; how come; hey
(お)酒 (お)さけ alcohol
過ぎる すぎる to pass; to pass by; to have expired
verb + 過ぎる すぎる to do something excessively
ナルちゃん：いやいや。大丈夫。まあ、戦争が起こらなくて良かったと思う。
ナルちゃん：いやいや。大丈夫(だいじょうぶ)。まあ、戦争(せんそう)が起(お)こらなくて良(よ)かったと思(おも)う。
Naru-chan: Oh no. I'm fine. Well, I'm glad that we didn't have any wars.
大丈夫 だいじょうぶ fine; no problem
戦争(する) せんそう(する) n. war / v. to wage a war
起こる おこる to happen; to occur
よかった glad; thank god
ヤッチ：日本ではね。
ヤッチ：日本(にほん)ではね。
Yatchi: At least not in Japan.
ナルちゃん：うん。日本では。歴史は繰り返すっていうけど、令和の時代も絶対に戦争しないでほしいな。
ナルちゃん：うん。日本(にほん)では。歴史(れきし)は繰(く)り返(かえ)すっていうけど、令和(れいわ)の時代(じだい)も絶対(ぜったい)に戦争(せんそう)しないでほしいな。
Naru-chan: Yeah. At least not in Japan. They say that history repeats itself, but I absolutely hope that they don't start any wars in the Reiwa era either.
歴史 れきし history
繰り返す くりかえす to repeat; to do sth over again
絶対 ぜったい definitely; absolutely
てほしい to want sb to do sth
ないでほしい to want sb not to do sth
ヤッチ：そうだね。他の国のことも考えなきゃいけないけど、とりあえず、日本で戦争起こってほしくないね。
ヤッチ：そうだね。他(ほか)の国(くに)のことも考(かんが)えなきゃいけないけど、とりあえず、日本(にほん)で戦争(せんそう)起(お)こってほしくないね。
Yatchi: That's for sure. I know we need to think about other countries too, but at the very least, I don't want a war to start in Japan.
のこと about
なきゃいけない colloquial form of "なくてはいけない (must; have to)"
とりあえず for now; first of all
ナルちゃん：日本の将来はどうなるのかな。
ナルちゃん：日本(にほん)の将来(しょうらい)はどうなるのかな。
Naru-chan: I wonder what the future is going to be like in Japan?
将来 しょうらい future (usually near); prospects
ヤッチ：大きく出たね。
ヤッチ：大(おお)きく出(で)たね。
Yatchi: You went for a major topic there.
ナルちゃん：私たちも年取っていくからさ、いろいろと考えなくちゃ。いつまでも若いつもりでいるけど、頭はアップデートしていかないとね。
ナルちゃん：私(わたし)たちも年取(としと)っていくからさ、いろいろと考(かんが)えなくちゃ。いつまでも若(わか)いつもりでいるけど、頭(あたま)はアップデートしていかないとね。
Naru-chan: After all, we're only getting older. So we have a lot to think about. We may consider ourselves to be young all the time, but we have to keep our minds up-to-date at least.
年(を)取る とし(を)とる to glow old; to age
さ particle used to indicate assertion or to attract attention
なくちゃ colloquial form of "なくては(いけない) (must; have to)"
いつまでも forever; for good
つもり intention; plan; belief
アップデートする to update
ヤッチ：そうだね。いいこと言うね。
ヤッチ：そうだね。いいこと言(い)うね。
Yatchi: That's true. That's a pretty smart thing you just said there.
ナルちゃん：そうでしょ。ヤッチ、令和もよろしくね！
ナルちゃん：そうでしょ。ヤッチ、令和(れいわ)もよろしくね！
Naru-chan: Wasn't it? So I look forward to also spending the Reiwa era with you, Yatchi!
そうでしょ I know right?
よろしく well; properly; please treat me favorably
Step 2 - Take the Quiz
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Step 3 - Writing Exercises (Optional)
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“ナルちゃん：日本の将来はどうなるのかな。”
In the word “将来” used in the above sentence, is “将” the correct kanji? I tried looking it up in an online kanji dictionary and it was transformed to a slightly different looking character. https://jisho.org/search/%E5%B0%86%E6%9D%A5
I wondered if maybe the characters weren’t encoded correctly on this web page and the kanji was getting transformed to the Chinese variation of the character or something? Or perhaps it’s because of the font used on this web page for the Japanese text?
Just like the alphabet appears slightly different in fonts like Times New Roman or Arial, kanji and other Japanese characters also vary depending on the font.
Websites can use a variety of fonts.
This website uses standard system fonts.
Jisho sometimes contains inaccurate information and may be confusing, so I recommend using the 漢字辞典Online instead.
https://kanji.jitenon.jp/kanjib/911
The word 将 is displayed in large font on the left side of the page, and you can compare how it appears in different fonts by selecting a font from the options below.
Thank you. The
将character looks different from how it is displayed on this page in all the font choices on the page you linked also though. Does it look different to you? I wish I could post a picture here to show what I mean. On the top of the right side of the kanji, the radical looks different.I inspected the HTML of this web page and this is the font style actually being used to set the font family:
body.single-post {
font-family: “Inter”;
}
I created a code sample comparing “将” displayed in the Inter font with the main font style specified on the page you linked to show how it’s different:
https://codepen.io/KristinB/pen/MYwYMeG/843968d070c56c4c5aea42e021727bc8
I understand that characters can look slightly different using different fonts but in this case to me it seems like a more extreme difference. It just seems a bit confusing is all.
(BTW: I work as a frontend web developer.)
Thank you very much for your detailed investigation and your expertise as a frontend developer.
After reviewing the situation, it seems that the difference in how the kanji 将 is displayed results from a combination of factors.
On one hand, this site currently specifies only “font-family: Inter;” in its CSS, which unfortunately doesn’t support Japanese characters. Because of this, browsers rely on font fallback to display the kanji, and depending on which fonts are installed and prioritized on each user’s system, the character’s appearance can vary.
On the other hand, differences in each user’s local environment — such as installed fonts, operating system settings, and browser behavior — also affect which font is used as fallback, further influencing the kanji’s appearance.
We apologize for the confusion and any inconvenience this has caused. If possible, as a temporary workaround, you might consider adjusting your local font settings or adding Japanese fonts to your environment, such as “Noto Sans JP” or “Yu Gothic”, to provide more consistent display for all users.
Meanwhile, I would like to discuss the font settings with the team responsible and explore possible improvements.
Thank you very much for your understanding and patience.
Thank you for looking into it.
After investigating more, I just discovered the actual problem. The language wasn’t specified correctly causing the Japanese characters to display incorrectly.
In order to ensure that Japanese characters display properly and aren’t transformed into the Chinese version, you have to specify
lang="ja"in the HTML code. I had this wrong in the example I created and linked above also. (I mistakenly specified the language as “jp” instead of “ja”.)Here’s another example showing the difference:
https://codepen.io/KristinB/pen/ZYGGmJo/048ed41882781ffef56c0e83bdda20ec
Thank you for sharing the updated CodePen and for identifying the root cause. That makes perfect sense — the lang=”ja” attribute is indeed essential for proper Japanese character rendering.
Our site hasn’t experienced any issues with font rendering so far, so we haven’t made that change on our end.
But your findings are insightful and will definitely help other learners who might encounter similar behavior.
Thanks again for your thorough investigation. We really appreciate your technical insight!
I apologize, maybe I didn’t explain clearly. When I look at this website, I don’t see the Japanese characters displayed correctly. And when I inspect the HTML code of this site I don’t see
lang="ja"anywhere in the code. So it’s a problem for me because I’m not seeing the correct characters on your website.Maybe you can’t see the problem yourself because the operating system of the computer you are using is Japanese? For me, I’m using a computer with the language set to English so perhaps that influences the default display when
lang="ja"isn’t specified in the code. (That’s only my guess though.) I’ll try to see if I can figure out a way to force the characters to display properly by changing the language settings on my computer or something but ideally if you could update this website to make sure to addlang="ja"in the HTML code then that would fix the problem for everyone. Probably other students using this site aren’t seeing the correct characters either but they just don’t realize it. I only discovered it by accident myself.I just experimented and found a way to force my computer to display the correct characters. So perhaps this information will help other users with the same problem.
On my Mac computer, I opened the System settings and then selected “General” -> “Language and Region”. Originally, it was set to just “English (US)”. I used the “+” button to also add “Japanese”. Then I restarted my computer.
After that I checked the characters on this web site again and they were finally displaying correctly. So that explains why you weren’t able to see the problem. Because probably your computer was already set to use Japanese.
(This is a separate setting from the keyboard btw. I had already installed Japanese in my keyboard settings a long time ago.)
The best way to fix the display of Japanese text though would be if you could add
lang="ja"to the HTML so that way everyone will see the characters correctly. Probably many students using this site have not changed their computer settings to include Japanese for the language and region.Thank you very much for your clarification and for investigating this so thoroughly.
You’re absolutely right — explicitly specifying lang=”ja” in our HTML would help ensure proper rendering across different environments.
We hadn’t realized this was causing issues for some users, so your input is really valuable.
I’ll share your findings with our team and we’ll look into updating the site accordingly.
How exactly does “大きく出たね” mean “You went for a major topic there?” Is it like “A big thing came out?”
You are right if you translate the phrase literally.
It’s an idiomatic expression.
Usually, it’s used where you’d like to say “Wow, those are some big words!”, like when someone is being too ambitious or trying to be bluffing.
Hm, very interesting. I understand now. Thank you!
You’re welcome.