Lesson Dialogues
Situation 1
Taro is talking with his friend Sayaka about the currently popular book.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
サヤカは、その新しい本をもう読みましたか？
A はい
B いいえ
タロウ：あの新しい本、もう読んだ？
サヤカ：うん。読んだよ。
タロウ：どうだった？
サヤカ：結構面白かったよ。
タロウ：へー。俺も買おうかな。
Situation 2
Kinoshita-san and her neighbor Yazawa-san are talking.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
矢沢さんは子供が好きですか？
A はい
B いいえ
木下：子供ってかわいいですよね。
矢沢：いや、別に…。
木下：子供好きじゃないんですか？矢沢さん。
矢沢：あんまり好きじゃないです。
Situation 3
Takashi and his friend Yuki are talking.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
その車は、____。
A 速い
B 面白い
C かわいい
D きれい
タカシ：これ、ユウキの車？
ユウキ：そうだけど。なんで？
タカシ：僕も同じ車乗ってる！
ユウキ：え、本当？
タカシ：うん！
ユウキ：いいよね、この車。速いし。
Situation 4
Kawashima-san started a conversation with her colleague Mori-san.
Comprehension Quiz (Skip if you don't understand the conversation yet)
森さんは、____の写真を見ている。
A 車
B 子供
C 本
D 海
川島：何見てるんです？森さん。
森：海の写真です。
川島：きれいですね。
森：私、海好きなんです！
川島：じゃあ、今度一緒に行きません？
Step 2 - Take the Quiz
Let's see how many words you remember.
Take the quiz here.
Step 3 - Writing Exercises (Optional)
Let's practice what you learned here.
I have a few questions. What’s the alternative way of saying “I like the sea” instead of saying 私、海好すきなんです！in keigo and non-keigo?
Also if I wanted to say “I like playing this song on DDR!”, for example. Could I actually say この曲DDR遊べでするのが好すきなんです！If I was talking to people if I went to an arcade?
私、海好すきなんです！
Keigo：私は海が好きです。私、海が好きです。私、海好きです。私、海好きですよ。
Non-keigo:私、海好き。私、海好きだ。私、海好きよ。 You can replace watashi with atashi.
DDRでこの曲(を)聞くのが好きなんです。
Hope this helps!
Is it important to usually omit the 私 since I know that it’s not really used when your introducing yourself, for example. If so how would I do that.
Thank you for the responses
You can sayわたし if you want. It is like English. People don’t always say “I”
I’ve been curious for awhile but never got around to asking. How does Japanese naming convention work? Like, for a lot of last names it seems to be combining common words like river with another seemingly random character. Is there some logic to it? Or can you basically take any kanji and throw them together to form a name?
Like, for western names it’s often either a trade/occupation the family held, a location/noble title etc. Tho first name convention seems to be pretty similar with taking common words like flowers or seasons to name. Excluding the western naming tradition which uses theophorism.
You have an interesting question.
The followings explain a lot.
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2271.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_name
“the kanji used in family names are related to nature, geographical features or locations, for example, mountain (yama), tree (ki), rice field (ta), island (shima), village (mura), bridge (hashi), between (naka), below (shita) etc. ”
huh, not too different from ours it seems. Tho I have seen some very odd last names like Yagami from death note which apparently use the kanji for moon and god. In which it actually emplores theophorism like in the west.
“Very few names can serve either as surnames or as given names (for example Mayumi 真弓, Kaneko 金子, Masuko 益子, or Arata 新). Therefore, to those familiar with Japanese names, which name is the surname and which is the given name is usually apparent, no matter which order the names are presented in.”
Wish ours worked like that. Aside from certain last names like mine which are dutch and always follow a logic patter of van + location, our last and first names are often interchangeable. For example, smith can be a last name or a first name.
“Many parents choose names with unusual characters or pronunciations, and such names cannot in general be spelled or pronounced unless both the spelling and pronunciation are given.”
Oh so like Kyrstal with a K instead of a C. While I do like the variation and find it neat for Japanese espesially with the limited homophones, it’s annoying when we do it.
That was an interesting read, thank you for linking it
Great! You enjoyed it. I did not know about Duch name, but I have noticed many Duch peoples name including footballers, has Van. In Japan, it seems cool for youngsters to name their baby an unusual name or a Western name, such as Leo or Mary. My name is Junko. 順子＝obeident child! It sounds convenient for my parents. Haha..