JPNS 1010
Dialogue for
Presentation 2
(Supplements for the
textbook
Genki: An Integrated Approach, Vol. 1)
Click here to listen to the
entire dialogue.
Click on the links
below to listen to each individual sentence.
John and Akiko are talking in their dormitory. Although John and Akiko both still
like each other, they still feel shy around each other. As a result, they continue to use the long,
relatively formal です and ~ます forms of verbs rather than the more familiar dictionary forms,
which are used among close friends and show a degree of intimacy.
ジョン： あきこさんは どんなおんがくが すきですか。
あきこ： おんがくですか。そうですね… クラシックがすきです。
ジョン： クラシックですか。私もクラシックがすきですよ。
あきこ： そうですか。じゃあ、しゅうまつ、コンサートにいきましょうか。
あきこ： じゃあ、あした、きっぷを二まい、かいます。
Notes:
John asks Akiko what sort of music she likes. In John’s question, he puts the
word どんな in front
of おんがく (music)。どんな is a question word that means “what kind
of…?” The word どんな only comes before nouns.
Can you guess what the following sentences mean?
あきこさんは どんな人ですか。
たけしは どんないえ がありますか。
Answers:
As for Akiko-san, what kind
of person is she? (What
kind of person is Akiko-san?)
As for Takeshi-san, what kind
of house does he have? (What kind of house does Takeshi-san have?)
In order to say “A likes B” in Japanese, one uses
the structure AさんはBがすきです。 Although it would
be translated as “like” (a verb in English), the word すきfunctions in Japanese like a noun. Can you guess what the following
sentences mean?
ロバートさんは 日本ごが すきです。
あやこさんは おすしがすきです。
メアリーさんは ミルクがすき じゃありません。
Answers:
Robert-san likes the Japanese
language.
Ayako-san likes sushi.
Mary-san does not like milk.
Note in the last sentence that to say that someone does NOT like
something in Japanese, the です after すき turns into a じゃありません。That is just as you would predict, since the negative of です is じゃありません, right?
Also, you should probably know that when people use the wordすき in Japanese to refer to a person, it shows feelings that are
stronger than simply “liking someone” as a friend. It implies a romantic interest. For instance, if you wanted to ask if
Takeshi-san was romantically interested in Akiko-san, you might ask, たけしさんは あきこさんがすきですか。
Anyway, back to the dialogue… Akiko says an echo question that means
“Music?” just to show that she has heard his question. She pauses for a moment to think and
says そうですね… As we mentioned
in an earlier dialogue from last semester, people sometimes use this expression
as “filler” as they are thinking about what to say next or how to
answer a question. She then
responds that she likes classical music (クラッシク). The names of many
kinds of music are often written in katakana. Can you guess what the following kinds
of music are?
ポップス (pop music)
ロック
ラップ
レゲエ
ヒップ・ホップ
パンク
John responds with an echo question that indicates he has
understood. He tells her that he
also likes classical music. Notice where the particle も goes
in the sentence.
Akiko says, “Oh really?” She then says, “Well then, on the
weekend, let’s go to a concert.” The word “let’s go” in
the polite style Japanese is いきましょう。Basically, the ~ます ending turns into ～ましょう。(In future chapters, you will learn how to modify a verb in the
short, dictionary form, such as いく, and put it in a comparable “let’s ~” form,
but that is somewhat more complicated.
For now, let’s stick with the ~ますlong form only.)
When you put かafter a “let’s ~” word like いきましょう, the meaning becomes “Shall we ~?” In this case, いきましょうか means “Shall we go?” It is a kind of invitation.
We already know another way of making an invitation: putting the
verb in the negative form and adding か. For instance, you
might say, いきませんか。 (Won’t you go?)
The main difference between いきましょうか and いきませんかis that いきましょうか also includes the speaker, whereas いきませんか does not necessarily include the speaker. When the speaker says いきましょうか (“Shall we go?”) it is clear that the
speaker includes him or herself, and is suggesting they do the activity
together.
John asks an echo question indicating he has understood. He is pleased, so he makes the statement
いいですね。(That sounds good.)
He puts a ね on the end because it is a
spontaneous statement of reflection with which he assumes the listener (Akiko)
will agree. He then says,
“Let’s go” (いきましょう).
Akiko says that she will buy two tickets tomorrow. The word for ticket (きっぷ) is followed by the particleを since ticket is the direct object of the sentence. After the particle を comes the word that means two (二まい). You see that this
expression is composed of the number two plus another little word called a
“counter.” A counter is
a classifier used after numbers. In English, we often do not use
counters. We usually count
directly, then add a noun directly after it: “two boxes,”
“three T-shirts,” “four tickets,” etc. Sometimes, however, there are occasions
when we use a counter: “two loaves of bread,” “three sheets
of paper,” etc. (We do not say
“two breads” or “three papers.”) The words “loaves” and
“sheets” are counters in English. In short, counters are words that are
assigned to certain categories of objects and are used after numbers as a
counting device.
In Japanese, whenever you are referring to the number of an object,
you always use a counter. In fact,
we have encountered at least one counter before: えん (yen) which is used to count money. Here, we encounter another counter まい. The counter まいis used for thin, flat objects such as tickets, sheets of paper,
blankets, sheets, mats, records, and CDs.
Note that when you are using a number expression in a sentence, the
number-plus-counter typically comes right before the verb.
きっぷ を 二 まい かいます。
direct object particle number counter verb
Note the placement of number-plus-counter expressions in these
sentences.
わたしはCDを 二まい かいました。 (I bought
two CDs.）
てがみを二まいかきました。 (I
wrote two letters.)
Return to homepage
of Jeffrey Angles
Updated January 17, 2008