Absolute Beginner Season 2 S2 #9 - One of These Things is Not Like the Other One in Japan
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Hey everyone, Jessie です. Jessie here. こんにちは、もとこです。 One of these things is not like the other one in Japan. Thanks for joining us for this lesson. In the last lesson, we learned how to ask when someone is going somewhere. Yes, for example, いつ日本に行きますか? When are you going to Japan? That's right. And in this lesson, we'll learn how to ask what something is. For example, what's this? And what's that? Yes.

Jesse, what's happening in the conversation? Taylor is at the airport in Japan where he is passing through customs. The customs officer will be asking him some questions. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. Passport, please. What is that? This is a souvenir. It's Mexican alcohol. Tequila? Yes. What is this? That's Sarah's diaper. Diaper?

ダイパーは何ですか? Let's listen to the conversation again slowly. パスポートお願いします。 それは何ですか? これはお土産です。 メキシコのアルコールです。 テキーラ? はい。 これは何ですか?

それはサラのダイパーです。 ダイパー? ダイパーは何ですか? Now, let's listen to it with the translation. パスポートお願いします。 Passport, please. それは何ですか? What is that? これはお土産です。 This is a souvenir. メキシコのアルコールです。 It's Mexican alcohol.

Tequila? Yes. What is this? Those are Sarah's diapers. Diaper? What are diapers?

So, Taylor is going through customs at the airport. Yes. The officer is asking lots of questions. He is. Well, he's got to make sure that he knows what Taylor is bringing in. That's true. By the way, there was a Japanese word that Taylor didn't know. Oh, diaper? Right. He didn't know the word for diapers. How do you say diapers? Diaper is おむつ in Japanese. おむつ Yes. Some people also say おむつ.

"Oshime" "Oshime" Hmm, that's a new one for me. So it could be "omutsu" or "oshime". Right.

Okay, let's look at some other vocab words. Most of them we actually saw in Season 1. Right, like おみやげ, souvenir or gift. アルコール, alcohol or alcoholic drink. お酒 is another way to say alcohol. Right, お酒. While we're on the subject of drinks, let's review how to say the names of other common drinks. Sure, there is みず.

water, juice, juice, ocha, tea, kohi, coffee. You'll notice that some of them sound similar to the English words like "juusu" and "kohi". Right, there are many words like this in Japanese. Yes, loanwords that come from different languages. It makes remembering some vocabulary words easier, but watch out for the pronunciation. Yes, it can be quite different sometimes. Let's practice a few. Listeners,

please repeat. Alcohol. アルコール。 Next one is juice. ジュース。 And last one is coffee. コーヒー。 Great. Let's move on to the lesson focus. In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask what something is. Motoko, can you let us know our pattern? Sure. It is ええはなんですか?

ええはなんですか? And that is "What is 'a'?" In this lesson, we'll practice substituting in different words for "a". Yes, the words "this" and "that". Let's review the words "this" and "that" in Japanese. This is これ . これ . Please repeat. This これ . This is used when talking about something that is close to you or something that you're holding. Right. これ . Now, how do you say "that"?

That is それ. それ. Please repeat. That. それ. This is used when talking about something that's not close to you, but close to the listener, the person you're speaking to. Yes. それ. So now, let's put these two words into our pattern. Okay. First, with これ, meaning this. これは何ですか? これは何ですか? What is this?

If you ever want to ask what something is, whether it be an item, food, or drink, you can use these phrases. Yes. Please repeat. これは何ですか? Great. Now let's use the word それ。 それは何ですか? それは何ですか? What is that? Yes. Please repeat. それは何ですか?

All right, sounding good. Now, let's take a look at how these phrases are used in the dialogue. The customs officer asks Taylor, それは何ですか? What's that? And Taylor says, これはお土産です。 This is a souvenir. So, as you can see, the customs officer uses それ because he's referring to something that's away from him, something that Taylor has. Exactly. But when Taylor responds, he uses これ、

since he's talking about something he has, something that's close to him. It's like English, actually. Right, it's the same. For example, what's that? Oh, this is such and such. Let's look at another example. Okay. The customs officer asks Taylor, これは何ですか? What's this? We can assume he's standing next to it and pointing to it or something like that. Then Taylor says, それはサラのダイパーです。

"That is Sarah's diaper" or "Those are Sarah's diapers." Taylor answers with "Sore." "Sou desu." That's right. Okay, and there's one more word that we can use in place of "kore" and "sore." We didn't have it in the dialogue, but the word is "are." "Are."

This also means that, but it's used when you're talking about something that is far from the speaker and the listener. Yes, let's give an example. Sure. For example, let's say I'm talking to Motoko and I see something at a distance. I'm not sure what it is, so I can ask Motoko, あれは何ですか? What's that over there? Okay, please repeat. あれは何ですか?

Great. So, to recap, we have これ, this, referring to something close to the speaker, それ, that, something far from the speaker but close to the listener, and last is あれ, that, something far from both the speaker and the listener.

Good job, everyone. Yes, was that a lot of information? Remember, you can always check the lesson notes for review. We highly recommend it. All right, well, that's going to do it for this lesson. Thank you for listening. See you next time. じゃあまた。 パスポートお願いします。 それは何ですか? これはお土産です。 メキシコのアルコールです。 テキーラ? はい。 これは何ですか? それはサラのダイパーです。

Diaper? What is a diaper?