Lesson 5.1

会話 Dialogue 1 image

The project team is visiting a company.

Yamada: Biru no iriguchi de aimashou.Let’s meet up at the entrance of the building.

いぐちあ

ビルの入り口で会いましょう。

Emily:Wakarimashita .Got it.

わかりました。

The day of the visit, everyone seems to be there but….

Yamada: Hayashi-san wa doko desu ka.Where is Ms. Hayashi?

はやし

林 さんは、どこですか。

Emily:Asoko ni imasu.She is over there.

あそこにいます。

Yamada: Senpai wa?How about Senpai?

せんぱい

先輩は?

Emily: Senpai mo irassyaimasu yo. Hora.He is there, too. Look!

せんぱい

先輩も、いらっしゃいますよ。ほら。

 

単語 Vocabulary

Romanized Japanese

Hiragana

Other Japanese scripts

English

biru

ビル

building

iriguchi

いりぐち

入り口

entrance

de

particle (location of activity)

Hayash-san

はやしさん

林さん

Mr/s. Hayashi

doko

どこ

where

asoko

あそこ

over there

ni

particle (location of existence)

imasu

います

be, exist (animate–people, animals)

senpai

せんぱい

先輩

senior member of a group

irasshaimasu

いらっしゃいます

be, exist, go, come (honorific) 5-1-3

hora

ほら

look, hey

mooru

モール

shopping mall

depaato

デパート

department store

suupaa

スーパー

super market

kouen

こうえん

公園

park

toshokan

としょかん

図書館

library

mise

みせ

store, shop

deguchi

でぐち

出口

exit

dochira/docchi

どちら、どっち

which, which way, which area

achira/acchi

あちら、あっち

over there, that way/direction

koko/kochira/kocchi

ここ、こちら、こっち

here, this way, this area

soko/sochira/socchi

そこ、そちら、そっち

there (near you), that way

kouhai

こうはい

後輩

junior member of a group

The senpai-kouhai relationship is a strong mentoring relationship in many areas in the Japanese society including in school, in team sports, and at work. Usually the relationship is determined by who became a member of the group first rather than individual merits and abilities. Once someone is your senpai, you are expected to treat the person as such for a lifetime. Equally a senpai is expected to take care of kouhai members for a lifetime. This relationship can be most reliable connections in one’s social network even long after one leaves the group.

Grammar Notes

5-1-1 Particle De indicating the Location of Activity

A place noun followed by particle de indicates the location where some activity takes place. Depending on the context, it can be translated as ‘in’, ‘at’, ‘on’, etc.

Iriguchi de aimashou.Let’s meet at the entrance.

Amerika de benkyou-shimashitaI studied in America.

Doko de kaimashita ka.Where di you buy it?

The particles wa and mo can be added to particle ni to indicate contrast or addition.

Nihon de wa ohashi o tsukaimasu.In Japan, we use chopsticks.

Chuugoku de mo ohashi o tsukaimasu.In Cnina, they use chopsticks, too.

Recall that wa and mo REPLACE particle ga for the subject or particle o for the object. However, wa and mo are ADDED to particle de. In other words, de remains there to make a double particle. This is because de has a specific meaning (Semantics to be translated as ‘in’ ‘at’) while ga and o indicate the grammatical roles (Cases: subject and object). The former is called a ‘semantic particle’ while the latter two are called ‘case particles’. All the other particles that will be introduced from here on are ‘semantic particles’, and wa and mo are added to them rather than replace them. By the way, wa and mo are called ‘discourse particles’ because of their discourse-based meanings. The following summarizes these three types of phrase particles.

Discourse Particles:wa (contrast), mo (addition) Case Particles:ga (subject), o (object)

Semantic Particles:de (location of activity) and others

5-1-2 Particle Ni indicating the Location of Existence

Ni is a semantic particle. A place noun followed by particle ni indicates the place where something or someone is located. While /a place + de/ above is followed by an activity verb, /a place + ni/ is followed by a verb of existence such as arimasu, imasu, and their variations.

Compare the following.

Toshokan ni imasu.He is in the library. (a person/ animal)

Toshokan ni arimasu.It is in the library. (a thing)

Toshokan de arimasu.It is held in the library. (an event) Particles wa and mo may follow ni.

Amerika ni mo arimasu. They are in America too.

Amerika ni wa arimasen. It’s not in America (it may be somewhere else.)

When the context makes it clear that the location of someone or something is under discussion, /a location noun plus desu/ can be used instead of /a location noun ni arimasu/imasu./

Yamada-san wa?How about Mr. Yamada?

Toshokan desu.He is in the library.

Toshokan ni imasu. He is in the library.

5-1-3 Irasshaimasu: Honorific Verbs

There are many ways in Japanese to show deference to other people. Being proficient in polite language is a requirement for working adults. The politeness system of the language is complex and it is part of the language curriculum in Japanese schools. Many companies offer in-house training for new employees to speak business- appropriate language, which includes a lot of polite expressions.

One way to create linguistic politeness is to position yourself lower than the person you are talking about, by either lowering yourself (Humble forms) or raising the person (Honorific forms).

Honorific forms are used to raise the person being talked about. You use them when describing anyone to whom you want to show deference such as your customers and clients, strangers and people you have just met, and people senior to you including senpai, bosses, supervisors, teachers, etc. Needless to say, you do not use honorific verbs to describe yourself.

Some of the commonly used verbs have a special honorific version as shown in the chart below.

Plain

Honorific

imasu, ikimsu, kimasu

irasshaimasu

tabemasu, nomimasu

Meshiagarimasu

shimasu

nasaimasu

mimasu

goran ni narimasu

All other verbs can be converted into an honorific form by following the pattern below.

O+verb (masu replaced by ni narimasu) kakimasu okaki ni narimasuwrite

kaerimasu okaeri ni narimasu go home

Sensei irasshaimasu ka. Is the professor here?

Ie, okaeri ni narimashita. No, she went home.

5-1-4 Ko-so-a-do series #3

Kore, sore, are and dore, which came up in the last lesson, are representative of a pattern that you will see elsewhere in Japanese. In this lesson, we find three new ko-so-a- do series that indicate location.

here

there near you

there away from both of us

where

location

koko

soko

asoko

doko

general area/direction

kochira

sochira

achira

dochira

direction (informal)

kocchi

socchi

acchi

docchi

The kochira, sochira, achira, dochira series indicates the general area or direction, or the alternative of two. (Dore means “which one of three or more while dochira means which one of the two). You may hear members of the kochira series used as more polite equivalents of the koko series—probably because the kochira series is more vague, it sounds more polite.

Kochira is also used to indicate the speaker’s side of a telephone conversation and

sochira the other side:

Kochira wa Hiru desuThis is Mr/s. Hill

Sochira wa dou desu ka.How are you?

Finally, the kotchi, sotchi, atchi, dotchi series is used among friends or in casual situations.

 

Drills and Exercises image

A.

Listen to the audio. Following the first two model exchanges, respond to each cue.

Cue: Kaimasu ka? Are you going to buy it?

Response: Hai, asoko de kaimasu.Yes, I’m going to buy it over there.

Cue: Arimasu ka?Do they have it?

Response: Hai asoko ni arimasu.Yes, they have it over there.

B.

Cue: Hayashi-san wa imasu kedo, senpai wa?

Mr. Hayashi is here but how about senpai?

Response: Senpai mo irasshaimasu yo.

Senpai is here too!

Cue: Hayashi-san wa mimasu kedo senpai wa?

Mr. Hayashi watches it but how about senpai?

Response: Senpai mo goran ni narimasu yo. Senpai will see it, too!

C.

Say it in Japanese.

You’ve been asked where everyone is.

  1. They are at the entrance of the park. Look!
  2. What? Aren’t they at the entrance of the department store?
  3. The students are here, but the teachers are over there.
  4. They are in the bakery at that entrance of the mall.
  5. The senpai is in the library of the university, but I wonder where Ms. Hayashi is.

You’ve been asked where your group should eat lunch.

  1. Let’s eat here because it’s raining.
  2. Let’s buy obento in this store because they are really good.
  3. Let’s eat in the mall because it’s convenient.
  4. Let’s eat in the park because it’s a beautiful day.
  5. Let’s eat in the ramen shop over there because it’s very famous.

D.

Act in Japanese.

  1. You’ve just met a professor at a conference. Find out where her university is.
  2. A stranger has mistaken an exit for an entrance. Warn him that it is the exit. The entrance is over there.
  3. At a restaurant, ask a senpai what she is going to eat.
  4. You’ve had no luck finding a bag you like in this store. Tell Ms. Honda that you will buy one at the department store.
  5. There is a big party at Ms. Hayashi’s house tomorrow. Invite a senpai.

 

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Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 2 Copyright © by Emiko Konomi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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