1-2 Asking for information - Country く に
Once you have met someone and learned their name, the next thing is to find out a little more information about them. You could ask them their country (kuni). Here is a list of countries. Can you work out which they are?
Asking what country someone is from
The following conversation is set at an international gathering in Japan. Mr. Matsui meets Mr. Smith and they introduce themselves. Mr. Matsui is curious as to where Mr. Smith (Sumisu) is from.
The following conversation is set at an international gathering in Japan. Mr. Matsui meets Mr. Smith and they introduce themselves. Mr. Matsui is curious as to where Mr. Smith (Sumisu) is from.
まつい:はじめまして、まついです。 どうそよろしく。
スミス:はじあまして、スミスです。 どうそよろしく。
まつい:スミスさん、おくには。
スミス:アメリカです。
まつい:ああ、そうですか。
スミス:はじあまして、スミスです。 どうそよろしく。
まつい:スミスさん、おくには。
スミス:アメリカです。
まつい:ああ、そうですか。
Notes : There are three new expressions in this conversation :
1.おくには。
o ku ni wa?
Kuni く に means "country." An o お is put in front of a word to make it more polite. This o お is called an honorifìc and has no equivalent in English. It can be placed in front of many (but not all) nouns. In this situation it also shows that the kuni く に being referred to is the other person’s kuni く に and not the speaker’s. This is because you do not use honorifics when referring to things associated with yourself. In this sentence there is no need for a Japanese word for “your" because o kuni お く に can only refer to your country.
- When one Japanese person asks another this question the meaning of kuni く に changes slightly. In such cases it refers to the person's home town in Japan.
- This sentence is actually incomplete. It is Iike asking "Your country... ?” Although there is no question mark in Japanese, we have used one here to indicate that a questioning tone is necessary for an unfinished question such as this to make sense.
- The wa は is a grammatical feature which is untranslatable. It will be explained later.
2.スミスさん
Su mi su sa n
When Mr. Matsui talks to Mr. Smith he addresses him as "Sumisu san. This san さ ん is placed after a person's name and can mean Mr., Mrs., Miss, or Ms. You should always put san さ ん after another person’s name when talking to them or about them. San さ ん can come after the family name or the given name. You do not use san さん after your own name or the names of family members or very close friends.
3.ああそうですか。
aa soo de su ka.
This is an expression used to show interest in what the other person has just told you. You will use this expression a lot. It is said with an even intonation and an expression of felt interest. It translates literally as "Oh, is that so?” but it is more like "Oh really" in the way it is used. In Japanese this kind of expression, called aizuchi ぁぃづち, is used by the listener a great deal in conversation. It shows that you are interested in what you are hearing. People will feel uncomfortable is you just listen silently when someone is talking to you. You should, therefore, repeatedly use kind of aizuchi ぁぃづち.
Asking for information - Occupation
Another thing you are likely to be asked by someone you have just met is your job or occupation (shigoto) . Look up a dictionary or the vocabulary index and write the English in the blanks for the following shigoto しごと
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Shigoto しごと
isha いしや kangofu かんごふ kaishain かいしゃいん hisho ひしょ kyooshi きょうし bengoshi べんごし gakusei がくせい koomuin こうむいん |