Phrases covered:
何か食べたいです。 nanika tabetai desu. I’d like something to eat.
何か飲みたいです。 nanika nomitai desu. I’d like something to drink.

The focus is on the ーたい which adds the meaning of ‘want.’

食べる -> 食べ -> 食べたい
飲む -> 飲み -> 飲みたい

Vocabulary:
Learn each word well before moving on to the next lesson

何か nanika – something
食べる taberu – to eat
食べたい tabetai – want to eat
飲む nomu – to drink
飲みたい nomitai – want to drink
です desu – copula (connects the words together often like our to be verb)

それじゃまたね！ sore ja mata ne – See you again!

Building upon the first podcast, this episode covers adding a か ka at the end to change a statement into a question.

何か食べたいです。　I want something to eat.
nanika tabetai desu.

To make that into a question, just add か

何か食べたいですか？ Would you like something to eat?
nanika tabetai desu ka

–
何か飲みたいです。 I want something to drink.
nanika nomitai desu.

何か飲みたいですか？ Would you like something to drink
nanika nomitai desu ka?

Reviewed Phrases:

何か飲みたいです。 nanika nomitai desu. I’d like something to drink.
何か食べたいです。 nanika tabetai desu. I’d like something to eat.

The focus is on the ーたい which adds the meaning of ‘want.’

食べる -> 食べ -> 食べたい
飲む -> 飲み -> 飲みたい

Then add a か ka to make it a question.

何か食べたいですか？ nanika tabetai desu ka? Would you like something to eat?
何か飲みたいですか？ nanika nomitai desu ka? Would you like something to drink?

Now let’s answer the question for drinks.

何か飲みたいですか？ nanika nomitai desu ka? Would you like something to drink?

はい、何か飲みたいです。 hai, nanika nomitai desu. Yes, I would you like something to drink.

Vocabulary:
Here are a few common drink names.

コーヒー ko-hi- Coffee
牛乳 gyuunyuu milk
コーラ ko-ra Cola
お茶 ocha tea
ビール bi-ru beer
ワイン wain wine
水 mizu water
ジュース ju-su juice

水が飲みたいです。 mizu ga nomitai desu. I would like to drink water.
お茶が飲みたいです。 ocha ga nomitai desu. I would like to drink tea.
コーヒーが飲みたいです。 ko-hi- ga nomitai desu. I would like to drink coffee.

Next podcast will continue with foods.

それじゃまたね！ sore ja mata ne – See you again!

Beginning Japanese Conversational Phrases #4: Food

Reviewed Phrases:

何か食べたいですか。 nanika tabetai desu ka. Would you like something to eat?
はい、何か食べたいです。 hai nanika tabetai desu. Yes, I’d like something to eat.

Vocabulary:
Here are a few common food names.

ハンバーガー hanba-ga- Hamburger
ピザ piza Pizza
スパゲッティー supagetti Spaghetti
パン pan Bread
カレーライス kare-raisu Curry and Rice
フライドポテト furaido poteto French Fries
お菓子 okashi Snack

ピザが食べたいです。 piza ga tabetai desu. I want to eat pizza.
スパゲッティー が食べたいです。 supagetti- ga tabetai desu. I want to eat spaghetti.
ハンバーガーが食べたいです。 hanba-ga- ga tabetai desu. I want to eat a hamburger.

それじゃまたね！ sore ja mata ne – See you again!

Beginning Japanese Conversational Phrases #5: Food and I Like

Today’s podcast will review a few food names and then we’ll learn a new sentence construction. First listen and repeat after each food name.

ハンバーガー hanba-ga- Hamburger
ピザ piza Pizza
スパゲッティー supagetti Spaghetti
パン pan Bread
カレーライス kare-raisu Curry and Rice
フライドポテト furaido poteto French Fries
お菓子 okashi Snack

Last time we learned how to say, I want to eat pizza:

ピザが食べたいです。 piza ga tabetai desu. I want to eat pizza.

Here’s how you say, I like pizza.
ピザが好きです。 piza ga suki desu.

Just replace が食べたい with が好きです。

ピザが好きです。

I like hamburgers.
ハンバーガーが好きです。 hanba-ga- ga suki desu.

I like spaghetti.
スパゲッティーが好きです。 supagetti- ga suki desu.

I like bread.
パンが好きです。 pan ga suki desu.

I like Curry and Rice.
カレーライスが好きです。 kure-raisu ga suki desu.

I like french fries.
フライドポテトが好きです。 furaido poteto ga suki desu.

I like snacks.
お菓子が好きです。 okashi ga suki desu.

それじゃまたね！ sore ja mata ne – See you again!

Beginning Japanese Conversational Phrases #6: Hobbies

Today’s podcast will turn our attention to hobbies. My hobby is…

趣味は何ですか？ shumi wa nan desu ka? What is your hobby?

趣味 shumi means ‘hobby’ and the wa makes it the main topic.

何ですか？ nan desu ka? What is it?

趣味はカラオケです。　shumi wa karaoke desu. My hobby is karaoke

Notice the ‘my’ is understood in the context.

In the next lesson, we will explore other common hobbies.

Beginning Japanese Conversational Phrases #7: Continuing Hobbies

Today’s podcast will review how to ask about hobbies and add a new grammatical pattern.

趣味は何ですか？ shumi wa nan desu ka? What is your hobby?

趣味はカラオケです。 shumi wa karaoke desu. My hobby is karaoke.

You can drop the 趣味は and just say

カラオケです。 karaoke desu. It’s karaoke.

趣味はスポーツです。 shumi wa supo-tsu desu. My hobby is sports.

趣味はコンピューターです。 shumi wa konpyu-ta- desu. My hobby is computers.

Let’s make the answer a little more complicated by saying, "My hobby is watching movies."

"Watching movies" is 映画をみること　　

"Movies" is 映画 eiga

The を o is a direct object marker

みる miru is a verb meaning ‘to see’
but adding the こと makes it into a noun phrase.

みること the thing to see.

This may seem complicated, but don’t worry. Learn a few examples by heart and later review the grammar.

趣味は映画をみることです。 shumi wa eiga o miru koto desu. My hobby is watching movies.

Let’s practice this construction with a few new vocabulary words. You may want to jot down a few sentences for memorization or try to construct your own sentences.

The word for cat is ねこ neko. And earlier we heard "I like pizza" is ピザが好きです。 piza ga suki desu.

Can you think how to say, I like cats? Note the "I" is not necessary.

ねこ　が　すき　です。

neko ga suki desu.

Let’s say you are more of a dog person. Dog in Japanese is いぬ inu

How do you say, "I like dogs."?

いぬ　が　すき　です。
inu ga suki desu.

With a dictionary, you can find any noun you like for this construction. Just say what you like followed by が　すき　です ga suki desu.

Let’s finish this with a very useful sentence every student of Japanese should know.

にほんご　が　すき　です。
nihongo ga suki desu.

This means I like Japanese.

Listen to this question and answer.

にほんご　が　すき　です　か？
Nihongo ga suki desu ka?

はい、にほんご　が　すき　です。
Hai, Nihongo ga suki desu.

I hope that is true for you too. Next podcast will cover a few common language words.

Beginning Japanese Conversational Phrases #9: Countries

Today’s podcast will look at how to say nationalities and languages

In many cases, if you know the country name, you can easily come up with the language by adding ‘go’ and the people by adding ‘jin.’

Here is how you say Japan the country.

日本 nihon

And the Japanese language

日本語 nihongo

Notice we simply added 語 go to 日本 nihon

To say a Japanese person, take nihon and add 人 jin

日本人 nihonjin

Adding go and jin is very handy as it works with any country or language. Let’s practice.

The word for China is

中国 chuugoku

Can you guess how to say a Chinese person? Hint add jin

中国人 chuugokujin

And how do you say the chinese language? Hint add go

中国語 chuugokugo

See how easy this is? Let’s try Korea. Korea in Japanese is

韓国 Kankoku

How do you say a Korean person?

韓国人 kankokujin

And the Korean language?

韓国語 kankokugo

One more. The word for France is

フランス furansu

How would you say the French language?

フランス語 furansugo

and the French people?

フランス人 furansujin

As a rule just remember to add ‘go’ for the language and ‘jin’ for the people. This doesn’t always work since not every country is named after its language. We will look at this in the next podcast.

Beginning Japanese Conversational Phrases #10: Languages & People

Today’s podcast will look at how to say nationalities and languages

In many cases to say the word for a country’s language and people is simply to add ‘go’ and ‘jin’ respectively after the country’s name.

Of course this doesn’t always work since not every country is named after its language.

Let’s look at the United States or America. In Japanese this is

アメリカ amerika

Can you guess how to say an American person?

アメリカ人 amerika jin

But in America we don’t speak American we speak English. I remember many years ago when teaching basic English to Japanese elementary school students, the children would often ask if I spoke amerikago. Well, I don’t speak amerikago, I speak eigo.

The word for the English language is

英語 eigo

Here is how you say England, the country:

イギリス igirisu

And an English person is

イギリス人 igirisu jin

We will pick up on asking language related questions in the next podcast.

Beginning Japanese Conversational Phrases #11: Languages & People Part II

Words heard in this podcast:

アメリカ amerika – America

アメリカ人 amerikajin – An American

英語 eigo – English (language)

英語が話せます。 Eigo ga hanasemasu. – I can speak English.

日本語 nihongo – Japanese

日本語が話せます。 nihongo ga hanasemasu – I can speak Japanese.

少し sukoshi – a little

日本語が少し話せます。 nihongo ga sukoshi hanasemasu. – I can speak a little Japanese

英語が話せますか？ eigo ga hanasemasu ka? – Can you speak English?

はい、英語が少し話せます。 hai, eigo ga sukoshi hanasemasu. – Yes, I can speak a little English.

you may want to listen to this episode a few times until that construction is learned. In the next podcast, we will learn a few important phrases useful in conversation.

Beginning Japanese Conversational Phrases #12: Conversational Phrases

Phrases heard in this podcast:

もっとゆっくり話してください。
motto yukkuri hanashite kudasai.
[more-slowly-speak-please] Please speak slower.

もう一回話してください。
mou ikkai hanashite kudasai.
[one more time-say-please] Please say that again.