Learn Japanese Pod

In this podcast you will learn how to describe people's personalities in Japanese

These are just the dialogs for podcast 12 "Talking about personality in Japanese"

PDF show notes for podcast #12

In this podcast, Ami Sensei and I teach you how to describe people’s personalities in natural Japanese. For more podcasts visit http://learnjapanesepod.com  

In this podcast, Ami Sensei and I teach you how to describe people’s personalities in natural Japanese. For more podcasts visit http://learnjapanesepod.com  

Talking about Personality in Japanese In this podcast, Ami Sensei and I teach you how to describe people’s personalities in natural Japanese. Listen to the full podcast and the dialog only audio underneath. So we thought we would have look at how to discuss people’s personalities in this week’s podcast. However, instead of only teaching a list of phrases, we wanted to give some conversational examples of how you might talk about people’s characters. Talking about people’s personalities in Japanese In this podcast, Ami sensei and I talk about how to describe people’s personalities in Japanese and how to talk about your favorite “type” of person for dating and romance. The first two dialogs show you how you can talk about people’s ideal boyfriend of girlfriend in terms of their personality. Podcast Dialog 1.1 A: ねえ、どんな人がタイプなの？ Ne, donna hito ga taipu na no? Hey, what kind of person are you into? B: そうだね。やっぱり優しくて、気が利いて、陽気な人かな。 Sō da ne. Yappari yasashikute, ki ga kiite, yōki na hito kana. Let me see. Of course kind, thoughtful and outgoing. A: 本当？それだけ？ Hontō? Sore dake? Really? That’s it? B: え？どういう意味それ？ E? Dō iu imi sore? Eh? What do you mean by that? A: 今までの彼氏みんなイケメンだったし、本当は面食いなんでしょう？ Ima made no kareshi ikemen datta shi, hontō wa menkui nan deshō? All your boyfriends until now have been really good looking. You’re just into looks aren’t you? B: うるさいなぁ、もう！ Urusai na mō! Oh shut up!   Podcast Dialog 1.2 A: ねえ、どんな人がタイプなの？ Ne, donna hito ga taipu na no? Hey, what kind of person are you into? B: そうだね。やっぱり優しくて、気が利いて、陽気な人かな。 Sō da ne. Yappari yasashikute, ki ga kiite, yōki na hito kana. Let me see. Of course kind, thoughtful and outgoing. A: 本当？それだけ？ Hontō? Sore dake? Really? That’s it? B: え？どういう意味それ？ E? Dō iu imi sore? Eh? What do you mean by that? A: 今までの彼女みんな美形だったじゃん、本当は見た目重視なんでしょう。 Ima made no kanojō minna bikkei datta shi, hontō wa menkui nan deshō? All your girlfriends until now have been really good looking. You’re just into looks aren’t you?

Talking about Personality in Japanese In this podcast, Ami Sensei and I teach you how to describe people’s personalities in natural Japanese. Listen to the full podcast and the dialog only audio underneath. So we thought we would have look at how to discuss people’s personalities in this week’s podcast. However, instead of only teaching a list of phrases, we wanted to give some conversational examples of how you might talk about people’s characters. Talking about people’s personalities in Japanese In this podcast, Ami sensei and I talk about how to describe people’s personalities in Japanese and how to talk about your favorite “type” of person for dating and romance. The first two dialogs show you how you can talk about people’s ideal boyfriend of girlfriend in terms of their personality. Podcast Dialog 1.1 A: ねえ、どんな人がタイプなの？ Ne, donna hito ga taipu na no? Hey, what kind of person are you into? B: そうだね。やっぱり優しくて、気が利いて、陽気な人かな。 Sō da ne. Yappari yasashikute, ki ga kiite, yōki na hito kana. Let me see. Of course kind, thoughtful and outgoing. A: 本当？それだけ？ Hontō? Sore dake? Really? That’s it? B: え？どういう意味それ？ E? Dō iu imi sore? Eh? What do you mean by that? A: 今までの彼氏みんなイケメンだったし、本当は面食いなんでしょう？ Ima made no kareshi ikemen datta shi, hontō wa menkui nan deshō? All your boyfriends until now have been really good looking. You’re just into looks aren’t you? B: うるさいなぁ、もう！ Urusai na mō! Oh shut up!   Podcast Dialog 1.2 A: ねえ、どんな人がタイプなの？ Ne, donna hito ga taipu na no? Hey, what kind of person are you into? B: そうだね。やっぱり優しくて、気が利いて、陽気な人かな。 Sō da ne. Yappari yasashikute, ki ga kiite, yōki na hito kana. Let me see. Of course kind, thoughtful and outgoing. A: 本当？それだけ？ Hontō? Sore dake? Really? That’s it? B: え？どういう意味それ？ E? Dō iu imi sore? Eh? What do you mean by that? A: 今までの彼女みんな美形だったじゃん、本当は見た目重視なんでしょう。 Ima made no kanojō minna bikkei datta shi, hontō wa menkui nan deshō? All your girlfriends until now have been really good looking. You’re just into looks aren’t you?

These are the PDF show notes for podcast #12 “Talking about personality in Japanese” For more podcasts visit http://learnjapanesepod.com

These are the PDF show notes for podcast #12 “Talking about personality in Japanese” For more podcasts visit http://learnjapanesepod.com

In this podcast, Ami sensei and Alex teach you how to use the verb Taberu which means to eat. You'll learn how to use the plain form of the verb which is commonly used in everyday conversation between friends. The mains forms of the verb are TABERU - To eat, TABETA - Ate, TABENAI - Not eat, TABENAKATTA - Didn't eat. Check out the podcast to find out how to use this in natural Japanese conversation.

These are just the Japanese dialogs to drill to improve your listening and speaking.

In this podcast, Ami sensei and I teach you about using the verb 食べる in the casual form which is used between people who know each other well in an informal situation. This is how you conjugate the verb taberu in plain form or “dictionary form”.

In this podcast, Ami sensei and I teach you about using the verb 食べる in the casual form which is used between people who know each other well in an informal situation. This is how you conjugate the verb taberu in plain form or “dictionary form”.

In this podcast, Ami sensei and I teach you about using the verb 食べる in the casual form which is used between people who know each other well in an informal situation. This is how you conjugate the verb taberu in plain form or “dictionary form”. Plain form verb – Taberu Positive Negative Present 食べる Taberu (To eat) 食べない Tabenai (Not eat) Past 食べた Tabeta (Ate) 食べなかった Tabenakatta (Didn’t eat) Japanese Verbs – Taberu Dialog A: ね、食べる？ Ne taberu? You wanna eat? B: 食べない Tabenai. I don’t want to eat A: 食べないの？ Tabenai no? You don’t want to eat? B: もう食べたから。食べなかったの？ Mo tabeta kara. Tabenakatta no. Already ate. You didn’t eat? A: うん、食べなかった。食べようよ Un Tabenakatta. Tabeyō yo. I didn’t eat. Let’s eat! B: いらない、ひとりで食べて！ Iranai, hitori de tabete. I don’t want any. You eat by yourself. Grammatical Breakdown of Dialog Rule 1 – You can drop the subject before a Japanese verb The dialog starts with ね – Ne which means “Hey” and used to get attention to start a conversation. Then the next word is 食べる？ Taberu with a rising intonation. This literally means “Eat?”. One important thing to remember is that you don’t need to use the subject of the sentence as the meaning is understood from the context of the situation. If someone is looking at you and simply says “Taberu” with a rising inflection. You can be pretty sure that they mean “Do you want to eat”? which is what it means in this situation. In fact, this entire dialog is completely devoid of sentences with the words you or I in them. And this because… Rule 2 – You have to guess the meaning from the context As we continue to the next line in the dialog we have 食べない tabenai which means “not eat”. Again, from the context, you can guess this means “I don’t want to eat”. And context is everything here. This aspect of Japanese can make it easier for you to say more with less because minimalism is the key. It can also make it devilishly hard to understand what is being said because if you don’t understand the situation you won’t understand the conversation. Continuing we have 食べないの？Tabenai no which is literally “Not eat” + のno which signifies a question. This means “Not eat?” or “Don’t you want to eat?” Next we haveもう食べた Mō tabeta kara – This literally means “Already ate because” or “No because I already ate”. Then 食べなかったの Tabenakatta no – which means “didn’t eat” with the の question marker so “Didn’t you eat?”. Rule 3 – Yes means no and no means yes The answer to the question “Didn’t you eat” is うん 食べなかった Un Tabenakatta – Yes, I didn’t eat. This might be confusing as in English you would usually say: A: Didn’t you eat? B: No, I didn’t However in Japanese you have to say “Yes, I didn’t eat”. This is because in Japanese, when you say yes, you are agreeing directly with the statement that was just made so you could think of it as “Yes, it is true that I didn’t eat”. Rule 4 – Verbs ending in ō mean “Let’s do something” Next we hear 食べよう Tabeyō. This form of the verb is used to suggest or propose an idea. So it means “Let’s eat”. Theよ Yo at the end emphasizes the meaning more. Here are some more examples: 飲もうよ Nomō yo – Come on, let’s drink! 行こうよ Ikō yo – Come on, let’s go! やろうよ Yarō yo – Come on, let’s do this! Rule 5 – Verbs ending in “Te” can be an order to do something The last line of this dialog is いらいない Iranai – Not needed or more naturally “I don’t want any”. Finally we have 一人で食べて Hitori de tabete. Hitori means one person or in this case by yourself. 食べて Tabete is what’s called the “Te” form of the verb and is an order or request to do something so Tabete means “Eat!”. In this case the speaker is saying, “I don’t want any, you go ahead and eat by yourself”. What is Japanese plain verb form? In Japanese,

In this podcast, Ami sensei and I teach you about using the verb 食べる in the casual form which is used between people who know each other well in an informal situation. This is how you conjugate the verb taberu in plain form or “dictionary form”. Plain form verb – Taberu Positive Negative Present 食べる Taberu (To eat) 食べない Tabenai (Not eat) Past 食べた Tabeta (Ate) 食べなかった Tabenakatta (Didn’t eat) Japanese Verbs – Taberu Dialog A: ね、食べる？ Ne taberu? You wanna eat? B: 食べない Tabenai. I don’t want to eat A: 食べないの？ Tabenai no? You don’t want to eat? B: もう食べたから。食べなかったの？ Mo tabeta kara. Tabenakatta no. Already ate. You didn’t eat? A: うん、食べなかった。食べようよ Un Tabenakatta. Tabeyō yo. I didn’t eat. Let’s eat! B: いらない、ひとりで食べて！ Iranai, hitori de tabete. I don’t want any. You eat by yourself. Grammatical Breakdown of Dialog Rule 1 – You can drop the subject before a Japanese verb The dialog starts with ね – Ne which means “Hey” and used to get attention to start a conversation. Then the next word is 食べる？ Taberu with a rising intonation. This literally means “Eat?”. One important thing to remember is that you don’t need to use the subject of the sentence as the meaning is understood from the context of the situation. If someone is looking at you and simply says “Taberu” with a rising inflection. You can be pretty sure that they mean “Do you want to eat”? which is what it means in this situation. In fact, this entire dialog is completely devoid of sentences with the words you or I in them. And this because… Rule 2 – You have to guess the meaning from the context As we continue to the next line in the dialog we have 食べない tabenai which means “not eat”. Again, from the context, you can guess this means “I don’t want to eat”. And context is everything here. This aspect of Japanese can make it easier for you to say more with less because minimalism is the key. It can also make it devilishly hard to understand what is being said because if you don’t understand the situation you won’t understand the conversation. Continuing we have 食べないの？Tabenai no which is literally “Not eat” + のno which signifies a question. This means “Not eat?” or “Don’t you want to eat?” Next we haveもう食べた Mō tabeta kara – This literally means “Already ate because” or “No because I already ate”. Then 食べなかったの Tabenakatta no – which means “didn’t eat” with the の question marker so “Didn’t you eat?”. Rule 3 – Yes means no and no means yes The answer to the question “Didn’t you eat” is うん 食べなかった Un Tabenakatta – Yes, I didn’t eat. This might be confusing as in English you would usually say: A: Didn’t you eat? B: No, I didn’t However in Japanese you have to say “Yes, I didn’t eat”. This is because in Japanese, when you say yes, you are agreeing directly with the statement that was just made so you could think of it as “Yes, it is true that I didn’t eat”. Rule 4 – Verbs ending in ō mean “Let’s do something” Next we hear 食べよう Tabeyō. This form of the verb is used to suggest or propose an idea. So it means “Let’s eat”. Theよ Yo at the end emphasizes the meaning more. Here are some more examples: 飲もうよ Nomō yo – Come on, let’s drink! 行こうよ Ikō yo – Come on, let’s go! やろうよ Yarō yo – Come on, let’s do this! Rule 5 – Verbs ending in “Te” can be an order to do something The last line of this dialog is いらいない Iranai – Not needed or more naturally “I don’t want any”. Finally we have 一人で食べて Hitori de tabete. Hitori means one person or in this case by yourself. 食べて Tabete is what’s called the “Te” form of the verb and is an order or request to do something so Tabete means “Eat!”. In this case the speaker is saying, “I don’t want any, you go ahead and eat by yourself”. What is Japanese plain verb form? In Japanese,