This lesson introduces Japanese language learners to narrative by analyzing simplified sentences from a familiar story, demonstrating how to combine learned grammatical structures and introducing new ones like the te-form for clause connection and expressing actions for another's benefit.
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Konnichiwa.
We've now completed ten lessons and it's time for a change of pace.
We've learned enough now that we can start looking at some real narrative.
It'll be a little simplified at first, but we can use this to
bring together the things we've learned so far.
We'll also be learning new structural elements because even in the simplest story we're going
to encounter things that we need to learn.
But I think this may be a more interesting way of doing it.
So please let me know what you think in the comments below.
All right.
Now let's go into a story that I believe we all know.
"Aru hi Arisu-wa kawa-no soba-ni ita."
Now, this is a simple sentence.
The word "kawa" means "river", and "soba" means "beside" and it's a noun.
So "kawa-no soba" is "the beside of the river".
Just as we put something on the "on" of the table or the "under" of the table and we also
always mark it with -ni, so the "beside of the river" is where Alice was.
"Aru" means "a certain", so "aru hi" is like "one day" or "a certain day", and let's notice
that what's happening here is what we've seen before.
"Aru" is the verb that means "exist" or "be", and what we've done here is what we've seen
in the video lesson on so-called adjectives.
We can make any engine into an adjective.
So, "aru" is an "A does B" engine, an u-engine, so if we say "hon-ga aru" we are saying,
"There is a book / a book exists".
And if we move that "aru" engine to the other side of the book, we turn it white
and it becomes a descriptor, an adjectival.
So we're saying "aru hon" – "an existing book / a certain book / a book that there is".
And it's the same: "aru hi" – "a certain day".
"Aru hi Arisu-wa kawa-no soba-ni ita."
Now, the next sentence is going to be a little bit more complex, but don't worry, it's always easy
when there's a fully-functioning android to help you.
(Actually, I'm not quite fully-functioning, but for the purposes of showing you Japanese I am.)
"Big sister was reading a boring book and did not play [with Alice]".
Notice that we have two complete clauses here: "Oneechan-wa tsumaranai hon-wo yonda" –
that's a complete clause in itself, isn't it?
"Oneechan-wa asonde kurenakatta" – "Oneechan did not play for Alice's benefit"
And we've connected the two together with the te-form.
A thing we should notice here is that "Oneechan-wa
tsumaranai hon-wo yonde" doesn't tell us the tense.
We don't know whether she's reading a boring book right now or in the future or in the past.
We don't know that until we get to the end of the sentence.
In English we put the tense marker on both halves of a complex sentence.
We would say, "Big sister WAS reading a boring book..."
so we already know that it's in the past.
But in Japanese we put that tense marker, -ta or -katta, at the end
and we only need one tense marker per sentence.
"Yonde ite" could mean "is reading" or could mean "was reading",
but because the "asonde kurenakatta" is in the past and it's part of the same sentence
we have put everything into the past.
Well, we didn't get very far into Alice's adventure today, did we?
But I think we can proceed faster as we get used to real text and learn the basic narrative structures.
Of course, I will be doing regular structure lessons still, as well,
but how do you like this story approach?
Would you like to continue with it?
Please let me know in the Comments below.
And of course if you have any questions, please put them in the Comments too
and I will answer as always.
I'd like to thank my Gold Kokeshi patrons, my producer-angels, who make these videos possible,
and all my patrons and supporters.
And I'd like to thank you for attending this lesson.
Kore kara mo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.
Class dismissed.
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