The 日本語の会話 - ことのは - podcast is presented by two friends and Japanese teachers, やまむ and きび. They talk about a variety of topics relating to Japan and their lives. In these first weeks, you’ll learn about cultural elements such as food, daily life, bath culture, but also about topics such as marriage, being a woman in Japan and even superstitions.
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Estimated Level: Most episodes have an estimated JLPT level, ranging from N5 to N1.
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Hey guys, I’ve been trying to keep an average of 25-30 min a week to align with the previous club, which means most weeks will be more than 1 episode long. But there are quite a few irregular episodes, and some which are about 20 min long… for example, Ep 1 is 16 min, but together with Ep 2, the total would be 35 min listening per week. So most weeks are now 30-35 minutes. Is this still fine?
What do you prefer?
Shorter weeks (15-20 minutes; can be longer if episode is longer)
Longer weeks (30-35 minutes, average of 2 episodes per week)
Start slowly then ramp up (first 2 weeks 1 episode each, then 2 or more onwards)
Looks like this will be a bit easier than the previous podcast? Listening to the latest episode now, and I really like it! Looking forward to listening with the club!
By the way, it’s also available on Apple Podcasts!
(00:00) anxiety makes focus difficult. They both said their names. I already forgot what they are. They said podcasts about anime and stuff are difficult, so this podcast is for 2 or 3 little topics. The first episode is about lunch.
(00:50) Subtitles introducing the 3 little lunch related topics they will talk about today.
(01:15) Hibi(?) eats bentou for lunch at a company. Because of covid(?), she does not talk to people while eating. Other lady is talking about things to talk about while eating lunch. But it is quiet so Hibi cannot talk to anyone. Twenty minutes for lunchtime, but still working while eating. (ながら). Not-Hibi said something about a fridge at uni. They like Natto. She often eats alone, sometimes she gets fast food, which she eats and then goes home. Or sometimes get onigiri or coffee or bread that she eats in the car. It’s a waste (to do what?) because work will be finished soon and there are things she wants to do.
(06:35) They could eat slower in high school (because not having to do work at the same time). Hibi would talk to her friends, or some other things. Not-Hibi had her mother make bentou for her. She ate inside the classroom. In anime and manga, characters eat on the roof, but she ate in the classroom everyday. If she didn’t have a bentou, she would buy bread at the school’s shop. Generally, people without bentou would buy bread or stuff at the nearby konbini. Hibi talking about the stomach. Something is amazing, chocolate was mentioned. I think it’s some weight talk around sweets and stuff. They spend the remainder time of lunch (as in after eating) hanging out and talking to people in the classroom.
(11:25) Last theme about favourite bentou. Asking if Hibi remembers what she would have. They are talking about things that would be inside a bentou, like tamagoyaki and broccoli and leftover meat from last night’s dinner. Nori is seaweed. Something about having meat in bentou in summer was I think causing a problem? Not-Hibi would have an argument if there was not tamagoyaki in her bentou. Hibi likes tempura and fish and stuff. Struggling with food words. Something about needing balance in the bentou, not just (specific thing)
(16:00) This is the end of the podcast. Their voices changed I no longer know who is who.
I decided to not do the whole pausing and rewinding thing after the first little bits, was typing the most of above while listening. So, some bits were missed as I summarised what they just said, and I didn’t go back to relisten to things I didn’t understand. Just, trying to keep with it.
Honestly was a little scared with how badly I dropped 4989. And, this was difficult. Since the episodes have N-ratings, I am going to make full use of that. Anything rated more difficult than today’s (N4/N3) I am going to just listen extensively, without the note taking. Anything this level or less, I will take notes. Quality of notes to be determined.
(Also, yes I did look back at the home post and see the names are やまむ and きび. I will attempt memory.)
Finished listening to episode 1. Seems like they speak so slowly after 4989 American Life
I did not take notes while listening (I listen in the car/public transportation), but my memory was jogged by @RebBlue’s summary (thank you!)
My attempt at episode 1 notes
This is a podcast for those who still find anime difficult to listen to, where they will chose a topic with 2-3 small subtopics.
1st topic - what do they eat for lunch - one of them eats a bento at work, but eating together/speaking to each other at lunchtime is forbidden since COVID. Then they discuss how long they take to eat, and that a lot of japanese people eat lunch in 10-15min and use the rest of their lunch break to work. The other one who works from home eats looks at the inside of the fridge and eats whatever leftovers appeal. If there are no leftovers, she eats rice with natto. She also eats quickly, in order to finish work earlier.
2nd topic - what they ate for lunch in high school - one of them attended a school without a canteen, and always took a homemade bento (prepared by her mother) which she ate in the classroom. If she did not take bento, there was a shop selling bread inside the school, but they had to run there in order to be able to buy food, because the only sold a small amount (like in manga). Eating in the rooftop was forbidden, unlike manga/anime scenes.
3rd topic - their favorite bento - one of them says her favorite was tamagoyaki (with sugar), and she hated umeboshi. If her mother put umeboshi in the bento she would eat it with the tamagoyaki and that way she did not taste it. I don’t remember the rest? I guess I got distracted by the end
This was a very confortable level, let’s see how the N3-N2 episodes go.
Me too! 4989 was way above my level. This podcast was just the right difficulty level for me right now. I listened to the first episode while working out and it felt like I understood 99%, just missing a word here and there. I really enjoyed it and I can’t wait to keep listening with this club!
Yup, same here. I hope the N3-N2 episodes aren’t that much more difficult! I guesstimate that my level is around N4-N3, which matched well with the first episode.
You’ve all probably noticed already but they have provided a neat written summary of each episode - this doesn’t go into the same detail as @RebBlue or @hughlings have above but it might be a good aide memoire/ breakdown for discussion purposes.
I enjoyed both episodes but especially the second - was fascinated by the sections which dealt with who handles the finances in the family. I’ve always thought it was the Japanese women (and that still seems to the case according to the quiz) - in the episode of the Netflix drama Asura (set in 1979) which I watched last night, there was a great scene where you see the second oldest sister (traditional 主婦) writing out the family accounts at the kitchen table. Another thing you hear is that the sisters’ mother kept a secret stash of money unbeknownst to their father (the へそくりhabit talked about in the podcast).
Thanks for setting up this group everyone! I listened to episode 1 during the drive to work today.
Listening is definitely the weakest point of my Japanese. It sometimes feels like a hurdle that is too big to overcome - and any TV/movies I want to watch I can put English subs on.
However, I like the idea of a podcast club and trying to commit to some subtitle-free listening each week and seek if I can start to get my ear in more. I think I will aim to simply keep up with the club and listen to each episode once without pausing or looking anything up. And perhaps if I get a chance I will relisten to one of the episodes.
Episode one was probably perfect level for me. Understood some bits easily, sometimes I completely lost track of what they were saying. All seemed fairly approachable.
Episode one - tamagoyaki with sugar! That was an unexpected combination!
I’d been listening to this podcast intermittently prior to the club starting and I’m currently on episode 5. The conversation flow is easy to follow and the specific context of each segment keeps me from losing my place if I don’t understand a word or phrase. I’m loving this club choice
Ep 1 Reply
Unfortunately this prep method is the norm I’ve never been able to get used to “sweet eggs” but maybe I’m just an egg purist haha
Listened to episode 2 today, and since I was in the train I ended up taking some notes while listening. The vocab was more difficult than episode 1, with some parts that I didn’t understand, so my summary probably has some mistakes. It was still much easier than 4989 American Life, though…
Episode 2 notes
So the main topic today was money and marriage/couples. 3 little sections:
how much does a wedding cost - Kibi is married, and Yamamu asks her if she remembers the cost of her wedding (she says of course, since it was a lot!). She had to pay for the venue (which does not include any decorations or flowers), flowers, food (cheapest plan only had beer or oolong tea for drinks!), dress, pictures. The cheapest wedding album was 80000 yen, and it only had 4 pictures? I hope I misheard. The mothers offered them the album as a present. Yamamu says that at a friend’s wedding they had a photographer, but everyone uploaded their own photos to an app. Friends and family give money - friends 30000 yen, family 50000 yen and parents 100000 yen. They give ピン札 (this one I stopped to look up!) and some banks have special ATMs for this.
couples money management - Yamamu asks Kibi how she and her husband manage money. She says they have separate accounts where they receive their wages. They have a joint savings account. Her husband pays the rent and utility bills while she takes care of daily expenses and food. They don’t offer money as a gift. She tried to offer (?) a gift certificate to her husband, but that was not to his liking. They prefer to chose something to give as a gift. In the case of some of the couples that she know, the wife takes care of the money (and knows all the expenses) and gives an allowance to the husband - something like 30000 yen per month. Kibi doesn’t know their total expenses, and she doesn’t like thinking about money. However, both of them think it’s probably different when there are kids involved.
quiz - Kibi is answering a questionnaire Yamamu found from a company (I didn’t catch what kind of company). First she is asked if she thinks most couples separate their accounts or not. She guesses that most have separate accounts and is wrong, since most have joint accounts. She does get the second question right, that in most cases it’s the wife who manages the money (but misses the %, guesses too high). The third question was about the average allowance that husbands receive - 50000/80000/100000 yen. Kibi guesses 50000 yen, and both seem surprised that the answer is 100000 yen - they say that’s not allowance, that’s a savings account, and in fact 70% deposit that money in an account. They say that 20% keep it inside the house? I thought I heard wrong, but they say something in the vein of that being dangerous and what will happen if burglars know of this statistic? I didn’t completely understand the discussion at the end.
Like taiyousea, I also love this pick! The 1st ep was perfect for me, and I was able to follow through with almost everything.
Unfortunately, I didn’t understand most of what they spoke about in the 2nd ep, but in my defence, I was walking outside and constantly distracted by the street cats. I may try the 2nd ep later during the weekend if I have time.
ep 1 (random thoughts)
I’m obsessed with rice paper, so when one of them said that they just grab natto if they don’t have anything in the refrigerator, I was like, “that’s me!!!” but with rice paper haha
I also loved the part where they were talking about running to the small store in their school if they didn’t bring lunch (?), and it’s actually very similar to most of the schools in my city. There’s a super tiny store with minimum lunch and other stuff like samosas and candies lol, so if we didn’t bring lunch to school for some reason, we had to run to the store before anyone else.
The rooftop section was also funny - I’ve always wondered if students were actually allowed up there, it’s such a classic anime scene, but turns out it’s not really a thing
I changed my mind about taking notes because I kept zoning out on the first little topic.
Episode 2
First topic,
all I caught was them talking about beer at one point, and asking how much money the family contributed to the wedding.
Second topic,
I only caught a couple things in the list of expenses, like 家賃 (which I recently learnt) and 食費. They want to give things as presents, not money.
Zoned out in the middle again.
お互い and 銀行 both being mentioned, I think is referring to a joint bank account. Something about whether or not people have kids at the end.
Third topic,
やまむ is asking the questions for きび to answer.
First a percent of which is more, but not sure which what there is more of.
Second is asking whether wife or husband is more commonly handling the money, きび guesses wives handle it 80% of the time, but it was actually 63% (and husbands 37% so there was no option for them both handling it).
Third question is about hiding money, asking how much gets hidden, the answer was 百万円.
There are other %s being mentioned between questions but I’m not really catching what it’s about.
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Time Count: 16:21 + 19:35
I’ve never been able to get used to “sweet eggs” but maybe I’m just an egg purist haha