Happy New Year 2017!
Yet another years has gone by. I haven’t posted anything for the last three months.
However, “Nihongo Day By Day - English” surpassed 10,000 page views last November and December!
Arigato gozaimashita!! I thank all of you — those who just had a quick look and
also those who read the entire articles. I’m very happy.
To commemorate reaching 10,000 page views, I’ll write
a follow-up to my Japanese station announcements article, which has been the
most popular article on this blog.
In the first version, I introduced “door ga
shimarimasu”, but I sometimes hear “door o shimemasu”. What is the difference
between “ga” and “o” and also between “shimarimasu” and “shimemasu”?
door ga shimarimasu: The door will be closing on its own.
(watashi wa) door o shimemasu: I (the train crew) am closing the door.“Shimemasu” is for someone’s action and “o” is an object marker.
Next, you hear something like this.
“muri na go-josha wa o-yame kudasai.muri na: impossible, unreasonable
(go-)josha: boarding (“go” is an honorific prefix)
o-yame kudasai: to stop/quit (“o” is an honorific prefix)
What is impossible boarding? Is that something like the trains in other countries that have people crammed both inside and on top of trains?
No, that never happens in Japan. Rather, “muri na go-josha” refers to dashing to get on the train right before the door closes.
As I wrote last time, Japan loves warnings. Other people will caution you even for things you have to take care of by yourself.
“kono saki yuremasu node, go-chui kudasai.”
kono saki: from now on/from this point on
yuremasu: shake
node: because/therefore
Everyone
more or less expects that trains will shake, though... These next announcements are rather important. Trains stop at every station along Tokyo Metro, but JR lines and other train lines have different types of trains, such as express or super express. They are quite difficult to get your head around.
“kono densha wa shimbashi ni teisha itashimasen. Tsugi no densha o go-riyou kudasai.”
kono densha: this train
shimbashi: a name of the station in Tokyo
teisha shimasu: to stop
itashimasen: the humble form of shimasen
tsugi no densha: next train
(go-)riyou
kudasai: please use “shuten made kaku eki ni tomarimasu”
shuten: final stop/station
made: to/until
kaku eki: each station
tomarimasu:
to stop
If you miss these announcements, trains
sometimes don’t stop at your station or else they stop at every station and
take longer than expected to reach your destination.
When
you’re unsure whether or not a train stops at your destination, try to ask someone
this question: “kono densha (pointing at the train) wa your destination ni tomarimasu ka?”(Is this train going to stop at your destination?)
It’s tough to get on and off trains or buses at
unfamiliar places. Even if you carefully check your surroundings and the
destination or number of train/bus, it’s easy to make mistakes. The other day I
took the wrong bus in Kyoto - twice!
Even when I go to an unfamiliar station in Tokyo, I
have no idea which direction to go and even board trains going in the opposite
direction from time to time. This is not a language issue, but just depends whether
or not you understand the layout of the area.
Lastly, I’m going to post as many articles as I can
this year, so I hope you will keep reading. Thank you!
 |
| akemashite omedeto! |
Thank you, this looks very useful! But you don't seem to mark long vowels in any way (you write "shuuten" as "shuten", and "jousha" as "josha", so unfortunately it seems I can't trust that the words are actually pronounced as you spell them). And personally, I'd like for you to include the Japanese spelling (in kanji/kana) of the sentences, because I always try to learn to spell words as well when I'm learning Japanese, and sometimes it's tricky to look up the right kanji from just the pronunciation.
返信削除Andres, Thank you for your comment.
削除I am not sure which is the more phonetically correct of the two. Shuuten or shuten? Jousha or josha?
You are right. I should also write in hiragana.
Here you are.
ドアがしまります。
ドアをしめます。
むりな ごじょうしゃは おやめ ください。
このさき ゆれますので、ごちゅうい ください。
このでんしゃは しんばしに ていしゃ いたしません。つぎの でんしゃを ごりよう ください。
しゅうてんまで かくえきに とまります。
このでんしゃは （ ）に とまりますか。
thank you from india too, i am learning a lot about japan from you.
返信削除btw i just wanted to share one thing to you, you mentioned about trains in india where people had to hang out of the doors or travel on the rooftop.
well the thing is either those pictures are not of india, or they are very old, older than 20 years even or they are doctored. things have changed and while people still have to stand at the doors of commuter trains, no one travels at the rooftops.
In fact, no one stands out or travels at the rooftops of intercity trains either.
Besides, a lot of indian cities have metro systems, with delhi metro being among the 10 largest in the world.
So things are changing and i am glad i shared this with you.
Thank you again for the valueable information you share, or as it is said.
Arigato gozaimashita
Earthling21 san, Thank you for reading my blog and sorry about my misunderstanding. India has a lot of intelligent engineeers. I'm sure you have high-tech metro systems!
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