Yes or No? - No is not always No in Japanese
Japanese Swotter - Speaking Drill + Shadowing
English - April 13, 2021 06:00 - 4 minutes - 2.89 MB - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsLanguage Learning Education japanese drill speaking practice shadowing nihongo にほんご learning 일본어 공부、日语 Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
[ No is not always No in Japanese. ]
[00:08]
Hello everyone.
Judy san asked Mike san, “Aren’t you going to the party?”
“Hai”
Is he going to the party or not?
[00:21]
Negative questions can be confusing. Japanese negation (= iie) doesn’t always mean No, and Yes sometimes mean a denial. Have you already noticed?
[00:34]
In principle, you can think like this; Japanese-Yes [Hai] means “You are correct” and Japanese-No[iie] means “You are incorrect”.
[00:47]
Therefore, in this case, Mike san is not going to the party. “Hai, ikimasen”.
[00:54]
The focus of the answer is, so to speak, on the perspective of the questioner.
If the question were; :Are you going to the party?”, then the answer would change to, Iie(no). = ”No, I’m not going.”
[01:13]
Let’s get used to this Japanese Yes-No.
[01:16]
Suppose, you don’t like anything.
[01:19]
Don’t you like a party?
→(you answer) Hai, I don’t like it.
= You are correct. I don’t like it.
Ready? You don’t like everything, OK?
[01:32]
1. Don’t you like Sushi?
→(you answer) Hai, I don’t like it.
2. Don’t you like Heavy Metal (music)?
→(you answer) Hai, I don’t like it.
3. Don’t you like TV?
→(you answer) Hai, I don’t like it.
4. Don’t you like jogging?
→(you answer) Hai, I don’t like it.
5. Don’t you like your work?
→(you answer) Hai, I don’t like it.
[Note: suki ja arimasen = suki ja naidesu
=suki dewa arimasen = suki dewa naidesu]
[02:25]
Well, this time you like everything. How do you answer?
Don’t you like a party?
→(you answer) Iie, I like it.
[NOTE: Ending particle よyo here adds the nuance of “That’s not true”.]
Ready?
[02:37]
1. Don’t you like beer?
→(you answer) Iie, I like it.
2. Don’t you like classic music?
→(you answer) Iie, I like it.
3. Don’t you like basketball?
→(you answer) Iie, I like it.
4. Don’t you like hot/spicy foods?
→(you answer) Iie, I like it.
5. Don’t you like studying?
→(you answer) Iie, I like it.
[03:15]
How is it? Have you got used to it?
You can do more of this Japanese Yes-No exercises (with Japanese translation) on my Patreon site. Please check the link. Dewa mata(See you)!
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Note: English translations might sound occasionally unnatural as English, as I try to preserve the structure and essence of the original Japanese. I hope it also helps you to capture the pattern of the sentence structure.
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