Japanese Reading Practice w Hiragana Times

今日は日本語の文章を読む練習をしましょう。 文章は文章のような文字です。 今日は文章を読みます。 文章を使います。 文法も知っていますか? 文法はグラマーです。 今回はひらがなタイムズを使います。 ひらがなタイムズの記事を読みます。 私は子供の時にひらがなタイムズを読んでいました。 ひらがなタイムズは雑誌です。 雑誌にはたくさんの文章があります。 まず、文化を読みます。 文化を読みます。 日本人は表現が好きです。 曖昧な表現を好む日本人 曖昧な 曖昧な答え 日本人はこれをたくさんしています。 今忙しい? 好む お茶が好きです。 好き 好きな 好きな本 が好き 好き とても不思議な とにかくアプリで 最初に翻訳が見えます そして日本語の文字が見えます 私は本当に こんなアプリを作りたかったのですが もう1つ このアプリの いいところは オーディオを聴くことができます ここをクリックすると 英語と日本語の 選択ができます このように または 日本語だけを選択して オーディオを聴くことができます または プリガマや ローマ字 または英語を選択して オーディオを聴くことができます では読んでみましょう 日本には 自分の意見を言うときに 曖昧にする 文化が あります 翻訳が見えたので 説明する必要はありませんが ときには 何時に 時に 自分の意見 に 曖昧に Vaguely する after an adverb you usually translate make it きれいな beautiful, clean きれいに cleanly, beautifully in a clean way きれいにする to make it clean you can use it 部屋をきれいにする 文化があります 日本語には 次のような 断定を避ける表現が たくさんあります 次のような 断定する to come to a conclusion but it's really like being assertive and saying that something is this way 100% so when you use words like definitely 絶対に that's very assertive the adjective assertive is 断定的な and then 避ける is to avoid 人を避ける means to avoid people so we have lots of expressions to avoid being super assertive so that means we use words like たぶん probably かも かも comes at the end maybe or we say 思う to think a lot so I think that sounds a lot more natural in Japanese like instead of saying this is cute we would say I think this is cute it kinda softens かわいいと思う so Japanese people say this 思う a lot in case somebody has a different opinion we think that if somebody else doesn't feel the same way doesn't agree with you it's not good like you'd be offending that person so you say と思う so maybe かわいい is not a great example but let's say you have a negative opinion about something この漫画面白くない その提案良さそうですね it's good but instead we'd add そう it seems it sounds so people say that sounds good in English so it doesn't sound unnatural but it's more like it seems good it's a lot more vague than it sounds good 良さそうですね seems good we don't want to say it's great 100% yet because I want to hear other people's opinions oh yeah その提案いいかも かもしれない means maybe maybe good 次 誰かに質問するときに when you ask somebody a question 日本人は 柔らげる 表現を使います this 柔らげる you don't use it about making some object soft for example then we'd say 柔らかくする the adverb plus する again 柔らかい 柔らかく that's the adverb of 柔らかい you change the last い into く anyway 柔らげる this is more about softening the harshness of words for example or to relieve the tension to calm something this 漢字は is used in a word like 平和 peace so it's all about making it peaceful and nice and comfortable so 痛みを 柔らげる to relieve the pain 成績の方はどうでしたか? this is actually wrong but Japanese people make this mistake a lot you will hear this whole in the weirdest places if you hear a young Japanese person working you might hear this mistake so in like a convenience store or yeah restaurants you might hear this so for example in cafes restaurants you will hear this something of お持ちしました so here is like literally means I brought you so they would say コーヒーを お持ちしました this is a very business Japanese expression so you will not say this when you have a guest or friend at your home you say コーヒーどうぞ you say どうぞ right but in business situations we have to speak different language so we say お持ちしました and you might hear this mistake something の 方を お持ちしました and it's wrong because 方 means direction or way right but this is used to soften an expression Japanese people tend to think that the softer you sound the more polite you seem and sometimes that's correct but this expression is wrong and you are taught not to say it like my boss, the first thing my boss was like by the way I'm not sure you know this but using 方 is wrong and yeah anyway 成績 の 方 は 成績 is grades right so asking somebody about their grades is quite direct like you know it's kind of personal so they are trying to be soft or polite about it like about asking something personal or it could be a sensitive topic like maybe they know that if your grades are not great you can't get into university or something so it's not like a simple question like what did you eat yesterday then people might use this の 方 and another situation where you hear 方 is 怪我 の 方 は どう 怪我 is injury right so yeah it depends on the injury but it's also a sensitive topic it can be a sensitive topic so they try to soften it so yeah like I don't want to directly ask you what, how's your injury or maybe you will hear this sometimes 怪我 の 方 は どうでしたか so how was the meeting you can just say 怪我はどうでしたか right but maybe your boss seems to be in a bad mood and you want to be soft about it just in case or this next sentence is a bit weird 恋人とかはいますか you can just say 恋人はいますか to mean do you have partners do you in a relationship 恋人 is partner so 彼女 彼氏 and とか means and so on so it's like etc so it sounds like do you have a partner or something so yeah it's not all about softening actually cause 恋人とか could imply that somebody you like so maybe that person is not even dating but maybe they like somebody already then yeah that makes sense 恋人とかいる yeah it just sounds natural because it's not direct you see that your friend is in a bad mood upset and you kind of assume that maybe they had fight with their partner you can say けんかとかしたの so けんか fight argument とか and so on for example a fight したの did you so like did you have a fight or something so yeah it's kind of like or something and we just skip and 日本人が間接的な表現を 好んで使う 背景には 摩擦を避け 他人との 協調を大切にする 日本人の 意識が あります so that's the reason right 摩擦 is friction 摩擦を避ける to avoid friction so japanese people really hate conflicts or even being different from other people having different opinions is bad in japan 他人との協調を大切にする 大切にする is like to value to think define something important 協調する means to cooperate 協調 cooperation or getting well so i'm really like that too i hate conflicts i hate arguing and yeah but you shouldn't change your opinion just because somebody says so we have this cultural concept 和 which means harmony and that's really important to us so when people say japanese people are nice i agree i guess you could say there are less brute japanese people it doesn't always come from the happy place we also feel like we have to suppress our opinions feelings but it can get frustrating for us too but yeah if you're interested maybe look into the concept 和 because it's also very nice it's all about being peaceful and you know trying to understand each other it's not all the bad things like suppressing yourself not having your opinions it's not all about that it's also just trying to understand each other and trying to get along well with each other and this concept 和 is also taken seriously in tea ceremonies tea ceremony we say 茶道 but you can also read it like 茶道 but it depends on the school or the tea ceremony style so there are big three schools of tea in japan おもてせんけ うらせんけ むしゃこうじせんけ you don't have to remember any of these but yeah you can tell which house or school of tea they belong to depending on the way they read the word tea ceremony 茶道 so i have practiced the うらせんけ way so i would really like 茶道 but you'd hear the word 茶道 more than on tv for example so that's meant to be the standard way to read the word 茶道 but you will also meet people who read it like 茶道 i highly recommend you trying a tea ceremony if you have a chance usually you can do it in a hotel or something like even if you don't stay at a hotel yeah try some tea ceremony experience it's very relaxing but you see that it's not just about you know drinking tea or making tea like they have to follow super strict rules like the way they move but it's very beautiful and it's a part of culture that i really admire so yeah and the tea ceremony follows four principles わけい せいじゃく so わ is what i already talked about harmony it's all about getting along with each other and けい is respect so respecting each other and せい is purity so you have to have a pure heart and じゃく stands for tranquility so keeping calm at any time so わけいせいじゃく harmony respect purity tranquility those four principles are what they keep in mind while making tea drinking tea so very nice right alright that's it for today and kiragana times kindly offer discount codes so they are in the description box so check them out you can get 10% off the app if you choose to have a subscription for one year and for tea years you get 15% discount and they also offer other discounts for the actual magazines anyway kiragana times is very famous and a lot of japanese people actually read them and you can learn a lot about japan like i am very impressed with the app as well so yeah highly recommended and yeah i hope you enjoyed this lesson i'm sorry if i talked a lot but i hope you learned something new from this video alright ja mata ne bye bye