Ep. 7 Commentary - Introductions


Dialogue

ディエゴ:

そういえば、ちゃんと自己紹介()しようよ。
そういえば、 ちゃんと じこしょうかい しよう よ。
Speaking of which, let’s all introduce ourselves properly.

トビ:

みんな名前言()うだけでいいんじゃない?
みんな なまえ いう だけ で いい んじゃない?
It’s probably enough to just say our names, yeah?

ディエゴ:

うん。そうしよう。()はディエゴです!
うん。 そう しよう。 おれ は ディエゴ です!
Yeah, let’s do that. I’m Diego!

トビ:

トビです!
Toby.

ケンタ:

え?()?!
え?ぼく?!
Huh? Me?!

あっケンタです。
Uh, I’m Kenta.

ミキ:

...

カナコ:

ね、ミキちゃん。
Hey, Miki-chan.

ミキ:

ん?
Huh?

カナコ:

ミキちゃんの()だよ。
ミキちゃん の ばん だ よ。
It’s your turn.

ミキ:

なんの?!
My turn for what?

カナコ:

自己紹介()だよ。
じこしょうかい だ よ。
To introduce yourself.

ミキ:

もうみんな()ってるじゃん。
もう みんな しってる じゃん。
But I already know everyone.

ディエゴ:

いいから、名前()()ってくれよ。
いいから、 なまえ を いって くれ よ。
Just say your name already.

ミキ:

......()れ。
......だまれ。
……………. Shut up.

ディエゴ:

じゃあもういい。
Fine. Forget it.

ミキ:

冗談()だよ、ディエゴちゃん。
じょうだん だ よ、 ディエゴちゃん。
I’m just joking, Diego-chan.

ミキです!
I’m Miki!

カナコ:

カナコです。
Kanako.

マナミ:

マナミです。よろしく。
Manami. Nice to meet you.

トビ:

じゃあ乾杯()しよう!
じゃあ かんぱい しよう!
Alright, let’s cheers!

みんな:

乾杯()
かんぱい!
Cheers!


Commentary Transcript

This 合コン(ごうこん) was a little shaky getting started. But now everyone is finally in the same place, and they’ve got their drinks, and it’s time for them to go around introducing themselves to one another. The dialogue starts with…

ディエゴ:

そういえば、ちゃんと自己紹介()しようよ。
そういえば、 ちゃんと じこしょうかい しよう よ。
Speaking of which, let’s all introduce ourselves properly.

Diego says そういえば、 “speaking of which,” because he sees Toby and Kenta introducing themselves to one another, which is what happened at the end of the video just before this one.

This is a super useful phrase, as you can imagine, because you can stick it onto the front of a sentence anytime you want to say “Speaking of which… [sentence].” そういえば… something.

Everything else that’s in this sentence, we’ve already seen in previous videos… sort of.

This verb ~しよう is the volitional form of the verb する. We saw the volitional form in the first video, where Diego, Toby, and Miki met at the station. Miki said [はやく行(い)こう] “let’s go (already).” Well ~しよう is “let’s do… (something).” And here it’s attached to the noun 自己紹介(じこしょうかい), which , you may remember, means “self-introduction.” So altogether we have “Let’s do self-introductions.” More naturally, “Let’s all introduce ourselves.” Plus in front of it, we have ちゃんと, “Properly” and よ at the end, the assertion particle.

Put all of that together, and we get “Speaking of which, let’s all introduce ourselves properly.”

Then Toby responds for everyone with…

トビ:

みんな名前言()うだけでいいんじゃない?
みんな なまえ いう だけ で いい んじゃない?
It’s probably enough to just say our names, yeah?

  • Everyone
  • Name
  • To say
  • Only
  • Good
  • Yeah?

“It’s probably enough to just say our names, yeah?”

It probably helps to just think of だけでいい as one word. Actually, it’s even in some dictionaries, where it tends to get translated as “all [you] need to do is…” or “just…” I like to remember it as [verb]だけでいい = “(Someone) can just [verb].”

So if our verb is

名前
(を) (which is getting cut out of this sentence)

言う,

“to say (one’s name),” then 名前を言うだけでいい means “(We all) can just say [our] names.” Since Toby ended the sentence with this ~んじゃない? I changed the translation to includes “…probably… yeah?” And altogether it became:

“It’s probably enough to just say our names, yeah?”

Or

“We can all just say our names, yeah?”

Then Diego comes back with…

ディエゴ:

うん。そうしよう。()はディエゴです!
うん。 そう しよう。 おれ は ディエゴ です!
Yeah, let’s do that. I’m Diego!

  • Yeah
  • That (way)
  • Let’s do

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

  • I
  • [topic particle]
  • Diego
  • Am

I’m Diego!

“Yeah, let’s do that. I’m Diego.”

There’s not much to explain here, although I totally recommend just memorizing the entire phrase そうしよう, because you can say it anytime you agree with someone’s plan or suggestion for an action. Literally translated, it’s probably something like “Let’s do it that way.”

Then everyone starts saying there names…

トビ:

トビです!
Toby.

“I’m Toby.”

Or in the translation I just wrote: “Toby”

Then Kenta, overwhelmed with all this social interaction going on, says…

ケンタ:

え?()?!
え?ぼく?!
Huh? Me?!

あっケンタです。
Uh, I’m Kenta.

We’ve already seen all of this language, but I think that it might help to review the shadow track for this line, as it’s really natural sounding… although Kenta’s kind of awkward. When you wanna say huh? Say え? That sound should be drilled deep into your brain.

Anyways, he says “Huh? Me?! Uh, I’m Kenta.”

Here’s a sample from the shadow track:

[insert sample]

Next is Miki’s turn, but she’s living in Miki World…

ミキ:

...

カナコ:

ね、ミキちゃん。
Hey, Miki-chan.

ミキ:

ん?
Huh?

ね、ミキちゃん is “Hey, Miki-chan.”

ね in this case is just being used like “hey,” to get Miki’s attention, and ちゃん is a suffix for girls that you are on casual terms with or children in general. The boy version is くん. We’ll look at this a bit more later in this dialog.

ん? is the same sound we make in English (I think). It’s just like ん?ん?ん? Here’s Miki saying it five times: [insert nnnnnnn’s]

Once Kanako gets her attention, she says…

カナコ:

ミキちゃんの()だよ。
ミキちゃん の ばん だ よ。
It’s your turn.

番 technically means “number.” So a direct translation of this would be something like “It’s Miki’s number,” but the natural translation is “It’s your turn.”

The first time I learned this usage of 番, I was living in a share house in Tokyo, and one of my Chinese roommates was telling me that it was my turn to take out the garbage. Apparently there was a schedule or something for taking out garbage, but I missed my day or something. Anyways, she was saying ニコの番だよ, and I was very sad to learn that it meant “It’s your turn… (to take out the garbage).” Bummer.

Miki still doesn’t know what’s going on, though, and she says…

ミキ:

なんの?!
My turn for what?

The usage of の here is pretty interesting, because it is modifying an unspoken noun. Can you guess what it is?

It’s 番. So in response to ミキちゃんの番だよ, Miki is actually saying “My turn for what?” なんの番? What turn? But this gets shortened to なんの?

Then Kanako clarifies for her by saying…

カナコ:

自己紹介()だよ。
じこしょうかい だ よ。
To introduce yourself.

Self-introduction だよ, which I translated to “to introduce yourself.” Or I suppose I could have also said “(It’s your turn) for your self-introduction,” if we wanted a really stiff-sounding translation.

I’m guessing that at this point 99% of Japanese people would do the culturally appropriate thing and say their name. But, well, this is Miki, so instead she says…

ミキ:

もうみんな()ってるじゃん。
もう みんな しってる じゃん。
But I already know everyone.

  • Already
  • Everyone
  • to know
  • じゃん

I think this sentence is pretty clear. 知ってる is the shortened version 知っている. Be careful that in this type of situation that you don’t say 知る, because that would mean “will know.” Anytime we’re saying “I know (someone),” we’ll add the auxiliary verb. So it’s also going to be 知っている、知ってる.

So as a whole I translated this to “But I already know everyone.”

Diego then gets impatient and says…

ディエゴ:

いいから、名前()()ってくれよ。
いいから、 なまえ を いって くれ よ。
Just say your name already.

I like this sentence, because I can’t imagine that you’re ever likely to hear it in a Japanese classroom. Well, maybe. But probably at way too late in your studies.

This phrase as the beginning いいから, means “good / because,” right? But usually Japanese people say it when they’re getting impatient and they want you to forget about something. I looked this up in some Japanese-English dictionaries, and the only translation I found was “Listen up.” But I think it’s a bit different than that. For one, that’s definitely not what Diego’s saying. I think it’s closer to something like “Don’t worry about it,” perhaps translated more directly like “It’s fine, so (don’t worry about it). In other words, Diego is saying “No one cares if you already met them… (hurry up and say your name already).”

The second half of that there is [名前を言ってくれよ] If Diego were a nice, polite guy, then he’d say something like 名前を言ってください, “Please say your name.” Here is an example of the て-form being used for a request, and we can stick a number of different words onto the end of it to change the formality.

言う in the te-form becomes 言って. For rules on why it becomes 言って, please consult any boring grammar book that talks about Japanese verb conjugations.

名前を is “name” plus “[direct object marker]” so with 言って it’s “Say your name.” Here are some examples using 名前を言って at different levels of formality:

名前を言っていただけませんか / Could I possibly get you to say your name?

名前を言ってください / Will you please say your name?

名前を言って / Say your name, will you?

名前を言ってくれ(よ) / Say your name.

The whole sentence put together was [いいから、名前を言ってくれよ] / “Just say your name already!”

Diego’s not being super rude (well, kind of), but this is not the kind of thing that you should be saying to anyone that you’re not on really close terms with. Diego and Miki are close friends, so it’s not a big deal. Even then, though, Miki says…

ミキ:

......()れ。
......だまれ。
……………. Shut up.

I think in English we would call this the imperative tense. I just think of it as the “Rude-way-of-giving-orders tense.”

黙る is a Group 1 verb and it means “to be silent.” (Sorry, I still haven’t given a breakdown of verb groups, but anyways, this is a Group 1 verb, and) all we have to do is change the last ‘u’ (if this were written in romaji to an ‘e.’ Here are four examples:

  • “to be silent” = 黙(だま)る / 黙れ! = “Be silent! / Shut up!”
  • “to swim” = 泳(およ)ぐ / 泳げ! = “Swim!”
  • “to go” = 行(い)く / 行け! = “Go!”
  • “to die” = 死(し)ぬ / 死ね! = “Die!”

So, yeah, Miki is saying “Shut up!” With Group 2 verbs, instead of ‘u’ changing to ‘e,’ it changes to ‘o.’ Since all Group 2 verbs end in る, this means that in the “Rude-way-of-giving-orders tense,” everything will end in ろ. Here are three examples. If you watch anime, I can almost guarantee that you will see the last one, maybe the last two:

  • “to eat” = 食(た)べる / 食べろ! = “Eat!”
  • “to vanish; disappear” = うせる / うせろ! / “Get lost!”
  • “to run away” = 逃(に)げる / 逃げろ! / “Run!”

Diego gets fed up with Miki, and then he says…

ディエゴ:

じゃあもういい。
Fine. Forget it.

Translated directly, this is “Well then / already / good.” But actually it means something like, “Fine. Forget it.”

Miki comes back with…

ミキ:

冗談()だよ、ディエゴちゃん。
じょうだん だ よ、 ディエゴちゃん。
I’m just joking, Diego-chan.

ミキです!
I’m Miki!

冗談 means “joke,” so 冗談だよ means “It’s (just) a joke,” which I translated to “I’m just joking.”

Then here we see ちゃん again, but this time it’s being used at the end of a guy’s name! What?! The reason is that Miki is making fun of Diego, treating him like he’s a baby. I didn’t translate it, because I think saying something like “I’m just joking, Diego, you baby” would be quite a bit stronger than just saying ディエゴちゃん. It’s kind of just a playful way to make fun of him, not really serious at all.

Then [ミキです!] I’m Miki.

Then the other two girls say their names…

カナコ:

カナコです。
Kanako.

マナミ:

マナミです。よろしく。
Manami. Nice to meet you.

“I’m Kanako,” or just “Kanako.”

“I’m Manami,” or just “Manami.”

Then よろしく, which here we’ll translate as “Nice to meet you.”

Next Toby jumps in with…

トビ:

じゃあ乾杯()しよう!
じゃあ かんぱい しよう!
Alright, let’s cheers!

Well then, let’s cheers!

The kanji for 乾杯 are cool, because they are “dry” and “cupful.” So a direct translation is something like “Dry your drinks!”

In other words…

みんな:

乾杯()
かんぱい!
Cheers!

…is the English word for “Cheers!”

I think it’s also the first Japanese word I ever taught my mom when she came to visit me in Japan.

Let me know if you have any questions. See you next video!

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