Everyday scenes in Japan, from introductions to a visit to the bank. In each one you say your role’s lines out loud.
レストラン
It’s your first time at this restaurant and there is far too much on the menu to choose from. Your friend recommends the set they had here last month — but you don’t eat meat. The fish one is cheaper, only the portion is more than you could finish, and your friend offers to order a single dish for the two of you.
この店は初めてなんですが、メニューが多くて選べません。何がおいしいですか。
mediumabout 3 min
かいもの
You are choosing a present for your mother’s sixtieth: the assistant asks about her, offers gloves, then a scarf — light brown, and pricier than you planned — and wraps it for Sunday.
何かお探しですか。
mediumabout 4 min
えき
Your flight is at one and the next express gets there too late: a station attendant works out another route, corrects you about the transfer and warns that the train leaves in five minutes.
お客様、何かお探しですか。
mediumabout 3 min
びょういん
You called a colleague about work yesterday, and his wife answered: he is in the hospital, the surgery was on Tuesday, and nobody at the office knows. You stopped by after work — not to visit him, but because the materials he was handling are due on Monday. You offer to take the work over, and he asks for something else: bring him his laptop and he will do it himself. You cannot simply agree, and you cannot simply refuse.
きのう仕事で電話したら、奥さんに入院だと聞きました。びっくりしました。
mediumabout 3 min
ホテル
It is morning, the second night of four behind you. The people next door talked until late, and you barely slept. You go down to the desk to ask for another room — there are two more nights to come. But nothing is free today, and the night that has to be got through is tonight.
隣の部屋が夜遅くまでとてもうるさかったんです。あまりよく眠れませんでした。
mediumabout 3 min
でんわ
Morning, and you are the first one in: the shop opens at half past nine, the delivery comes at nine, and that driver will not wait. Then the manager rings. He is on his way in, but his train has stopped between stations after an accident, and the key to the shop is with him. Nobody knows when it will move again. Neither of you can find a way out alone: he knows half of what is needed, and you know the other half.
はい、田中です。
mediumabout 4 min
さそい
Mori is leaving at the end of the month, and you are organising the farewell. You have already asked everyone else which days suit them and picked the last Friday of the month. Mori hasn’t been told a word — it is meant to be a surprise. All that is left is to invite the one who has lunch with Mori every day — and who knows something about Mori’s last days that you don’t.
森さんの送別会を、最後の金曜日にするんですが、一緒にどうですか。
mediumabout 3 min
おねがい
Next year you’re going to study in Canada for a year on a scholarship, and the application needs a letter of recommendation from a language teacher. You’ve been taking the same English class for two years — but the teacher knows you only from class, nothing more. It’s a weekday, and you stop by the office to ask.
先生、留学のことで、書いていただきたい書類があるんですが。
mediumabout 2 min
ざつだん
Evening, the street in front of the house. You moved in a month ago, and every evening you hear a noise from the direction of the shrine — and long ago settled it in your own mind as something going on at the school. Someone who has lived on this street for years is standing by their door and speaks first: doesn’t the evening noise bother you? It turns out to be the children rehearsing — there’s a festival at the end of the month, and they rehearse every evening all month long. Where you lived before, a festival was something you went to watch, and who put it on you never knew.
こんばんは。先月越してきたかたですよね。夜の音、うるさくないですか。
mediumabout 3 min