Konnichiwa! Yuko-sensei desu.
Watakushigoto desu ga, kyoo, shigatsu juu san nichi wa watashi no tanjoobi desu. Today, April 13
is my birthday. And, in honor of this day, I would like to make a special request.
If you enjoy my lessons, I would love to hear from you. Please send me by e-mail:
3-4 sentences about how my lessons have helped you,
Your first name and your country name.
It is going to be such a wonderful birthday gift to hear all about how my lessons are
helping you! Please send me your message at sensei@smilenihongo.com. ありがとうございます。Arigatoo gozaimasu!
Since we are talking about birthday, I am going to do a quick lesson on expressions
related to birthday. By the way, in appreciation of your support, I decided to give you a
special offer until the end of my birthday, which is Saturday, so please watch this video to the end or
check the description box below.
Ok, let's begin the lesson. At the beginning of this video, I said "watakushigoto desu ga."
"Watakushigoto" means a personal matter, so the literal translation of this phrase is "this is a personal matter,
but." The natural translation in English will be something like "pardon me or excuse me
for mentioning a personal matter." You may wonder why I say "Pardon me" to talk about
my birthday. To understand this, you have to know one aspect of Japanese culture.
In Japanese culture, talking about personal matters in a public situation or business
setting is viewed as self-centered. So, we try to avoid doing it especially if it's related
to the speaker's celebration or a benefit as an individual, such as birthday, engagement,
promotion, business success and so on. If we need to mention such personal matters in
a formal setting, we try to add the phrase "watakushigoto desu ga" so that we can avoid sounding
self-centered and stay modest.
That's why I said "Watakushigoto desu ga, kyou wa watashi no tanjoubi desu." Pardon me for talking about a personal matter, but
today is my birthday. Watakushigoto desu ga, kyoo wa watashi no tanjoubi desu.
Now, let's learn how to say Happy Birthday. So, birthday in Japanese is tanjoubi, tanjoubi.
To say Happy Birthday, we use the phrase "congratulations" and go like this. Tanjoubi, omedetou. Tanjoubi, omedetou. This
is the most casual way to say Happy Birthday. You can say this to your friends, family members,
or somebody very close to you.
Some people add the honorific prefix "O" to the word "birthday" and say Otanjoubi omedetou. Otanjoubi omedetou
even in the casual speech. This version sounds a little bit nicer than the first one and
female normally prefers this version.
If you want to say Happy Birthday in the Formal speech or polite speech, now you have to
add gozaimasu after omedetou and go like this. Otanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu. Otanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu. It is
recommended using this one for somebody not so close to you, or to whom you need to pay
respect such as your boss, teacher, in-laws, co-workers, clients, or elderly people.
Lastly, let's learn how to say your birthday with the year that you were born like this one.
July 10th, 1985. In Japanese, this is the order to state a calendar date. Year, month
and date. So, in this case, you have to say the Year 1985 first, month next and then, date at
the end. The year 1985 in Japanese is sen kyuu hyaku hachi juu go nen, July is shichi gatsu, and then, the 10th of the month is
tooka. July 10th, 1985 is sen kyuu hyaku hachi juu go nen shichi gatsu tooka.
I cover months and dates as well as Japanese numbers up to 10,000 in my online course,
Japanese 2. It is going to be a very useful course for your next trip to Japan, and here
is a special offer for you. As a Thank-you gift for your support, I decided to let everybody
sign up for Japanese 2 for $49 instead of $89 until the end of my birthday, which is
Saturday, April 13th.
The offer is good only for 42 hours from the time that I published this video. Check the
description box for the special link to go to the sign-up page. The course also introduces
Informal speech of some common phrases and when not to use it. Again, the discount
expires at 11:59 PM on Saturday, April 13 in US Pacific Time. So, please hurry if you
are interested. I am very sorry if the discount is no longer available by the time you are
watching this video.
Thank you for supporting my channel and being part of Smile Nihongo Academy. I look forward
to receiving your feedback on my lessons. Again, please email me at sensei@smilenihongo.com
Arigatoo gozaimasu. Dewa, mata tsugi no ressun de aimashoo!