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November 28, 2019

Happy Thanksgiving Day Japanese Vocabulary Lesson

To those in the US, Happy Thanksgiving!

We decided to make a quick video with Thanksgiving related words in Japanese. This is a special video since my son edited it for us–thank you Makoto!
 
Here are the words in the video, plus a few extra.
Turkey
七面鳥
shichimenchou
[Turkeys aren’t native to Japan. There are a few ideas why turkeys are called 七面鳥 (literally, seven faced bird). One is cooking a turkey is a lot of work and 七面倒 shichimendou means “great trouble” or “difficulty.” Another possible origin is the bird’s face has a variety of colors. Thus it has seven faces. Who knows?]

Pumpkin Pie
パンプキンパイ
panpukin pai
[This is a loan word from English and therefore written in katakana]

Family
家族
kazoku
[家 house + 族 tribe]

Feast
ごちそう
gochisou
[ごちそうする means to treat someone (buy a meal for someone); ごちそうさま is often said after a meal as thanks for the good food.]

Pumpkin
かぼちゃ
kabocha
[From Portuguese “Cambodia abóbora”]
 

 

Now, let’s look at Yumi’s words in the video:

こんにちは、みなさん
konnichi wa, minasan
Hello, everyone.
[You can say みんな or みなさん but みんなさん is not considered correct]

パトロンのみなさん、いつもありがとうございます。
patoron no minasan, itsumo arigatou gozaimasu.
As always, thank you so much, Patreon supporters!
[literally: Patreon’s everyone; always; thank you]
[Since the action (the sense of thankfulness) is on-going, we wouldn’t use the past tense ありがとうございました]

Thanksgiving Dayは日本語で、感謝祭といいます。
Thanksgiving Day wa nihongo de, kanshasai to iimasu.
Thanksgiving Day in Japanese is called “kanshasai.”
[While Japan doesn’t have a “Turkey Day,” there is 勤労感謝の日 kinrō kansha no hi Labor Thanksgiving Day. Today it is a day to commemorate labor, production, and general human well-being, but it was based on an ancient harvest festival known as 新嘗祭 niinamesai.]

今日はその感謝祭に関する日本語を勉強していきましょう。
kyou wa sono kanshasai ni kan suru nihongo wo benkyou shite ikimashou.
Today, let’s use Thanksgiving Day to study Japanese.
[Literally: today; this Thanksgiving Day; concerning; Japanese language; study; to deliberately do (していく shows doing something deliberately. The いく as an auxiliary verb means “to continue” with purpose.)]

それでは、あしたは家族で楽しい感謝祭をお過ごしください。
sore dewa, ashita wa kazoku de tanoshii kanshasai o osugoshi kudasai.
Well, then. Tomorrow, please enjoy spending Thanksgiving Day with your family.

食べ過ぎないでね。
tabesugi naide ne.
Don’t eat too much!

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