Group Lesson with Natsumi Sensei: August 6, 2024

Hello, everyone.

Due to technical difficulties, we were unable to save the recording of the July 28 group lesson with Natsumi Sensei. Since we want to have recordings of these lessons available for everyone to refer to during their studies, we have made arrangements with Natsumi Sensei for an extra lesson to make up for this.

For now the plan is to cover the same material (see below), but naturally if there are any questions she can take those during the lesson. Even if you participated in the last lesson, we hope you can join! This is an excellent chance to get live feedback from a native speaker trained in pronunciation and pitch accent.

Apologies for the short notice, but this lesson will be at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, August 6, 2024. You can find your local time using the link below:

9:30 AM on Tuesday, August 6, 2024 

Some students joined the last lesson 30 or 60 minutes early last time, so please remember to use this link and confirm the lesson time for your time zone.

This one-hour mini-lesson is a special free offering for our patrons in the "Japanese Phonetics" tier. We will post the Zoom link about 24 hours in advance. The lesson will cover “て form + something + particles”, such as:

• してください。

• してくださいね。

• してくださいよ。

• してね

• してよ

• してから〜

• してもいい ＋ something

• If there is time, she intends to also practice “た form + something”.

Natsumi Sensei has the following notes for those interested in the upcoming lesson:

To prepare for this lesson so you can get the most out of it, please study how to form the て-form and た-form of verbs, as well as the accent changes for atamadaka verbs, heiban verbs, and nakadaka verbs. For those who want to learn about the accent of various verb forms, please check out lessons 18, 20, and 22 (see the Japanese Phonetics Index Page for links to these lessons).

The rules for only て-form and た-form are as follows:

Atamadaka verbs remain atamadaka, heiban verbs remain heiban, and nakadaka verbs have the accent on the second mora from the end of the word.

For example,

Atamadaka
帰る (か\える) → か\えって, か\えった

Heiban
働く (は/たらく) → は/たらいて, は/たらいた

Nakadaka Group 1
休む (や/す\む) → や/す\んで　や/す\んだ
作る (つ/く\る) → つ/く\って　つ/く\った

Nakadaka Group 2
起きる (お/き\る) → お\きて,　お\きた
食べる (たべる) → た\べて, た\べた

With nakadaka verbs, the downstep comes on the second mora from the end, but the number of mora in the て-form and た-form varies depending on the verb group. Be careful.

We encourage you to submit questions for this lesson in the comments section below. These questions will be prioritized during the lesson. If time permits, she will take additional questions from participants during the lesson. If you have any questions, please include in your comment:

- What you want to practice (for example: specific words, sentences, grammar items, etc.), or

- Questions about pronunciation and accent

A quick note on recording: The lessons will be conducted on Zoom and will be recorded. Participants may be asked to share their video during the lesson to allow Natsumi Sensei to better assess and assist individuals. After the lesson, we intend to post a recording of the lesson on Patreon for patrons in the "Japanese Phonetics" tier. While we will edit the video to focus on Natsumi Sensei, there is a possibility participants may appear in the posted recording. By participating in the lesson, you consent to appearing in the video. If you have any questions about this, please contact us by DM.

All the best from Beppu,

Dōgen