Japanese Ammo with Misa

JLPT N4 level Reading Practice 入国できるようになる (Patreon)

Published:

2021-11-10 10:03:39

Edited:

2021-11-10 10:18:01

Imported:

2024-04

Content

Hi everyone, Misa-sensei here!

Today we’ll be reading through an NHK news article together. I’ll first let you read the Japanese version as is - no help, nothing. See how far you can get! Afterwards, I’ll add furigana to help you comprehend some of the more difficult words.

We’ll then break down each individual word and see what they mean. This lesson is best suited if you’re around N4 level, but is educational no matter what level of Japanese you’re currently on.

では、始めましょう！

留学生などの外国人が日本に入ることができるようになる

新型コロナウイルスがうつる人が少なくなっているため、政府は8日、外国から日本に入るときの規則を変えました。仕事で外国に行って帰ってきた日本人は、ウイルスがうつっていないことを確かめるためにホテルや家などで待つ期間を3日にしました。仕事で短い間日本にいる外国人も、ホテルなどで待つ期間を3日にしました。

外国人は、今年1月から日本に入ることができませんでした。

留学生や技能実習生など、長い間日本にいる外国人も、日本に入ることができるようになりました。外国人が働く会社や通う学校などは、外国人が日本に入ったあと、2週間ぐらいいる所を用意して、生活や行動をチェックしなければなりません。日本に入る資格を持っているのに、まだ入ることができていない外国人は37万人ぐらいいます。

How much did you get? Did you breeze through it, did you find it tough? Let’s read it again but with furigana!

新型(しんがた)コロナウイルスがうつる人(ひと)が少(すく)なくなっているため、政府(せいふ)は8日(ようか)、外国(がいこく)から日本(にっぽん)に入(はい)るときの規則(きそく)を変(か)えました。仕事(しごと)で外国(がいこく)に行(い)って帰(かえ)ってきた日本人(にっぽんじん)は、ウイルスがうつっていないことを確(たし)かめるためにホテルや家(いえ)などで待(ま)つ期間(きかん)を3日(みっか)にしました。

仕事(しごと)で短(みじか)い間(あいだ)日本(にっぽん)にいる外国人(がいこくじん)も、ホテルなどで待(ま)つ期間(きかん)を3日(みっか)にしました。外国人(がいこくじん)は、今年(ことし)1月(がつ)から日本(にっぽん)に入(はい)ることができませんでした。

留学生(りゅうがくせい)や技能実習生(ぎのうじっしゅうせい)など、長(なが)い間(あいだ)日本(にっぽん)にいる外国人(がいこくじん)も、日本(にっぽん)に入(はい)ることができるようになりました。外国人(がいこくじん)が働(はたら)く会社(かいしゃ)や通(かよ)う学校(がっこう)などは、外国人(がいこくじん)が日本(にっぽん)に入(はい)ったあと、2週間(しゅうかん)ぐらいいる所(ところ)を用意(ようい)して、生活(せいかつ)や行動(こうどう)をチェックしなければなりません。

日本(にっぽん)に入(はい)る資格(しかく)を持(も)っているのに、まだ入(はい)ることができていない外国人(がいこくじん)は37万(まん)人(にん)ぐらいいます。

How was that? Did the furigana help you understand the meaning? Let’s first see what the English would look like, and then take a look at some of the grammar and words used in this article!

Because the amount of people transmitting the coronavirus has reduced, the (Japanese) government will change the requirements for entering the country from abroad starting November 8th. Japanese people who went abroad for work before returning to Japan, will from now on need to stay in a hotel, house etc. for only three days.

Foreigners that are only in Japan for a short while for business, will also need to stay three days in a house, hotel, etc. Foreigners have been unable to enter Japan from January of this year.

留学生(りゅうがくせい)や技能実習生(ぎのうじっしゅうせい)など、長(なが)い間(あいだ)日本(にっぽん)にいる外国人(がいこくじん)も、日本(にっぽん)に入(はい)ることができるようになりました。

Exchange students, foreign trainees etc., and foreigners staying in Japan for a long time, are now able to enter Japan.

外国人(がいこくじん)が働(はたら)く会社(かいしゃ)や通(かよ)う学校(がっこう)などは、外国人(がいこくじん)が日本(にっぽん)に入(はい)ったあと、2週間(しゅうかん)ぐらいいる所(ところ)を用意(ようい)して、生活(せいかつ)や行動(こうどう)をチェックしなければなりません。

The workplaces and schools these foreigners go to need to prepare a place for two weeks, where they can check their (day-to-day) activities.

The number of foreigners that, despite meeting the qualifications to enter Japan still can’t, is currently at around 370.000 people.

I think this article contained some grammar and words you’ve maybe never seen before. No worries, I’ll walk you through it!

Below are all the words that you may have seen for the first time. In-between brackets I’ve included their ‘furigana’ – the way the word is read. If the word is surrounded by sharp brackets (e.g. 「とき」), that means it concerns grammar, not an adjective or noun.

Let’s dive right in!

新型(しんがた) – Shingata, the first character means ‘new’, the second means ‘type, model, or make’. This is heard very often in Japanese when referring to COVID-19, which is known as ‘shingata korona uirusu (新型コロナウィルス). If you have a new car, you might say ‘私の新型の車’ (watashi no shingata no kuruma)!

人（ひと）- Hito, literally meaning person.

少ない（少なくなっている）(すくない) - Sukunai, ‘few, a little’.

It means the same as 少し（すこし、sukoshi）, but is an adjective, whereas sukoshi is an adverb. Adjectives always describe a noun,and adverbs describe, well, verbs! That means if you get less change than you should receive, you’d say:

お釣りが少ない。（おつりがすくない）, otsuri ga sukunai.

However, if you wanted to ask for a little more (verb) salary, you would say:

給料をもう少しもらえますか？（きゅうりょうをもうすこしもらえますか）

In this case ‘sukoshi’ affects ‘moraemasu’ (morau, moraimasu, moraemasu), meaning you have to choose the adverb.

.. Difficult? Let’s take a look at some examples!

ご飯の量が少なかったから、お腹が空いています。（ごはんのりょうがすくなかったから、おなかがすいています）(gohan no ryou ga sukunakatta kara, onaka ga suiteimasu, )

Because there wasn’t much dinner (lit. ‘the amount of dinner’), I’m hungry (lit. ‘my stomach is empty’).

Let’s go on!

政府（せいふ）- seifu, government! 日本の政府（e.g. 日本の政府、にほんのせいふ、nihon no seifu, Japan’s government）.

外国（がいこく）gaikoku, a foreign country! Add a little ‘person’ at the end, and you have the famous word ‘gaikokujin’ J （e.g. チェンさんは外国から来ました、チェンさんはがいこくからきました, mr. chen comes from abroad [lit. ‘a foreign country’]).

日本（にほん）- nihon, Japan! Can also be pronounced ‘nippon’, but this is rare, and usually only used in official contexts. Unfortunately a case-by-case situation.

「とき」- Toki, can also be written in kanji (時). This piece of grammar lets you express a time for your sentence. To use this, grab the past tense of the dictionary form of a verb (so, not ‘ikimashita’ but ‘itta’) + toki.

For example:

スーパーマーケットにいったときには可愛いねこをみました。

(suupaamaaketto ni itta toki ni ha kawaii neko wo mimashita, when I went to the supermarket, I saw a cute cat).

規則（きそく）- kisoku, meaning ‘regulations, rules’. (e.g. 日本のコロナの規則、にほんのコロナのきそく、nihon no korona no kisoku, japan’s covid regulations)

仕事（しごと）- shigoto, meaning ‘work’!

「〜てきた」- tekita (present tense: tekuru). This piece of grammar expresses that you will do something and then come back. Because obviously after doing groceries you’d come back, you might say:

ちょっと買い物行ってくる！（ちょっとかいものいってくる！、chotto kaimono ittekuru）or, in English: I’ll go (and then come back) and do some groceries!

確かめる（たしかめる）- Tashikameru, to comfirm, to make sure. In the context of this article, the government is trying to figure out which foreigners are suffering from corona and which are not. It’s a pretty formal word, which you might see when someone inspects your ID-card, checks your CV, or sees whether your car is up-to-speed according to local regulations.

待つ（まつ）- Matsu, to ‘wait’.

期間（きかん）- Kikan, ‘period’. Starting November 8th of 2021, foreigners entering from abroad temporarily for work are subjected to a three day waiting/quarantine period. This is expressed as ３日間待つ期間 (mikkakan matsu kikan).

「〜にする」- ‘ni suru’. When presented with alternatives, or when a decision amongst other options is made, ‘ni suru’ expresses what was decided. If you’re in a restaurant, choosing between omuraisu or sushi, but you go for the sushi, you could say:

やっぱり、お寿司にする！

短い（みじかい）- Mijikai, ‘short, brief’. Can be used to say ‘a short period’ （短い間）or to say someone’s legs are short (美月さんの足が短い、みづきさんのあしが短い)

「間（あいだ）」- Aida, ‘period’. Used in the above example as well, ‘aida’ refers to a period of time. Can be loosely translated to ‘while’ (e.g. ‘while I am not in Japan, please don’t call me. 日本にいない間は、電話しないでください [nihon ni inai aida wa, denwa shinaidekudasai]).

今年（ことし）- Kotoshi, this year! You might recognize the characters from ‘ima’ and ‘toshi’, literally translating to ‘this year’! :)

入る（はいる）- hairu, to ‘enter’ or ‘to join’. When entering a restaurant you might say レストランに入る. Can also be used to ‘join’ something, for example when you’re being enrolled into the Japanese National Health Insurance.

できる（できない、できません）- dekiru, ‘to be able to/to be possible’. Japanese is a very consistent language, with ‘suru’ and ‘kuru’ being the only words that are irregular. This means that the potential form of ‘suru’ is, unfortunately, also irregular L if someone asks you if you can jump 250 metres high you’d for example, reply with “sore wa dekinai” (それはできない)

留学生（りゅうがくせい）, ryuugakusei, a foreign exchange student. Have you thought of ever being a ‘ryuugakusei’? Nothing teaches you Japanese like immersion in the local culture!

技能実習生（ぎのうじっしゅうせい）, ginoujisshuusei, or ‘technical intern trainee’. Not a very important word to remember for now, but I’d figure you’d be curious anyway!

長い（ながい）- nagai, literally meaning ‘long’. Can refer to physical size or the amount of time something takes.

「〜ようになる」- ~you ni naru, literally ‘to become a certain way’. In the article it mentions how the restrictions are eased in Japan, making it so that people from abroad can enter Japan, and have to wait less long. When a change happens, you can express this by first grabbing the dictionary (or plain) form of a verb.

For this example I’ll choose ‘taberu’. If I want to say “I learned to eat sushi while I was in Japan”, I would say: nihon ni ita toki ha sushi ga tabereru you ni narimashita.（日本にいた時は寿司が食べれるようになりました）。

If you, after watching all my videos (<3) finally understood some Japanese, you could say:

Misa-sensei no bideo wo mite, nihongo ga wakaru you ni narimashita! (ミサ先生のビデオを見て、日本語が分かるようになりました)

働く（はたらく）- hataraku, ‘to work’. If you work for, let’s say, Mitsubishi, you could say 私は三菱で働いています（わたしはミツビシではたらいています, watashi wa Mitsubishi de hataraiteimasu）

会社（かいしゃ）- kaisha, ‘company’. If you work for a company, you can drop a nice little combo with the above verb ‘hataraku’ and say 会社で働いています (kaisha de hataraiteimasu).

通う（かよう）- kayou, ‘to go to and from, go back and forth between’. You can think of it as the English word ‘commute’!

学校（がっこう）- gakkou, ‘school’! The last kanji character (read as ‘kou’ here), is also the same in the word ‘koukousei’, which I’m sure you know from anime to mean ‘high school student’! J

「〜あと」- ato, ‘after, following’. This bit of grammar lets you once again delineate time in your sentences. If you want to tell your friend that after you watched TV you played some Smash Bros, you might say:

晩御飯を食べたあとは、スマブラをやりました。(bangohan wo tabeta ato ha, sumabura wo yarimashita).

The rules to use this useful bit of grammar are simple. Grab, once again, the dictionary form of a verb, in this case 食べる→食べた, and simply add ‘ato’ after it.

Easy enough right? J

「ぐらい」- gurai, ‘approximately, about, around’. Following a noun, or noun clause, you can add this to indicate the noun is an approximation. After binging on way too many onigiri, and you’re asked how many you’ve eaten, you might say “I don’t know.. something like 1000?”:

A：おにぎりは何個食べたの？（おにぎりはなんこたべたの？）(how many onigiri did you eat?)

B : 分からない・・・１０００個ぐらいじゃない？（わからない・・・せんこぐらいじゃない？）（no idea, something like ~1000 pieces?）

生活（せいかつ）- seikatsu, ‘livelihood, living’.

行動（こうどう）- koudou, ‘action, conduct, behavior’. In this article it’s used to emphasize that the foreigners’ conduct and behavior needs to be monitored carefully while quarantined for signs of infection.

「〜しなければなりません」- shina-kereba-narimasen, ‘have to do’ (lit. can’t not do). Whenever you want to emphasize that something is a must. This form is very formal however. When talking to friends or people you are close with you’ll probably hear “shinakya ikenai” or “shinai to dame”, which are all variations on the same theme.

資格（しかく）- shikaku, ‘qualifications, certification. Used in the article to clearly distinguish between foreigners travelling to and from Japan for some short amount of time for work, and those that have the ‘qualifications’ (e.g. a residence status) for a longer stay.

「まだ」- mada, ‘not yet’. This piece of grammar simply means ‘not yet’!. If someone asks you if you’ve already seen the latest episode of Pokemon, you can simply say ‘mada!’ or ‘mada + negating (nai) verb’. For example:

A：昨日の新しいポケモンを見た？ (kinou no atarashii pokemon wo mita?) (have you seen the ‘newest pokemon’ yesterday?)

B：まだ見ていない！(mada miteinai!) (I have not seen it yet!)

I hope you find this article helpful!

If you have some questions or requests, please let me know in the comments! xx