what's the proper way to say "italki" and where is it from? I'm always wondering these 2. I know it is not a big deal, though. Anybody know? I pronounce "itooki" or "ai talk ai" so far, and think I've ever seen a web page written it is from China. But I'm not sure.

Japanese Lesson for beginners 4-X something extra: えーと、 Sentence + ね みなさん、こんばんは。 We leanrt how to read phone number in Japanese. Do you remember your phone number by the way? Can you answer it immediately? If no, do you say something in your language? You might say "wait a sec" or "hold on, let me check" or something. What about things like "hmm.." or "err..." ? Its a word you say to fill the gap while you can' answer/reply soon. In Japanese, we say "えーと" It is of course used in spoken Japanese. For example, Aさん：<your name > さん、携帯の番号は何番ですか？ - keitai no bangou wa nanban desu ka? -- what's your mobile number? you: えーと、０９０−１２３４−５６７８です。 Then what would you say if you were Aさん？Don't you want to repeat the number in order to make it sure? Just repeat the number, and + ね at the end. Aさん；０９０−１２３４−５６７８です ね。ありがとう。 In this case, if you read like ですね↑, it sounds more you're asking if it is correct or not. So the both ですね↑ and ですね↓ is fine. I'm sure you'll hear Japanese saying ね at the end so much. It is frequently used in spoken English as well when you want somebody to agree. There's another usage, but you don't need to know it so far. So, another example of ”ね” is Aさん : 毎朝何時に起きますか？ - maiasa nanji ni okimasu ka? -- what time do you get up in the morning? Bさん：5時です。 - 5ji desu. Aさん：はやいですね。（はやい: early) - it is early, isn't it. Aさん : そのTシャツ、いいですね。 - That's T-shirt looks good/nice. Bさん：そうですか？ありがとう。 - oh, is it so? Thanks. Aさん：いくらですか？ - how much is it? Bさん：セールで８００円でした。 - 800yen on sale. Aさん：やすいですね！(やすい: its an adjective referring low price) Compared with the example of Phone number + ね, As you probably see, ”ですね↓" is better in all the sentences above, since you want somebody to agree but are not expecting the answer so much. ではまた！ 次はレッスン５です。

Japanese Lesson for beginners 4-X まとめ と ふくしゅう (1) Finally, the summary and the review! We learnt quite much in Lesson 4. --------- 1. how to say a time --------- そちら は 何時 ですか？ - そちら は なんじ ですか？ - 10時20分です。 - じゅうじ にじゅっぷん です。 --------- 2. vocabularies to precise the time --------- 朝[asa]、昼[hiru]、夜[yoru]/晩[ban] (morning, day-time, night) 午前[gozen]、午後[gogo] (AM, PM) 今[ima] (now) X 時 半[X ji han] ( a half past X ) --------- 3. VERBS. 1)how to say what you do continuously, what you will do in the future. 2)how to say what you did in the past. --------- 1) non-past <affirmative> わたしは はたらき ます。 - This sentence tells that either I work or I will work. <interrogative> <your friend's name>さんは べんきょうし ますか。 - do you study? or will you study? <negative> わたしは やすみ ません。 - This sentence tells that either I don't take day off or I won't take day off. やすみます means either to take day off or to be absent in Japanese. However, these sentences sounds something missing. The listner can't tell which tense you are talking without the context. So we leanrt some vocabularies to put with in a sentence. I'll show you later. 2) past <affirmative> わたし は はたらき ました。 - I worked. <interrogative> <your friend's name>さんは べんきょうし ましたか。 - Did you study Japanese? <negative> わたしは やすみ ませんでした。 - I didn't take a day off/ I wasn't absent. non-past : ます ー ません past: ました ー ませんでした --------- 4. vocabularies related to the time, date or something --------- 毎 + something : Every<something> 毎日[mai nichi] everyday 毎朝[mai asa] every morning 毎晩[mai ban] every night おととい : the day before yesterday きのう：yesterday きょう: today あした : tomorrow あさって : the day after tomorrow けさ: this morning 今晩[konban]/今夜[konya]: this evening / tonight 月曜日[getsu youbi] Monday 火曜日[ka youbi] 水曜日[sui youbi] 木曜日[moku youbi] 金曜日[kin youbi] 土曜日[do youbi] 日曜日[nichi youbi] Sunday から、まで、に e.g) やすみは きょう から あさって まで です。 がっこう は ５時半 に 終わります。 --------- 6. How to read phone number --------- Imagine that you found a nice restaurant in a guide book. Now you can call them and ask when its open. Even if you got a wrong number, you can ask the correct one. ではまた！