Welcome to Episode 98 of Real Japanese Talk with Haruka & Saki! 🗼🐙

🚗 A visitor's first impression of Tokyo traffic is often the silence. Millions of cars, and almost no horns. 🎯

You'll learn three words:

• 鳴らす (narasu) - to sound something: a bell, a whistle, a car horn

• 急ぐ (isogu) - to hurry; and everyone here is hurrying

• 我慢 (gaman) - to hold back, to endure; one of the load-bearing words of Japanese life

💡 Inside: why the horn is legally reserved for danger, and why using it in anger reads as picking a fight; the contradiction at the heart of it - a country strict about time, hurrying hard and staying silent about it; 「我慢強い」 as genuine praise, and the honest downside of a culture that endures rather than says; what drivers do instead - the "thank-you hazard" flash, a raised hand, a bow performed while driving; bicycle bells that go unused in favour of a spoken 「すみません」; and the underlying idea that not making noise is itself a form of consideration.

Perfect for N4-N3 learners interested in how Japan works. Tokyo & Kansai dialogue, fully shadowable. Full transcript & study notes on Patreon. 🎧

【Today's Vocabulary / 今日の言葉】

・鳴らす (ならす) - To sound something, to make it ring. It is transitive - you 鳴らす a bell, and the bell 「鳴る」 (naru) by itself. Everyday uses: 「ベルを鳴らす」, 「クラクションを鳴らす」, 「指を鳴らす」 (to crack your knuckles or snap your fingers), 「鼻を鳴らす」 (to sniffle, or of a pet, to whine). There is also the idiom 「名を鳴らす」 - to make a name for oneself. Careful with the homophone 「慣らす」/「馴らす」, to accustom or tame. Related words: 「鳴る」 (naru, to sound), 「音」 (oto, sound), 「静か」 (shizuka, quiet).

・急ぐ (いそぐ) - To hurry, to rush. Useful forms: the adverbial 「急いで」 (「急いで行きます」), the polite question 「お急ぎですか」 (are you in a hurry? - what staff ask when there's a wait), and the noun 「急ぎ」 as in 「急ぎの仕事」 (urgent work). The proverb 「急がば回れ」 - if you're in a hurry, take the long way round - is the Japanese "more haste, less speed," and is genuinely quoted in daily life. Related words: 「慌てる」 (awateru, to panic or fluster), 「間に合う」 (ma ni au, to make it in time), 「ゆっくり」 (yukkuri, slowly).

・我慢 (がまん) - Endurance, patience, self-restraint - and one of the words that explains the most about daily life in Japan. 「我慢する」 covers putting up with pain, hunger, cold, boredom or provocation; 「我慢強い」 (patient, resilient) is high praise; 「我慢できない」 marks the limit. The word came from Buddhist vocabulary, where it originally meant something closer to arrogance, and shifted over centuries into endurance. Worth knowing its shadow: 「我慢しすぎる」, enduring so much that nothing gets said. Related words: 「辛抱」 (shinbou, perseverance), 「耐える」 (taeru, to withstand), 「遠慮」 (enryo, holding back out of consideration).

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