A few minutes ago, I was sitting at my computer, agonizing over what to write for this lesson. There are so many options, after all!

Luckily, Rei provided me with a nice distraction--watching short cooking videos on Tasty.

We'll be going to California sometime next month (probably) to stay with family for a bit, so she was doing diligent research on cooking in the States.

After looking at a few videos together, we had the following short conversation, and it seemed like the perfect sample for today's lesson:

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All-Japanese Version

Rei:
Tasty どう思った？

Niko:
いいじゃん。

Rei:
ほんとに？

Niko:
うん。

Rei:
どうゆうところが？

Niko:
ん～…　全部おいしそうだし、アメリカだったら簡単に作れる。

Rei:
あと分かりやすいよね。

Niko:
うん。

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Japanese & Kana Version

Rei:
Tasty どう思った？
テイスティ どう　おもった？

Niko:
いいじゃん。

Rei:
ほんとに？

Niko:
うん。

Rei:
どうゆうところが？

Niko:
ん～…　全部おいしそうだし、アメリカだったら簡単に作れる。
ん～…　ぜんぶ　おいしそう　だ　し、　アメリカ　だったら　かんたんに　つくれる。

Rei:
あと分かりやすいよね。
あと　わかりやすい　よね。

Niko:
うん。

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Japanese, Kana, & English Version

Rei:
Tasty どう思った？
テイスティ どう　おもった？
What did you think of Tasty?
Literally: "how + thought?"
Note: This is such a simple construction, but one that I learned to make far too late in my studies. I recommend also checking out Lesson #40, where we talk about どうだった？

Niko:
いいじゃん。
Looks cool.
Literally: "good + isn't it?"
Note: ～じゃん is a more emphatic, conversational contraction of ～じゃない？, which is a casual version of ではない？or the even more formal ～ではありませんか？... all of which can be more or less translated to "isn't it?" or "don't you think?" I've heard that saying ～じゃん outside of the Tokyo area is not that common.

Rei:
ほんとに？
Really?

Niko:
うん。
Yeah.

Rei:
どうゆうところが？
Like what about it?
Literally: "what kind of + place + が？"
Note: Here どういう is getting morphed into どうゆう, which basically means "what kind of?"

The really interesting item here is this が. I've said this elsewhere, but が is kind of like the "pointer particle." It's always pointing at something--putting a specific focus on something. And when we use it in questions, it's asking the listener to "point out" something... that is, to clarify something.

So in this case, it's like saying. "Point out the 'places' that you thought were good."

Niko:
ん～…　全部おいしそうだし、アメリカだったら簡単に作れる。
ん～…　ぜんぶ　おいしそう　だ　し、　アメリカ　だったら　かんたんに　つくれる。
Mmhm... The food all looks good, and it'd be easy to make in the U.S.
Literally: "Mmhm... + everything + looks delicious + だし + America + if it was + easily + can make."
Note: This ん～ sound is very unique to Japanese, and a bit hard to convey in writing. Also, note that ～し could be translated as "because" (in many cases). Usually it's just pointing out one (of several) reasons for something... in this case, reasons I liked the site.

Many of you will already know this, but 作れる（つくれる // to be able to cook）is the potential form of 作る（つくる // to cook）.

Rei:
あと分かりやすいよね。
あと　わかりやすい　よね。
Also, it's easy to understand, right?
Literally: "later (=what's more) + easy to understand + よね."
Note: The word あと, which technically means "after; later," has quite a few uses and meanings. Here we see it being used as a casual form of "furthermore; what's more; in addition; also."

分かる（わかる） is "to understand."

Put that in ます-form, and we get 分かります（わかります）, which, depending on the subject could mean "He understands," "I understand," etc.

Chop off the ～ます (in other words, take the ます-stem) and add ～やすい to make the meanings "easy to understand," 分かりやすい（わかりやすい）.

For example, here are some verbs:

飲む（のむ // to drink）
食べる（たべる // to eat）
読む（よむ // to read）
歩く（あるく // to walk）

Now let's make all of those verbs "easy to do..."

飲みやすい（のみやすい // easy to drink）
食べやすい（たべやすい // easy to eat）
読みやすい（よみやすい // easy to read）
歩きやすい（あるきやすい // easy to walk）

Niko:
うん。
Yeah.

There you have it. A casual, everyday conversation straight out of Tokyo.