Nihongo to English

Talk About Nothing, In Japanese

• Michelle • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Ever tried to learn a language by watching TV shows, listening to news program, and that was way too too much!?  Well, this is a show for you! Great for students studying Japanese and Japanese students studying English, OR if you just want some chuckles!  That’s the spirit we bring as two comedians swap Niigata snow stories, and the tiny phrases that make Japanese feel alive off the page. We introduce ourselves as it is our first episode—and move quickly into what the flash cards can’t teach: timing, fillers like nanka, and the quiet power of greetings that bookend a day, from ittekimasu to okaerinasai.

The conversation bends toward identity in a way only language can. Which “I” are you today—watashi, boku, ore—and what does that choice tell the room about age, mood, and intent? We unpack sociolinguistic cues hiding in pronouns, region, and register, then laugh our way through memory hooks like “Don’t touch my mustache” for do itashimashita and “Costco salmon” for gochisousama. Purists might groan, but we make the case for playful mnemonics as scaffolding, not a crutch, and show how to transition from sticky jokes to clean delivery when it counts. Along the way, food becomes a classroom—karaage vs. karikari prompting corrections that sharpen the ear—and Niigata life underscores why small towns can turbocharge fluency: fewer English shortcuts, more real stakes, and nightly reps at the neighborhood izakaya.

Under the humor runs a practical system you can steal. Build scene-based Anki decks, record fixed exchanges, practice one filler until it’s yours, and keep a live list of words textbooks skip but life demands—futsukayoi included. We keep circling our half-joking premise: a “show about nothing” that ends up being about everything that matters in language learning—attention, courage, and the joy of being understood. If this blend of comedy, culture, and practical Japanese helps you feel braver in conversation, hit follow, share it with a friend who’s studying, and drop a review telling us your most memorable mnemonic. What phrase are you claiming next?

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SPEAKER_02:

Pairoto episodo. Nihongoto English no sho.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Nihongoto English no sho. I am one of your hosts, Michael Allen CPA. That stands for comedic performance artist. And I have passed the Japanese language proficiency test level N3. So I passed uh the level five, the level four, and then I passed the level three.

SPEAKER_02:

I've been teaching Japanese for 18 years.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh. So go like. Oh, sensei.

SPEAKER_02:

Sensei, but I'm not good at teaching.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh no? Oh, oh, that's but that's just a Japanese thing. Yeah. I studied uh what do you say? Flashcards in Japanese? I forget.

SPEAKER_02:

Tango cho?

SPEAKER_01:

Tango cho? Tango cho? Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, like language flashcards. So tango. I had maybe like Nisen Sanzen Tango Chou. Apasokon de uh Tsukuta. Was it Anki? I think there was a free program called Anki.

SPEAKER_02:

Anki? Ah, shitl shitl.

SPEAKER_01:

And I made uh thousands of tango chocolate. Wow. It was tango, but also uh gunsho and question and answer. Sugoi. And I studied and practiced and practiced and practiced. And I also uh shigoto wato de ego uh tokamachi si no nigatake no tokamachi. Hi. Hi uhome uh gume this. Oh uh ninen uh ninen can uh jukuto e kaiwa de ego shima. Gako junakte uh private jukuto e kaiwa A B C Scoot. And uh shigoto atode uh uh tokamachino is Izakaya uh uh masta to kaiwa shima.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh no menua.

SPEAKER_01:

Karikari chicken. Karikari chikin karikari chikin.

SPEAKER_02:

Karikari chikin did not.

SPEAKER_01:

What is that crunchy chicken?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh crunching.

SPEAKER_01:

It's karikari. Karage. I don't know why I said karika. I don't know why I said that. Karage. I'm nervous. Karage. Could you say karikari?

SPEAKER_02:

Karikari chikin. Yeah, that sounds like a good chicken plate.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh yeah, karage. I always like karage and um chipsu. Um but uh oh I like uh namatako ponzu.

SPEAKER_02:

Eh, namatako ponzu, taco taco ski.

SPEAKER_01:

Taco dai suki desifortinajin kara uh Mexican taco mosuki deso.

SPEAKER_02:

Taco taco. So how do you deal with?

SPEAKER_01:

Well I'm uh Yonju Nisa, so I'm kind of I am Oyaji Gang.

SPEAKER_02:

I am Oyaji.

SPEAKER_01:

I have a I have a not a mago. What's the mago? Mago?

SPEAKER_02:

Mago a granto kit.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh no, not mago. What's a niece is um what's a niece?

SPEAKER_02:

Mei.

SPEAKER_01:

It's like a uh my sister's my sister's daughter.

SPEAKER_02:

Mei.

SPEAKER_01:

Mei. I have a May. Maybe san. So I am Ojisan. Oh. By the way, this is kind of just gonna be what the show is about. At least for starters.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we should talk. Yeah. So what is this show about?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh well, when you originally pitched the show to me, here in Los Angeles, where we make entertaining content, uh you, a fellow comedian, I'm also a comedian, uh said, why don't we call the show Talk About Nothing or Talk About Nothing Show. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. In Japanese. Talk about nothing in Japanese.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But then I said, that's that's like Seinfeld, the show about nothing. Or what is nothing, I think was your idea.

SPEAKER_02:

Aaron Ross Powell Oh, Zen?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, yeah, it is kind of Zen.

SPEAKER_02:

It's very Zen.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Or it's like, Are we nothing? She comes to me and is like, let's make a podcast about existential philosophy. It's called Are We Nothing?

SPEAKER_02:

Tetsugaku poi.

SPEAKER_01:

Tetsugaku poi. Philosophy. Yeah. So I like Tetsugaku. I like Shakai Gaku. Uh Shakai Gaku nanka.

SPEAKER_02:

Nankka.

SPEAKER_01:

Nankakawa. N nan this ka.

SPEAKER_02:

Nankha. Nankakawa. Nank. It sounds like like nankka. Nankka. No, so I am from kanagawa. Okay. So kanaga kin karakita kada nanka teyu ka batash ta chi. You don't, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

But there's like long like it's like, oh my god, like a fellow girl. So so bade.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01:

So you say nan, but nankka. So that these are like little phrases at the ends of sentences that I hear and I just kind of process them by feeling. But when you say nankka, what are you actually expressing? It's like, oh, that's interesting, or like what is that? Or oh, that's like what's the sentiments?

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know. Nanka sugoy, that sounds like I don't know what it is, but it sounds awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

Aaron Ross Powell Oh, well you don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_02:

Well shakay uh social social studies.

SPEAKER_01:

Aaron Ross Powell Right. Well I guess social studies is kind of what they call it in uh in American like uh middle school and high school, and that includes like history and I guess politics to a very basic degree, um and some cultural studies stuff. But in Daikaku, uh Shakaigaku is uh sociology. Yeah. The study of people, societies, groups, how they get together, how they make decisions, how they fight, how they resolve conflicts, um how ideas spread between people of different cultures. So, yes, as a student of sociology, I have this interest in culture generally. So I I want to travel to Japan, I want to see other cultures, I want to live in other cultures. I'm not studying them in in a in a academic way. But I but I do it, but yeah, I'm but I'm doing a practical living in Japan for two years. So this uh, uh there's eeon. Uh yeah, beiritsu. These b it's like, oh, do I want to apply with like these bigaiwa, you know, get the get the passport and all that. And then I thought, no, I'm just gonna go to Japan by myself and just find a job once I'm there, which is like how uh the previous, like my parents' generation did it. Back then it was like, oh, they were they were given out English teaching jobs on trees. They were they would pay for your flight back then, I hear. Uh but I just went over there and I read an advertisement online once I was already there that said, um, come to uh Nigata Ken, come to Tokamachishi for ABC school, we're looking for a teacher. Uh Nigata is famous for much snow. And I thought nobody else is going to be applying for this job because most people who come here are gonna be like, I want to live in Tokyo, I want to live in Osaka. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to have nice weather. No one's gonna want it. Yeah, they're gonna be snow. I don't want to deal with that, but I was like, I bet they're really desperate. And I liked that it was like a small independent A Kaiwa. So I applied for it and I did a a Zoom interview. I went and I visited, and you know, they sponsored my visa. I took the job, and um yeah, it was really wonderful. It was really wonderful. Yeah, it could have been.

SPEAKER_02:

I was gonna say, oh, never suy.

SPEAKER_01:

Just now I was wondering, oh, I wanted to say, oh, totally, but then I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, but futoturi.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Mukashi.

SPEAKER_00:

Mukashi Mukashi. Mukashi Mukashi makerukunas.

SPEAKER_01:

Happy. It makes me very happy. Uh yeah, so that's my story.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh how did you get to um I wanted to get away from my parents. Oh.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I live like like five minutes from my parents.

SPEAKER_02:

That's so nice. That's so nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's why it's just so horrible that you get moved so far away from your parents. It's very nice for me and for you, you know. What a horrible person.

SPEAKER_02:

Sorry, that's that. Nikku. Hi.

SPEAKER_01:

So this cow. So I should buy a bunch of meat. No, I did.

SPEAKER_02:

I I bought meat for my parents.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. So I should buy it.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't do they eat meat?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I feel like it in America, it's like we eat meat all the time. It's kind of interesting to Well, in Japan, anything can be special because they sell everything. You can buy meat, you know, at the supa. Or you could get like the meat in like the very nice box, like a specialty gift box for the purpose of gifting.

SPEAKER_02:

So naka ki no hokoni hite. Kiri? Kitty. Kiri. Japanese cypress.

unknown:

Oh.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, so fancy.

SPEAKER_01:

Now if you buy meat in America for the same thing, it's more like this is like authentic Texas.

SPEAKER_02:

No, no.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, America Kobe. America, America no kobe wa Chigao. Chigao this. Kobe wa ko kobe wa ni hon ni hono.

SPEAKER_02:

Kobe to Matsuzaka beef. Matsuzaka wa Matsaka beefum you me. Matsuzaka wa dokoda ka waka night niho.

SPEAKER_01:

Where's Kansas? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

I hear niigata ken is like the Kansas of Japan.

SPEAKER_02:

And then mo harike and night.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, Hari Harike night. No.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh Nihata.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I loved it.

SPEAKER_02:

It was great.

SPEAKER_01:

I'll go back.

unknown:

I never been to that.

SPEAKER_01:

What should I say? You know, I when I want to talk about myself and I know Watashi. Watashi. I know Watakushi. I know Boku. I know Ore. Ole. And I always feel like in this context. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

Ore. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I mean, I I mean I know I could I could say or I know without Watakushi would be like too formal. I'd be like I'm a politician or something. But I might just say it for fun anyway.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like sometimes I want to say or then I'm like, oh am I gonna sound like a degenerate kind of like I am a middle-aged man though. When I say boku, I feel a little bit too like boku.

SPEAKER_02:

My dad still calls himself boku.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh-huh. Okay. If I want to be like edgy.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know. I've never met Japanese edgy persons, so I don't know how they call it.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, you've got surely you've got edgy people in Japan.

SPEAKER_02:

There's no edgy people in Japan.

SPEAKER_01:

Not one. Well, what about like what about like uh yanki?

SPEAKER_02:

Yanki? Yanki wa uh oira. What about oira? Oirawa.

SPEAKER_01:

Oira like a like an oiler. Yeah no, spoilers.

SPEAKER_02:

Ore oila. Oida.

SPEAKER_01:

Oida? Is that another oi? Is that another oikashi? It's another eye. Who says that?

SPEAKER_02:

Country pumpkin.

SPEAKER_01:

Country pumpkin. Well, that's what they would say about tokamachi.

SPEAKER_02:

Ichiga.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, Ichigo Yuzawa? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02:

Market. Ichigo echigo. Ichigo. Ichigo.

SPEAKER_01:

Ichigo yuzawa. Station.

SPEAKER_02:

So was there a market every tenth of the month?

SPEAKER_01:

Historically. Historically it was No, I think it was that it was a it was either that I feel like Niju Pasento, maybe it was that. But maybe it was because it was a 10-day travel from Ichigo. Or from from the local whatever the local big tub was. It was like, oh, Tokamachi is like, oh, it would take you ten days to get there from whatever the central location was. But there was also like a mu Muikamachi?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh. Is it closer to the Trevor Burrus?

SPEAKER_01:

Is it closer to the case?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, I well, that'd be an interesting thing to check, right? It was either a market every 10 days or it was it had to do with the distance. Hatska daikon.

SPEAKER_02:

You know Hatska Daikon?

SPEAKER_01:

Aaron Powell Hatsukawa 20 days. It grows in the Trevor Burrus.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it grows in twenty days.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02:

Hatska nezumi.

SPEAKER_00:

Hatska nezumi. Oh.

SPEAKER_01:

Hatsuka what's like Hatsukayoi? What's that? No, Futskayoi. Futsukayoi.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, because you are second-day drunk.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, Futsu. Yeah, Futsukayoi. That's one of those words that I'd have no reason to know. Sometimes when I was studying uh Japanese, I would look up words that were definitely not going to be on the test. On the test. But you know, yeah, I want to know how to say like I'm hungover in Japanese.

SPEAKER_02:

Futsukay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Why why don't they have that in the English book?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know, Genki.

SPEAKER_01:

In the Genki book.

SPEAKER_00:

Genki itchi. Or what would you say? Like uh like are uh uh uh uh atamaitai. Dai what it's called? Uh uh it's ramen in night, you know. Subani taikon taikonsyopala.

SPEAKER_01:

Like why can't that be?

SPEAKER_02:

It's like ding ding ding.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh what what is the problem that the that the husband is having? Like, you know, he doesn't want to go to work. So right now, for those of you listening, we're looking in the uh the Genki level one uh Japanese learning book.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh Aisatsu.

SPEAKER_01:

Hi. Oh Aisatsu.

SPEAKER_02:

Hi.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, Asa no Aisatsu. Hi. Hizeimas.

SPEAKER_02:

I I can't read. Ah, when you visit someone, what are you supposed to say? Oh, when you s when you meet someone on the street, what are you supposed to say during the day?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Uh konichiwa. Yoruba night, Yoruba kombama.

SPEAKER_02:

Sayanawa sanana.

SPEAKER_01:

Hatanewa nigata ken no kotuba. Kanga suda Hogan.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh nigata ken.

SPEAKER_01:

Hajjane. Hachan hachane.

SPEAKER_02:

Nan de hatjane.

SPEAKER_01:

Makaranai. Wakaranai. Hajimitekita be Hatchanewa no himiwa. It's like uh uh well there's also like atode?

SPEAKER_02:

Later. See you later.

SPEAKER_01:

Or you could say um bye-bye. Bye bye, bye bye. Matane. Yeah, you can say m yeah, you can say matane.

SPEAKER_02:

Matane.

SPEAKER_01:

What do you what do you mean?

SPEAKER_02:

Jane.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh jane. Sayonara. I almost never say sayonara.

SPEAKER_02:

Sayonara nankasami kalayata.

SPEAKER_01:

Or you're gonna say like mata ashta if you're gonna see them tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02:

Matane. Jane.

SPEAKER_01:

Jane.

SPEAKER_02:

Bye bye.

SPEAKER_01:

Bye bye.

SPEAKER_02:

Do itashimash.

SPEAKER_01:

Uhrigato kozai must do itashimashte.

SPEAKER_02:

But don't touch my mustache.

SPEAKER_01:

Don't but do it. Oh wow, that's a stretch.

SPEAKER_02:

Don't touch my mustache.

SPEAKER_01:

Even though to me, don't touch my mustache doesn't sound at all like Doitashimash. If it helps you remember it, then it doesn't matter if it sounds like it or not. If it just helps you remember it.

SPEAKER_02:

What about gochi sosama?

SPEAKER_01:

Gochi sosama?

SPEAKER_02:

Costco salmon.

SPEAKER_01:

Costaco salmon. Gochi sosama?

SPEAKER_02:

Go to so sama. Costco salmon.

SPEAKER_01:

That's like completely. Costco. Sal.

SPEAKER_02:

Go to so samat.

SPEAKER_01:

But where's the G?

SPEAKER_02:

Gi Solsama.

SPEAKER_01:

Ghost go it's not Kochi, it's not Kochi Sol Samat. Gochi. It's not Ghostko. It's Costa. It's Costco.

SPEAKER_02:

Close enough.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's because you have Ka and K. Ka. So you think, oh, ka and G are just the same. No. I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

Sumimasen.

SPEAKER_01:

Sumimasen. I those are the same.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, it says I.

SPEAKER_01:

But that could also be Aragado Samus. Tadaima?

SPEAKER_02:

Tadaima. Yeah, iteki. No, itekimas. No, when somebody says itimas, you're supposed to say it. What about tadaima? Okaidi Nai.

SPEAKER_01:

Okaidi Nasai. I haven't said these in such a long time. So let's let's Tadaima Okaidi Nasai or Okaidi.

SPEAKER_02:

Nice.

SPEAKER_01:

Yuroshko ngai shimas.

SPEAKER_02:

Do you say that? Yurosko nigashimas?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean sometimes I'll say just Yorosuku.

SPEAKER_02:

Yoroshku.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you could say Yorosku. Yorosuku. But I might say Yorosuko ngai shima. I think as a foreign speaker, sometimes if I just want to be safe, I'll just default to the kind of like Yoroshko nice. Because if I if I'm just like Yoroshku, I don't know, am I like coming off too rude or too I don't know. I'd rather err on the side of being more formal and polite. They don't care. They have they just appreciate that you're trying. But yeah, Yoroshko on the gai shimas. Or if I want to be sale, I'll be like Yoroshko on the gai sudo. Yodoshku on the gai stay must. So good amountai shimas, shimas, sudu. Yorosku onega.

SPEAKER_00:

No. Shimasu. Yosuko negaisimas. And then does Yorosku onegay shteiru no deska?

SPEAKER_01:

I just start adding, I just add more things to the end of things. Because there's other places where you can do that. Anyway, that's how I exercises. Was that it? Was that the whole thing? So it's itakimas. I'm coming and going. I'm going and coming back. Okay. And you say, but tadaima. Well, tadaima okay nasai, but itakimasu, and then you say iterai.

SPEAKER_00:

Yay!

SPEAKER_01:

See, I would never do that if I were just doing something in English, but because we just finished a Japanese exercise.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, so we'll we'll talk about more next week on next section. Is that next week or next month? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Next time.

SPEAKER_02:

Next time. Ah, jikai.

SPEAKER_01:

People who know that what's going on really around here, I will ask you in Japanese. Okay. Anatawa yagi ka sakana.

SPEAKER_02:

Sakana design.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thank you for joining Nihongo To Ego no show.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so laiku to sub subto.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's our our beautiful audience that's listening right now. Uh, thank you.

SPEAKER_02:

Matane.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Michael Allen

Co-host
Head Shot

Michelle MaliZaki

Co-host