こんにちは、あかりです。2023年(ねん)、はじめてのエピソードです。あけましておめでとうございます！

Usage of Slow Japanese:
STEP 1. Listen to the episode without seeing scripts.
STEP 2. Go to mochifika.com/podcast/ and check "Key vocabularies of this episode", and listen again to the episode while seeing the list.
STEP 3. Check the whole script, it'll fill the gap in your understanding.

👉Support Mochifika project, and see full scripts + access to the additional materials!
https://www.patreon.com/mochifika

Slow Japanese

Episode #45 - The beginning of a new year

At a Hollywood studio this October, Tesla unveiled its long-awaited robotaxi, though fans of the electric vehicle maker will have to wait until at least 2026 before it is available.

CEO Elon Musk pulled up to a stage in one of the company's "Cybercabs," telling the crowd that the AI-powered vehicles don't have steering wheels or pedals.

He also expressed confidence in the progress the company has made on autonomous driving technology that makes it possible for vehicles to drive without human intervention.

Tesla began selling the software, which is called "Full Self-Driving," nine years ago. But there are doubts about its reliability.

"We'll move from supervised Full Self-Driving to unsupervised Full Self-Driving, where you can fall asleep and wake up at your destination," he said.

Tesla expects the Cybercabs to cost under $30,000, Musk said. He estimated that the vehicles would become available "before 2027."

The company also expects to make the Full Self-Driving technology available on its popular Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in Texas and California next year.

However, shares of Tesla Inc fell not long after the unveiling — investors don't see a clear timeline for the rollout of the Cybercabs, while other companies are already using similar technology.

"Tesla yet again claimed it is a year or two away from actual automated driving — just as the company has been claiming for a decade," Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor who studies automated vehicles, told The Associated Press.

Tesla's announcement comes as US safety regulators are investigating Full Self-Driving and Autopilot based on evidence that it has a weak system for making sure human drivers pay attention.

Last April near Seattle, a Tesla using Full Self-Driving hit and killed a motorcyclist, authorities said. The Tesla driver told authorities that he was using the system while looking at his phone when the car hit the motorcyclist from behind.



Practice Listening, Reading & Comprehension

Tesla Announces Self-Driving 'Cybercab' for 2026

Welcome to learn easy Thai with Kru sumon.  

Today we will learn how to speak Thai from a short conversation during a phone call.  This is a conversation between A and B. 

A : สวัสดีค่ะ  ขอสาย คุณแมรี่ ค่ะ
(sa-wad-dee kha , khor saai khun Mary kha)

B: รอซักครุ่ค่ะ ... ขอโทษนะคะ คุณแมรี่ ไม่อยุ่ค่ะ ให้โทรกลับมั้ยคะ
(ror sak khroo kha.  Khor tote na kha. Khun Mary mai yoo kha. Hai toe glap mai kha?)

A: ไม่เป็นไรค่ะ เดี๋ยวโทรมาใหม่
(mai bpen rai kha.  Diao toe maa mai)

This is a situation where A made a phone call and B picked up the phone. A is asking for Mary.
B. told A to wait and then inform that Mary is not in. 
B asked if A want Mary to call her back.
A said No.

From this conversation , we learn that :

When you make a phone call , and ask for some one. You will say
ขอสาย ...................  (khor saai ……………)
followed by the name of person

or you also can add one more word here 
ขอสาย .................. หน่อย  (khor saai……….. noi)
put Noi at the end to soften the sentence.


when you want someone to wait, you will say
รอซักครู่  (ror sak kroo)
= wait a moment , please

When you want to say “Sorry”, you will say
ขอโทษ  (khor tote)  = sorry

When you want to ask if the listener want the person to call him or her back, you will say
ให้โทรกลับมั้ย (hai toe glab mai?)  = Do you want (the person) to call you back?

If you want to refuse this question, you will say
ไม่เป็นไร  
Actually ไม่เป็นไร means , that’s fine. It doesn’t matter. I am ok.

When you want to say I will call back later, you will say
เดี๋ยวโทรกลับมาใหม่  (diao toe glab maa mai) = I will call back later.










Learn Easy Thai With Sumon

EP1 : Phone call : She's not in.

In this American English language podcast episode, I talk about travelling tips. I talk about buying a local SIM card at the airport of your destination. Subscribe to my podcast please!
My italki teacher profile https://italki.com/teacher/1947582 Thanks for listening! Visit my website for more of my full-length podcasts . www.streetwisenglish.com

Streetwise English

SWE43 Travel Tips Part 2 : Get a local SIM card at the airport (American English)

庭の梅が咲きました。梅の花が咲くと、本格的に春が来るなとそわそわします。梅の話から、神社、そして地元の伝統工芸の話をしています。


Today I talk about Japanese plum, ume blossoms. Seeing ume blooming, I feel I have to do something just because spring is coming! 
The topics move from ume blossoms to the shrine, and local traditional crafts.


+++ words +++
様子（ようす）　　　　　　　appearance
感動（かんどう）する　　　　be moved, touched
梅干し　　　　　　　　　　　pickled dried ume(plum)
梅の実（うめのみ）　　　　　ume, Japanese plum
漬ける（つける）　　　　　　pickle, preserve in (salt, suger...)
干す（ほす）　　　　　　　　dry (in the sun)
植える（うえる）　　　　　　plant
お参りに行く（おまいりにいく）go to pray
人形（にんぎょう）　　　　　doll
素朴な（そぼくな）　　　　　rustic
伝統工芸（でんとうこうげい）traditional crafts

+++ grammers +++
Nばかり　　　　　　　　　　 only N
V1たり、V2たり　　　　　　　do such as V1 and V2
N好き（Nずき）　　　　　　　person who like N ⇔Nぎらい

Country Life in Japan とかいとちがう　かもしれない　いなかのくらし

梅の花から天神さん、張り子のお話

你可以再说一遍吗？
nǐ kě yǐ zài shuō yī biàn ma

日常中文（Daily Chinese）

Could you say it again?   你可以再说一遍吗？

...
Какие виды кругом — каждое окно в доме было рамой своей особенной картины! С одной стороны Волга с крутыми берегами и Заволжьем; с другой — широкие поля, обработанные и пустые, овраги, и все это замыкалось далью синевших гор. С третьей стороны видны села, деревни и часть города. Воздух свежий, прохладный, от которого, как от летнего купанья, пробегает по телу дрожь бодрости. Дом весь был окружен этими видами, этим воздухом, да полями, да садом. Сад обширный около обоих домов, содержавшийся в порядке, с темными аллеями, беседкой и скамьями. Чем далее от домов, тем сад был запущеннее.

Подле огромного развесистого вяза, с сгнившей скамьей, толпились вишни и яблони: там рябина; там шла кучка лип, хотела было образовать аллею, да вдруг ушла в лес и братски перепуталась с ельником, березняком. И вдруг все кончалось обрывом, поросшим кустами, идущими почти на полверсты берегом до Волги. Подле сада, ближе к дому, лежали огороды. Там капуста, репа, морковь, петрушка. огурцы, потом громадные тыквы, а в парнике арбузы и дыни. Подсолнечники и мак, в этой массе зелени, делали яркие, бросавшиеся в глаза, пятна; около тычинок вились турецкие бобы.
...

Нескучные истории - Not boring stories

Отрывок из романа "Обрыв" Ивана Александровича Гончарова

In this lesson, we will learn the way of transportation, weather and some electric appliance.
useful expressions such as: neither..nor, if,  how,  not at all etc.

Basic communication conversations

第十四课 和你去旅游 Lesson 14 travel with you

In this episode we are going to learn how to 【Introduce families 】. 
--------------------------------------------------
As a beginner, there're some vocabularies that you didn't learn before, and native speaker's speed seems too fast to understand. But don't worry, let's do it step by step. 
1st time: listen and catch the words you know alreay, have a guess about the content.
2nd time: look at the text to check if you guessed it right. 
3rd time: listen one more time, repeat after it.
4th time: practise until you can speak as the normal speed without looking at the text. 
--------------------------------------------------
我家有五口人。
wǒ jiā yǒu wǔ kǒu rén 。
There are five people in my family.
爸爸、妈妈、哥哥、姐姐和我。
bà ba 、 mā ma 、 gē ge 、 jiě jie hé wǒ 。
Father, mother, elder brother, elder sister and I.
我爸爸今年60岁了，他以前是一名医生，在医院上班。
wǒ bà ba jīn nián liùshí suì le ， tā yǐ qián shì yì míng yī shēng ， zài yī yuàn shàng bān 。
My father is 60 years old. He used to be a doctor. He worked in a hospital.
我妈妈今年57岁了，她以前在银行上班。
wǒ mā ma jīn nián wǔshíqī suì le ， tā yǐ qián zài yín háng shàng bān 。
My mother is 57 years old and she used to work in a bank.
我哥哥在工厂上班，他是一名工人。
wǒ gē ge zài gōng chǎng shàng bān ， tā shì yì míng gōng rén 。
My brother works in a factory. He is a worker.
我姐姐不上班，她在家照顾女儿。
wǒ jiě jie bú shàng bān ， tā zài jiā zhào gù nǚ ér 。
My sister doesn't work. She stays at home to look after her daughter.
我是一名老师，我在网上教中文。
wǒ shì yì míng lǎo shī ， wǒ zài wǎng shàng jiāo zhōng wén 。
I am a teacher and I teach Chinese online.