Two people talk about things they like and dislike.

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こんにちは、Mikaです

このポッドキャストでは私の日々の出来事を通して、
日本語をより身近に楽しく感じてもらえたら嬉しいです。
短い間ですがリラックスした気分でどうぞお付き合いください。

さて、今日は日本の駅名や地名の読み方についてお話ししようと思います。
日本に旅行をしたときに地名の漢字の読み方について不思議に思ったことはありませんか？

例えば 「町」　という漢字
この漢字は「まち」とも「ちょう」とも呼ぶことができます。
地名や住所にとてもよく使われる漢字です。

・浜松町　はままつちょう
・御徒町　おかちまち
・人形町　にんぎょうちょう
・大手町　おおてまち
・神保町　じんぼうちょう
・田町　　たまち
・有楽町　ゆうらくちょう

などなど。。混乱しますよね。

これらは東京の地名や駅の名前です。
山手線などの電車に乗るとこの名前を聞くことがありますが
「なんで "ちょう？" 」　「なんで "まち？" 」　「何が違うの？」
と思いますよね。

実は江戸時代という数百年前の東京では武士（ぶし）と呼ばれる人達が
住んでいた場所は「まち」と呼び、町民と呼ばれる人達が住んでいた場所は
「ちょう」と呼んでいたそうです。
なので御徒町（おかちまち）など町（まち）と呼んだり、
有楽町（ゆうらくちょう）など町（ちょう）と呼んだりします。

日本の地名や駅名、人の名前などは読み方がとても複雑で
難しい場合がありますが、その理由には深い意味があります。
もし不思議に思ったときには調べてみると面白いかもしれません。

日本だけではなく世界中に深い意味のある地名や駅名がたくさんあると思います。
私にも教えてくださいね。
そしてクイズでは漢字の読み方の難しい地名や駅名を出しています。
いくつの漢字を読むことができるか是非挑戦してみてください。

それでは今日も笑顔の多い一日を！
またね～


mika's whisper talk

Vol.4  まち？ちょう？何が違うの？  /  machi？cho? What's the difference?

Give and receive advice as well as a gift & articles kein/keine VS ein/eine, nein VS nicht VS kein.

Paul is watching TV with his parents. They complain: Paul has no girlfriend, no good job and no money. He should get his act together. They give him a valuable book as a present in order to make his apartment more stylish. That confuses him: Why is the book valuable? And how valuable?

Boost your German online!
At German Stories, we have speaking, reading, listening, and writing exercises. And there is a lesson plan with progress tracker. It's all right here at german-stories.com

German Stories starts from zero, and leads you to your goal in small steps
It's not difficult to create a learning story and jump to complicated grammatical structures early on, just so the author doesn't have a hard time writing. But it's very difficult to fit your writing into a well structured teaching plan, so that the student doesn't have too much trouble learning German.

We did it the hard way. Hard for us, easy for you: Luckily there's only a little bit of grammar per episode for you to learn. If you're curious about our motivations behind putting in so much effort, go to german-stories.com/the-best-way-to-learn-german

Here's how to get YOUR NAME on the next German Stories episode:
Launch the Apple Podcast app on your iPhone / iPad and tap the search icon (on top). Search for “German Stories | Learn German with Stories”, and tap on our podcast. Once you're there, scroll down to "Ratings & Reviews", and tap "Write a Review" (or log in first). Write us something nice and give us 5 stars :-)






German Stories | Learn German with Stories

11: Das Buch | The book

Hey baby, you rock my world! I've fallen head over heels in love with you.
Some common expressions we use when talking about LOVE.

(对不起 about my Chinese pronunciation! This is why listening is so important in learning languages.)

The Social Evolutionary

The Language of LOVE

Learn the best vocabulary related to cars and driving as well as some modern language related to technology and innovation.

New English US

Learn English: Self-Driving Cars (pre-intermediate level)

聊中西文化，也聊很多东西！
第十期，终于要来聊一聊学外语，和我做播客的原因了。

聊聊东西 - Talk to Me in Chinese

010. 聊聊学语言和为什么做播客 How to learn languages - ttmiChinese

In this episode, you will hear about, the origin of how bolivia was colonized, why the Spanish people came, and what they were looking for.

Tales and Stories of Bolivia

El Dorado (A tale about the Spanish colonization)

This lesson is about the steps to consider when opening your own business.
This is a two-part series, so be sure to listen to part 2. 

Enjoy!

Say Hi English! With Teacher Duran.

English on demand (Business English: Starting Your own Business) Part one

British writer Bill Bryson once wrote that "London is a city of endless possibility" — and perhaps, endless traffic?

The UK capital is the most congested city in Europe, according to transport analytics company Inrix.

The company looked at data from different cities around the world, and found that drivers in London spent an average of 101 hours sitting in traffic in 2024. That's up from 99 hours in 2023, and 97 hours in 2022.

According to Inrix, these delays cost the city more than $4.8 billion a year — or about $1,200 for each of London's 4 million drivers.

Inrix says London's bad traffic congestion is caused by the "concentration of population, employment and economic activity."

But although it's Europe's most congested city for the fourth year in a row, London has improved in the global rankings. It was third in the world in 2023, but is now in fifth place globally. It is still, however, the only European city in the top five.

Istanbul has jumped to first place, up from sixth, with drivers in the Turkish city spending an average of 105 hours in traffic per year.

New York and Chicago are next on the list, followed by Mexico City in fourth place.

Inrix also calculated each city's "downtown speed" — that is, the speed at which a driver can expect to travel 1.6 kilometers in the center of the city during morning rush hour.

For each of the top five cities, the downtown speed was under 25 kilometers an hour.