Lesson 11 of 16
Where You Came From
about 12 minutes
After this lesson you can
- Say which country or town you came from, and ask someone the same.
- Greet someone you have not met at a meeting point and give your name.
Words this lesson teaches
- どこ
- where
- きました
- came
- えき
- station
- にしぐち
- west exit
- くに
- country; home country
- まちあわせ
- a meeting point; an arrangement to meet
- スウェーデン
- Sweden
- メキシコ
- Mexico
What it explains
から marks the place you started
Put から straight after a place and the sentence says you started there: スウェーデンから きました. The place can be as big as a country or as small as the café two streets away, and the pattern does not change. In a first conversation, どこから きましたか is asking about your country; on a Tuesday morning at a station it is asking which train you got off.
The two questions strangers actually ask
おなまえは？ and どこから きましたか together cover most first exchanges with someone you have just met. Answering both takes one sentence each, and having them ready is the difference between a conversation and a polite nod. Give the country first; the town only matters if the other person knows it.
The scene itself is in the app.
Lesson one of this track is free to read in full. From lesson two on, the story, the audio and the review are part of a free account.
