Exchange In Japan

Japanese Master Post | Survival Expressions in Japanese

Hey guys, I wanted to make a sort of “master post” of useful Japanese expressions and vocabulary that will help you out either if you’re in Japan or find yourself having a conversation with a Japanese person! This post doesn’t contain everything that you would need to know but hopefully it’s enough to help you out! Greetings

Hello・こんにちは

Long time no see・久しぶり・ひさしぶり

Pleased to meet you・初めまして・はじめまして

Pleased to meet you・よろしくお願いします・よろしくおねがいします

How are you?・お元気ですか・おげんきですか

I’m good・元気です・げんきです

I’m so-so・まあまあです

What’s new?・どうしたの

See you later・じゃ、またね

Basic Pleasantries

Yes・はい

No・いいえ

Good morning・おはようございます

Good afternoon・こんにちは

Good evening・こんばんは

Good night・おやすみなさい

I’m leaving・行ってきます・いってきます

See you later・行ってらっしゃい・いってらっしゃい

I’m home・ただ今・ただいま

Welcome back・お帰りなさい・おかえりなさい

Excuse me・すみません

I’m sorry・ごめんなさい

Thank you・ありがとうございます

Reply to thank you・どういたしまして

Please・お願いします・おねがいします

Good luck・頑張ってね・がんばってね

Cheers・乾杯・かんぱい

Bon appetit・いただきます

Thank you for the meal・ごちそうさまでした

Basic Phrases

What’s your name?・名前は何ですか・なまえはなんですか

My name is __・私は__と申します・私は__ともうします

Where are you from?・どこから来ましたか・どこからきましたか

I’m from Australia・オーストラリアです

What music do you like?・どんな音楽が好きですか・どんなおんがくがすきですか

I don’t know・知らない「知りません」・しらない「しりません」

I don’t understand・分からない「分かりません」・わからない「わかりません」

I understand・分かる「分かります」・わかる「わかります」

Please say that again・もう一度、 言 ってください・もうーいちど、いってください

Please speak more slowly・もっとゆっくり話してください・もっとゆっくりはなしてください

Please write that down・書いてください・かいてください

What did you say?・何と言ったのですか・なんといったのですか

Do you speak English?・英語が話せますか・えいごがはなせますか

I can’t speak Japanese・私は日本語が話せません・わたしはにほんごがはなせません

How do you say __ in Japanese?・“＿”は日本語で何と言いますか・“＿”はにほんごでなんといいますか

Do you have an English menu?・英語のメニューはありますか・えいごのめにゅーはありますか

Directions

I’m lost・私は迷子になりました・わたしはまいごになりました

Can you help me?・手伝っていただけますか・てつだっていただけます

Where is the ___?・“＿”はどこですか

Go straight・まっすぐ行ってください・まっすぐいってください

Turn left・左に曲がってください・ひだりにまがってください

Turn right・右に曲がってください・みぎにまがってください

Time

1 hour・一時・いちじ

2 hours・二時・にじ

3 hours・三時・さんじ

4 hours・四時・よじ

5 hours・五時・ごじ

6 hours・六時・ろくじ

7 hours・七時・しちじ

8 hours・八時・はちじ

9 hours・九時・くじ

10 hours・十時・じゅうじ

11 hours・十一時・じゅういちじ

12 hours・十二時・じゅうにじ

What’s the time?・今は何時ですか・いまはなんじですか

Countries

Africa・アフリカ

America・アメリカ

Australia・オーストラリア

Belgium・ベルギー

Brazil・ブラジル

Canada・カナダ

Chile・チリ

China・中国・ちゅうごく

Denmark・デンマーク

Fiji・フィジー

France・フランス

Germany・ドイツ

Great Britain・イギリス

Greece・ギリシャ

Hong Kong・香港・ほんこん

India・インド

Indonesia・インドネシア

Israel・イスラエル

Italy・イタリア

Japan・日本・にほん・にっぽん

Lithuania・リトアニア

Malaysia・マレーシア

Mexico・メキシコ

New Zealand・ニュージーランド

North Korea・北朝鮮・きたちょうせん

Philippines・フィリピン

Russia・ロシア

Singapore・シンガポール

South Korea・韓国・かんこく

Sweden・スウェーデン

Thailand・タイ

Vietnam・ベトナム

Numbers

1・一・いち

2・二・に

3・三・さん

4・四・よん

5・五・ご

6・六・ろく

7・七・しち

8・八・はち

9・九・きゅう

10・十・じゅう

11・十一・じゅういち

12・十二・じゅうに

Exclamations

Um…・えーと

OMG・マジかよ

Really?・本当に

Seriously?・マジで

Don’t mess around・ふざけるなよ

Shut up・だまれ

学校 (がっこう) gakkou - School

学生 (がくせい) gakusei /  生徒 (せいと) seito - Student/pupil

小学校 (しょうがっこう) shougakkou - Primary school

小学生 (しょうがくせい) shougakusei - Primary student

中学校 (ちゅうがっこう) chuugakkou - Junior high school

中学生 ( ちゅうがくせい) chuugakusei - Junior high school student

高等学校 (こうとうがっこう) koutougakkou - High school

高校生 (こうこうせい) koukousei - High school student

大学 (だいがく) daigaku - College/university

大学生 ( だいがくせい) daigakusei - College/university student

留学生 (りゅうがくせい) ryuugakusei  - Exchange student

教師 (きょうし) kyoushi - Teacher

先生 (せんせい) sensei - Teacher, master

学年 (がくねん) gakunen - School year

クラス kurasu - Class

教室 (きょうしつ) kyoushitsu - Classroom

黒板 (こくばん) kokuban - Blackboard

机 (つくえ) tsukue - Desk

椅子 (いす) isu - Chair

本 (ほん) hon - Book

ノートnooto  - Notebook

ペン pen - Pen

クレヨン kureyon - Crayon

鉛筆 (えんぴつ) enpitsu - Pencil

消しゴム (けしゴム) keshigomu - Rubber

筆箱 (ふでばこ) fudebaku - Pencil case

リュックサック ryukkusakku - Rucksack, backpack

テスト tesuto - Test

宿題 (しゅくだい) shukudai - Homework

学課 ( がっか) gakka - Lesson

点数 ( てんすう ) tensuu - Score, grade

英語 (えいご) eigo - English

日本語 (にほんご) nihongo - Japanese

数学 (すうがく) suugaku - Mathematics

地理学 (ちりがく) chirigaku - Geography

生物学 (せいぶつがく) seibutsugaku - Biology

化学 (かがく) kagaku - Chemistry

物理学 (ぶつりがく) butsurigaku - Physics

体育 (たいいく) taiiku - Physical education

Japanese vocabulary part 2!

Part 1: Fruit, Other Food, Drinks

Part 2: Colours, Numbers, Seasons

Part 3: Clothing, Accessories

Medical Terminology! YAY! ✺◟( • ω • )◞✺

Just more fun words to know. :)

Kanji is said to be the most difficult part of learning Japanese. The most common reasons for this are “there are a lot of them,” or “they are complicated,” or even “they are hard.”

But if you know how to learn kanji, it doesn’t need to be so hard. You don’t need to spend 10+ years studying kanji to reach a decent level of Japanese literacy. One or two years will do, if you’ve got the right technique.

Around five years ago, Tofugu made the kanji-learning application WaniKani to fix the “learning kanji” problem. Since then, we’ve seen students learn all 2,000+ jouyou kanji (not to mention 6,000+ vocabulary words) in just over a year.

In this article, we’re going to give you the recipe to our secret sauce so you can do the same, no WaniKani necessary.

Even if you think you’re “bad at kanji,” you’ll see a five to tenfold increase in your kanji learning speed the moment you get to the bottom of this page. A pretty good reward for fifteen minutes of reading time, don’t you think?

Now, you may be wondering: “Why would you give away WaniKani’s secret sauce? Won’t that decrease your WaniKani customers?” The answer is “we have no idea.” But here’s why we’re giving it all away:

Not everyone can afford to pay for WaniKani (around $7-9/month). We want to give these people another option. If someone wants education, they should be able to get it.

If you create a free WaniKani account, you can use WaniKani levels 1–3 for free (that’s 100+ kanji, and 300+ vocabulary words). By that time, you’ve learned everything in this guide and more. People don’t stick with WaniKani because we keep the method a secret. They stick with it because it’s hard to quit (some say “addicting”), it’s simple (sit down, follow the instructions, and you will make progress), it has a huge community of like-minded Japanese learners (though sometimes they’re a bit weird), and it’s an all-in-one solution (SRS, ordering, and more).

We want more people to know about this method. It’s existed in various forms for nearly 50 years, but very few people are using it. Tofugu has a unique opportunity to spread the word and help out teachers, students, and everyone in between. We want to move the Japanese language industry forward, because it’s been stagnant for a long time.

That being said, what do you get from this guide?

If you’re a student, you’ll discover the secret to learning 2,000+ kanji in one to two years. If you are extremely motivated and have a lot of free time, maybe even less than that.

If you’re a teacher, you’ll learn how to teach kanji in your class using this method. We’ll provide reference materials for you to use, so you can build a kanji/vocabulary teaching method tailored to your teaching needs.

So Japanese has f i n a l l y come to Duolingo. I’ve been using it for about 2 weeks now and I like it! I encourage anyone from beginner to intermediate level to download it (it’s free) and join our japanese club by hitting clubs > enter code within the app for extra motivation!

How to give someone your opinion in Japanese part 2

払う「はらう」and 支払う「しはらう」both mean to pay but have slight differences in when they are used

払う  can be used to mean to pay but it doesn’t just mean money as it’s also when you pay/compensate for something in equal value. Also, as you’ll see in an example, it doesn’t just mean to pay but also to brush or to dust off

払わせてください

彼女はむ棲むのレッスン代を払うため、必需品をなしですませた

敷物のほこりを払って落とそう

注意を払う　To pay attention

敬意を払う    to pay respects

犠牲を払う    to pay dearly for; to sacrifice 

支払う on the other hand is used for paying with money, paying fees, paying bills, etc. You’ll see it with words like  代金、料金、授業料、家賃、給料、税金、罰金, and so on. 

彼にお金を支払わせよう

彼らは別々に支払った

彼は私たちに高い賃金を支払うことを約束した

Yes, this is a part of the usage of particle に, but in this lesson, we focus on the combination of に and 行く. 行く (iku) means to go. You can conjugate the 行く normally.

This pattern use the Verb stem form. It’s a form where you conjugate a verb into ます form, but then you remove the ます. 

Happy learning °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°  

…………………………………………

Links:

Rhona NicDhùghaill, “Don’t Neglect the UK’s Indigenous Languages”

The whole article is great, but this quote is especially stellar. 

A list of things to practice your listening skills with, and to practice hearing the flow of Japanese, so as to better incorporate that in your own speaking (*•̀ᴗ•́*)و ̑̑

YouTube

LayerQ - gaming channel, speaks clearly.

Mitoku - gaming channel, speaks at a nice pace. I’m currently watching her Breath of the Wild LP!

Roa - gaming channel, speaks really fast, but she’s just so 元気 that it doesn’t matter that she’s hard to follow. I enjoy having her in the background.

Fonimu - plays a lot of JRPGs, but he is very relaxing to listen to, and polite.

日本語の森 - I’m sure you all know this one! Get Japanese explained to you in Japanese. They have dedicated channels for N3, N2, and N1.

Just Duncan - Japanese youtuber, with Japanese subtitles. It’s been a year since he uploaded anything, but I enjoy his sense of humor.

Shows

If you want to use shows for practicing listening, either a) listen with closed eyes, b) turn off subtitles, or c) put on Japanese subtitles.

野武士のグルメ - Samurai Gourmet. I swear, this is the cutest show in the world. Go find it and just feel the warmth of watching a sweet elderly man having lunch.

Japanese Style Originator - a show where the origins of Japanese concepts are explained, and some people have to make some guesses. The game part of it isn’t terrible interesting, and the music they use is obnoxiously loud, but I’ve learned some very interesting things!

Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories - as far as I understand this is a live-action adaptation of a manga. I haven’t watched it yet.

Terrace House - Japanese reality show about 6 young people living in a house together.

Little Witch Academia - anime about a witch school. It’s kinda cute.

AJIN: Demi-human - significantly darker anime than the one listed above. This is the only one on the list without any kind of Japanese subs available.

Good Morning Call - drama about two classmates accidentally renting the same apartment. I haven’t seen this, but it looks like it caters to every romance trope in the best way possible.

Keep in mind that availability varies greatly depending on countries! The ones I’ve listed are available on Netflix Denmark, so I’m thinking they are also available in most of Europe and America as well.

Podcasts

ひいきびいき - a super relaxing podcast with hour long episodes feat. two Japanese people just talking about their days and anything and everything. I really like this one.

バイリングアルニュース - Bilingual News. A Japanese-speaking woman and an English-speaking man discuss recent events. This is easier to follow along with, because you have the context very clearly in English.

そのアニ - Discussions about anime entirely in Japanese.

自由なラジオ Light Up! - Politics, society, news, and stuff like that. Difficult Japanese, but there are transcripts, so you can practice reading with them as well!

猿、さる monkey

木、き tree

落ちる、おちる　to fall

猫の手も借りたい ねこ　の　て　も　かりたい

A hodgepodge of useful phrases I’ve collected that come in handy for language-exchange or tutoring with native speakers.

日本語で「　」って何と言うんですか にほんごで「　」ってなんというんですか。 How do you say “ “ in Japanese?

「a」は「ｃ」と言う意味ですか。 「a」は「c」といういみですか。 Does “a” means “c”?

私の言っていることが分かりますか。 わたしのいっていることがわかりますか。 Do I make sense?

私が言おうとしていることが分かりますか？ わたしがいおうとしていることがわかりますか？ Do you understand what I’m trying to say?

これのもっと良い言い方があれば教えてください。 これのもっといいいいかたがあればおしえてください。 If there is a better way to say this, please tell me how.

「　」っていう表現は自然ですか？ 「　」っていうひょうげんはしぜんですか？ Does “  ” sound natural?

この言葉はこの文章に合いますか。 このことばはこのぶんしょうにあいますか。 Does this word work in this sentence?

日本語を添削してください。 にほんごをてんさくしてください。 Please correct my Japanese.  

とてもわかりやすい説明をありがとうございます。 とてもわかりやすいせつめいをありがとうございます。 Thanks for the very easy-to-understand explanation

とても詳しい説明をありがとうございます。 とてもくわしいせつめいをありがとうございます。 Thanks for the very detailed explanation.

入力ミスを指摘してくれてありがとうございます。 にゅうりょくミスをしてきしてくれてありがとうございます。 Thanks for pointing out my typo(s).  

添削してくれてありがとうございます。 てんさくしてくれてありがとうございます。 Thanks for correcting (that) for me.

勉強になりました。 べんきょうになりました。 (That) was educational/I learned a lot

助かりました。 たすかりました。 (That) was helpful.