So-So Japanese

Please use the other words!

2006-11-28T10:25:46Z

Please do not upset, but I would like to say it especially to American. As I wrote before, most of Japanese doesn't have enough circuit to distinguish English sound. For long sentence, we can guess what we are told and could know what words were used, but not for short sentence.

]]> Here to go?" phrase at McDonald. I know that this sentence is grammatically incorrect and English hates to hear that. But anyway, no Japanese can understand what was asked the first time. All we can reply is "Pardon?" or "I'm sorry?" However, most of American just repeat "Here to go?" and never try to use other alternate words. If I was talking with foreign guy in Japanese and if I used a kind of slang, I was trying to use other simple words, "I asked that do you eat hear or bringing with you" something like that. I guess it is because American doesn't understand/expect people cannot use English, or thinks that every people must use English in US. This is not always a bad thing. They may think everyone in US is US people. I have another experience to prove that. When I went to US the first time and I walked on a street, I was surprised to see that people asked me direction. We never ask direction in Japan to a people who looks like foreigner! Anyway, I would like to say here is, Please try to use the other simple expression when you see foreigner struggling. That's it! Thank you for your hospitality.

Speak your own

2006-11-21T05:37:30Z

As you know, my English is so-so even I made such an English blog. But almost every Japanese going to US (or somewhere) tend to hesitate to speak their own, in case they have someone to translate. I always try to encourage them "Please speak yourself as possible as you could. Do not hesitate to make grammatical mistake. Since English is not our native language, nobody expects you to use perfect English. Just speak loud and slow." ]]> Good character! One day when I was in US, a young guy came to visit US customer. As usual he had said to me "I cannot speak English well", but I though it was excuse. But, he was true that he could not almost any English speaking/hearing. His TOEIC score was just around 300/990. I thought it was going to be nightmare but... the reality was not. Usually people just look my face when they speak in Japanese asking me to translate, but he was not. He just looked the customer's face and kept speaking with fluent Japanese. I was surprised to see that even the customer nod to him like understanding what he said. So I understood that he really wanted to communicate with the customer And I realized again that "heart" is common language in the world. After that he succeeded to be intimate with the customer. How nice!

Suimasen

2006-11-13T12:21:15Z

If you were a little bit familiar with Japanese, you must know a word "Suimasen". This word can be also used to call waiter at restraint or shop etc. This is very useful word. Do you know the exactly meaning of "Suimasen"? ]]> "Excuse me"? Yes, very close and it is frequently used as the meaning. When people A hit man B on the road, A says "Suimasen" and B says "Suimaesn" (This is also Japanese style. I will write about it). "I am sorry"? Yes, this is very correct. I wrote that "Suimasen" can be used to call waiter at restraint, but originally it was like saying, "I am sorry" to waiter doing nothing wrong. So some older Japanese hate to say that.

Thank you

Interestingly, "Suimasen" can also be used for "Thank you". For example, when we get gift from someone, we can say "Sumimasen" to express "Thank you". Or when we fall down and someone helps us, we can say "Suimasen, Tasukarimashita (You help me)". Maybe it started to say "I am sorry to let you spend money/effort for me". When I took international flight, there was a movie on my sheet. I noticed that one of channel was "Samurai" story with English subtitle. In the movie, when woman was helped by a Samurai', the woman said to him "Suimasen", and the subtitle was "Thank you". It was very impressive for me.

Eye contact

2006-11-10T23:26:02Z

Did you have an experience when you saw Japanese you didn't know each other, you were neglected even you smiled and/or say "Hello"? This is because culture difference and Japanese are just shy. I don't know if every Japanese agrees, but I think typical Japanese manner when people see unfamiliar people is not seeing so mach on the road or somewhere. ]]> this is just misunderstanding! However, it could be true when you travel to Japan. Some people could try to escape from you. This is just because he or she cannot speak English and afraid of talking with you. Why? As I wrote before, Japanese basicaly have complex about his/her English skill.

Ryokan

2006-11-09T00:04:02Z

If you have a chance to stay good Ryokan in Japan and you are not too conservative, it'a good place and you can enjoy it very much. It's your choice if you do want to stay Western style hotel as usual though. Ryokan's is a Japanese style hotel. Tatami room and put Futon for sleep. Hot spring Ryokan is much better. You can enjoy "naked" communication with others. But please do not ware swim suite when you go there. ]]> What should I do? As I mentioned, usually Futon is prepared during your dinner, but they could come when you are in the room. Fortunately or unfortunately, usually lady is in person of charge. Can you imagine that when you were relaxing alone in your room, someone suddenly knocked the door saying "Sisurei shimasu (excuse me)" and you found (young) lady wearing Kimono standing? Then, next thing you see was that she was preparing Futon in front of you. This is real story that we arranged Ryokan for one of our guest (European). When he got the situation, he was panicked and called us, "What should I do?!" The answer is: (1) Don't touch her (2) No need to give her tip (3) Just say "Thank you" You see what you should do?

Can or Can't

2006-11-07T13:20:28Z

It is interesting that "can" and "can't," sound almost same. I thought that it is just Japanese hearing issue, but people say even native English speaker could misunderstand. But still, it is more difficult for Japanese. For me, American only distinguish them the rhythm and tempo. Of course, in most of cases, people know if it is can or can't he or she want to say. But it could make serious problem at business discussion. ]]> Japanese sentence Japanese sentence can't be known if it is positive or negative until hearing the end of final word. For instance,

Watashi ha soko he ikimasu (I will go there) Watachi ha soko he ikimasen (I won't go there)

Watashi ha sore ga dekimasu (I can do that) Watashi ha sore ga dekimasen (I can't do that)

You see, only difference is "ikimasu" and "ikimasen", "dekimasu" and "dekimasen" I never imagine that English has such a similar issue. Interesting.

Obon

2006-11-06T02:48:35Z

Obon (bon, bon festival) is a kind of summer vacation for Japanese. The center day is August 15 and most of people go back to hometowns to meet their ancestors. Most of people takes 3 to 5 days off including the day. ]]> Ancestors dayWhen I was in US, I call the day as "ancestors day" and I use explanation about US Thanksgiving to Japanese that "It is really like Japan's Obon".

English

2006-11-05T11:51:39Z

Do you know how long typical Japanese learns English? Now some school starts earlier than that, but officially, we start learning English from junior high school, 12 or 13 years old. Thus, 3 years at junior high school and another 3 years at high school. Many people learn additional 4 years at university. On the other hand, it is well known that Japanese English skill is bad especially, listening and speaking. I think that there are two major reasons.]]> Number of vowels and consonants There are only five vowels in Japanese, a i u e o, but maybe this is not a big deal. I heard that French also only have 5 vowels. The issue is number of consonants. Basically, there are only, a k s t n h m y r w g z d b p. the major issue here is that there are no distinction between "L" and "R", "B" and "V" and no "TH" sound. Thus, Japanese doesn't have a circuit to distinguish another consonants. People says that such a circuit is established by age of three.

Order of sentence

As far as I know, Korean and Japanese has the same order of sentence, which are different from another languages. Thus, an order of Japanese sentence is

I pen have (I have a pen)
I tomorrow school go (I will go to school tomorrow)

I heard that ESL (English as second language) schools in US that Japanese is very good for English grammar, but one of the worst for listening and speaking. This is because that Japanese has a handicap born to be.

Door

2006-11-05T04:24:47Z

The first thing I heard when I had decided to live US was: You have to hold door for next person. People feel very rude if a door shut in front of him or her. It's a very bad manner. ]]> We don't want to be rude. Just we don't really have the custom.

Public side of chopsticks

2006-11-05T02:09:44Z

I think that Hashi (chopsticks) is now popular for non-Japanese. I was surprised to meet people using Hashi well, but later, I found that most of foreign people could do that. By the way, did you know that there is Public side of chopsticks? ]]> Japanese dinner is going with lots of appetizers to be shared. Appetizers come with big public dish and people takes it to their private small dish. Public side of chopsticks is used for this purpose. You have to distinguish public side from your private side. As you can imagine, even Japanese forgot which is which after drinking, though.

Japanese dinner

2006-11-05T01:30:50Z

Japanese dinner is different from Western dinner. Starting from appetizers and finishing by carbohydrate. ]]> don't forget to use public side.

The Golden Week

2006-11-04T14:22:31Z

The Golden Week is the longest holiday season in Japan. It is started on former Japanese emperor's birthday, April 29 and finished on May 5, children's day (boy's day). It depends on a date of Saturday and Sunday, but usually 7 days and 10 days the longest. ]]> no man wants to be killed by his wife…

Trivia

Following is publis holiday system in Japan. Most of people try to fill rest of the days:

April 29: Day of Green (Former Showa Emperor's birthday)
May 1: May day (not public holiday though)
May 3: Constitution Day
May 5: Children's day (boys day. girls day is March 3)

From 2007, April 29 is planning to be Showa day and May 4 is going to be public holiday as "Day of Green", which I didn't know...

Luggages

2006-11-04T10:51:05Z

When you come to Japan first time, please be careful for your luggages. Your luggagess have to be the smallest and lightest as possible. In Japan, sometimes you have to carry everything yourself and it is almost impossible to avoid if you don't have servant. ]]> Taxi For example, even if you are rich enough to take taxi from Narita Airport to downtown Tokyo (it cost more than US$200) and you go to taxi stop, you cannot expect that taxi driver takes care your luggages. He just opens trunk and waits until you put your luggages yourself. Instead, he opens door for you though. Why? Since taxi drivers just selling their drive, not service. Instead, you don't need any tip though.

Train

If you decide to take train, there is no problem fro Narita. However, it is a different story in train/subway in Tokyo. I bet that you would find no elevator nor escalator some place and have to going up/down carrying your luggages yourself. As you can easily imagine that this is not only for foreign traveler's problem, but also issues for disabled person. It's a shame but it's a true that there is not enough equipment in Japan. Maybe in Europe too. US are, as far as I know, excellent. I know that it is a result of strict law, but still, this is one of a good thing in US.

Negative question

2006-11-03T03:33:05Z

There is one thing that you'd better to know. Japanese reply opposite way against negative question. For example, in case you know that a Japanese man decided no to go somewhere, and when you ask him to confirm,

]]> "Don't you really go there?" You would be surprise since his reply must be, "Yes" But please be careful. He doesn't change his mind. Since it is true that "You don't go", he replies "Yes". Thus, he still won't go.

Nothing for me?

Another actual example is my case that, when I worked US office, FedEx man came to pick up and asked me "Nothing for me?". Since there was nothing to sent and it was true that "nothing for him", I replied to him "Yes".

Of course he asked to me, "Where is it?" It is because that this is a way of reply against negative question in most of Japan. It doesn't depends if he or she can speak fluent English. It just depends on how familiar with a negative question and how long he or she lives outside of Japan.

Conclusion

Again, Please be careful when you ask negative question to Japanese. I strongly recommend to confirm the fact when you got unexpected reply. Then please try not to use it next time. This is our hope...

How are you?

2006-11-02T10:00:28Z

As far as my experience, "How are you?" is one of the most difficult phrases to reply for most of Japanese. Of course, we learned in school how to reply.

]]> "I am fine thank you, and you?" However, the first thing Japanese thinks is that "Am I really fine? I think I am getting cold. Additionally, I have a hangover. Is it OK to say I am fine???" Next, people think that if "I am fine thank you, and you" is too stereotype and/or sounds like a beginner of English. So maybe most of people try to use another phrases. As a result, some people loose words and just smile. Please be patient if you would see Japanese struggle and just keep silent. Japanese just wanted to express welcome, hospitality, and hopefully English skill.