Japanese Expressions - Forget The Textbook and Learn Casual Japanese

By Emily Kato

You could have gone to Japanese classes or learned your textbook and you think you are prepared to practice your Japanese. You might be in Japan and felt all geared up after studying hard, but can't comprehend anything around you. What's the problem? The problem is, that daily conversation is different to that you learnt in the classroom or from a book. When learning Japanese you will start off with the polite forms of phrases and terms and it is only when you get to Japan or try speaking to your Japanese contacts that you learn 'real' Japanese.

To make the Japanese less formal and more 'real', here are a couple of tips. You may have learnt that some complete sentences in Japanese that are asking a question end with 'desu ka?'. For instance to ask 'How are You?' you can say 'O Genki Desu ka?'. In 'real' Japanese, the 'o' and 'desu ka' is dropped and you would just say 'Genki?'. Another point is when asking questions using just one word is that it is spoken with a rising pitch, with this rising tone taking the meaning of the question form. One more example is 'Is it hot?' can be shortened to 'Atsui?' with a rising tone.

The word for 'Me' and 'You' that is typically in the textbook is 'Watashi' and 'Anata'. These words are often learnt first as they can be used by both men and women. If you listen to casual Japanese conversations, you will come across a few more words that used for 'Me' and 'You'. In casual speech, males will refer to themselves with 'Boku' or 'Ore' and females 'Atashi'. For 'You' girls will say 'Anata' or the reduced version 'Anta'. 'Kimi' or 'Omae' are used by guys. You have to be cautious if you are going to use some of these words though, as 'Omae' has a strong and rough kind of meaning and is better not used unless you know when it should and shouldn't be used.

You may have thought there is only one way to say 'Yes' and 'No', using 'Hai' and 'IIe'. Well when you listen to real casual Japanese, you may hear some other words instead. In fact there are some other ways to say the same thing. Other ways to say 'Yes' are 'Un' and 'Ee'. For 'No', there are 'Iya' and 'Uun' (a longer sounding version of 'Un' for 'Yes'.

If you can speak Japanese and also throw in some casual 'real' Japanese your friends will be very impressed. If you do that, you will probably get some compliments, so you would want to be able to understand them. If a Japanese person is amazed at your Japanese ability, here are some ways they may express it. 'Nihongo jozu da ne', 'Nihongo umai ne' or 'Nihongo Pera Pera', all mean your Japanese is first-rate. - 30216

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