Does anyone speak Japanese?

[Neosphinx]

Tomorrow we're having over some Japanese people to our company.

I would like to say 3 things

 

Hello - Konichi-wa?

Welcome - ?

That is all I can say in japanese - ?

 

Phonetic writing would be appreciated

[marcandre]

I studied it for 2 years. Insanely difficult to learn. Hard to retain too unless you can use it every day. Try looking on youtube for a video so you can hear it.

 

Be careful too, the same phrase can have different meanings depending on context. There are also different hierarchies dependent on the age of the speaker. You would not greet a 20 year old like you would a 60 year old. 

[Neosphinx]

I studied it for 2 years. Insanely difficult to learn. Hard to retain too unless you can use it every day. Try looking on youtube for a video so you can hear it.

 

Be careful too, the same phrase can have different meanings depending on context. There are also different hierarchies dependent on the age of the speaker. You would not greet a 20 year old like you would a 60 year old. 

So it is wiser to speak to them in english. Don't wish to instult them and don't have the time to thoroughly search for it. But I guess it is safe to just say konichi-wa?

[marcandre]

So it is wiser to speak to them in english. Don't wish to instult them and don't have the time to thoroughly search for it. But I guess it is safe to just say konichi-wa?

 

Yes that is pretty universal. If you had some more time you might try a couple other things but one day is not much time.

[Neosphinx]

Yes that is pretty universal. If you had some more time you might try a couple other things but one day is not much time.

I know. My manager been bugging me to finish a security enquete to show these same japanese and it took longer then expected. Already 1 am so thought I might ask here. Thanks anyways. I'll bow a few times more instead of speaking

[isuko]

welcome is "i ra shai mase-"

[marcandre]

I know. My manager been bugging me to finish a security enquete to show these same japanese and it took longer then expected. Already 1 am so thought I might ask here. Thanks anyways. I'll bow a few times more instead of speaking

 

Good luck! 

[Neosphinx]

welcome is "i ra shai mase-"

Thanks alot. Does not seem too hard to remember!

 

Hajimemast

Edited November 14, 2014 by Neosphinx

[biniou]

Phonetic writing would be appreciated

And to train:

http://www.reverso.net/translationresults.aspx?lang=FR&direction=anglais-japonais

 

You can click on the speakers above the text.

Edited November 14, 2014 by biniou

[Val-E]

You wanna make a deal with them to be your LEGO supplier! The heavy fall of the Yen makes their LEGO a lot cheaper even factoring in transport and customs costs. Amazon Japan don

[Neosphinx]

You wanna make a deal with them to be your LEGO supplier! The heavy fall of the Yen makes their LEGO a lot cheaper even factoring in transport and customs costs. Amazon Japan don

[TheOrcKing]

I know one from the internet: kimochi. :whistle:

[Neosphinx]

I know one from the internet: kimochi.

Do I even DARE type that in google behind a company firewall

[Ciglione]

I know: kamikaze

[Bernard74]

What I remember from the show 'shogun' is that it is considered an insult not to add -san to someone's name ????

[Locutus001]

I studied it for 2 years. Insanely difficult to learn. Hard to retain too unless you can use it every day. Try looking on youtube for a video so you can hear it.

 

Be careful too, the same phrase can have different meanings depending on context. There are also different hierarchies dependent on the age of the speaker. You would not greet a 20 year old like you would a 60 year old. 

 

Don't know where you studied it and don't wanna offend you so please don't take any when I say the following:

 

Actually Japanese (Nihon-go) is not a difficult language.

Most of the pronounciations are pretty simple once you get them, the grammar is fairly easy since they don't use any special endings (like french, german, etc. do... but every gender is pretty much the same), they don't have a lot of time forms (I know of one past tense and the present, for future they use indicators like tomorrow etc.) yeah...

 

The only difficult thing about it: It doesn't have a lot in common with european languages ;-)

And the letters are difficult since you use hiragana, katakana and kanji (if you're good then you know about 1945 Kanji!!! but hiragana and katakana are fairly easy like our alphabet).

 

Also:

Like most (all???) people, Japanese people like if you try to be friendly by using their language for small things.

When I've been to Japan or even when I've met Japanese people in Germany or in other places I only got positive reactions when I used what little Japanese I know.

 

Nice to meet you - Hajimemashte (the ji is pronounced like the letter "***" in english, Ha-"***"-me-masch-t

[wlng81]

Hard *** is such a funny character!

[Locutus001]

Edit:

 

small words that are good to know:

hai (like "hi" in english) = yes (but actually it means a lot of things... yes/I understand/I will do that/... it depends...)

 

iie = no (there are some forms of saying no... iie is just one)

 

o-genki des(u) ka = how are you? (I wouldn't use that one in your meeting though!!!) (the answer would be: hai, genki des(u))

 

by the way if you know dragonball: o-gohan (o is a suffix so the actual word is gohan) means rice (remember Son-Gohan? ^.^ if you translate all their names it seems as if they took them out of a cooking book ^.^ )

 

eigo-o hanasemas(u) ka = do you speak english? (you probably won't need that one for your meeting but still it's nice to know )

nihongo-o hanasemas(u) ka = do you speak japanese? ^.^ (btw: they use "ka" when they ask something so it's like a questionmark)

(so without the "ka": nihongo-o hanasemas(u) would mean: I speak japanese... to be totally clear about it you could add watashi-wa (= I ) but Japanese people often just don't say who exactly because they know... because they're Asians!!! )

[marcandre]

I'm not offended, you make a lot of great points. In my defense it is widely considered the hardest language for an English speaker to learn. Sounds like you have a good handle on it, are you fluent? I never could totally grasp it. 

[Guest TabbyBoy]

???

[marcandre]

???

 

[Val-E]

With my Japanese customers they usually brought an interpreter because although they could understand htey felt that it was a professional

[wholovesboo]

I took about a year's worth of Japanese 10 years ago, and haven't used it since, so I'm not going to be of much help to you in that area. But I can say that yes, I think your guests would appreciate you trying to say the most common phrases (Just hello and goodbye in my opinion would be enough). Follow their lead in terms of bowing. If you're not sure that you did something correctly, just be humble and ask your guest!

 

More than anything it is important to be mindful of your *attitude* toward your guests. To be a gracious host to your guests, to show that you are happy they are there, and to approach conflict with humbleness and respect. No stereotypical American arrogance or aggression (I think you know what I'm talking about!).

 

Human connection is universal, and it's all about empathy and reading each other's wants/likes/dislikes correctly. If anything in this day and age you can't possibly be the first Americans that your guests have encountered, right??

 

Good luck and report back on how it goes!

[wholovesboo]

I'm not offended, you make a lot of great points. In my defense it is widely considered the hardest language for an English speaker to learn. Sounds like you have a good handle on it, are you fluent? I never could totally grasp it. 

 

I would argue that Chinese is harder . The phonetics of hiragana and katakana in Japanese really help bridge the gap for an English speaker.

[wholovesboo]

With my Japanese customers they usually brought an interpreter because although they could understand htey felt that it was a professional