It is true that many people get by in Japan with little to no Japanese. However, there are many situations where you can demonstrate politeness, kindness, and respect with just a few words (or even just one). And, you can make your time easier by knowing at least a few words/phrases.
You do not need to study more than 10 hours for your trip. You can use Duolingo and other free language learning apps. There are numerous free materials available for use. Even TikTok can be a good learning space, especially if you want real-world examples.
Before I introduce the basic words/phrases you should know, I want to explain the Japanese writing system.
There are three scripts in Japanese: Kanji, hiragana, and katakana. On apps like Duolingo, you can choose to turn off/on these scripts and use Romaji (the Latin alphabet). You will not need to know how to read Japanese, as you can always use a translator app like Google Lens when you are here. I find it translates quite well, even with the occasional funny mistranslation.
Learning hiragana/katakana will be useful for pronunciation practice. Hiragana is like a phonetic syllabary (like an alphabet but for sounds), and each hiragana has a katakana sound partner. When I learned Japanese, I learned these scripts separately, but it might be helpful to learn them at the same time.
The main difference between katakana and hiragana is that katakana is used for borrowed words. Basically, a lot of words you will likely use in Japan are borrowed words that usually come from English. They mostly mean the same thing, but there are what are called Wasei-Eigo, which are borrowed words that have a new meaning (likely due to misunderstandings from mistranslations). For example, some common Wasei-Eigo are salarymen (referring to businessmen), fried potato (french fries), ice candy (popsicle), juice (any drink with sugar – this includes lattes, soda, and flavoured milk), mansion (house, apartment, condo, etc), viking (buffet), bike (motorcycle – not bicycle), baby car (stroller), biru (building), and bieru (beer). There are many more that you will learn. Just knowing that there are lots of words in Japanese that are “English” but with slightly different meanings might help you in some situations. Most of the time, you can get by using English, but you can use the katakana pronunciation to be more easily understood. For example, in English, we use quite a few Japanese words (and words from other languages), but we say them differently from how they are pronounced in their home language.
So, without further ado, here are the katakana and hiragana characters.
Here is a slideshow and at the bottom of this post, there are a bunch of charts that I created. If you want to download and save the charts and slides to your phone, a link to canva will be at the bottom.
Key Words and Phrases
In my everyday life, I don’t use Japanese a lot. I generally stick to a few key words and phrases. It helps that at konbinis コンビニ (convenience stores), they have scripts that they follow (and because of the current economic situation, etc., the workers tend to be foreigners and might know some English).
Let’s start with “Hello”. Many of you might already know konnichiwa こんにちわ, which is used like “Good Afternoon” or after you’ve already said Ohayo Gozaimasu おはようございます. Ohayo おはようis like “good morning.” Adding gozaimasu ございます to the end makes it polite, so you use it with people who aren’t your close friends. Gozaimasu ございますalso gets added to the end of Arigato ありがとうwhen you say “Thank you” to people who, again, aren’t your close friends. If you want to level up and get Nihongo Jouz’d にほんごじょうぞ (you speak good Japanese), you can say Arigato Gozaimashita ありがとうございました to thank someone for something they did (past tense).
As Canadians, we tend to use “sorry” a lot. If you want to say sorry, like an apology, you can say gomenasai ごめなさい (gomen ごめん for short). Sumimasen すみません (which also translates to excuse me) can also be heard by Japanese speakers after/before bumping into others in a crowd. In fact, you’ll hear sumimasen すみません a lot. And, you’ll use it a lot.
Use sumimasen すみません when you want to get someone’s attention, like a konbini コンビニ worker, train attendant, server at a restaurant, and so on. Or, when you are trying to get through a crowd, sumimasen すみません helps you politely get through. Listen for it yourself, as someone might be trying to get your attention, especially if you don’t have great peripheral vision. Japanese culture generally pushes for people to be aware of their surroundings, so you may not need to say sumimasen すみません to get someone’s attention to move out of the way, because they will be aware you need to get through based on body language and social cues. You might get sumimasen’d すみません if you’re unaware of a societal expectation.
Yes and No are fairly easy to convey with gestures (nodding head/shaking head). If you want to say yes, say hai はい, and no, say iie いいえ (like ee-eh).
The next word you’ll hear and use a lot is onegaishimasu おねがいします. This is similar to please. When you hand someone something to take, such as your credit card, you say onegaishimasu おねがいします. When you are offered something, and you want it, say onegaishimasu おねがいします (you can also throw in a hai はい at the beginning). At a konbini コンビニ, you will be offered a plastic bag. If you want it, you can say onegaishimasu おねがいします, hai はい, or hai onegaishimasu はいおねがいします.
Kudasai ください is similar to onegaishimasu おねがいします because it is used to say “please”. If you want some rice, “risu kudasai” ライスください. For those using Duolingo or other tools to study Japanese, you might have noticed that I used risu ライス and not gohan ごはん. Most Japanese people understand the pronunciation of “rice” in katakana. Gohan ごはん means meal, but many people use it specifically to mean rice. You can say either. Both are fine!
Lastly, daijoubu だいじょうぶ is another word with various meanings. It’s like “~is ok”. If you are offered a bag at a konbini コンビニ and you don’t want it, you can say daijoubu だいじょうぶ. Or iie daijoubu いいえだいじょうぶ. It is also used to ask if you are ok or if something is ok. You’ll hear daijoubu desu ka? だいじょうぶ ですか Are you ok? Is this ok? (depending on the context of the situation). To respond that you are ok or it’s ok, just say daijoubu だいじょうぶ. Or say daijoubu desu だいじょうぶです. The desu です is polite form. So, the question and the answer can both be daijoubu だいじょうぶ.
Are you ok? Daijoubu だいじょうぶ? / I’m ok. Daijoubu だいじょうぶ.
The next language post will go through real-world situations using the words I just introduced, as well as a few new ones. And there will be more Japanese characters to learn, as there is also the small kana, which are used to create more sounds in Japanese. You might have noticed it in daijoubu だいじょうぶ. The ょ is small. As well, dakuten and handaku, which change the consonant sounds (ex. te て to de で).
Todays Vocabulary: konbini コンビニ (convenience store), konnichiwa こんにちわ (good afternoon/hello), ohayo gozaimasu おはようございます (good morning), arigato gozaimasu ありがとうございます (thank you), nihongo jouzo にほんごじょうぞ (you speak good Japanese), arigato gozaimashita ありがとうございました (thank you for what you did), gomenasai ごめなさい (sorry), sumimasen すみません (excuse me), hai はい (yes), iie いいえ (no), onegaishimasu おねがいします (please), kudasai ください (please), gohan ごはん (rice/meal), and daijoubu だいじょうぶ (Are you ok/I’m ok).
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