A Knack for Nihongo – The Japanese Language
My Japanese skills are very limited but it I have always found that a smile, a few words, pointing and a lot of patience get me through most situations. A few phrases will really come in handy should you ever visit Japan so with that that in mind I here are some basic greetings:
Japanese (English phonetic pronunciation) – Translation
Ohayou gozaimasu (OH-HI-O GO-ZI-MAS) – Good morning
Kon’nichiwa (KO-NI-CHI-WA) – Good afternoon
Kon’banwa (KONE-BAN-WA) – Good evening
Oyasumi nasai (O-YA-SU-MI NA-SIGH) – Good night
Sayounara (SIGH-O-NA-RA) – Good-bye
Lastly, here’s one that isn’t included on the top of many lists but one that I think is very important:
Toire-wa doko-desu-ka (TOY-RAY DO-KO-DE-SU-KA) – Where is the toilet/bathroom?
3 Comments
Your pronunciation is wrong. It would be DO-KO, not DO-KU and if you wanted to sound more fluent you would leave off the U at the end of desu. It is what is known as an unvoiced vowel and many times it isn’t said. So you would say this like: Toy-Ray Do-Ko De-s Ka?
Toire – japanese attempt at toilet
wa – particle indicating the subject
doko – where
desu – is
ka – particle which is equivilant to a ? in english
Good catch on the ku vs. ko Nihonjin! I must have missed that when I reviewed the post and you are absolutely right. Thanks for the additional tips too!
One thing that I think is great about Japanese is that the subject of a sentence is almost always first which is really logical when you think about it.
For example, in English we would say “Where is the toilet?” but the direct translation of the same Japanese phrase is “Toilet, where is it?”
As a newbie to the language that really helped me in my ability to understand what was being talked about. I often struggle with the details but at least I know what the subject is!
[...] may find yourself frustrated with the language barrier when you visit Tokyo but with these Kanji, a few key phrases in Japanese, English menus and the rare application of your charade skills those instances will be [...]