First time learning a foreign language? Not sure where to start? No problem – it isn’t rocket science, but it does require you to exercise those grey cells a little. Before you rush off and buy stacks of textbooks you need to ask yourself a question: “What Japanese do I need to know?” Needs will vary depending on where you live - an Assistant Language Teacher in a one horse inaka village probably can’t get by without learning a decent amount of conversational Japanese whereas an expat investment banker may be able to survive with little or none (It is possible to live in Tokyo for decades without speaking any Japanese…). Textbooks definitely have their uses, but no textbook is written with your specific needs in mind, so lets take a quick look at how to create your own personalised beginners textbook.
Start by getting a notebook and writing down all those situations in which you need Japanese. Start with broad topics – eg talking to your boss, eating out, getting petrol, asking a friend what they did on the weekend, asking someone out. Think of everything you do from when you get up in the morning until you go to bed and write down all the situations in which you need Japanese. Next, get specific. List the exact things you want to say in those situations, eg for eating out your list might look like this:
1. Table for three
2. Non-smoking
3. Does this have meat in it?
4. Five beers please
5. How much is the all-you-can drink?
Look at your list of phrases and ask yourself “Can I say this in Japanese?” If you can’t say “Five beers please” (and I know this is unlikely, but bear with me) your mission is to find out how. Phrasebooks are useful – Lonely Planet has a nifty tome for about 800yen – get one, look up the phrases you need and copy them into your personal notebook (which you of course carry everywhere). But what if you need to say something which isn’t in the phrasebook? Time for plan B – ask a Japanese person. Find a Japanese friend who speaks a bit of English, a colleague or perhaps a person who has accosted you with the aim of practising their English (this is the most satisfying of the three), show them your notebook with for example “I’ve got a crush on Ito Misaki”* and ask “日本語で何と言いますか" Nihongo de nan to iimasu ka” (How do you say this in Japanese?)
1. 三名です。 San mei desu
2. 禁煙お願いします。 Kin en onegaishimasu
3. 肉が入っていますか? Niku ga haitteimasuka?
4. 生 五つ(お願いします) Nama itsutsu (onegaishimasu)
5. 飲み放題はいくらですか Nomihoudai wa ikura desu ka?
Notes
1. I have used romaji for the benefit of newcomers, but do yourself a favour and learn the kana – if only to be able to read menus. If you plan to be here for longer than a year start writing in your notebook in hiragana from the get go!
2. “Nama” is short for “Nama biiru” – draught beer.
3. *伊東美咲が好きになった (Ito Misaki ga suki ni natta)
If I could make some corrections...
三名です = san mei desu
禁煙でお願いします。
Posted by: Tae Kim | February 13, 2006 at 02:13 PM
Cheers Tae Kim - that'll teach me to rush through a post at lunchtime. "San nin" should have in fact been "san mei" - as it now is (I went back and edited it).
As for the non-smoking point I am going to respectfully disagree, or rather agree that what you wrote is correct, but maintain that so is my offering!
The issue is somewhat of a furphy because in reality the restaurant employee will 99% of the time ask:
"タバコを吸いますか?”to which you would reply either ”吸う” or ”吸わない”
If indeed a customer was the one to raise the issue all of the following are acceptable:
1.禁煙
2.禁煙で
3.禁煙お願いします
4.禁煙でお願いします
Dropping the で being an accepted part of spoken Japanese. (And I took my own advice and ran these all past Japanese colleagues.)
Thanks anyway for the feedback and nice website!
Will
Posted by: Will Jasprizza | February 13, 2006 at 03:03 PM
禁煙お願いします sounds to me like, "Please don't smoke" but I it may be just me. I guess, it doesn't really matter, I suppose. People will know what you mean.
Posted by: Tae Kim | February 13, 2006 at 10:23 PM
Nobody walks into a restaraunt and says 禁煙でお願いします. That sounds like textbook Japanese to me. 吸う or 吸わない are the most common like Will said. But also spoken Japanese often drops particles completely and its usually understood from the context, so 禁煙お願いします or any of those that you have are fine.
Posted by: superdry | February 18, 2006 at 10:57 AM
肉が入っていますか?
I've been wondering how to say this very phrase. It was the 入っています that was tripping me up. My fiancee is vegetarian and we're going to Japan on hour honeymoon. I wasn't aware you could use 入る in this fashion!
I really like the idea of building a list of survival phrases and then making them a goal of learning instead of just rotely memorizing the phrases. Great write up!
Posted by: scott | March 01, 2006 at 06:23 AM
Scott
Thanks for the comment.
The only problem with 肉が入っていますか? is that 肉 only really covers red meat, so you might be told "いいえ、入っていません” only to find out later that there was chicken or pork in the dish! I'd suggest either asking "何が入っていますか?” or make it clear from the beginning by saying something like:
"彼女(indicate fiancee with slight lean of head)、肉は全然だめです。牛肉、鶏肉、豚、魚。。。食べられなせん。
You could also ask for a dish without X by using ”なし”
”Xなしで、お願いします”
Good luck and have a great time in Japan
Will
Posted by: Will Jasprizza | March 01, 2006 at 07:20 AM