Most Useful Japanese Phrases for a Tourist

During our hitchhiking and camping four weeks trip in Japan, I have talked to many people. In this article I’d like to share with you the most useful phrases I used that I was glad to know. If you haven’t read my previous article about this trip, click here to read it.

Ever heard legends about Japanese Enugurish? Ever heard that most of Japanese people can’t speak English? They are true! Some people can speak, especially in a big cities and on some places where a lot of tourists come (airport, famous sites, shops in Tokyo…) but in general, English is not a way to speak in Japan. Doesn’t matter if old or young people, some try, some start speaking Japanese right from the beginning. (They learn English in school though.) Even when some Japanese can speak, prepare for a very unique pronunciation. Sometimes I rather switched into Japanese where I understood more than from their English.

I am an anime fan. Always wanted to learn Japanese. Five years ago I got an opportunity to do so. One Japanese living in our country (huge thanks to him) started teaching Japanese for free. He taught me and some other people the grammar basics and basically made me start learning. Without him, I probably would have never started. It lasted two years and since then I have been learning on my own, using the Internet, some phrases books, mobile apps and flashcards. I do that only in my free time so it’s a slow process. (my dream is to be able to watch an anime without subtitles, now I can understand about 25% of sentences in one episode) I was really afraid that I won’t understand the local people. My expectations were that I’d be maybe able to ask for a ride when hitchhiking and say where do we come from. I was very surprised though. I was able to talk with them even about other things, anime, Japanese culture, food, our country, family etc.

Japanese are really kind and helpful. When I didn’t understand something, they were trying really hard to explain or use some easier words. Some brought up an English dictionary to show me the words. They were mostly trying to speak slowly, without any dialects and difficult expressions. Japanese really love to see that one is trying to adapt. When they saw that I speak Japanese a bit, they were so happy and saying the words of praise all the time. They were amazed just by hearing some basic words like arigatou or konnichiwa. Speaking Japanese completely changes your position and you are not just a random foreign tourist anymore.

So enough of the intro and background. One more thing, bow as much as you can. It is the most important gesture in Japan. Bow when thanking, apologizing, greeting, just keep bowing. Here are some most useful words and phrases that I used in Japan very often:

As I said, I am still learning Japanese and have a long way to go. If you found any mistakes, please let me know and I’ll fix them. Please try to speak as much polite as you can. Japanese will forgive you for not being polite since you are a gaijin but they are very pleased to see that you can speak in a formal way. Use masu forms and refrain from using anime expressions like baka etc. Also these are only some general sentences you’ll probably need. Important is to work on vocabulary to learn as much words as possible to be able to start a nice conversation. Don’t count only on some phrases you mindlessly learn, try to understand the grammar behind it too. Good luck with your Japanese!

Keywords: language,vocabulary,gaijin,tourism,travel
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