Lesson Six: Recently I went on a business trip to Beijing (formerly known as Peking but still called Peking in Japanese because Cantonese refers to the city as Peking while Mandarin calls it Beijing - go figure) with a co-worker from Hong Kong. She is Hong Kong Chinese and speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, English all fluently and now is studying Italian. She moves fluidly from one culture to the next, assimilating quite easily into the language and the lifestyle. I envy her. While I was in Beijing I had to use a lot of gestures out on the street. Asking for a receipt (particularly useful if you are a business executive on a tight budget and an even tighter salary) with a lot of jumping, pointing, making funny faces, etc. proved challenging. I got by and got what I wanted. We had to get around to various business engagements via cab and do you think I would have been able to do that without the native language? Click here if you want to hear the answer to that question (you need Qualcomm Pure Voice for this). NOTE: It seems that Qualcomm has had some copyright infringement lawsuits that it is currently dealing with and their website has been shut down. This means that this software is no longer available. Please feel free to continue with the lessons, but just skip the audio tracks. I'm very sorry about this. (Sensei, 2008/03/01) However, at that time I certainly felt it would be very nice to be able to communicate, even if only rudimentarily, to the locals, expressing my basic needs ("Toire wa doko desu ka?" - remember that?). Very nice indeed. Well, the business trip ended and as it was only a three day stint it wasn't too bad. I returned to the airport (old Beijing Airport - very old) and waited for the pre-boarding announcement. Across me was sitting one of the most beautiful young women I have ever seen in real life. She was intently working on something, writing in a notebook. I didn't want to seem like a total jerk so I tried not to stare too hard. Next to her sat a refined gentleman in his middle age with a very trim and proper looking beard and the stature of an aristocrat. We boarded the plane, all heading back to Osaka and Typhoon No. 18. Sitting next to me at the emergency exit were none other than Mr. Aristocrat and Ms. Beautiful. It turned out that the young woman was on her way back to Australia where she would meet up with her fiance. He had been transferred to Tokyo and she was excitedly working on trying to remember useful phrases for her arrival into Japan. As we talked I learned that she believed it was of great benefit for her to pick up useful words and phrases that would help her get through her daily life. Often, when we take classes we start from point A, move to B and then on to C, D, E. However in real life when we begin at A often we are tossed over to G or H without any knowledge of how we got there. If our studies are at level C and we need to know something pertaining to G, we are just plain out to ohiru gohan (lunch). My new-found friend was preparing for this leap by making a list of words and phrases that she felt she would need upon first contact. The grammar would come later. After all, who really needs to be able to say, "that red pen in the box over there is my red pen, not yours!"? All you need to do is grab the pen, thumb your nose at your antagonist and walk away with your head held high. Never underestimate the power of gestures. She had the right idea, was going about it exactly the right way, I believe. In this lesson, what I am NOT going to do is to bother you with grammar. You can get that from Lessons One to Five and also in future lessons. We are parting from the usual for a moment. In this lesson what I AM going to do is give you some get-down-get-dirty phrases and words that I feel might help you in the trenches. For, after all, if you make a trip to Japan that is where you are going to want to be, right? Who wants to come to an exciting new country and spend over half of the time sitting in a flourescent room studying from dry textbooks? (Well, I did, but that's beside the point - learn from the error of my ways, folks). If you would like to know some words or phrases that are not listed here, and I am sure there will be many as everyone's situation differs, please ask. Also, you could greatly help us all out by sending in all the phrases you think would help others, or have helped you in the past. Remember, this doesn't have to be directly related to Japan because when we visit any new country, we are bound to require the same knowledge base in order to communicate our most rudimentary concerns. The language changes but the concept stays the same. So send in your suggestions and I will continually update this page. No profanities please. Onegai shimasu. Just a quick note: I interchange between "ha" and "wa". Never really sure which one to use. Technically it should be "ha" because the character for this is "ha". But the sound is "wa". If you mistakenly write the character "wa" in this place, it will be incorrect in Japanese. But in English, some books go with the phonetic "wa" while other textbooks prefer the more correct "ha" (pronounced "wa"). Confusing? So is life. THE PHRASES (Use 'em or Lose 'em Pal) COMPLIMENTS (Remember this: Compliments will get you almost anywhere. Smiles will get you even further)
GREETINGS (ever try to ignore a greeting? It makes you feel like a real heel, right?)
QUESTIONS (drive 'em nuts with the neverending string of questions, gang!)
Interjection: I just came back from my first trip to Italy (2000.05.18). It was fabulous! Italy is the only country that I have ever been to where I didn't want to come home. It is HIGHLY recommended. Well, it has been a long time since I have been to a country where I didn't understand a single word of what people were saying. That is right gang, I was in the exact same boat as you are now, should you come to Japan. Actually that's not quite true; if you have come this far you are way ahead of me in the language skills. So I experienced understanding nothing. Well, I bought a book called Teach Yourself Italian (you guessed right: it is the same series that I am using to base these Japanese lessons on!). On the airplane, and for a couple of days before my trip I tried as best as I could to get some vocabulary. You know what? It worked. It really helped because I learned how to say the following phrases, which really got me far. I will give you the English, and then the Japanese in this case. MORE PHRASES TO USE OR LOSE
That should just about do it for the time being. If I made it any longer you might give up on studying all together. The Culture Pocket: Nihon no Otenki (Japanese Weather) The weather(otenki - "o" is honorific, the word is actually "tenki" - but we must respect the weather) is one of the most talked about topics in Japan. Everyone uses it to begin a conversation. In fact, in any culture you can use the weather to start up a conversation with an acquaintance or even a stranger. It is something that everyone has in common. If you are next to someone you know, it is virtually guaranteed that the rain that is soaking you to the bone is likely soaking her to the bone as well (except that she likely has an umbrella which you, in your macho attitude decided not to bring - smart choice.) So in fact, the weather is affecting you more than her. Well, you can talk about that too. Maybe even share the umbrella if you are lucky! Here in Japan, the weather is often even used as a greeting. In the spring and autumn the weather is nearly perfect. Warm (or cool), dry, clear days. Comfortable in the day, easy to sleep at night. The cherry blossoms are a great topic, as are the changing leaves in the autumn. Life is grand in these seasons. "Totemo ii o tenki, desu ne!" "So, desu ne." Then comes summer. Ugh! People, when they hear that it is 36C here say, "oh, it is hotter where I was in India..." Then they come. And nearly die. Remember the old addage? "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." This is so so so true here. The humidity goes up really high in June, the rainy season comes in July, the steamy 5-shower-days season arrives in August. Everyone talks about the weather. "Atsui, desu ne!" And, "So desu yo ne!!" You die in summer. And then you die again in winter when it rolls around. It is only about -5C at the coldest around here (-25C in Hokkaido - but dry!). The humidity here makes 0C so much colder than -20C, let me tell you. I visited Canada this past Christmas hoping to experience some real cold. But you know what? -30C just didn't feel cold! Everything is always cold here. Especially in the houses. Did you know that we have to sleep with hats on at night? It is true! Imagine the hair you have in the morning. Ugh! Then everyone greets you like this: "Samui desu ne." And you have to respond like this, "So desu ne. Totemo samui." If you tell them that you don't think it is that cold, or that it is colder where you come from, you just kill the mood. Go with the flow. Agree with them. Think of it as a greeting. Because you know what? It AIN'T colder back home! Sometimes, just for fun, when I am greeted with, "Atsui, desu ne?", or "Samui, desu ne." I respond in a really strange way: "Konnichi wa." After all. That is what they are REALLY saying. You just have to read between the lines. If you have any questions or comments, please contact sensei by writing to info @ japanippon (dot) com for details. This Lesson is Dedicated to Thiri and Her Husband. May 28, 2000 (Subarashii Otenki - ame futta, kedo) Get the program that allows you to listen
to the examples. NOTE: It seems that Qualcomm has had some copyright infringement lawsuits that it is currently dealing with and their website has been shut down. This means that this software is no longer available. Please feel free to continue with the lessons, but just skip the audio tracks. I'm very sorry about this. (Sensei, 2008/03/01) |
