I work in a Japanese restaurant. We don’t often get Japanese people in because it’s a small country, but we get one or two every now and again. I like to use my Japanese as much as I can to serve them even just so I can hopefully make the experience easier for them if they don’t speak any English. However, I’m aware that there is a high polite level Japanese that should be used. I only know so much of this. Is there somewhere that I can learn the basic conversation that should be used as a waiter?
​
Also, this isn’t really related but it’s been bothering me for a while. I feel I don’t really know how to use the yo particle. I keep reading stuff on it but it’s not helping. Can anyone give me a super easy explanation about it?
8 comments
Nobody is going to hold you to any sort of standard whatsoever and you’ll get the full benefit of the “talking dog” phenomenon. (People are so amazed the dog can talk *at all* that they don’t even notice what it is saying or how it is saying it). So long as you’re not obviously and intentionally being *rude*, you have nothing to worry about.
I’m guessing there aren’t any Japanese staff at your Japanese restaurant who could answer this?
Use Masu and Desu for politeness.
Irasshaimase when they come in the door
Are you ready to order – o kimari desu ka?
When they order, repeat the order + desu ne ( confirms the order ) they should nod or say hai in response
Then you can say
wakarimashita or kashikomarimashita (I understand, second is more polite)
When you serve
name of food + desu as you deliver/approach table
goyukuri dozou as you leave the table (enjoy your food/take your time)
When they are finished they may say gochisousamadeshita (we are finished/thank you for the meal)
you can reply with arigatougozaimasu
At the till say price + desu
Take their money say value + oazukarimasu
Say the change amount + okaeshi desu
arigatougozaimasu
Once more as they leave and bow
If you don’t know how to use YO don’t worry, you can just not say it.(especially in a formal setting, where I wouldn’t use YO) But for the sake of understanding, it’s a particle that is for emphasis; it makes the statement more dramatic in a way, and is very commonly used alongside NE.
You said you have read about it, so I doubt anything I just said you haven’t already read, so what part of the particle is difficult for you to understand?
https://learnjapanese123.com/customer-service-japanese-restaurants/
focus first on desu/masu form. and get some books on business japanese and business keigo if you want to up it a notch.
The よ (yo) sentence final particle, one: implies confidence of the speaker in what they’re saying, and two: implies the sentence contains information unknown to the listener. Using it incorrectly can come off as condescending or unnecessarily aggressive so I wouldn’t use it at all if you’re not sure.
But for contrast:
公園に行きました。
I went to the park.
公園に行きましたよ。
(You don’t know this, but) I went to the park.
i also work in Japanese restaurant. The only things I had to have in mind were:
-いらっしゃいませ (welcome)
-かしこまりました (say this when the customer asks you to do something or gives you their order)
-こちらでお召し上がりですか？ (are you dining in?) (you probably don’t need this)
-お待たせしました (sorry for the wait) (when giving food do them at their table)
-すみません (to get a customers attention)
-ありがとうございます (when the customers leave)
-Just remembering to use はい, です and ます
-not using なんか (since it’s a habit of mine when talking casually)
-learning some vocab words specific to your restaurant’s food/restaurants in general. I learnt 単品 on the job when a customer said it to me and I didn’t understand it.
​
Apart from that, just remember that for a Japanese customer usually just the fact that a non native can understand them and talk with them means they’ll cut you a lot of slack so don’t worry too much if you make a mistake or switch to lower level keigo because you forget or don’t know how say something in higher level keigo.
Here’s a good article on the よ particle, as it compares to ね:
https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/yo-vs-ne/