This summer, my wife and I took a trip to the Southwest US, which included Grand Canyon National Park.
At the canyon ridge while watching the sunrise, I saw a group of what looked like Japanese students on a tour taking a selfie over the canyon ridge. I definitely heard them speaking Japanese to each other.
Now I have not really practiced in person much at all, but I felt I knew enough to have brief small-talk.
I wanted to offer to take a picture for them over the canyon. I did not know the Japanese phrase for “Group Picture”, which required me to check Google Translate. The phrase I went with was [集合写真](#fg “しゅうごうしゃしん”).
So, I decided to take a chance. Conversation is as follows
– Me: えと。。。 すいません
– JP: they look in my direction
– Me: 集合写真? (I speak with an inflection implying a question)
– JP: They look at each other, but seem to get the idea and hand me their phone.
– JP: ありがとうございます！
– Me: Now holding the phone. ”一，二，三！”
– Me：I hand them the phone back and they thank me again.
– JP: ありがとうございました！
– Me: いいえいいえ、問題ない！
Then we waved and parted ways. My wife watching in disbelief and confusion, laughing and remarking about how they probably would have expected her to say something (she is Chinese and has clear Asian features) before my pasty-white ass!
Critiquing myself after the fact, there are a couple things I could have improved on.
1. I did not use polite honorifics. Offering the picture, I should have asked “集合写真はいかがですか？”
2. As I departed, I probably could have included a brief greeting of: “気をつけて”,”元気で” or even a simple “じゃあね”.
3. I could have even included a friendly question halfway through such as “みんなさんは学生ですか？” with my reply of “ああ、そうです”。
but all in all, it was a fun experience being able to bridge that cultural gap and have somewhat of a dialog with native speakers! Definitely reinvigorated my desire to continue practicing.
>especially since my workplace has majority population of native Japanese Expats. and they will likely pay in part for classes.