Quick background, I love Japan, this is my 6th trip over the last 15 years. I never bothered to learn any phrases. I figured why ask “where is the konbini?” if you can’t understand the response.
Lockdown in Australia was pretty strict, so 2 years ago I decided to make use of all that free time and learn the language.
I study everyday – completed Genki1 and II, Wanikani (level36) , Bunpro (halfway through N3 grammar) and I have 3 Italki lessons a week plus the usual immersion (podcasts mainly). So, I would say I am a solid N4.
I have read a few posts of people at my level arriving here and being surprised (disappointed) at how difficult it was to communicate so I was prepared. Also, there was some extra pressure from my partner, who figured after 2 years I must be ペラペラ。
My partner will talk to anyone, anywhere so over the years we made Japanese friends that we see each trip or when they visit Australia.
And this is the point of my post.
If your interactions are limited to hospitality/service staff – it’s going to be tough. They have set phrases they say so often they are just a blur and full of keigo.
On the other hand, catching up with our friends has been a great experience. The conversations have been a mixture of Japanese, English and reaching for Google translate. I honestly felt that all that study time paid off and made travelling here a richer experience.
If I was only talking to retail staff, it would be very, very discouraging.
Two other observations. Seeing Kanji “in the wild” is way different to seeing it in a text book as there are so many crazy fonts. Second, Katakana is everywhere, so don’t be like me and let it slip.
4 comments
This was more or less my experience as well! Have been studying about 2.5 years when I visited, probably mid-N4 overall although I haven’t been studying with JLPT in mind–but have gone through the Genki books, and have been working with a tutor, doing independent Kanji study etc. Had extremely rewarding, fruitful conversations with bartenders at empty restaurants who were down to just chat, but I frequently was more confounded in professional situations (although certainly able to convey what I wanted… as long as their followup questions weren’t too complex).
Would definitely recommend, if in Tokyo, finding small, empty bars (obviously you don’t want to bother busy service people) where you may well be the only source of entertainment for a non-English speaking bartender just whiling the hours away. I found that audience very receptive and got into some really lovely convos that bolstered my confidence a lot (God knows how I sounded to them, but we communicated—which is the whole point!).
If you’re willing to put yourself out there and use what you know creatively, you can have pretty good conversations even with not much Japanese mastery. You can expand your vocabulary by combining things (eg, don’t know the word for “semi truck”? Try pointing and saying “big car” and they’ll get what you mean). In a pinch, pronouncing a common English word using Japanese syllables can often be understood fairly well.
People will talk more simply so you can understand, especially in informal situations where they can speak more freely. It’s like having an English conversation with someone who doesn’t know that much; you can totally have a good conversation and make each other laugh even with just a small bit of shared understanding.
Katakana comfort is like getting a bunch of free bonus vocab words for you without studing since they often (though not always) describe English loanwords. Get a little practice sounding them out and you’ll pretty quickly be able to make the jump to the English origin.
Same exact thing happened to me. I was pretty lost for my first few days navigating restaurants and even at the conbini. Every time I heard keigo I had to hit them back with “もう一度？“. I even went to go get my haircut and there’s a different set of vocabulary there that you wouldn’t learn from textbooks. But I could talk to bartenders and peers mostly without issue and casual speech wasn’t an issue. The service stuff is really different than talking with tutors and conversation partners.
My recent trip made me realize the gaps in my knowledge and where to improve. I also feel like I improved at a very fast rate being forced to learn these different contextual phrasings.
>If your interactions are limited to hospitality/service staff – it’s going to be tough. They have set phrases they say so often they are just a blur and full of keigo.
I find you absolutely must study this type of thing specifically.
Day-to-day conversation is easy, but textbooks rarely cover phrases like “Cash or card?”
I kind of wish there was a textbook that gave examples of *important* Japanese phrases vs. common ones. Where’s Genki 3 where Takeshi’s car breaks down and the mechanic explains that he needs a new head gasket? And Mary is a witness to a workplace accident and needs to give a statement to the police?