いただきます。- thank you for the meal (before eating)
いってきます。- I will go and come back
いってらっしゃい。- please go and come back
おやすみ（なさい）。- welcome home
おやすみ（なさい）。- goodnight
ごちそうさま（でした）。- thank you for the meal (after eating)
はじめまして。- how do you do?
よろしく おねがいします。- nice to meet you
I was having some trouble recalling these from memory, I think it might be because the book doesn’t provide a break-down of the phrase as separate words. Does anyone have some good advice on memorizing these so that I can actually recall them when I want to use them? Thanks in advance.
5 comments
Focus on recognition first rather than production. Production will follow organically.
Read up on using an SRS system, Anki being the most popular and versatile. If you want something that requires less setup, there is Memrise. Both platforms have premade decks for Genki, no need to make your own cards.
ちそう means the host. So ごちそうさまでした means “you were the host,” (with the sama honorific) which makes sense for thanking someone for the meal.
These are phrases you can start using right away. Every time you sit at a meal, look it up if you need to and say it out loud – いただきます! You can wish おやすみなさい to a stuffed animal. Coming and going phrases are harder if there isn’t anyone to respond but if you live with someone else, maybe teach them those few phrases and involve them in your learning to make it more fun.
Eat this ducky mass! いただきます。
Oh, yeah? Sue me, nice guy! おやすみなさい。
Goat cheese, oats, salmon! ごちそうさま。
Some of these are set phrases whose breakdown would only confuse things more because you don’t know the grammar for it yet, and the literal translation doesn’t really match the usage.
You could just not learn them now and come back later if they’re giving you a lot of trouble. I’m a bit further in Genki and those don’t really come up again in the book so it won’t hinder you. You’ll want to learn them eventually but IMO it’s okay to proceed to the next lesson even if you’re not 100% on the vocab. Either wait for more grammar so they make more sense or just take more time to memorize them.