I’m currently in Tokyo, and just in my first week alone, I’ve had several Japanese people come up to me and ask for help with something (like directions or something like that)
If someone randomly comes up to me and asks me if they need help with something, but I didn’t completely hear the question, what would be the most typical general phrase to use for them to have them repeat themself?
For example, in English, “do you need help with something?” or “sure I can help, what’s the question again?”
Would it be something like “もう一度言ってください”?
28 comments
Random people in Tokyo are asking *you* for help? No offense, but I think you may be absolutely misunderstanding what’s going on lol. Randos in Tokyo hardly ever talk to other random people just out and about on the street.
I would probably say something like ’’すみません、もう一度お願いします’’
It’s pretty hard to believe random people in Tokyo are asking a stranger for help. Are you sure they aren’t just trying to get you to join a cult or receive a “massage”?
ごめん聞こえなかった、もう一度言ってください。
I’ve lived in Tokyo for years the only time anybody has ever walked up to me for anything (excluding foreigners) is to try to get a free English lesson, get me to join a cult, or try to get my money one way or another.
Do they ask you in English? If so, they hope you’ll reply in English, it seems to be some kind of practice to them. They usually run away quickly after you reply.
Another explanation is that they don’t ask you for anything but warn you, like the train you’re in is at its final stop or something like this.
Otherwise, it’s really unlikely that any Japanese will say a single word to you on the street. Unless of course, you’re a girl and the people talking to you are young guys.
Concurring with other comments…
As a Japanese person, if it turns out the random person I asked for help – which is already an extremely peculiar thing to do – turned out to be *someone who doesn’t speak Japanese well in Japan*, I’d just go “oh nvm sorry to bother you”.
あんだって？
Kind of a follow up question, but for time and effort sakes, can the phrase be shortened to “もう一度?” Or does it have to be the full sentence?
Nani?!?!?
ワンモア
My most natural reaction would probably be to cup my ear with my hand, and go ん？ just to show I didn’t hear and am showing interest in what they said.
Just don’t go “huh?” cause that sounds too close to は？ which can come off as aggressive.
NANI? *In your favorite Jojo pose.*
This might sound harsh, but if it’s your first week there, why would people be asking *you* directions? Secondly, if you’re not sure if you can respond with, “Say it again, please?”, how are you going be able to tell them what they want to know?
Que?
Everyone in here assuming OP looks just like they do.
If you can immediately understand when they speak on a normal speed, you can just use もう一度言ってください, but if you need them to speak a little slower, you can use ゆっくり言ってください.
I had trouble like those when I stayed in Japan so ゆっくり言ってください and 日本語はまだ上手じゃないんで really helped me through those days
Just don’t go “huh?”, I learned that the hard way lol
もう一回お願いします。
Or
すみません。日本語を分かりません。他の人を聞いてください。
If you want to be casual about it you could say “sumimasen, gomen kedo moikkai kiitekureru?”
You’re giving a remarkable example of why Duolingo is shit for learning Japanese.
My first take on this is that they are asking you something that you think is in Japanese, but really they are asking in what they think is English.
It is fairly impossible to overstate how much some people want to speak English. And similarly it is fairly impossible to overstate just how little the noises that they attempt to make sound like English. If you simply Katakana-ize English it no longer sounds like English to native ears.
This is not as surprising as you might think, as the average American could go outside tourist areas in the UK, and be asked questions in English by a native English speaker, and that American would assume that that what they were hearing was not English being spoken. Even in tourist areas, Americans who cannot understand the English being spoken around them, even though they recognize it as English, are not hard to find.
And this even happens outside Scotland.
Japanese elderly people often use, “は？” or “ha?”. In Japan today, using “ha?” is considered quite rude but it was actually quite common in Japan until around the 1970s. I’ve heard the Imperial Japanese Army radio in the 1930s, even though the Japanese Army at that time had a very strict hierarchical relationship, subordinates often say to their superiors officers, “ha?”.
If they are both native speakers, you say, “すみません、もう一度（お願いします）” If they are the strangers, you may put the palm of your hand on your ear to make it easier to hear the sound, but depending on how you do it, it may be taken as rude.
When a native speaker says to a non-native speaker, you answer “すみません、日本語があまり得意ではないので、もう一度お願いします”. Gestures are culturally different and probably won’t work.
Just to validate your experience, I’m Asian ethnicity and Japanese ppl have come up to me to ask for instructions numerous times in my time in Osaka, and using google maps and pointing at stuff honestly doesn’t need n1 japanese to help them lol.
Sometimes certain people have a friendly air about them, or look like they’re not in a hurry and that’s what makes people feel comfortable to ask.
Anyway, I think Rare Crow’s answer is what you’re looking for, and good luck with your life in Japan!
“sumimasen mo ikai onegaishimasu”
Are you sure you didn’t completely misunderstand them? I lived in Yokohama for a year and 6 months and not one time did a Japanese person every randomly ask me for directions, etc.,
I was asked if I needed directions really early on when I was new and my face and blatant confusion likely projected that.
Nothing about this happening seems likely, they can navigate the area better than you, and no Japanese person who isn’t trying to practice English is gonna ask a random foreigner for help before that ask another Japanese person especially in Japanese.
*edit removed redundancy*
えっ？
A lot of comments express that Japanese people will very rarely ask strangers for directions/assistance. So who do they ask for help? Genuinely curious.