I’m currently in Japan for the first time, which means a lot of eating out at all the restaurants here.
My reading and writing is approaching N3 level, but I haven’t had much opportunity as of yet to actually speak it and listen to it – and it kind of shows when I eat out.
It comes from not understanding enough of what they said, and me saying the wrong thing because of it – I hear bits and pieces, but not all of it (especially when there’s noise in the background). Examples of questions:
– How spicy do you want your ramen. We have none, little, medium, large, oni (i.e extra spicy)
– Do you want an apron with your ramen
– Do you want the small, medium, or big size for your white rice
– So for this bowl of ramen, you can have two different types of noodles. Which ones do you want?
– For the ebi burger, do you want it as a combo or the sandwich only? And do you want to eat in or take out?
If I mess up one thing or the waiter needs to repeat themself, the waiter switches from Japanese to English. So it’s pretty rewarding when I manage to get a waiter to not speak English.
Is there any resource that would help me know how to respond to questions like these?
10 comments
Pretend you can’t speak English
Even if you get a bit flustered, continue speaking in Japanese, even if they talk to you in English. In 2013, I had probably N2 kanji and N4 vocabulary, but N5 grammar. Took a 3-week trip to Japan, only spoke Japanese to anyone who spoke it. One day I did a 14-hour hike with a native, I spoke to him in my very basic Japanese, he spoke to me in his very basic English. We both enjoyed it a lot.
Satori Reader has lots of articles with dialog typical of hotels, restaurants, airports, and other things visitors need to know. I haven’t spent much time on those yet but the ones I went through were very interesting.
There’s two options:
Get out of the city and out into the boonies. They won’t switch to English because they can’t haha
Or
You just have to get good pal. Unfortunately speaking is a skill separate from reading and writing. Also, if you sound particularly unconfident or your accent is pretty garbled, anyone you’re talking to is probably going to switch to English if they feel that would be easier to communicate with you lol. Find a partner to practice maybe? Luckily we live in the future and you can a partner even if there’s no Japanese people anywhere near you lol
As someone who worked in a similar situation, I just want to point out that “I don’t speak English (or whatever switched language)” approach will get you some degree of *stupid gaijin don’t even speak English and has trouble with Japanese, wtf? At least learn some English before traveling internationally smh*.
See, unless it’s a really, really nice establishment, we’re paid by the hour and the goal is to deal with all the customers efficiently.
speak better japanese and you won’t have this problem. maybe I don’t understand what you are asking ?
The way to reduce the likelihood of any given Japanese person speaking to you in English is by demonstrating that you are completely comfortable speaking in Japanese.
If you’re clearly struggling to understand them and express yourself, then of course they’re going to talk to you in English because they have a job to do and your Japanese level isn’t allowing them to perform their duties as they normally do.
And no, there’s no “resource” for this that is going to do you any more good than just eating out a lot and getting more practice. Maybe watch some YouTube videos of people visiting popular ramen shops (one thing there is no shortage of in Japanese is food-related content) and just get more exposure to what people are saying. But a lot of it is just going to be about your overall Japanese level, too. The Japanese people speak at ramen shops or when eating out is just…Japanese.
How about this, actually, native speakers have problems with each other.
*Convenience stores are usually staffed by young Japanese people who are usually very cocky (this is really a big variation in the personalities of the clerks). They often use slurred Japanese that even native speakers cannot understand. Native customers can also judge their behavior by the atmosphere and respond to them. In fact, most convenience store jobs are mechanical and routine, or worse, impersonal, and unless the workers have a strong volunteer spirit, they do not try to speak in Japanese that is easy for non-native speakers to understand. In short, they are tired of working.
**As is well known, Japan has a much worse attitude on the part of the customer, and the staff at convenience stores are notoriously unfriendly, than other countries
** In addition, recently, through the “Technical Intern Training Program” from the West/South/Southeast/East Asia, a large number of non-native workers of various ethnic groups who can use Japanese to some extent have entered convenience stores and fast-food restaurants. They may be tired of mechanical labor, or they may not have much opportunity to converse at convenience stores, but they do not try to speak in Japanese that is easy for non-native speakers to understand.
*Fast food restaurants such as Lotteria, McDonald’s, and Starbucks, for example, do not make it difficult for native speakers to understand Japanese, since most of the staff are well-trained native speakers of the language. If you are not familiar with the product system and ordering system of the fast food restaurant, you may feel confused. This is true even for native speakers.
*What about relatively decent restaurants? The service is generally courteous, but there are relatively few English-speaking waitstaff. (Except in more advanced restaurants, such as those with a sommelier.)
*Unique ramen stores are the most peculiar, as are small, Unique eateries. Don’t expect to speak English. Also, very unique ramen stores (Jiro-kei, Ye-kei, etc.) may serve ramen of ridiculous quality and quantity, as even native speakers do not know how to order. It is advisable to go to a very unique ramen restaurant with a native who is familiar with the restaurant at first.
*In general, it is possible to find out what to ask the waiter at convenience stores and fast food restaurants in advance by watching videos on the Internet. If you do not know what to say and ask for, you can prepare and bring your own translation paper by yourself.
*7-Eleven’s new payment POS is cumbersome, perhaps because of COVID, but also because the customer has to operate it from a to z. I don’t remember if the English explanation on the POS screen was sufficient.
Go to a leas touristy area. Waiters in areas that get tourists are more likely to speak English. If you go to an area with few tourists then the waiters won’t speak to you in English because they can’t speak English. I live in a super rural area and even when I spoke 0 Japanese and would have LOVED for a waiter to talk to me in English, it was Japanese or starve lol
Take a trip and visit somewhere very inaka find the smallest place that you can and go in. If you find somewhere where it is less likely that people can speak English then you will be able to practice speaking and listening in Japanese.