I have a master’s degree in Japanese and we were taught all the basics from textbooks. When I arrived in Japan, the Japanese I heard was completely different. For example, I’d been taught いいえ for “no” even though it’s not so common in everyday life. Even today I have to « learn Japanese once again » to speak more like a native and not a robot.
What were the expressions, grammar or words you guys weren’t taught but wish you’d known before coming to Japan ?
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I don’t think this is as big a deal as everyone acts like it is. There are good reasons textbooks go conservative. But I never heard or saw 〜ないです till I went to Japan even though it’s very common. I’m given to understand newer editions of Genki teach it though.
「元気ですか」
no one ever will say/ask this in this form
Most of the ways of introducing yourself and saying your name.
I have noticed that Japanese people like to say ちっちゃい instead of 小さい or デカイ instead of 大きい most of the time. This words I never saw in any textbook, I learned it in my first date with my Japanese boyfriend hahaha now I say it all the time as well
I registered for a Japanese class when I came to Japan in mid-summer, and we talked about Junko and Mike going to Ueno to buy a sweater. I asked the kind but serious teacher if they should not be buying a polo shirt or some shorts because of the heat, but I was told we “must follow the book.”
I never returned to class but instead started studying dictionaries, magazines (I love the smell of Japanese magazines), and watching Beat Takashi.
So far, I have written three books in Japanese and do 90% of my work in Japanese. Im working on my fourth book now. I’m glad I was here in Japan to learn, and am eternally thankful to my Japanese friends who put up with me while I made so many mistakes and blunders along the way. I still do make weird mistakes, but I don’t care much as I own up to them and learn the correct way to explain what I previously mangled.
A friend was going to a birthday party, and his wife had bought a gift and wrapped it. He picked up the gift and asked his wife, “これはなんですか” and she answered “それは本です”. He was like, “Holy shit!”
I live in Japan now and conduct all my work in Japanese, it feels like the Japanese I need to write and what I speak are two different languages (Kansai dialect notwithstanding)
Now for speaking, being in the Kansai area means that there are some expressions I don’t hear anywhere else.
Like saying 直してください when asking to put something in place.
or adding はる to the end of verbs when being polite, like saying 行きはるor行きはります。
The Japanese I learned in classes is very useful in writing, but in speech especially casual speech, it was a whole lot of stuff to learn.
My Sensei is like 90 years old so she taught us rather formal old school Japanese. When some of my peers went to Japan for school some classmates wouldn’t talk to them because the formality made them uncomfortable. Hell, when Sensei and I were in Japan she would get strange looks and made people uncomfortable with how formal she was and she’s native Japanese haha.
I’m learning Japanese and hope to go there someday. What is used instead of いいえ ?
The use of 分かりません to mean “I don’t know.”
I wandered into a clothes store in Harajuku because I liked the song that was playing in the store. I asked an employee if she knew what song it was, and she said she didn’t know, but I repeated the question with slightly different phrasing about six times because I thought she was saying that she didn’t understand what I was saying.