Im visiting in Japan for the first time and have been trying to practice some of the simple Japanese phrases I have learned. I was leaving a taxi last evening and said “ありがとうございます, こんばんは.” hoping to convey that I wish them a good evening. They laughed/chuckled and repeated the word こんばんは. This has happened twice now. I can’t figure out if they are laughing because I have said something wrong or if they are just surprised/happy that I have spoken Japanese. Does anyone know if this is the wrong thing to say?
Edit:
Thank you all for the helpful responses. For anyone looking for a quick answer in the future: こんばんは (konbanwa) is used exclusively as a greeting, and may come off as silly to a native speaker if used as a salutation!
14 comments
Well, it’s like saying “Hello (nighttime version)” as you’re leaving. They’re laughing because they’re thinking, “This person is making an effort and it’s weird but gosh, that’s dang cute. Better say it back to them to be polite.”
Thank you. Good morning.
Thanks, good evening.
Thanks, good afternoon.
Get the idea?
Probably because you were leaving the taxi and こんばんは is a thing you say when meeting someone, not when leaving.
As others have said konbanwa is usually translated as good evening but it’s a greeting said in the evening. You don’t say a greeting when you are parting.
So what should you say here? またね?
You cannot transliterate between languages. Konbamwa isn’t exactly like good evening. It has similar function as greeting when you meet someone in the evening but you can’t say you have a konbanwa. Or yesterday we had a konbanwa.
Stick to learning phrases and eventually you’ll get how things work.
I would just say arigatou gozaimashita
Hey, new to learning Japanese! Why is this read as konbanwa when the last symbol is ha (は) and not wa (わ)
(Also please note I’m super new)
My teacher explained that the word こんばんは
used to be the sentence こんばんはどうですか
Like “How is your evening?” Something you would say when greeting someone, not when saying goodbye. You wouldn’t say こんにちは(どうですか) when saying goodbye, for the same reason.
you’re saying hello to them. just say ありがとうございました, that’s fine. I don’t think there’s a situation appropriate way to “wish them a good evening” like in english.
lil note on thanking: this isn’t super important but you’ll get brownie points for putting it in the past tense (ございま**した** rather than ございま**す**) because you’re finishing your interaction with them and thanking them for something they already did. Listen to how people say it (often putting a tiny bit of stress on た) and accompany it with a wee bow and ppl will like it.
It does sound pretty funny. It’s like saying hello when leaving the taxi.
I don’t even think we would usually say “good evening” when we’re leaving. It’s a greeting in English too I would say. “Have a good evening” would be what I would say when leaving. But that’s not what こんばんは means, it kind of means the former (at least it’s used similarly).
When I first got here I would go to my local convini and of course they would yell “(いらっしゃいませ！” (Which means “welcome to our store” basically) when I walked in. I thought this was just a different way to say hello so for a few months I would say “(いらっしゃいませ！” back to them.
Little mistakes are fun and get funnier with time.
I’m nowhere near as qualified as most responses here, but feel like it might be insightful to look at the literal meaning of こんばんは. It’s この + 晩 + は, which amounts to: “this evening <— topic marker” .. it’s sort of like an open-ended statement, requesting the recipient’s further engagement. Sort of like “This evening, how about it?” こんにちは is set up the same way.
It’s like that subtle way, so common in Japanese, where you sort of say something suggesting you’d like a response, but not explicitly asking for one: “this evening, at least.. (How is it?)”
I’ve memorized it more like: “How are you this evening?”.. to help me use it in the appropriate contexts.
Given that implication, it’s weird to say it when you’re just about drop off their radar. They have no chance to respond!
Also: despite being a leading question, I’m not saying it always requires some elaborate response.. It probably _used to_, and now doesn’t, but the context in which it’s used has remained the same. Similarly, “How are you doing?” in English is now more or a less a throwaway courtesy phrase. Still, despite not really caring for a response, you wouldn’t say it in parting. It’s generally said as a greeting.