If you are not living in Japan or have no Japanese friends learning how to converse in Japanese is quite a challenge. It is quite easy to learn how to read and write kana and kanji, to study grammar and to learn lots of words by yourself. Conversation is different – you need a Japanese person to speak to. In this post we will do some Japanese conversation practice. Hopefully you will learn something new.
A Typical Japanese Conversation
Imagine you are at a train station wanting to go to Shibuya. You have forgotten your watch. You ask a stranger for the time and the time of the next train.
A: すみません。 いま なんじですか。
B: じゅういちじはんです。
A: すぎのでんしゃ なにじに きますか
B: ごふんにきます
A: ありがとう ございます
B: いいえ
In the above conversation すみません is said to get the strangers attention. Remember すみません can also mean “Thank you” or “I’m sorry” depending on context. In this case it means “Excuse me”.
To ask for the time in Japanese the set phrase なんじですか is used.
なん (what) じ (time) ですか (question particle). いま means “now”.
If you have studied Japanese numbers you will know that じゅういち is 11. So じゅういちじ means 11 o’clock. はん means half past. So じゅういちじはんです means “It is 11:30”. です is just the sentence ending particle. Depending on context it can mean “It is”, “They are” and so on.
Let’s have a look at the next line, すぎのでんしゃ なんじに きますか. Again this is a time question
すぎ のでんしゃ – means next train. The のis just the possessive particle.
なんじに – What time…
きますか – Come? Here we have the ますform of the plain verb くる, which means “come”. By adding か the sentence becomes a question..
What time does the next train come? – すぎのでんしゃ なにじに きますか
Now, for the answer; ごふんにきます. As both the speaker and listener know the subject (the next train) it doesn’t need to be stated in the reply. This is very typical of Japanese. So the answer is something like this – (the train) comes in 5 minutes.
ごふん meaning 5 minutes and the verb きます meaning come.
ごふんにきます - It comes in 5 minutes
ありがとう ございます of course means “thank you” and いいえ means “Don’t mention it.”
Here is the conversation in English
A: すみません。 いま なんじですか。
B: じゅういちじはんです。
A: すぎのでんしゃ なにじに きますか
B: ごふんにきます
A: ありがとう ございます
B: いいえ
A: Excuse me. What time is it?
B: It is 11.30
A: What time does the next train come?
B: In 5 minutes
A: Thank you
B: You’re welcome
Getting Japanese Conversation Practice
If you are in the unfortunate situation where you can’t find a native Japanese speaker to help you with your studies there is one alternative – Japanese TV, particularly dramas. Watching Japanese television dramas is an excellent way to pick up words and learn Japanese conversation dynamics. Japanese converse very differently to westerners. If you watch dramas you can see how Japanese converse in fairly natural every speech. Movies are usually too difficult and the story lines unrealistic. So buy some drama sets on e-bay or get on to youtube and start watching dramas.
An effective way to learn and remember Japanese vocabulary is to not only to try to memorize particular words, but also to learn how to define them. As students we often become too dictionary dependent and not actually take the time to learn the meanings of new vocabulary. Often we forget new words and as a result become frustrated and get into a negative state of thinking, believing we can’t easily remember new words.
However, we can communicate what we want to say often by defining the word we have forgotten. We do this quite often in our native language when we can’t remember elusive words or when we are just having a mental block. In the process oflearning the definitons of new words we also improve our chances of remembering new words and reinforce words we already know.
Japanese Vocabulary
This method will work wonders for building your Japanese vocabulary, improving your overall fluency anddevelping reading skills.
1. Try reading the definitions by yourself
2. Listen to the audio tracks and take mental notes of Kaoru Sensei’s readings
3. Try to read the definitions in the same manner as Kaoru Sensei
4. Find the English translation for each definition
5. Try to recall the definitions from memory
6. Repeat process until you can define each word from memory
7. Watch the Video
Japanese Vocabulary List with Definitions
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| Word | English | Definition |
| あくび | Yawn | ねむくなったり、 あきたりしたときに、 しぜんに口を大きくあけていきをすること。 |
| いじめる | よわい人に、わざとひどいことをする。 | |
| うるさい | 音が大きすぎて、いやだ。 やかましい | |
| えんそく | 学校で、 見学やうんどうのために遠くに出かけること。 | |
| おいしい | あじがよい | |
| かお | 目や、 はなや、 口があるところ。 | |
| 聞く | 声や音を耳でかんじる。 | |
| くせ | いつも、 気づかないうちにしてしまうこと 。 | |
| けいさつ | わるい人をつかまえたり、 みんなのくらしをまもったりするやくしょ | |
| こうえん | みんながあそんだり、 休んだりするためのひろば。 |
English Trasnlation
Bully Excursion Face Park Noisy Yawn Delicious Listen Police Habit
Want more Japanese vocabulary lessons like these?
After living in Japan for 10 years now I have come to the final realization and understanding that the majority of Japanese don’t or can’t love. This is a generalization, but I do believe it is true and very real. I used to believe that Japanese just had trouble expressing love. Japanese certainly have great difficulty expressing deep personal feelings. I am often amazed from personal experiences and from what I see on TV at how socially and emotionally challenged Japanese are. Silence seems to cover an inability to express feelings with social conditioning and a shame mentality seem to be the logical explanation.
Going back to my realization that Japanese don’t love. I believe Japan or Japanese doesn’t have a love culture. What I mean is love isn’t valued as much as pride or “doing one’s best. I want to make myself clear. I am not talking about a “boy meets girl and falls in love” kind of love. Japanese do fall in love and have the feelings romance or “being in love”. I am talking about family love, or a love for friends and a love for people in general. I am not saying Japanese don’t care or feel things for people or family. They certainly do care and have feelings despite having great difficultly expressing them.
Why Japanese Cant Love
What I have seen and believe is that Japanese people just don’t love each other in the sense that love is something that you do or show. Love is a verb – love it is something you do, not just feel. Japanese families are ….loveless. Their culture to a large degree doesn’t allow them to love. Up until the late 70′s arranged marriages were standard with the husband’s occupation, educational background and earning potenial being the most important things to the marriage. Many parents, especially fathers, don’t ever develop friendships with there children. In fact many father’s don’t even know their children because they are never home.
When I take my own son to kinder everyday I never see any parent kiss or hug their child to express love. This really blows my mind. I am talking about 3 and 4 year olds. Even when parents pick their children up there is nothing that you could call loving going on. A smile and a pat on the head at most. Parents may pick up there child and hug or hold them, but not for an expression of love, usually to satisfy a desire for attention from the child or a dependency. In fact, I never see parents kiss or hug there children anytime. Think about. Never expressing love to your own children.
What I do see and hear are parents wanting their 3 or 4 year old children to do their best and NOT CAUSE TROUBLE. The closet a parent will come to saying “I love you” is say “Do your best” (Gambatte). This is the last thing parents will say when dropping of their children at kinder or school. Or, a wonderful playful exchange will happen between two children which might be a little bit funny or strange. Then either one of both of the parents of the children will apologize for “trouble”caused and then openly scold the their children. This is something that really astounds me - parents warning their children not to cause any trouble for their teachers or friends every morning. Remember these are 3 or 4 year olds learning about life and just beginning to develop their social skills. The pressure begins very early at school to conform to social standards and be perfect.
I feel that Japanese have it pretty hard. It is not easy being Japanese. I have meet many Japanese who have never experienced love. They are extremely lonely and socially awkward people leading unhappy lives. Outside of their work they have nothing or nobody to share their lives with.
When learning a language you often find yourself perplexed with what to learn. The Japanese language in particular often overwhelms students – kanji, hiragana, katakana, idioms, dialects and polite language such as keigo. With the prospect of so much to learn most students give up learning Japanese as it seems just too difficult and time consuming. You could spend decades studying the Japanese language. However, it doesn’t take years and years to become proficient in spoken Japanese. If you have a clear focus and good study habits you can speak Japanese with only a year of study.
What should on study first? This a difficult question to answer as will depend on your own goals. However, once you have the basic greetings and some vocabulary under your belt you should start learning questions. Understanding questions is paramount in any language. If you visit Japan you will no doubt attract attention and be asked questions. Most conversation begin with questions so it is important to develop an understanding of sentence structure. So before you begin to consider learning polite Japanese, Kanji, idioms and Japanese dialects spend plenty of time learning questions.
Here are ten questions on the subject of food. I have provided English translations. Try to memorize all ten and use them the next time you met a Japanese person. Click on the audio player and repeat after Kaoru Sensei.
Audio Lesson – Question On Food
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すきなたべものはなんですか
きらいなたべものはだんですか
くだものはなにがすきですか
りょうりはできますか
とくいりょうりはなんですか
きょうのあさはなにをたべまいしたか
きのうのよるごはんはなんでしたか
コンビニでたべものをどれくらいよくかいますか
エスニック料理はすきですか
いままでたべたなかでいちばんかわったものはなんですか
What foods do you like?
What foods do you hate?
What’s a fruit you like?
Can you cook?
What’s something you can make/cook well?
What did you eat for breakfast today?
What did you eat for dinner yestartday?
How often do you buy food at a convenience store?
Do you like ethnic food?
What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?
Jonathan Peizer is the owner of one of the web’s best content and shopping site for green tea. Jonathan has been running his web site for several years and already has the top five google search items for Green Tea with 40,000-50,000 visitors a month. I recently interviewd him about his passion of Japanese Green tea.
Your site has lots of great content and lots of tea and related products. Can you tell us a little about your website greentealovers.com?
Its as much an informational site about healthy teas, their history, properties, preparations and effects as it is a purveyor of fine green tea — tea that I would add we drink ourselves. We started drinking these teas long before we began selling them.
What are the benefits of drinking green tea?
Since its discovery, green tea has become renowned for its pharmacological properties. While green tea is not classified as a medicine, it does contain medicinal substances. It is ranked as a leading health-giving substance in traditional Chinese medicine. Scientific research is now proving these benefits are due to the antioxidants present in green tea which have shown to be effective in preventing cancer and improving general health.
Is green tea an acquired taste?
That’s also hard to answer — it really depends on personal preference and I would argue that so many don’t prepare it optimally with the right water temperature or filtered water that the real question may be “Is badly prepared green tea an acquired taste?”. Fresh green tea prepared well is actually quite refreshing, calming and tasty — and teas like Jasmine Green or the stronger Chinese Greens really have quite unique tastes… Some might ask in the American Coffee Culture — if tea (and I don’t mean Chai Latte’s) is an acquired taste…
How many varieties of green tea are there?
Well, all tea comes form one bush Camellia Sinensis and the difference between white (steamed), green (steamed or pan fired), black (fermented) and Oolong teas (semi-fermented) is simply the processing. Types of tea are commonly graded depending on the quality and the parts of the plant used. There are large variations in both price and quality within these broad categories, and there are many specialty green teas that fall outside this spectrum. The very best Japanese green tea is said to be that from the Uji region of Kyoto.
What kind of green tea do you recommend for first time drinkers?
For straight green tea drinkers I would recommend Gyokuro or Sencha.
Gyokuro
Gyokuro tea is generally sweet and delicate in flavor. Selected from a grade of green tea known as tencha, Gyokuro is regarded as the highest grade of tea made in Japan. Gyokuro’s name refers to the pale green color of the infusion.
Sencha
The most common type of green tea in Japan. It is made from the young leaves of uncovered plants. Over three quarters of all tea produced in Japanese tea gardens is sencha. The earliest season (first month’s sencha harvest) is called shincha. Later harvests of sencha have more astringent qualities, a more robust flavor and generally less aroma.
Health Problems
If drinking for a chronic health problem I would recommend our Catechin product with a high concentration of the active ingredient in Green Tea (Catechin). People with food allergies to Catechin products like red wine, cocoa (as in dark chocolate), cherries, apples or cranberries should consult a physician before using this. However, if that isn’t an issue this really does provide a high concentration of catechin easily absorbable in ones body. Its not as tasty as our other teas because Catechin is a Tannin and Tannin is what produces astringency in tea. To learn more click here
I would also suggest for the flavor conscious — the exquisite Madame Butterfly Jasmine Green also on that page. It’s a personal favorite. For first time drinkers who needed the more robust black tea or blend tastes at an economical price I’d recommend our flavor blends which also have a jasmine blend in addition to mint, cherry, lime, Irish Breakfast etc.
How do you prepare green tea?
Well, that depends on the green tea. The primary issue is to use fresh leaves, use filtered water, boil it, let it cool down to the appropriate temperature and then infuse the leaves. When you pour boiling water directly on green tea leaves you actually burn the leaves – this bleeds out the tanin, which makes the taste more astringent, rather than allowing the tastier and sweeter amino acids to dominate the taste when using cooler (but still very hot) water. Water with different chemical contents can also radically alter the taste which is why using filtered water is recommended.
Boil water and wait for it to cool slightly by pouring it into a tea pot and then into cups to warm them and to re-measure the water. Place tea leaves and hot water in pot. Brew tea and water in teapot for a few minutes. Pour equal measures of brewed tea into cups until last drop is poured (It is said that the last drop of tea decides its taste on the whole).
Unlike serving coffee, tea needs to be served from a pot by pouring a little into each cup once. Pour some from the last cup to the first to make the amount and density the same. Do not leave water in the pot after pouring the first brew. You can enjoy the second brew by adding some more fresh hot water to the pot. When brewing tea the second time, 1/3 brewing time is adequate because water has already penetrated into the leaves.
How many cups a day do you recommend drinking?
I drink 3-5 cups a day myself. One is supposed to drink at least that much water and I alternate.
Visit Jonathan Peizer at http://www.greentealovers.com
