Time to learn some basic Japanese phrases and Japanese words relating to things you like doing – your hobbies. “Hobby” has a slightly different meaning in Japan. Japanese consider things like shopping, eating favorite foods and even sleepping as hobbies. The word for hobby in Japanese is しゅみ (shumi). The Japanese symbol or kanji for this word is 趣味.
Japanese Phrases Lesson
In this lesson you will learn how to ask and answer questions relating to hobbies. We have upload many videos to youtube. Video language lessons are a great way to learn Japanese. We hope you like this one. This is a basic Japanese lesson, but hopefully you will learn something.
Structure
私のしゅみは……………です。
Watashi no shumi wa……desu.
My hobby is………………
My hobbies are………….
Vocabulary
| ひらがな | Romaji | English |
| らくがき | Rakugaki | Drawing, graffitti |
| うんどう | Undou | Exercise |
| かるい | Karui | Light |
| たべる | Taberu | Eat |
| ひく | Hiku | Play (a musical instrument) |
Grammar Note
verb + こと
Adding “koto” will nominalize the verb; change it into a noun.
たべる － Eat ; たべること － Eating
After watching the video try to read the sentences and questions below.
（あなたの）しゅみは何ですか。
わたしのしゅみは、すしをたべることです。
私の趣味はらくがきをすることです。
私の趣味はかるく、うんどうすることです。
私の趣味はギターをひくことです。
私の趣味はピアノをひくことです。
趣味はないですよ。
趣味のじかんがない。
趣味とまではいかないけど、どくしょがすきです。
ねることがわたしのしゅみです。
When I first came to Japan I worked as a trainee in a restaurant. This was obviously great for my Japanese. I was hearing Japanese all day long. Those first few weeks were tough trying to understand what my co-workers and customers were saying. One of the first words I learned at my restaurant was “Okyakyu-San” which I took to mean just “customer’. Every time customers walked into our restaurant they were greeted by shouts of “Irasshaiiamse” and then asked how many were in their party. One thing that surprised me was the staff would address the customers “Okyakyu-San”. I thought it a bit odd to be be calling or addressing customers with the word “customer/s”. In English we only use customer to refer to patrons or guests. We never actually say customer to someones face. As my Japanese in the following months improved I think I wrote this term off as just another polite but impersonal Japanese word.
Okyaku-San
Now that I am a little older with close to a decade of living in Japanese under my belt I believe I do understand the word “Okyakyu-San” on a deeper level. “Okyakyu” means “honored guest” as well as customer. Adding san gives it a Mr., Mrs, or Miss. meaning. Like with most things in Japan it is all about history. Back in the good old Samurai days the hierarchically arranged society meant that in order to survive the inferior class had to provide “service”, extreme politeness and deference to their superiors. The common people were at the mercy or the elite Samurai ruling class. Although the Samurai were a “barbaric sword wielding mob” ( in Western eyes) , they did have extremely high etiquette standards. The Samurai were also in charge of enforcing them. To put in vulgar Western terms:It was kiss ass or your ass would be kicked.
This sort of set in a superior/customer is GOD type social conditioning that was ingrained in the Japanese over a period of more than a thousand years. It became an integral part of social and political systems. Etiquette was everything. It also evolved the Japanese language to extreme mind boggling polite standards. Nowadays, the concept of “Okyakyu” has weakened – there are no sword wielding mobsters keeping the high etiquette standards alive. Particularly, the formal language and certain social customs among younger Japanese is disintegrating at an alarming rate and is in fact something of a major concern.
In business customer is still God and Japanese go to great lengths to build harmonious relationships even before actually doing business. It is very different to the somewhat self absorbed “Lets do business” mentality of the west. However, it can take a while to found out just what your prospective business associates want and when and how they want to get business done. Japanese tend to build business relationship with a long term vision in mind, rather than building business to serve short term purposes or meet goals.
In Japan every time you walk into a restaurant, shop, department store – basically any place of service you will you will be verbally attacked with a “welcome” greeting. This will happen without fail. The greeting is “Irasshaimase” – いらっしゃいませ. Like many Japanese expressions this one is deep and goes way back. More on that later. I do have to say that I loved the word when I first came to Japan. I really liked walking to restaurants to be greeted with a chorus of “Irashiamase”. I made me feel…..well, very welcome. I remember thinking it was a little un-Japanese for Japanese to be yelling at their customers.
Now, after living in Japan for ten years I can say I am pretty sick of this word. I do find it irritating when I am shopping at a clothing store or just browsing at book store to been constantly disturbed by shouts and chorus of Irasshaimase. Some staff will really scream it out. I have walked out of the odd store or two because of the constant cries from a tone deaf Japanese.
Japanese Set Expressions – Irasshaimase
The deeper meaning of the word goes way back and not surprisingly has to do with etiquette. Centuries ago Japanese behavior was formalized to the extend that there was a prescribed way for doing virtually everything. Direct interaction with other people, weather greetings, requests and speeches was the most important and carefully enforced. This lead to one of the most interesting and early developed etiquette customs – the calling out of “irasshai” or “iarashaimase” when someone entered the vestibule home of a home or place of business.
“Irasshai” means “walk in” as well as “welcome” and is an informal, friendly expression used by tradespeople in traditional restaurants and shops and department stores. This greeting kind of takes the weight of formality off the customers’ shoulders. It lets them know that they are at a place where they can relax and have fun. This could explain why Japanese are quite happy to eat with total strangers with restaurant owners often asking customers to share tables when business is busy. I have done it myself and it a bit unusual and very uncomfortable. A contradiction to Japanese culture in general, but then again eating habits are very different indeed and an area of Japanese culture that lacks etiquette and decorum. Japanese can eat like pigs; making nosies as they eat, speaking while eating, and even using communal chopsticks as tooth picks.
“Irasshaimase” is a much more polite and formal Japanese expression used only in the sense of “welcome” and “thanks for coming”. This is one word you want to remember and use. It represents an important part of the overall etiquette of Japan and one of the things that foreign visitors and businessmen can easily assimilate, and benefit from, in their interactions with Japanese.
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A few nights ago I had some Japanese friends over for drinks. We were talking about a friend who had given me a gift. The gift was a digital photo frame. A photo frame that makes slide shows of photos you upload. A great present. The friend had kindly uploaded photos of my students, friends and family. A mutual friend who was drinking with me complimented the friend who had given me the present by describing him as “mame”. I had never heard a person being described as “mame” up until then (mame can mean bean). Trying to get my Japanese friends to explain what it meant was quite a challenge. Also, no dictionary we had in the house could really explain the meaning of the word. This is often the nature of certain Japanese words.
Untranslatable Japanese Words
There are words in Japanese that are simply untranslatable. In order to understand these untranslatable words you need to live in Japan for quite some time. But just living in Japan isn’t enough. You need to live the life of a Japanese – speak the language, mix with Japanese and do what they do. There are words and phrases in Japanese that have had me confused for months or even years. Then one day something unique only to Japan will happen and I will finally experience the true meaning of one of the words. Vocabulary in Japan is strongly associated to cultural understanding and cultural experience.
The Japanese language is so uniquely diversified. During the course of one meal at a restaurant the different “styles” of conversations you can overhear is mind boggling. You could hear business contacts having a polite conversation where keigo is being used, a family speaking a local dialect, young people talking using lots of new katakana words, an old couple communicating with grunts and high pitched yeps, and some Japanese conversing with no words at all. As a result there is also lots of Japanese that gets lost in translation for the foreigner.
These moments where you hear a new word you haven’t heard and can’t understand really make you realize that you are not Japanese. They sort remind you of your limited cultural congeniality to Japan and put you back in your place as an outsider. However, the moment you discover the true and deeper meaning of one of these elusive words it can only be described as enlightenment. They are moments of learning bliss that can never happen in a classroom or be explained by a teacher. The only way to learn them is by cultural discovery.
Japanese seem to have and use less vocabulary than English speakers. However, some Japanese words can expresses concepts, ways of thinking and aspects of life that English simply cannot. I feel the strong and important association of the Japanese language and Japanese culture is often neglected by teachers in the classroom. It should be taught to students of Japanese. Language and culture are taught, but separately with no emphasis on the connection they have. Real Japanese, language is more about culture than it is about grammar or vocabulary. Study the culture and you’ll understand the language better.
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