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Long story short; there is a fair chance I will be working in Osaka for a couple of months, starting sometime in September. I haven’t got the job yet, but one of the senior project developers is keen to have me on the team.
Being able to speak Japanese is not a requirement (I would be the only student of Japanese going). However, I would like to take the opportunity to improve as much as possible, and hopefully not offend anyone too badly while doing so.
I studied to the end of Season five, then decided to take a break from the TextFugu chapters to learn topic related language (days of the week, telling the time and date, interjections, conjunctions, etc). I have also been progressing through the Ultimate, Kanji, and Kanjivocab decks. I am still far off being able to comprehend conversations or written Japanese unless it is very basic, or I happen to know the vocabulary.
Emergency questions:-
What are everyone’s thoughts on the most important things for me learn? The kind of vocab/grammar that will get me through everyday situations, and keep me out of trouble.
Should I learn common Osaka-ben phrases? And should I ever try to speak them myself?
Should I introduce myself with my family name first? And what should I say to people if they confuse my first name for the word ‘salt’ (Theo –> シーオー).
About names, I’m terrible at remembering them, and expect it to be worse with Japanese names. I’ll do my best, but it is inevitable that I will forget a few, so… how to deal with forgetting someones name in Japan?
…超わくわくだよ。
What are everyone’s thoughts on the most important things for me learn? The kind of vocab/grammar that will get me through everyday situations, and keep me out of trouble.
Excuse me. Where is the train station? How much is this? I’d like to buy this, please. I plead not guilty, your honour. =)
Should I learn common Osaka-ben phrases? And should I ever try to speak them myself?
No more than you’d learn common Scottish-English phrases if you went to live in Scotland.
Should I introduce myself with my family name first?
No – as a westerner, they’ll be expecting you to go given-name surname order.
And what should I say to people if they confuse my first name for the word ‘salt’ (Theo –> シーオー).
Laugh good-naturedly – they’re probably making a joke. Unless you mumbled it, in which case say it again more clearly. しお != しいおう.
About names, I’m terrible at remembering them, and expect it to be worse with Japanese names. I’ll do my best, but it is inevitable that I will forget a few, so… how to deal with forgetting someones name in Japan? …超わくわくだよ。
Maybe すみなせんが、名前を忘れてしまったから…
Not really sure, though…
Yeah you should learn some 大阪弁, just to understand it. Its really not that hard to understand if you understand 標準語 enough as its more like a spin off of it. Thats how it is anyway for most dialects.
start practicing NOW GOGOGOGO
About names, I’m terrible at remembering them, and expect it to be worse with Japanese names. I’ll do my best, but it is inevitable that I will forget a few, so… how to deal with forgetting someones name in Japan?
Learn how to explain things in Japanese so that you can describe when and where you met the person so that maybe someone can help you or explained the situation enough to someone else. Also, just give a warning ahead of time that you are forgetful of names, just like you are telling us now in English. Ask for a business card if you are doing business, or you might be given one anyway.
I think some of the most important bits to learn if you are planning on trying to talk as much as you can, are language/speech related phrases, such as:
Sorry can you repeat that.
Sorry can you talk a little slower.
Sorry can you clarify
Sorry I only know a little Japanese
Sorry my Japanese isn’t very good.
Sorry can you help me with this.
Sorry can you explain that more?
Excuse me.
10 or so different ways of saying you are sorry
Have you now or ever been a member of a secret ninja society and how can I join… (j/k… maybe) ^_^
10 or so different ways of saying you are sorry
Fortunately, すみません will cover all ten. “Excuse me” as well. =)
But you don’t want to sound like a broken record. :P
Thanks for the replies. I definitely have too many pages bookmarked in my “To Learn” folder, and have to be really selective now.
Good point about the names everyone, I’m not so worried about that anymore.
I’ve downloaded a bunch of those audio books for learning Japanese, as they tend to cover daily situations and I can listen to them at work. At least I’m able to translate 60% of those sentences right off the bat. Helps with listening comprehention rates too, which I have been lacking.
Apologising in many many ways, will do, I’ll need it. And I’m being urged to visit Hatsumi’s Dojo, not sure if I’m up for that though =^.^= (<–It’s a fox, not a cat)
I’m thinking about allocating a day for getting my nouny-adverbs down. Are any of the ones introduced in Season 4 highly restricted in their gramatical usage? (more so than is explained in the lesson).
…and does anyone know a good list of common expressions? Short things like それだけ.
Is that Hatsumi Masaaki’s dojo?
@Aikibujin: That’s the one.
I do hope to stay on in Japan for a few weeks after the works finished, but I’m holding off making plans until I know whether I’m going or not. It’s a rather slow process because the people involved are still on ‘holiday’ after their last trip, and are only working one day a week to keep on top of things.
Also, is there a term for short phrases like それだけ, そのとうり and それでも? I’ve heard many like these but cannot find a list of any kind. They just turn up sometimes in lists of conjunctions, interjections, and expressions.
OMG! OO;;;
<— (Jealous)
LOL, I guess my ninja joke turned out to be less of a joke.
You could look up general expressions and idioms.
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