Survival Japanese - Basic Phrases for Communication

[Windadept]

By the way, for anyone that doesn't know, if you're in hiragana typing mode, you can switch to katakana by pressing alt+caps lock (in Japanese Windows IME), for some it might be ctrl+caps lock.
Out of personal preference, I don't like to use personal pronouns when using Japanese.
I find being impersonal a bit more polite.
So I like to use こち ]kochi (lit. here) or I'll just omit the pronoun completely if possible.
For example, in a situation when another player has finished preparing and says:
準備はできている -じゅんびはできている - junbi ha dekiteiru - preparations are finished/I'm done preparing (colloquial).
I would respond with something like:
こっちのほうもう - kocchi no hou mou - Me too (colloquial, literally "on my side as well")

[Chik'Tikka]

hmm, i love this thread and made one auto word and four shortcut phrases!!! but when i join a party and ask if it's all right, how do i tell if they say "yes" or "no" or "get the f*** out nao!!" +^_^+

[Cavistus]

hmm, i love this thread and made one auto word and four shortcut phrases!!! but when i join a party and ask if it's all right, how do i tell if they say "yes" or "no" or "get the f*** out nao!!" +^_^+

they can say a variety of things

はい (hai) = Yes (acknowledgement)

いいです　(ii desu) = It's okay

大丈夫です (daijyoubu desu)　= It's alright (same thing in this context)

どうぞ (douzo) = Go ahead / come on in


I doubt many of them will say no, but if they do, it'll most likely be

いいえ　(iie) = no

or

ごめん / ごめんなさい　(gomen / gomen nasai) = Sorry (but no)

[sugarFO]

Which do I use? Kanji or Hiragana one?

[Cavistus]

The Kanji examples.

The Hiragana and Romaji examples are just for those interested in learning.

[LuneFox]

English: I no good at reading kanji.
-
Kanji 漢字を読むのが上手でわありません。
Hiragana: かんじをよむのがじょうずでわありません。
Romaji: kanji wo yomuno ga jouzudewa arimasen.

Little typo. It should be ではありません

And I would say it more simply,
漢字が下手です (kanji ga heta desu) - I'm not skilled at [reading] kanji.

[Buthor]

Is this really actually serving any kind of purpose or is this thread just to display your knowledge to other users here? I say this because a person without any knowledge of the Japanese language (the kind of people who would look at this in the first place) isn't going to be making any kind of informed decision on what to say to Japanese players other than just letting them know the obvious like: 大丈夫, はい, or いいえ through copy-and-paste. And, players who already have knowledge should be able to just type it in.

Yeah, totally not going to be able to memorize this. I'll stick to english and german. xD

This is my main point. This is just becoming a "learn Japanese thread" which I don't see serving any purpose as it is being written by non-professional sources here on this forum. If you're really interested in being able to use Japanese effectively then you just plain need to take several years of coursework and live there or Rosetta-Stone if you're really brave.

Spoiler!

hmm, i love this thread and made one auto word and four shortcut phrases!!! but when i join a party and ask if it's all right, how do i tell if they say "yes" or "no" or "get the f*** out nao!!" +^_^+

Again, my point is proven here: how do you know what they respond with without referencing/memorizing the entire "master list" present here on the forum?

Which do I use? Kanji or Hiragana one?

Kanji will make you look like you know something and, you don't. That's why you're looking at this thread. (read below about mukanshin please)

Back in PSO most people in the Jp server were kind to me and willing to speak in english :3
But this will be helpful, i am supposed to make the effort to communicate as well.
Thanks.

This is another point that I would like to make. If you don't know Japanese then you should either play with other players who speak your native tongue or just type something like, "English OK?" Chances are many players will have an English ability better than your (copy-and-paste) Japanese ability - English is a mandatory part of the Japanese education.

I was reading through this and noticing the changing back and forth between casual and formal language. Then got to page 4 and see that's already been addressed :P

Some things I might add/question..
If you are asking if it's okay to go someplace and are using the formal examples above, shouldn't your sentence end with
行ってもいいですか？
This is more for my knowledge then to be a J-grammar nazi

Someone also commented about the use of あたし which I completely agree with. I have yet to see this used in a J-game even by my female Japanese gamer friends. But do hear it pretty commonly in spoken language here in the Yokohama area. So probably best not to use it in game I would think, least be the nail that sticks out.

Furthering my first point above, this thread is just opinion and is not from any professional source and therefore should not be a sticky of any sorts: it will only mislead players into pretending they can speak Japanese which isn't good for any party. But, if you do join a Japanese party and know what you're doing (because you've read the other guides which are written at the other end of this language barrier as translations rather than "suggestions") then it will run smoothly and the members might even make more of an effort to communicate with you in English because you typed "English OK?" when you joined.

Basically the problem here is that a conversation doesn't follow a machined path of predictable responses. People answer things differently, with different dialects, so as Lintor mentioned and as I tried to accomplish with the things I suggested, the safest way to go is to either ask questions that have a high probability in being answered with yes/no, or using expressions to state your condition and allow the people you're playing with to know what's going on, in which case understanding their response is most likely not necessary.

EDIT:

That being said, anyone who's unconfident in their Japanese should probably headline themselves with something like the following:

English: The truth is, I'm no good at Japanese. I just know a few useful phrases.
-
Kanji: 実は,私の日本語は上手じゃありません。 ちょっと便利な言葉がしているだけです。
Hiragana: じつは、わたしのにほんごはじょうずじゃありません。　ちょっとべんりなことばがしているだけ です。
Romaji: jitsu ha, watashi no nihongo ha jyouzujya arimasen. chotto benrina kotoba ga shiteiru dake desu.

This can be used if someone says something to you that you can't understand at all. In which case, you can also follow up with statements that zgnumu provided, such as "type it in hiragana" or "explain it more easily."

This is probably the most helpful post here. Just flag yourself right away but, the catch is that you don't need to do this in Japanese even: you can just type anything like, "American" or "English?" And, believe me, Japanese players are able to type back "NO".

I don't think I'll be able to pick up what they will be saying though..
We are talking about Japanese gamers that probably won't be grammatically correct 100% of the time and will use different meanings to illustrate things that will seem arbitrary to non-japanese speakers.

So let's not get too complex..

...

Damn, someone figured out the flaw in pretending to know JP. I was ready with popcorn for when this all fell apart.

This is why I've been insisting on minimalism, and being upfront that you're not a native speaker and may not have had ANY proper training. But I've been trying not to directly rain on anyone's parade.

If you're really intent on doing this, try not to go overboard with the Japanese, and really do whatever to keep their responses simple first and foremost.

Exactly. If you know and can speak then great but, if you don't and aren't committed to learning outside of reading this thread then really you don't need to do anything because you can just type in English and, they'll either type back in English or type something you can't understand in Japanese (and then you'll say nothing which is OK because bigger parties go faster and that's OK).

All you need to know is よろ　(よろしく） and おつ　（おつまい　／　おつかれさま）
Additionally it'd prolly be easier to just say 僕は日本語を話さない　（ぼくはにほんごをはなさない） (I don't speak Japanese)
Its easier, and more accurate to say you don't speak Japanese.

Yoro(yoroshiku) is commonly said when joining a game for some reason.

Extra Credit. 4649 = yon roku shichi kyuu = yoroshiku.
Thank you Elsword JP.

Again here, this isn't a professional source and so the "suggestion" of 僕 over use of 私 has been misleadingly given as something anyone can use when 僕 is to only be used by male players (or player characters if you're strict on role-playing). Even now I'm finding myself doing the same thing as everyone else here, correcting mistakes, as はなさない has been suggested when はなせない is correct ("cannot speak"/"do not have the ability to speak" - はなさない would mean "I am not (actively) speaking Japanese (now/future)").

Ah lighten up, foreigners are going to look bad no matter what they do to the majority of Japanese players.

This is true. I can tell everyone here that foreigners are seen through rose-colored glasses by the Japanese and if you can't speak Japanese and they can't speak English then those glasses never come off. You'll get the quests done faster if you just follow along in silence. (see below about mukanshin)

Wow, thank you!
I'll definitely be busying myself with this.
I don't want to seem antii-social to the japanese players. :c

You just need to take my suggestion and get some textbooks and start building muscle memory to remember the calligraphy (just write it over and over 100+ times).

As I said, my Japanese is sub-par, so if anyone has any corrections, please let me know and I'll edit them accordingly :P

EDIT:

fixed my phrases with LuneFox's corrections :]

...

Might just be me, but #3 looks a little odd.

Edit: I guess to be more specific, I'd probably say ちょっと待って or something first.

...

Nice tips for someone who doesn't speak japanese :3
P.S. I'd say またよろしくね instead of また、さんかさせてください

#3 looks okay, but I usually hear just すぐ戻る/ります　(without "ni")

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tl;dr A bunch of supporting quotes.

This... this thread is... it's a pile of s... sublime help for those of us who haven't the foggiest idea about japanese!
Straight to my bookmarks once I get back home (if I don't forget about it, that is).

Thanks.

This thread is an excellent collaboration of knowledge and a shining example of how the PSO-W community can really come together to teach one another something but, that isn't my point here. It is that for those of you "who haven't the foggiest idea about japanese!" you really should just take the time to really study the language in-depth and thoroughly (professional instruction that is not Rosetta-Stone is a huge help - and I say this from my own educational experience and having attempted to use Rosetta-Stone to just keep it fresh in my mind and being disgusted at their immersion-only approach).

Reasons that silence is better:
Mukanshin(無関心) - tl;dr: Japanese people don't say anything to each other so don't worry about them not saying anything to you.

Spoiler!

This is a social construct in Japan that has really developed right along-side the population level itself. You see, because there are so many people in cities like Tokyo, most Japanese (because "most" live in enormous cities) have developed a sense of "non-interest" in others' and their affairs or even their existence (and I use "non-" because "dis-" would indicate a "lack of interest" and that is not the case here; rather, the notion of there ever being the ability for the person to develop a lack of interest is 無=null/moot/void, that is: it never existed). So, for those of you who feel there may be some need to fill some kind of "awkward" silence in your PSO2 sessions with Japanese players that you can't understand in the first place, you have nothing to worry about: they don't even register your existence outside of your virtual character's appearance in their party - AND THAT'S OK. Mukanshin is not something unusual or scary or negative in any way. It is as normal for Japanese as breathing. If you're not Japanese and you don't believe me, I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to go and live somewhere like Tokyo (yes, I'm sure you've figured it out that I used to live there but am now back in the States hence any notion to connect with English speaking players at all). If you're Japanese and you think I'm wrong: 申し訳ありませんが上智大学に行ったし、日本文化論を勉強しました。

Honne and Tatemae(本音と建前) - While these boundaries may be "blurred" in an online game; regardless, Japanese usually only get "buddy-buddy" in their speech with their friends they are playing with or at least other Japanese speakers. You're not really making "friends" with them if you're neither of these.

[Spellbinder]

Just curious, is the reason you called out quotes followed by ellipses simply agreeing with the quoted statements? And I guess congrats for attending Sophia University.

[Buthor]

Just curious, is the reason you called out quotes followed by ellipses simply agreeing with the quoted statements? And I guess congrats for attending Sophia University.

No it's that those quotes further prove my point. And, thank you but congrats aren't anything I'm worthy of here - it's not actually that rigorous of a university it just has a good reputation heh.

[LuneFox]

Mukanshin(無関心) - non-interest in others
...many people in cities like Tokyo, most Japanese have developed a sense of "non-interest" in others' and their affairs or even their existence...

Oh, then it explains why I didn't pay attention to your giant post with alot of quotes.