Learing The Japanese Greetings
Posted on February 19, 2009
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Learning Japanese is a lot of fun and in this article I am going to teach you Japanese Greetings
Before I explain exactly how to greet someone in Japanese I want to briefly provide you with some cultural insight into the Japanese language.
When learning Japanese you need to know that with in the language is a form of speech called Keigo. This is how you differentiate between polite and more informal ways of communicating. Therefore you will use different words depending on the person that your a in conversation with. One simple example is when you greet a teacher in the morning you would say the polite “ohayo gozaimasu”, where are good morning amongst friends is a simple “ohayo”
Also when we consider the way the verbs in conversation are used it depends on the social status of whom you are speaking to.
Ok let take a look at how to say the most useful greetings in Japanese:
If you meet someone for the very first time then you say “Hajimemashite” sounds like ha-jimi-mush-tay. It is polite to bow too. So just perform a simple bow from your hips and don’t go too deep just a slight lean forward with your hands positioned at your side will do nicely.
Next the phrase you want to say is “Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu” which simply means ‘pleased to meet you’.
Just as in most languages the greeting that you use will change depending on the time of the day. So let now have a quick look at a few common terms:
Good Evening = Konban wa
Good Night = Oyasumi Nasai
Good Day = Konnichi wa
Hi (more imformal) = Domo
One other quick tip that might help you avoid an embarassing situation in Japan is make sure that you remove you shoes when entering someones house!
That’s a good start to learning Japanese greetings and if you want more free Japanese lessons you can get more clicking here: Learn Japanese For Free
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