My first trip to Japan, I only speak English, what do I need to do?

[kmcsjr]

Hi Guys

My company asked for volunteers to help with our companies work in Japan. I will probably be heading over for about a Month between May and August. I've worked in other countries, but always with a local coworker. This time, I may well be on my own. I have no idea yet, where I will be, but hope do some train travel on the weekends if the workload and post tsunami claen up permit it.

 

Will I be able to get by in English? I can pick up a phonetic English to Japanese, but......

 

Any hints at all. Thanks.

[keitaro]

You should be fine make sure you take a lonely planet guide or something similar will have pages of useful questions and phrases to help you get by.

[spacecadet]

It really depends on where you're going.  You sound like you're going to work in the tsunami area - you might want to take a crash course in some common Japanese phrases in that case.  I've been to lots of rural areas in Japan and there is basically zero English.  I doubt even Sendai would have many English signs or English speakers (though I've never been there), because there's usually just not a lot of reason for people there to need it.  Japanese do need to take a certain amount of English in school but they forget most of it as soon as they get out of school, just like Americans forget most of the Spanish they learn in school.  And the English they learn is really just enough to pass their tests anyway.

 

Of course, right now there will probably be other English speakers around helping to clean up too, but as far as interfacing with the locals, you will probably need a little help.

 

In Tokyo you can get by with no Japanese, though you still can't really converse with many people.  You can read signs and say really basic things, though, and people will usually understand you.  Outside of Tokyo, though, it can be pretty hard.

[keitaro]

I have a Japanese friend in Sendai speaks good english

 

But yeah you will never have an issue with buying something as long as you have the cash

[kmcsjr]

thanks all. when I have more info on where I will be, I will post for tips.

[westfalen]

I don't think you'll have much trouble, railfanning has taken me to some out of the way places where I'm sure their all time count of foreign visitors could be done on the fingers of one hand, and I may well have been speaking Swahili instead of English but was still able to get by in shops and restaurants. I took a phrase book on my first two or three trips but don't remember ever using it. It's a good idea to get to know a few common Japanese characters such as the ones for entrance/exit or station. The tourist information desks at stations often have English speakers on hand.

[keitaro]

plus everyone is friendly even the homeless.

 

well except for drunk old guy at the nagoya castle....

 

been there twice and he was there both time ranting at me in japanese and jumping up and down 

[kuro68000]

As others have said people are friendly and helpful. A little Japanese goes a long way, and if you can wrap your head around katakana you will be able to read a lot of signs. Katakana is the script that loan words are written in, and there are lots of them. Most are English like 'toilet' and 'button', but there are some German and French words too (バイト and パン for part-time job and bread respectively are the two that spring to mind).

 

Shops are easy enough for the most part, just take your stuff to the counter and hand over some cash. Note that in shops with more than one floor you usually have to pay for the items you find on each floor on that same floor, before going to a different one.

 

A mobile phone can really help you. I have an Android based one with a few different Japanese dictionaries on it. The free Aedict is one of the best, not least because it includes a lot of example phrases. If you are really stuck you can show someone the word or phrase you need on your phone. If you company is nice enough to provide you with data access too you can use Google Translate.

 

Don't worry too much about it though, you will be fine. For example most restaurants have models or picture of the food so ordering is easy. Have fun and take some photos of trains for us :)

[rankodd]

Fun experience about knowing Hiragana/Katakana.

 

When I was in Japan I chided the English speaker I was visiting for not bothering to learn *anything* for his year-long stay (Engineer working on English translations and websites for a Japanese research project spun off into a commercial venture). His response was basically "Yeah? Prove it." and he pointed at a closed restaurant, demanding to know what kind of food it served.

 

It so happened that I *could* read the Katakana on the sign. After I told him it was a Ramen joint he shut up very quickly :)

[Guest ___]

I spent ten years studying Japanese and every trip I make to Japan, my Japanese seems worse and worse. I tried the guide but would find it awkward to use it in practice. However, just memorizing a few phrases can go a long way. Furthermore, I found to get by without using Japanese rather easy and there is almost always someone nearby in the winds who can speak Japanese if really needed. I think the Japanese look for an excuse to jump in to practice their English when dealing with a language barrier between a native and gaijin.

[rpierce000]

Several VERY important phrases:

 

"Ohayo" Pronounced like the state of Ohio. It means "Mornin" In more formal situations it would be "Ohayo Gozaimasu"

"Konichiwa" Good Day, used from about 10A to 5P

"Konbanwa" Good evening, used from 5P till early AM. The line between Konbanwa and Ohayo is often drawn when the bars close

"Oterai wa doko desuka?" Where is the restroom?

"Iikura desuka?" How much is this? You will need to be able to understand numbers to get a reply, but you can ask them to write it down. Numbers in Japan are usually written in roman numerals.

"Domo Arigato Gozaimasu" Used in different levels. "Domo" alone is Thanks!, "Domo arigato" is thank you very much. "Domo Arigato Gozaimasu" is usually only reserved for things like thanking a host at a party or for a shop keeper talking to an honored customer.

 

Find a web site to teach you your numbers.

 

Vowels are ALWAYS the same

A= Ah

I = ee

U = oo

E = Aye or eh

O = Oh

 

Given this you can always pronounce a word written in roman letters (Romanji).

 

Get a smart phone if you can afford it and load a translator app. Some of the pricier ones will even do voice recognition, but you should be fine with a simple phrase book and lookup translation.

 

If you are going to be there a while, borrow or buy a phone. They are expected to be part of you at all times. You can buy them like US throwaways you get in Walmart or Best Buy. You just buy the phone and time blocks. Akihabara is your best bet and there are train stores there as well.

 

Good luck and have fun. If you are a polite person you will find it a friendly country. Invest time in your conversations, you will be rewarded with great effort on their side to understand you and will go out of their way to help you. I have had people ride several stops out of their way on the Subway to help me get where I need to go.

 

Oh yeah, that reminds be. Get an English subway map ASAP. They go everywhere in Tokyo that the trains just can't get to. You can get them off the web, but the nice ones are paper and folding.

[bikkuri bahn]

On somewhat related note, I'm visiting Korea this summer.  I'm thinking of at least learning Hangul, as I just hate to be confronted by writing I can't the least bit comprehend.  At least in a place like Taiwan I can get the gist from the Chinese characters.

[rpierce000]

I went to Seoul for the '88 Olympics and it was very English friendly, but they may have been working harder on it for the Olympics.

 

A friend of my Mother's says that the DMZ is becoming a really nice nature preserve, but it is too dangerous to visit. Rumor has it that webcams will eventually be set up to view the wildlife safely. (Not that anyone ELSE would use them for nefarious purposes...)

[westfalen]

On somewhat related note, I'm visiting Korea this summer.  I'm thinking of at least learning Hangul, as I just hate to be confronted by writing I can't the least bit comprehend.  At least in a place like Taiwan I can get the gist from the Chinese characters.

I had a similar feeling when I was traveling around Europe by train in 2008 and I crossed the border from Germany into Poland, after starting to work out a bit of German all of a sudden the letters on the signs were the same but they were in combinations I couldn't even pronounce.

[bikkuri bahn]

I went to Seoul for the '88 Olympics and it was very English friendly, but they may have been working harder on it for the Olympics.

 

Yes, I assume Seoul will be that way.  However, I intend to take a day trip to the hinterlands, and it seems English signage is much more sparse on the railway network there.  I acquired a paper national railway timetable, which apart from some English and Chinese characters in the KTX timetable, is completely in Hangul.  I have begun deciphering the symbols for local/semi-express/ltd. express trains.  One thing that grabs my interest is that long distance stopping night trains still run in Korea.  Also, all seating on trains except for a few locals are reserved (there is no jiyuseki as in Japan), so I have to figure out how to reserve seats at the station, including the necessary lingo.

[cteno4]

kmcsjr,

 

as folks have said you should have no problem with the basic living/traveling in japan w/o any japanese. few phrases really does help though and always be polite, gentle, and smile and that goes a very long way. my first trip in 84 happened in like 2 days for a conference so i had no time to get ready other than getting one small guide book. i had 3 weeks after the conference and bummed around all over, from cities to out in the boonies and had no trouble what so ever. everyone, everywhere was friendly and helpful and between pointing at words (with Katakana translations) and simple pantomimes i was always able to work out anything in a very friendly way. those that spoke english usually popped up or were pointed out in some situations as many times they wanted to practice their english. i dont think i paid for a single beer the whole trip in bars as there were so many folks wanting to learn american slang! no one would let me buy them a beer. again being friendly, calm and smiling went a long, long way!

 

in moving around i use to start out on a known spot on the map and make sure to count streets and once and a while verify the street names (simple pattern recognition to match up the Katakana) at an intersection to make sure i was on track and mark the map. never really got lost that way, always was able to dead recon back to someplace i had been and get reconnected if i did stop paying attention to details for a while! i only had to ask someone once where i was on the map (in tokyo) as i had entered a large building in search of a small toy shop and after going through its labyrinth to find it and back out i thought i came out the same place i went in, but actually came out the other side so i was 180 turned around and did not realize that for a bit! nowdays a GPS can take care of that!

 

i would love to learn more japanese than the handful of phrases i know, but im dyslexic and language for me is torture at times, english is hard enough to keep going... i marvel at others when they pick up language quickly!

 

hopefully if they have you out working by yourself they will hook you up with someone to help interface on technical stuff.

 

great you are getting this opportunity, make the most of it and keep us posted on the adventure!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[harukablue]

This is a very informative collection of you tube videos but a great Australian guy living in Japan, very well worth a visit and watching a few,,for all members of the forum.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheJapanChannelDcom

[kuro68000]

Some excellent tips have been posted here. Maybe someone should make a sticky for people thinking of visiting.

 

I think if you want to learn some Japanese it is worth doing an evening class, or some people advertise practice sessions in the local paper etc. It really does help to have someone to practice with, not least because at first you will make mistakes in pronunciation without noticing because your ear is not tuned to it.

 

Train stations in Japan have English signs but you need to look for them. An English map is really handy though because most of the smaller stations don't have them. On the subway each station has a number that is supposed to help you get around, but I always found it easier to just read the names (written in English). They also do announcements of stations in English over the loudspeakers on most lines.

 

For travelling get a Suica card. It makes life so much easier. It is basically a stored value card you load up with money at a ticket machine and then touch on the pad at the turnstile. It works on trains and the subway, as well as some buses and in some shops.

 

A useful tip when speaking Japanese is to simply state what you want followed by "wa" (pronounced "wah"). It implies a question, so if you say "toire wa" (toire = toilet, toe-ee-ray) it implies the question "where is the toilet?" It works with a huge variety of obvious questions, such as "o-namae wa" (what is your name), "eki wa" (where is the station) etc.

 

Another handy one is that verbs can be turned into questions easily. For example "tabemasu" is to eat. To ask a question in Japanese you just put "ka" on the end, kind of like a question mark but spoken. To be polite you ask negative questions, so effectively you say "not eat?" which is "tabemasen ka". Verbs in Japanese are very regular so the "masu" and "masen" parts are common, meaning you only need to really learn the first but. Drinking is "nomimasu" so to ask if someone wants to get a drink you just say "nomimasen ka".

 

Oh, and beware books that claim "dozo" means please. It does, but only in the sense of "please accept this..." If you want to say please as in "may I please..." just add "kudasai" to the end of a sentence, or even just a single word. "ocha kudasai" = tea please.

 

If you do get a dictionary it can be very helpful, especially if you have one on your phone to carry around. Just be aware that Japanese is totally unrelated to English so there will not be direct equivalents of many words, and as with the example of "dozo" above even when there are it can be misleading. Generally if you just point to a noun it is enough to convey your meaning and won't lead to confusion if you use the wrong verb or something.

 

Shashinka is right about Japanese people wanting to practice English, and it seems especially true of older men. If you stand staring at a map for a few minutes one will come over and help you. Japanese people learn English from textbooks at school so tend to be not so good at speaking or listening, but if you write what you want down they can often read much better.

 

One final tip, try to be quiet. A lot of first time tourists stand around talking loudly, especially on trains. Japanese people are generally quite quiet and you should try to blend in. Talking is fine, just don't shout ;)