with the kind of rising intonation we give to the question “Right?”
Slang that is too faddish is not included in this book, because such words come and go too quickly. If you use old slang, the reaction of your Japanese date will likely be, “He thinks he’s being cool speaking like that, but nobody says that anymore. Hah, hah!” So we’ve avoided hot slang—if it’s out of date people will think that you’re funny or square. But feel free to use what you pick up on the street.
VARIATIONS
The terms “boy” and “girl” are used throughout the book, and we’re definitely referring to the post-puberty phase here. To eliminate the embarrassing problem of boys using girls’ words or vice versa, we’ve indicated words suitable for use by girls and boys with the symbols ♀ and ♂ respectively. Other words and phrases not marked can be used by both sexes, and (b→g) means a boy should use it when talking to a girl. For example:
Don’t be upset.
Okoranai-de. ♂
怒おこらないで。
Okoruna-yo. ♀
怒おこるなよ。
Make me warm.
Atatamete.
暖あたためて。
You look beautiful.
Kirei-dayo. (b→g)
きれいだよ。
But before you go thinking that boys’ and girls’ speech patterns are absolutely divided, stop a minute. Don’t be shocked if you hear a girl using a quite masculine phrase (or vice versa). The gender gap in Japanese speech is narrowing, especially among young people, and there’s nothing wrong with “borrowing” for impact or emphasis. In this book, we’ve made the distinction as a general guide to usage.
One thing you’ll notice as you speak with the Japanese (especially if you move around) is that people’s speech patterns vary wildly. We’re not just talking about slang here, there are also big differences between regions and social groups. It’s impossible for us to include all the variations (more on the regional ones later) of the phrases in this book, so we’ve gone a standard Japanese (hyōjungo 標ひょう準じゅん語ご) style, which everyone will understand and which you can adapt to the area you’re living in.
Adaptation is really important—the phrases here might seem too harsh to some ears and too soft to others. Take your cues from the speech and reactions of people around you. If they warm to the way you’re talking, great, otherwise think about the way they’re taking it and adjust. If all else fails, ask—foreigners aren’t expected to know everything!
JAPANESE-ENGLISH-JAPANESE-...
You’ll have seen above that we’ve written Japanese phrases in two ways—in rōmaji (ローマ字じ—Western script, with lines above some vowels meaning long sounds) and in Japanese script with furigana (phonetic hiragana 平ひら仮が名な above the Chinese kanji 漢かん字じ) for an added challenge as you get better. But many phrases are written in another phonetic alphabet, katakana 片かた仮か名な. Katakana are mostly used for foreign words, and there are many of them in this book—for example, “batteries” are batterī バッ テリー. Among other things, they’re also used to write a few Japanese superlatives, such as chō 超ちょう (ちょー) (amazing-ly/ fantastic-ally).
When using katakana, life gets a bit tricky when you hit the limitations of the Japanese language. It has only one final consonant (n), so when the Japanese pronounce English words with other consonant endings, they have to tack on a vowel, usually a u. “Game” becomes gēmu ゲーム, “bed” becomes beddo ベッド, etc. With no final “r” sound, they usually use a long “a”; for example “locker” becomes rokkā ロッカー. And since there is no “l” at all, “r” is used instead.
There are a few introduced sounds that the Japanese can usually pronounce, and so they’ve created new ways of writing them. A “we” (as in “web”) is written ウェ, and v sounds are written as ヴ followed by a katakana vowel, as in va ヴァ, vi ヴィ etc.—though the ability to pronounce the v varies greatly, especially between generations!
The Japanese enjoy using English words sporadically in their speech and you should do the same. With a little practice, it’s easy to get the hang of how to “katakana-ize” an English word, that is, to pronounce it the way a Japanese would, strange as it might seem at first. As a foreigner, you’d be expected to use katakana words—so don’t hold back!
As a reference point, the charts on pages 14 and 15 show the basic kana in each alphabet.
There are a few more variations in readings to watch out for. Notables are the use of ha as the subject particle, in which case it’s read wa (such as 私わたしは = watashi-wa = I am), and verbs ending in -masu ます, which we’ve romanized to -mas, because that’s how you say it. You’ll pick them all up as you go along.
BEING CHOOSY
There are plenty of phrases for which the Japanese have alternatives, as in any language. As well as the boy/girl classification, we’ve listed them in a rough order from least to most casual, also getting rougher as they become more casual. If what you’re saying doesn’t seem to fit the mood, again, adapt to the speech of the people around you!
In the book, we’ve included the Japanese words for “me” and “you” in many phrases. In practice, they often leave them out, unless particular clarification is needed, but until you can instinctively understand who is being referred to, it’s best to use them. If you do, there are a range of words available, not just the gender-neutral watashi 私わたし (with its super-formal counterpart watakushi 私わたし) and anata あなた that textbooks love.
For girls, there’s atashi あたし, and for guys there’s boku 僕ぼく and ore 俺おれ. To say “you,” girls can say anata あなた or anta あんた, and guys can say kimi 君きみ or omae お前まえ. In this book, we’ve stuck with anata and kimi, because these are the “safest” for everyday conversation. Omae and ore in particular are very harsh, uncompromising words that can put people off. Until you know when best to use these words (again by the speech of the Japanese around you), steer clear!
STRESSED OUT OVER ENDINGS
One thing that we have to say is that in Japanese, how you say something can have more meaning than what you say. Think about it: when you’re sharing an intimate moment, you can convey many emotions by sounding caring and serious, on top of what you’re actually saying. Some phrases can be changed from statements to questions just by the tone or particle at the end... the list goes on. Here’s a rundown of some slang endings and tonal tricks.
For starters, the rules say that plain negative
