me.
B: (a) Iie.
(b) Doo itashimashite.
(c) Iie, doo itashimashite.
Not at all.
It is safer not to equate Doo itashimashite with English “You are welcome,” because Doo itashimashite may also be used as a response to apologies.
(2) A: Doomo gomeiwaku o okake-shlmashita.
I’m very sorry for causing so much trouble.
B: Doo itashimashite.
Not at all.
In some cases, Doo itashimashite may also be used in response to compliments (Jorden, 1, p. 3), but that particular use is very limited. It is much safer, therefore, to say just Iie, which is always a correct response to compliments. (See also arigatoo gozaimasu and iie.)
Doomo is most often an abbreviation of Doomo arigatoo gozaimasu (or gozaimashita) “Thank you very much” or Doomo shitsurei-shimashita “I am very sorry for what I have done.” Lately, Doomo seems to have started developing a wider and wider range of meaning, however. Thus it is beginning to function as a salutation in a tremendous number of situations. Some people use it in lieu of other more established greetings such as Konnichi wa “Good day!” and Sayonara “Good-by!” and, according to Maruya (p. 153), even Moshimoshi (a greeting on the phone, meaning “Hello!”). Its usage has become so broad that Maruya suggests (p. 154), though tongue in cheek, that it may someday even acquire the meaning of “I love you”!
Doozo by itself is most often used when one invites someone to do something, e.g., when a host or a hostess invites a guest to come in, or when one offers someone something such as food, a beverage, or a cigarette. (Offering something to someone is really like inviting that person to have and enjoy the item offered.)
Doozo by itself rarely functions as a request. It may, however, be attached to a request.
(1) Doozo onegai-shimasu.
Please do me this favor.
(2) Doozo okamai naku.
Please don’t bother.
English-speaking students of Japanese often make the error of assuming that doozo makes requests more polite, as does “please” in English. Adding doozo to a request, does not make it any more polite—it just intensifies it. For example, in (1) above, the politeness lies not in the word doozo, but in the verb onegai-shimasu (lit., “I humbly request”), which is the polite-humble form of negau “to request.” In fact, Japanese polite requests are uttered more often without doozo than English polite requests are made without “please.”
E means “picture,” but only in reference to a drawn or painted picture. Unlike English “picture” it cannot refer to a movie or a photograph. A movie is an eiga, and a photograph is a shashin. E may mean “photograph” only in the compound e-hagaki “picture postcard.”
Ee is a more conversational version of hai. Use it, however, only as a response to a question.
(1) A: Are wa Ueda-san deshoo ka.
Might that be Mr. Ueda?
B: Ee, soo desu yo.
Yes, it is.
Do not use ee as a response to a knock on the door or the calling of your name. For that purpose, only hai is appropriate.
EIGA 映画 movie
English has many words meaning “motion picture”； Japanese has only one, eiga. Although “movie” means both “motion picture” and “movie theater,” eiga means only “motion picture.” A movie theater is eigakan, “To go to a movie” is eiga e (or ni) iku, but not *eigakan e (or ni) iku. Until the 1930s or so, movies were called katsudoo-shashin (or katsudoo for short), which literally means “motion picture.” It was a very common word until it was gradually replaced by eiga, which is now the only term for “movie.”
ENPITSU 鉛筆 pencil
In English, not only a regular pencil but also a mechanical pencil may be called a pencil. In Japanese, however, enpitsu refers to a regular pencil only. A mechanical pencil is called shaapu-penshiru, or simply shaapu, which is traceable to “Eversharp,” the brand name of the first U.S.-made mechanical pencil.
Furui meaning “old” is used, as a rule, in reference to inanimate things.
(1) Anna furui uchi wa kawanai hoo ga ii desu yo.
You shouldn’t buy an old house like that.
(2) Kono oobaa mo zuibun furuku natta.
This overcoat has gotten quite old.
With reference to persons, other words such as toshi o totta “old, aged,” toshiyori “old person,” and roojin “old person” have to be used.
(3) Murata-san mo toshi o totta nee.
Hasn’t Mr. Murata grown old!
(4) Asoko ni toshiyori no obaasan ga suwatte-iru deshoo.
Do you see that old lady sitting over there?
(5) Ano roojin-tachi ni seki o yuzuroo.
Let’s give our seats to those old people.
When furui is used with reference to persons, it can carry different meanings.
(6) Kono kaisha de ichiban furui no wa Yamada-san da.
The person with the most seniority in this firm is Mr. Yamada.
(7) Ano hito wa moo furui.
He is passé (or behind the times)
Furui is sometimes shortened to furu and added to other words to form compounds.
(8) furu-hon, furu-gi, furu-shinbun
used books, used clothes, old newspapers
GAIJIN 外人 foreigner
Gaijin, in a broad sense, means “foreigner.” In a narrower sense, however, it refers only to Caucasians, especially those staying in Japan.
Gaikokujin
