Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
13
A Glossary of Useful
Japanese Terms
Needless to say, it takes years to become fluent in Japanese, particularly
in written Japanese, with its thousands of
kanji,
or Chinese characters, and its many
hiragana
and
katakana
characters. If you know even a few words of Japanese, however,
they will not only be useful but will delight Japanese people you meet in the course of
your trip.
PRONUNCIATION
In pronouncing the following vocabulary, remember that there's very little stress on
individual syllables (pronunciation of Japanese is often compared to Italian). Here's an
approximation of some of the sounds of Japanese:
a
as in
father
aa
held slightly longer than
a
e
as in
pen
i
as in
pick
ii
held slightly longer than
i
o
as in
oh
oo
held slightly longer than
o
u
as in
boo
uu
held slightly longer than
u
g
as in gift at the beginning of words; like
ng
in
sing
in the middle
or at the end of words
Vowel sounds are almost always short unless they are pronounced doubled, in which
case you hold the vowel a bit longer.
Okashi,
for example, means “a sweet,” whereas
okashii
means “strange.” As you can see, even slight mispronunciation of a word can
result in confusion or hilarity. (Incidentally, jokes in Japanese are nearly always plays on
words.) Similarly, double consonants are given more emphasis than only one consonant
by itself.
USEFUL WORDS & PHRASES
Basic Terms
Yes
Hai
No
Iie
Good morning
Ohayo gozaimasu
Good afternoon
Konnichiwa
Good evening
Konbanwa
Good night
Oyasuminasai
