In reality, Japan, like any other nation, is an ocean of diversity, home to multiple minority groups. One of these groups is Japan’s indigenous people, or the Ainu. Don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of the Ainu. In fact, many Japanese themselves are unaware of the existence of their own country’s indigenous people.

But why? For hundreds of years, the Ainu have been either ignored, discriminated against, or forced to assimilate with mainstream Japanese culture. Obviously, none of these circumstances are favorable for propagating cultural stability or awareness. And unfortunately, this has led the Ainu language and culture to the brink of extinction.

However, with the government’s (long awaited) official recognition of the Ainu as Japan’s indigenous people in 2008, it appears that there has been a revival of Ainu pride among the few Ainu that remain, as they desperately try to preserve what culture they have left. Here, I hope to outline some of the most important aspects of the Ainu language and briefly touch upon the culture in hopes to bring light to one facet of Japan’s diversity.

The Origins of the Ainu

The Ainu people are historically residents of parts of Hokkaido (the Northern island of Japan) the Kuril Islands, and Sakhalin. According to the government, there are currently 25,000 Ainu living in Japan, but other sources claim there are up to 200,000. The origin of the Ainu people and language is, for the most part, unknown. However, there have been many theories on the subject.

One theory suggests that the Ainu people are remnants of the Jomon-jin, or the hunter-gathers who inhabited Japan during the Jomon Period (14,500 BC – 300 AD) and perhaps even before. Around the year 300 AD, another group of immigrants known as the Yayoi people made their way to the islands of Japan, introducing new agricultural techniques and technology and integrating with the Jomon people. It is believed that the Yayoi group may not have reached as far as the Northern island of Hokkaido, allowing the Jomon hunter-gatherer way of life to survive in that area.

The model of a Jomon period boy

One Ainu myth claims that “They lived in this place a hundred thousand years before the Children of the Sun came.” It’s interesting that this myth seems consistent with the theory of the Ainu descending from Jomon-jin. More recent research suggests that the historical Ainu culture could have come about through the merging of the Okhotsk culture and the Sastumon, a Jomon group very similar to the Ainu.

Physically, the Ainu stand out distinctly from the Japanese as a separate ethnic group. Ainu people tend to have light skin, a stout frame, deep-set eyes with a European shape, and thick, wavy hair. Full-blooded Ainu may have even had blue eyes or brown hair. In the past, the Ainu were proposed to be of Caucasian decent, given their appearance, but recently it has been proved through dental morphology and fingerprinting that the Ainu are in fact Mongoloid, not Caucasoid.

An old Ainu man

These days, the concept of a pure Ainu is very blurred. Distinguishing the Ainu from other Japanese is almost impossible due to intermarriage with the Japanese, migration, and denial of the Ainu identity to avoid discrimination.

Ainu Culture

You can see just by the appearance of the Ainu that traditional Ainu culture is significantly different from Japanese culture. First of all, both men and women keep their hair at shoulder length and wear traditional Ainu garb. Men, never shaving after a certain age, usually have full beards, and women undergo mouth tattooing to signify their coming to adulthood.

As hunter-gatherers, the Ainu lived off of the land. Common foods included deer, bear, rabbit, fox, salmon, root vegetables, and much more. Unlike the Japanese, the Ainu always cooked their food, never eating anything raw. Common hunting weapons included poisoned spears and bow and arrows.

One way that the Ainu were similar to the Japanese is in the way of religion. The Ainu, just like the Japanese people, were animists and believed that all things are inhabited by spirits known as kamuy. While there are many gods in Ainu belief, one of the most important is known as Kim-un Kamuy, or the god of bears and the mountains. All animals are thought to be the manifestations of gods on Earth in Ainu culture, however, the bear is believed to be the head of gods and is therefore known as kamuy, or “God.”

Traditionally, the Ainu sacrificed bears in order to release the kamuy within them to the spirit world. One tradition, called lotame, involves the raising of a young bear cub as if it were an Ainu child and then sacrificing once it has come of age.

a tourist with two Ainu people and a bear

During the Tokugawa Period (1600-1868) the Ainu became increasing involved in trade with the Japanese. At this time, they were able to maintain their culture and way of life to a certain extent, although there is some evidence that the Ainu became slaves.

However, the Meiji restoration brought great change upon the Ainu people in 1899. As Japan began reforming to Western standards, the government decided to unify Japan by annexing the Northern island of Hokkaido and creating a law that restricted the Ainu from participating in their own cultural activities. In other words, the Ainu people were stripped of their land, customs, and language in hopes that they would assimilate to Japanese culture. It wasn’t until 1997 that this law was lifted and the Ainu people were allowed to practice their own customs again, but by that time, much of the damage was done.

The Ainu Language: Something Unique

The indigenous language of Japan is, much like the Ainu people, of unknown origins. With the restrictions placed on the use of the language in 1899, Ainu speakers have all but disappeared. Today the language is said to have less than 15 “native” speakers, all of which are above he age of 60, making Ainu a “critically endangered” language. Originally, the Ainu language had three main dialects: Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and Kuril. However, the Hokkaido dialect is the only one that survives today.

One interesting point about Ainu is that it does not have a written form. The language has lived by being passed down from parent to child for countless years and has historically been transcribed using Japanese kana. The lack of a writing system has of course hindered the ability of the Ainu to preserve their language after it was banned, and the use of Japanese kana has even influenced some Ainu pronunciations. Even so, the language has been able to live in the tradition of Ainu story telling, or Yukar, the language of which is mutually understood by all Ainu groups and is known as Classical Ainu.

Here is an example of a Yukar, or epic story, using Classical Ainu:

In the past, there have been many attempts to place Ainu and Japanese in the same language group, but such claims have been shot down again and again. As of now, there is no widely accepted theory regarding the relationship of Ainu to any other language and it is therefore known as a language isolate.

If you look closely at Japanese and Ainu, it is tempting to conclude the two languages are related, however, there are four features of Ainu that mark it as distinctly different from Japanese:

1. Person is marked on predicates (person is expressed in predicates)
2. Ainu is a polysynthetic language (ideas my be expressed through “sentence words”)
3. There are no verbal inflections (verbs are not changed to express tense)
4. There are verbal suffixes for plurals (plural forms are expressed in verbs)

One of the most prominent features of Ainu is the fact that it is a polysynthetic language. In other words, Ainu is a language in which main ideas are expressed through words composed of smaller word parts with individual meanings, also known as “sentence words”. A basic example of this would be the Ainu word ku-pirka, meaning “I am good.” A more extreme example would be the Yupik word tuntussuqatarniksaitengqiggtuq which means “He had not yet said again that he was going to hunt reindeer.” Interestingly enough, the polysyntheitic nature of Ainu is very similar to the languages of many North American indigenous groups.

So what does Ainu sound like? To the untrained ear, Ainu might sound a lot like Japanese. Just like Japanese, the Ainu language is an SOV (subject, object, verb) language using the five vowels a, i, u, e, and o. However, Ainu only has twelve consonants, excluding d, b, g from Japanese, and vowels are never elongated. In fact, Ainu does not differentiate between several consonants, such as b and p, and in this way it is more similar to Korean.  Another way in which Ainu is significantly different from modern Japanese is that it avoids vowel sequences. In order to avoid vowels “touching,” semi-vowels such as y or w are inserted between them. Sometimes vowels are even pronounced more like consonants, such as in the word Ainu where the “a” is pronounced with a glottal stop.

If you want to hear recordings of the Ainu language or learn some for yourself, check out this great Ainu talking dictionary.

Revitalizing Indigenous Spirit

For nearly 100 years the Ainu people lived in Japan under a policy of extinction by assimilation. They were forbidden by the Japanese government to practice Ainu customs or even speak their own language in hopes that the Ainu would vanish from the face of the planet, but did they succeed? With so few Ainu speakers left and many Ainu denying their own heritage to avoid discrimination, you might say so, but things seem to be looking up lately for Japan’s indigenous people.

The year 1994 marked a great turning point for the Ainu people, as the first ever Ainu, Shigeru Kayano, entered the Japanese diet. Shigeru dedicated his life to promoting the well-being and awareness of the Ainu people. It was thanks to him as well as other supporters that the law forbidding Ainu culture was lifted in 1997. Since then, government funding and cultural freedom has allowed the Ainu people to start regaining and preserving their precious way of life through Ainu language courses, radio stations, and public performances.

Below is a woman playing the tonkori, a traditional Ainu instrument:

Still more recent landmarks in Ainu history include the official recognition of the Ainu as the indigenous people of Japan in 2008 and the formation of the Ainu political party in 2012. It seems that while there is still some discrimination of the Ainu people, those who rejected their heritage before are beginning to admit it openly or even embrace their identity with pride.  A great example of this is the band known as The Ainu Rebels. This band is a group of proud young Ainu who have mixed hip-hop and traditional Ainu music, and I have to say, I’m a fan.

Although the Ainu culture is on the brink of extinction, it seems that more and more effort is going into bringing it back to life. These days, young Ainu such as The Ainu Rebels are doing their best to create a new identity for their people and a Japan more open to minorities. Since the depth of the Ainu culture and language can’t be expressed in so few words, I recommend reading more about them or, if possible, experiencing Ainu culture for yourself.

Here, let me paint a picture for you.

A crisp autumn morning, salarymen heading toward their places of work pace past you; a group of school boys loiter around the sidewalk, cackling at something unknown; a women meanders around you on her bike when – oops! – you notice her wallet drop. “Sumimasen!” you yell, scooping up the wallet and running after her. “Sumimasen!” The woman’s brakes screech to a stop as she finally hears you, and she turns slightly to see what the commotion is about. “Ah! Sumimasen!” she exclaims as you reach her, wallet in hand.

If we were to translate the word “sumimasen” in the above situation into English, we could say that the best interpretation of the first use of the word, when you try to get the attention of the women, is “Excuse me!” However, the second use of the word, when the women receives her wallet, might be better translated as “Thank you.”

If you’ve been to Japan before then I’m sure you’ve realized that sumimasen is one of those words that you just can’t help but notice. Sumimasen, also often pronounced suimasen or sumasen when speaking, is one of the first words learners of Japanese pick up not only because it’s taught early on, but because it’s used so often and in so many situations.

Although most students of Japanese learn the word sumimasen as “excuse me” or “I’m sorry,” this versatile expression is laden with cultural background and can actually carry many subtle shades of meaning when thrown into the various contexts of Japanese interaction.

So why is sumimasen used so often and what does it actually mean? Well, several linguists have asked themselves that very same question and tried to answer it. I’m going to try my best to summarize some of their findings and describe the uses of sumimasen, an expression so important to the Japanese language and culture.

Sumimasen: What it is?

So, let’s get nerdy for a second (ok, for a while) and start off by asking ourselves one thing: what is sumimasen? From a sociolinguistics perspective, as you might guess from hearing the word so often in daily interactions, sumimasen is a ritual expression. In other words, the repeated use of sumimasen is often times more of a social routine than an expression of legitimate emotion. So, although it may seem like the Japanese are entirely too apologetic given all that sumimasen flying about, it’s really more about common courtesy.

According to this pretty sweet linguist Goffman, ritual expressions like sumimasen can be broken down into two sub-fields in linguistics: remedial expressions and supportive expressions.

Remedial expressions are those used when there has been a potential offence between two individuals. So, when you sling a paper bag of flaming dog excrement onto your poor old neighbor’s porch this Halloween, the appropriate remedial expression would be “I’m sorry.”

The second type of expressions, supportive expressions, are those ritual exchanges we use on a daily basis to maintain somewhat normal relationships with the people in our lives such as friends and family. An example of this would be using greetings when meeting other individuals, like, “Why, hello! How are you today?” instead of saying nothing and sulking by wearing the expression of someone who just sat on a cactus.

Most of the time, a ritual expression will fit into one of the two categories, remedial or supportive. For example, the expression “I’m sorry” would be remedial, while the expression “Thank you” would be supportive.

However, sumimasen is just so hard core it breaks all the rules. Another great linguist, Risako Ide, showed this by finding seven uses of sumimasen in recorded public conversations at a doctor’s office. She found that sumimasen is a unique expression in that it functions as both a remedial expression, and supportive expression, and everything in between.

When To Use Sumimasen

Sumimasen is a formal expression, so most of the time it is used in public conversations. For that reason, most research on sumimasen has been done in public settings, just as Risako Ide did using recordings from a waiting room in a doctor’s office.

Below I’ve listed the 7 functions of sumimasen according to Risako Ide. Separating the uses of sumimasen into definable groups makes it clear that the expression means more than “I’m sorry” or “excuse me” to the Japanese people.

1. Sincere Apology

Originally the expression sumimasen was used only as an expression of apology, such as gomennasai, or more formally, moushiwake gozaimasen. Therefore, using sumimasen as a sincere apology is pretty straight forward. You can use it when you’ve really messed up and you want to make a legitimately apology.

Friend: Hey, you ate all my matcha Kit-Kats again didn’t you!?
You: sumimasen.

I sincerely regret this. Therefore, using sumimasen is a perfectly viable option.

2. Thanks and Apology

While one use of sumimasen is a flat out sincere apology, it can also be used to express a sense of mixed regret and thankfulness. Say what? Perhaps you’ve run into this situation in Japan, or any other place for that matter:

You’re in line at seven eleven patiently waiting to purchase your dinner, a pack of Take no Ko (chocolate covered cookies) and a bottle of Calpis. You get to the front of the line, and the clerk rings up your selections to a total of 310 yen, so you hand her 400. “You don’t have 10 yen?” she asks hesitantly. “Oh, yes, I do.” you reply, digging in your wallet and then eventually dumping over your entire book bag to scrounge up the change. “Sumimasen,” the clerk repeats over and over again.

If you’ve been in this situation in Japan before, you might have thought the clerk apologized one too many times for a favor as small as requesting exact change. However, in this context, while the clerk may regret making you scrounge for an extra 10 yen, she is most likely expressing her gratitude to you for going through the trouble to help her out.

In this sense, sumimasen has the ability to express both a sense of regret and thankfulness. In fact, using sumimasen in situations involving debt to another like the one above could be regarded as a more polite thank you than arigatou, as it shows the speaker’s awareness of the other person’s trouble and also adds a tone of humbleness.

3. Making a Request

Sumimasen can also be used prior to making a request of someone. This use of sumimasen is similar to “excuse me” in English, as in “Excuse me, but could you please pass me the biscuits? They look so swell.” You might come across this in Japanese if you are required to pay a fee for something, or if someone asks to barrow money from you.

Using sumimasen to make a request would classify it as a remedial expression in that it attempts to downplay any offense someone might feel in the given situation. In this way, it is also similar to the English expressions “do you mind if” or “could you please.” So, if you need to ask someone a favor and you want to be a bit more subtle than “DO THIS OR DIE,” you might consider using sumimasen.

4. Getting Attention

Hey! Heeeey! Do I have your attention? Up until now all the uses of sumimasen we’ve discussed have been related to feelings of regret and thankfulness. However, using sumimasen does not always denote one’s pouring out of emotions.

Sumimasen can function as an attention-getter. While there are many other conversation starters in Japanese such as ano, konnichiwa, or even clearing your throat, sumimasen is often used between people who are not familiar with each other, making it the polite way to get someone’s attention. This is the same sumimasen we used in the story at the beginning of this post when the woman dropped her wallet, and it is identical to English’s “excuse me” used when talking to a stranger.

5. Taking Leave

Opposite of getting someone’s attention, sumimasen is also used when ending a conversation or taking leave. A typical conversation closing might look like this:

Dracula: Ja, sumimasen
Frankenstein: A, odaiji ni

Dracula: Well then, I’m off.
Frankenstein: Oh, take care then.

When using sumimasen as either a conversation opener or closer, how grateful or regretful you feel becomes somewhat irrelevant. At this point, sumimasen is more of a routine expression than anything else. And since it is being used as a greeting and no offense is involved, it has become a supportive expression rather than a remedial one.

However, since there are other greetings used to open and close conversations such as konnichiwa or sayoonara, sumimasen does still display a slight sense of thankfulness or regret for the attention that the speaker received in conversation.

6. Affirmative Response

As sumimasen leans more and more on the side of a supportive expression rather than a remedial expression, the meaning of sumimasen becomes more and more vague, making it difficult to translate and understand if you haven’t been marinated in Japanese culture.

Another function of sumimasen is to confirm something or respond to someone in an affirmative manner. Here’s an example:

Imagine that you are at the bank, sitting with a group of people waiting to be served at the counter. Suddenly, the man next to you is called. “Ieda-san! Omataseitashimashita (thank you for waiting)!” the clerk shouts, and the man responds with “sumimasen.”

Sumimasen? The first thing I would be thinking is “what in the world has this man done wrong?!” Absolutely nothing. Saying sumimasen in this context allows the man to respond to the clerk in a face-to-face situation while also acknowledging the fact that she is going through the trouble to call him and give him service.

In other words, using sumimasen here is the polite way to respond “OK” or “yes.” Honestly, this can be tricky to wrap your mind around if you’re not too familiar with Japanese culture, but it’s not uncommon to hear.

7. Ritual Greeting / Exchange of Acknowledgement

At this point, we are the furthest distance away from a sincere apology, the original function of sumimasen, that we can get. It’s all ritualistic yakking from here on out. Imagine the following:

A woman goes to the department store to buy a new bicycle which requires her to fill out a registration card. After she fills it out, and the clerk assisting her checks it, the clerk returns it saying “sumimasen,” and of course, she replies, “sumimasen.”

So much sumimasen. Does it even mean anything anymore? The first sumimasen is similar to number six, an affirmative response, as he acknowledges the fact that the registration card is complete. The second sumimasen? Perhaps a polite way of a receiving the card.

Whatever it is, the most basic way of looking at sumimasen in this context is as a “symbolic gesture of concern.” I guess awkward silences have to be filled somehow, and sumimasen just happens to be the way to do it. In a way, you could compare this use of sumimasen to high school students greeting each other in the hallway with “sup?” in the sense that it is only a symbol of acknowledgment and has no real meaning.

What It All Means

Alright, so I’m sure that you get it by now: sumimasen is used heavily in Japanese communication. As you can see from the examples above, this one word is used to express many ideas besides “I’m sorry.”

However, all functions of sumimasen do have one thing in common: the “acknowledgment of indebtedness to others in society.” Understanding this, we can clearly see how some Japanese societal values are reflected linguistically in the term sumimasen.

Japanese society is highly concerned with indebtedness towards others and also the individual’s social role in public. Even very small favors have the effect of forming mutual debts and responsibilities between members of the society.

The priority put on public appearance and debt in Japanese society is perhaps the reason why the term sumimasen is used so often in public interactions; it allows Japanese speakers to put themselves in a humble position and show their “debt” in many circumstances. Could this high prioritization of “debt”  be the reason why the term sumimasen is more polite in places where alternative expressions such as “thank you” would normally be said in English and many other languages?

What do you think? Do you see any connections between Japanese values and sumimasen? How do you feel about it being used so often? Is there anything similar to this expression in your language?

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Sources:
Sorry for your kindness’: Japanese interactional ritual in public discourse

Before coming to Taiwan, I probably spent close to six hours compiling and preparing “Koichi’s Amazing and Unbelievably Sexy Mandarin Learning Method” but then spent only two or so hours actually studying with it. Oops. To say the least, it wasn’t enough prep time, but I wasn’t terribly worried. These strategies focused on efficiency and getting the most bang for my buck. If anything it would help to focus me even more. I’d say that over these three weeks I didn’t become good at Mandarin by any means, but I do have a basic understanding of how most things work and also know how to build upon what I’ve learned. I’m at the point where learning comes quickly and I can understand why something works the way it does, and probably my biggest weakness is vocabulary.

But, my actual Mandarin level isn’t what really matters here. What does matter is what I learned about learning a new language. It’s been a while, and it was a good experience since it’s sometimes difficult to imagine what it’s like to start learning Japanese (which is a terrible thing for teaching). So, let’s get started. Here’s the stuff I learned about Mandarin that is relevant to starting to learn Japanese as well. I hope it helps you to learn any new language just a little bit better.

The Magic 12 Sentences

The biggest and most overarching idea that I tried on this trip was the concept of the “12 sentences.” These twelve sentences are sentences that focus on grammar and when learned they teach you pretty much all of the basic grammar that you need to know. Once you know them all, you can mix and match ideas from each to create your own even more complicated sentences. You can spend two or three hours going through these sentences, breaking them down, understanding how they work (very important step), and then memorizing the patterns.

Of course, by learning these sentences you can grammatically express just most things. In fact, I bet you that 80% or more of the grammar used on a daily basis comes from these twelve sentences. Not too bad for a few hours of study. That being said, the vocabulary in these sentences is repetitive by design (so you can focus on grammar) which means you can pretty much only talk about John’s apples and what you want to do with them. More on that in a minute. Using this method, vocabulary does have to be learned separately, but since that’s such an important topic it will get its own section(s) later in this article.

In case you’re interested, here are the sentences I used:

The apple is red
這個蘋果是紅色的
Zhège píngguǒ shi hóngsè de

This is John’s apple
這是約翰的蘋果
Zhè shì yuēhàn de píngguǒ

I give John the apple
我給約翰這個蘋果
Wǒ gěi yuēhàn zhège píngguǒ

We give him the apple
我們給他這個蘋果
Wǒmen gěi tā zhège píngguǒ

He gives it to John
他把它給約翰
Tā bǎ tā gěi yuēhàn

She gives it to him
她把它給他
Tā bǎ tā gěi tā

She gives it to him
她把它給他
Tā bǎ tā gěi tā

Is the apple red?
這個蘋果是紅色的嗎？
Zhège píngguǒ shì hóngsè de ma?

The apples are red.
這些蘋果是紅色的。
Zhèxiē píngguǒ shì hóngsè de.

I must give it to him.
我必須把它給他。
Wǒ bìxū bǎ tā gěi tā.

I want to give it to her.
我想把它給她。
Wǒ xiǎng bǎ tā gěi tā.

I’m going to know tomorrow.
明天我會知道的。
Míngtiān wǒ huì zhīdào de.

I can’t eat the apple.
我不能吃這個蘋果。
Wǒ bùnéng chī zhège píngguǒ

*You’ll notice that I made the mistake of using simplified Mandarin, which isn’t used in Taiwan (whoops). You’ll have to ignore that for me, if you don’t mind. Traditional is actually much easier for me anyways because it’s what gets used in Japanese.

In order to get these sentences translated, I used Gengo to get a translation, then VoiceBunny to get a recording. Alternatively, I’m sure people on Lang-8, Reddit (find an appropriate subreddit), and Rhinospike would be happy to help, though I needed to make sure the quality was there (and I needed them fast) so I paid for the two services at the top of this paragraph.

If you look at these twelve sentences, you’ll begin to notice how they build upon each other. The first sentence “The apple is red” gives you the grammar pattern “The [noun] is [adjective].” Personally, I’d have simplified this down further and built up to the first sentence, but we’re on an express train here and there’s no time for local stations. In the second sentence, “This is John’s Apple,” you learn the pattern “This is [noun]‘s [noun].” Just with these two sentences, you can also make other sentences as well. Ones you’ve never learned before! You could figure out how to say “John’s apple is red,” for example, just by combining what you learned. As each sentence comes up, it teaches you a new bit of grammar that you can also apply to the previous sentences. You’re really learning a lot more than meets the eye. Of course, if you learn only these twelve sentences and never mix and match you’d still know a lot too, but I think the potential for greatness comes with the combinations as you build up. As I think you can see, there is a huge amount you can learn just from a few hours of study. Even if you took a long time with these (say a week) you’re still learning an immense amount in a very short timespan. I’m pretty sure most Mandarin classes would take three to six months to teach what you could learn in the time it takes to watch a baseball game.

This is easily applicable to Japanese as well. Going through these sentences in Mandarin made me find the parts that were a little more difficult to understand. I can see where these sentences need to be broken down further, and where I need to build up the explanations and lessons to get people to learn and understand how these sentences work. You will definitely see a modified version of this method in TextFugu in the future as I (correctly) thought it would be very effective for new learners. This trip only solidified my belief that these sentences truly are a kind of magic trick… It’s not a trick, Michael, it’s an illlusssion.

Common Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the bread and butter of language learning. Even if you don’t know a lick of grammar, you can get by with words and body motions. “Food. Hungry. Eat. Good.” You get the idea.

Since I failed to prepare and was learning Mandarin on the fly, I tried to make things as efficient as possible. I found and compiled various sources listing out the “most frequently used Mandarin words.” I then went through that list and categorized things by type (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, particle, etc). I found that these lists really lacked nouns, and the more I thought about it the more it made sense. There are so many nouns out there. So, of course they get spread out on the frequency charts. You can “to eat” a lot of things, but there’s only one time you use “tomato” and that’s when you’re talking about a tomato. At first I was a little worried about this, but then I had another epiphany. Every single noun can be replaced with the word “this” or “that.” In the long term nouns are important… but when it comes to learning a language and being able to communicate right away, it’s the adjectives and verbs that really say the things you want to say. I then cut my list down to focus on verbs and adjectives making my study even more efficient.

Cutting down what I had to learn and also learning words in order of frequency helped a lot. I was able to say and understand a lot more (thank you “context”) and I found that the nouns I did need to learn just sort of learned themselves. If I needed to talk about a tomato I just looked up how to say tomato. After using it a few times I new it and could use it in the future. Naturally, the more common (or more useful in the situation) nouns came up more often, which means I was learning the nouns via a natural IRL frequency chart / SRS, but more on that later.

In terms of what I learned from this experience, I think it’s a multi-parter. First, vocabulary is super important. Second, verbs and adjectives are the most important vocabulary to know if you want to communicate with as few words as possible. Third, nouns will come naturally. Of course, with a textbook or something like that, the nouns have to be injected in a way that makes them appear in a “natural” order, but that’s good for me to think about as well. In terms of your own Japanese learning, just be sure to focus on verbs and adjectives and really solidify your knowledge with those and build from there. It will help you to learn your grammar and nouns more quickly and effectively over the long term.

Natural SRS Of Immersion

Photo by Emily

Speaking of learning vocabulary, I found myself thinking more and more about SRS, though not so much the kind that’s found in resources like Anki (mechanical, scheduled, etc). Instead, I was thinking about “natural SRS,” which relates to how you learn a new language when you’re in an immersed environment. It’s not as scientific and probably not as efficient, though it is still very effective. Sometimes the timings will be good, sometimes they’ll be off, but the most common words will make their way into your long term memory over multiple repetitions and over a long period of time until it gets into your long term memory. It doesn’t involve flashcards but it does really work. This is why immersion is the greatest way to learn a language.

So, as I thought about this I thought about how this idea could be applied to learning resources. Of course, we have an SRS in WaniKani, though that’s not quite the same since it’s man made. In TextFugu, for example, I could introduce and then reintroduce vocabulary at set intervals throughout the text, effectively putting an SRS into the content and material without you even noticing it was an SRS. It would be a lot more natural this way and you’d find yourself learning without having to try nearly as much. Gone would be the time spent looking through flashcards because you’d be getting your repetitions in without knowing it. It would be a much more efficient way to put something in your head, compared to just saying “hey, learn this, ok, moving on.” This is definitely something you’ll be seeing in some of our future stuff.

Kanji Is Boss

Photo by Travis Juntara

This one I did know. Kanji is amazing. Everyone should learn kanji if they’re going to be learning Japanese, hands down, right from the start. Not learning kanji is why people take so long to learn the Japanese language. It’s like trying to learn English without learning the alphabet. Why should you learn kanji? Let me list the reasons:

1. Kanji meanings will help you to understand the meanings of words you don’t know. It also means you can associate new words to something (kanji) already in your head which is way better for memory. Associations are the grease that keep the wheels turning.
2. By learning the kanji readings, you’ll be able to read most words even if you don’t know the word. This makes it way easier to learn a word, since the sounds aren’t just random sounds, they’re sounds you’ve associated to kanji and already know. You start off knowing things you don’t know, if that makes sense. It would be like if you knew the words “account” and “ability” already, then learned the word “accountability.” You’re putting together only two things instead of fifteen things (the number of letters in the word “accountability”).
3. With kanji knowledge you can read more, which means the things you can use to study and get better at Japanese really expand, which means you have many more avenues to learn with. It just gives you options. Not knowing kanji gives you very few options.

With Mandarin it’s the same thing, though I found that Japanese kanji is a lot more broken and confusing. Even for things I couldn’t read out loud in Mandarin (because the readings are different most of the time… not to mention tones!) I could still understand the meanings. Watching the news, I knew that fruit prices were going up due to too much rain fall in Taiwan (random!). I could also figure out that a food place we stopped at required you to bus your own table. The list goes on and on. Things that I have no right understanding were understandable, all thanks to knowing kanji meanings. I knew things I didn’t know, which is a pretty amazing feeling. Kanji can give you that feeling in Japanese too. And, should you be interested in learning Mandarin in the future, it will help with that as well. It also will help you to envision new words and grammar in your head. Learning becomes easier. It’s just that simple. Put in the time, your future self won’t regret it.

You Learn A Lot More Being There

You probably already knew this, but being in a country that speaks the language you’re learning helps a ton. Immersion is good. That’s an obvious statement.

But, I started to think about what part of it was good. While watching a lot of television and listening to people speak is nice in huge quantities, the real learning and memorization didn’t come from this… it came from forcing myself to recall information I had learned. I’ve touched on in the past how recalling information (not stuffing it into your brain) is how memories are formed. That’s the reason why a lot of people feel like they know the content of an exam better after the test rather than before it. You’re forced to recall information during the test for the first time ever (what bad study habits you have!). In immersion situations, if you want to communicate you have to recall and pull out vocabulary and grammar from your brain and you have to do it a lot. Even though recalling shaky information is naturally an uncomfortable thing, the necessity of recall in a foreign place makes you do it more than you would if you were just sitting around in your home country watching television all day long.

In fact, that brings up another point: the necessity. Necessity is a huge motivator. In fact, it’s not too different from procrastinating on a big school essay. For the first seven days, you don’t work on your paper. Then, for the last twelve hours you go gangbusters and finish it all up at the last minute. Being at home in your home country is like those first seven days. Being in another country that speaks the language that you’re learning is like the final twelve hours before the essay is due. Except instead of being just twelve hours it’s all the time. You will learn a lot this way.

This is why I’ve said in the past that flying to a country for two weeks instead of joining and paying for a six month language class can often be more effective. It’s also sometimes less expensive, depending on which language class you’re looking at, and you’ll surely have a lot of fun. There’s something to say about the power of necessity when paired with recall. The intensity is just so hard to replicate.

Lastly, I want to point out that immersion is great for all these reasons, but it only gets better with study. It’s not like you can be using the language you’re learning all the time, even if you’re in Taiwan or Japan or wherever. Use your off time to do some actual study. In high school in Japan they made me do Kumon. And while I hated it, I learned a lot more because of it. Things you study while you’re in an immersive language environment seem to magically pop up. You notice them, and then you recall what you studied, and then you use it. Things that would normally go over your head suddenly become familiar, and by pairing regular study with this you’ll learn much, much faster. In fact, I’d say it’s a necessity to do regular study while being immersed. A lot of people will rely solely on immersion. You can look back on these people as you leave them in your dust. Studying just puts more things into your natural SRS queue.

I’m glad I was reminded about all this because it’s going to make me think a lot more about these ideas for TextFugu. I’ve already focused on straight-up motivation over there, but attempting to replicate the feeling of “necessity to learn” and focusing on forcing recall within that necessity is going to be a big goal of mine. I don’t know if I’ve figured out the best way to do it just yet, but it’s something I’m thinking about a lot right now.

New Languages = Intelligence

Photo by mxmstryo

Whatever happens, learning a new language means a lot of other non-language learning as well. They say that the more languages kids know the more intelligent they become. I want to believe that this is because you have to learn new concepts that are unlearnable in certain languages, meaning you expand your mind to concepts that the people around you just can’t comprehend, making you a more “complete” person. I also feel like more things in your brain just gives your brain a lot more items you can associate new things with. The more that’s recallable in your brain the easier it will become to add even more into it.

Whether it’s Japanese or another language, I hope you think about language learning. It’s one of the most rewarding things you can do. You get smarter, you can travel to new places, you can meet new people, and you just become a better person overall. Hopefully the things I learned these three weeks and shared just now will allow me to help you to achieve your goals with learning Japanese more in the future. Or, perhaps they will help you to learn Spanish, Mandarin, or even Gaelic. I look forward to applying this new knowledge soon on my end, but feel free to get started yourself right now!

It’s definitely possible though. Personally, I went from having no Japanese experience at all to being fluent in less than five years. It’s mostly due to the extended time that I spent as an exchange student, but even if you spend time in Japan, that doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you’ll become fluent. I also know people who have learned to speak Japanese very very well who have had nothing but their computer and their motivation.

However, there are various things that you can do to help you learn how to speak conversational Japanese. Mind you, these take some hard work and dedication as well as commitment and motivation. 

What is Fluency?

There is no real agreed on definition of fluency, but people seem to mix it up with mastery. In my eyes, there is no real such thing as one hundred percent language mastery- as one changes setting or subject, there are a million words that one must learn in order to be able to understand or express the ideas being discussed.

I consider fluency the ability to converse about any everyday subject without stumbling over words or thinking about what is being said. Fluency is a state when you are comfortable enough with the language that it is hardwired into your brain as if it had always been there. Fluency means being able to express yourself in a comfortable way. This doesn’t mean that you know every word about every subject, but instead that you are able to converse comfortably about everyday subjects without problems.

Immersion

I know it’s not possible for everyone, but if you have a will or a way, immersion is the best possible way to learn how to speak fluently in conversational Japanese. Being surrounded by people who only speak Japanese will do wonders. To get to Japan for immersion, you could go as an exchange student, through a study abroad program, through JET, or just go with a friend or friend of a friend.

If you can’t do a physical immersion, organizing your own small immersions can be good. Decide to only listen to Japanese music and watch Japanese TV shows for a day, a week, or a year. Have a Japanese-speaking friend only speak Japanese to you. Get together with some friends studying Japanese and cook and eat a meal together using no English. Any little bit helps, as long as you’re all committed to the goal of practicing the language.

Warning- Embarrassment Goes Out the Window

No shame is allowed. None. Are you embarrassed that people will laugh at you? Too bad, laugh at yourself first. Are you worried that you sound stupid? Well, you probably will until you get more practice. How badly to you want to be able to speak well? If you want it at all, you have to take all of those inhibitions and put them through a grinder, pressing them into a fine powder before letting them flow through the wind, to a place far, far away.

Talk To Native Speakers

In order to get better at riding a bike, you’d ride a bike. To get better at baking a sponge cake, you would bake a lot of sponge cakes. So, to get better at speaking Japanese, you should speak more Japanese.

Actually Talk To People

Again, you have to really try yourself to actually go and talk to people in Japanese. Again, if you don’t practice, you won’t get better. No matter what level you are at, as long as you actively practice, you’ll improve.

Also avoid getting stuck in the English rut. That’s the undesirable comfort zone of when you’re so used to speaking English with a native Japanese speaker that speaking English on both ends is awkward.

Listen actively, Speak Bravely

Look again at your inhibitions? Are they flying in the wind with the rainbow pinwheel? If they are, your mouth is now free be brave. Go forth and make many a mistakes while remembering these following tips:

What’s that?

If you don’t know what a word means, you can always just ask.

I know that in the beginning phases, there are too many unknown words to really ask for one. Also a lot of the time you can get the basic meaning of a sentence from context, but if there’s something that you don’t know that is critical, ask. If someone starts looking it up in a dictionary, tell them that you want an explanation, or “説明して”

However, using a dictionary can be very helpful as well. Although phones and electronic dictionaries are fast, sometimes a paper dictionary is useful in that you can highlight and bookmark pages. Sometimes starring or virtual bookmarking just isn’t enough.

The Sincerest Form Of Flattery

In order to pick up pronunciation or an accent, directly imitating the speech of a native speaker you know can be helpful.

I know that when I spend too much time with any of my friends, I pick up their speech habits. When it’s with my Japanese friends, I pick them up even more quickly. Just remember to pick up the speech habits of someone who is the same gender and around the same ages as you- I know that it’s your life and you make your own choices, but Japanese society is less likely to take you seriously if you speak Japanese like a girl as a 30 year old man.

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

When you make a speech mistake, repeat yourself with the correct way to say your mistake.

For example, one day I was with my friend and I gave her a cute acorn that I had picked up on the ground. When I gave it to her, I wanted to tell her to try not to lose it, (なくさないようにね）but instead told her “なかないように”, which means “Try not to cry.” I realized my silly mistake, and started to try to find the right words. With my friend’s help, I managed to get it right, and then repeated it a few times. I don’t think I’ll make that mistake ever again.

Is This Normal?

When you’re unsure if a phrase or word is used properly, ask if it is.

A lot of the time when someone is learning a new language conversationally, they will have something specific that they will want to say in the other language that they will look up in a dictionary or translate word by word. Sometimes direct translation works, but a lot of the time it sounds robotic or forced. However, if it makes sense, the person who you’re talking is not very likely to correct you. You know how awkward it would be to point out weird speech habits of a non-native speaker of your own language. So just casually ask if the wording is odd or technical before you store it into your daily vocabulary cave along with all the other lions, tigers, and bears.

The best go to phrase that I use is  ”Xっていうのが普通？” or ” X使う？”

The Guessing Game

If you don’t know exactly what the word is, but kind of know the sounds, just go at it. You’ll probably have the real word repeated to you.

For a long time, I’d heard the word the phrase “置いとく” which means “to set down for now.” But I never really got it right at first. I’m sure that I said a mixture of different variations of oitoitoku, okitoku, oitoitete, and anything else under the sun. But every time, the meaning was understood and I was one step closer to saying it right.

Aizuchi

Learn how to actually be an active listener through Sarah’s article about aizuchi, or Japanese interjections. Even if you don’t speak fluently, you can trick people into thinking that your nihongo is super jouzu with your “a, sou?’”s and your “haihaihai”‘s.

No Native Speakers?

It’s virtually impossible to become fluent in a spoken language if you’re not speaking it with people. But, if you happen to be in an area or situation where there is no one to speak Japanese with, you can absorb a lot to prepare yourself for a time when you can use the language on your own. If learning how to speak Japanese is you goal, I would recommend dramas and real-person TV shows over anime.

With language exchanges, although skype exists, sometimes it can get creepy if you’re just exchanging addresses with strangers who will undoubtedly be as awkward as you on camera. Be careful, kids!

I hope this will help those who are on their way to Japanese fluency! You can do it! Just don’t give up!

If you have anything you’d like to add, experiences to share, or questions for me, leave them in the comments!

Although you could make the learning process much easier by understanding these three important differences between the English and Japanese languages, I’d say understanding ‘formality’ is very difficult even for Japanese people. In fact, it may be even more difficult for the Japanese people, as some leeway is usually given to those who aren’t Japanese.

Formality

I believe that it is generally considered a positive thing to be friendly to someone in Western countries. Although there are certain situations where more formality is required, friendly personalities usually tend to be well received. In Japan however, the situation is quite different, since the Japanese language has a “formality” system.

It is often considered rude to sound too friendly to a person who is older than you, has higher social standing, or is someone you have just met. I mean, Japanese people like people who have friendly personalities and the same is true for people of other countries.  However, it is generally preferable to be formal and polite when talking to acquaintances until you have developed a closer relationship that allows for more friendliness. Does this make sense?

“This isn’t a good morning no matter how you say it.”

In English, it is just fine to speak the same way to everyone, within reason, right? For example, you would say the phrase “Good morning,” to your spouse, your boss, your friends, and to a complete stranger. Some people might omit “good” and just say “morning” but it doesn’t matter who you are talking to. Things are quite different in Japan.

Tell me, did you think, “Seriously? Even good morning is different in Japan?” Unfortunately, the answer is yes. There, you must speak differently to different people based on their age and their relationship to you, even when saying something as simple as ‘good morning’.

Good Morning

Okay, let me illustrate how the morning greeting can be different.  The formal Japanese morning greeting is “お早うございます/Ohayou gozaimasu”, the informal one is “おはよう/Ohayou” and a very casual one is “おっは〜/Ohha~.” This doesn’t mean that good morning in Japanese can mean various things like Gandalf wondered when Bilbo said ‘Good morning’ in ‘The Hobbit’:  ’Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?’

It’s merely a greeting with formal and informal ways to say it.  It is important to remember not only how to speak formally and informally, but to know when to do so.

When you get up and see your family such as your kids/spouse/parents/siblings, you would say, “Ohayou.” Some parents who are very strict about seniority, or even the order of family members, may force their kids to say  “Ohayou gozaimasu” to them.

When you arrive at your office and see your boss, you must use, “Ohayou gozaimasu.” I’m scared to imagine what would happen if you use “Ohayou” or “Ohha~” to your boss… your neck may fly right after you say it.  Did any of you just tilt your head to the side in confusion wondering what that meant? 首が飛ぶ (kubi ga tobu), which literally means my neck flies, is a Japanese phrase meaning to be fired.

Then, what about your colleagues? They won’t be able to exert their authority to let your neck fly like your boss can, but you would speak formally to most of them, especially if they are older than you and/or they had started working there before you did. Many Japanese people think that colleagues who started working before you are all your superiors unless newer ones have the higher title.

Newer ones are called 後輩 (こうはい/kouhai) and older ones are called 先輩 (せんぱい/senpai). For a thorough explanation, check out our guide here. It’s “first come higher status” like “first come first serve”. To the ones you have developed close relationships with, you could drop the formalities and say “Ohayou”, but it may only be outside of office hours because some companies require you to be polite to any colleagues while working. The office is not the place to chat with your friends, but to work.

Now it’s getting more complicated, isn’t it? To simplify things, just keep in mind that newer members usually speak formally to older members, unless the newcomer has higher position in the company (I will say however, even though you may have a better title, it is good practice to speak formally to co-workers that were there before you just out of respect). When speaking to strangers, it is always a safe bet to use the more formal version.

When speaking to friends at school, you use “Ohayou” to all of your classmates but not “Ohha~”. It could sound too casual to someone who is not your close friend. Of course to teachers and to higher grade kids, you would use the formal “Ohayou Gozaimasu”. In school, lower grade kids are called 後輩 (こうはい/kouhai) and higher grade kids are called 先輩 (せんぱい/senpai).

Mistakes by Non-Native Speakers

“Get out of my house.”

Now, imagine that a teenage daughter brings her boyfriend home for supper. This boy comes into her home for the first time, approaches her father, and says, “Hey gramps, what’s up?” What would you think of his manners? It’s just as rude as when Anthony Weiner called Republican mayoral candidate George McDonald “grandpa”, isn’t it? If you were her father, and even though you may be be too nice of a person to throw him out of your house right away, you probably wouldn’t invite him back anymore, would you?

However, language mistakes made by non-native speakers usually aren’t as important as mistakes made my native speakers.  I remember the day when my Canadian boyfriend at the time, who is now my husband, met my mother for the first time at a Japanese restaurant. At that time, she was working at an elementary school taking care of a kid who was suspected of having severe ADHD (though his parents never agreed).

He was such a brat.

Whenever she said ‘good morning’ to him, he answered back with ‘f**k you’, ‘shut the f**k up, Grandma’ or something else in his long list of shocking replies.  He also punched and kicked her whenever he was in a particularly bad mood. Needless to say, my mother became so exhausted working there. So while we were at dinner, my husband tried to use Japanese to speak to my mother. His intention was to ask her about that little boy.

He began his sentence like this – “Anata no (your) mukatsuku (annoying/troublesome) kodomo (child)…”. He didn’t know how to say ‘made you upset’ in a polite way so used the word ‘mukatsuku’ instead, which among Japanese people is considered to be a somewhat rude word that is mostly used among friends.  The other problem with his attempt was that he never said ‘school’ or ‘student’, so it seemed as though he was referring to me.  I was the annoying/troublesome child.

My mother’s face was classic and my husband quickly realized that he should ask for my help.  After everything was explained, it was laughed off by everyone because he was Canadian.  If he was Japanese, it would have been a disaster.  Now it is simply a funny story that we still bring up from time to time, though my husband still cringes when he thinks back on his first meeting with my mother. He wishes that he knew how to speak formal Japanese at the time. He was very happy to get invited back.

Mistakes by Native Speakers

Being a native speaker, I get a special thrill every time I encounter a situation when I have to use formal Japanese. As you can see, it’s ridiculously complex even when you just say good morning. The Japanese language has many formal word forms and their use is mandatory in many social situations.

In keigo, there are three main categories: respectful language (尊敬語/sonkeigo), humble/modest language (謙譲語/kenjougo) and polite language (丁寧語/teineigo). Sometimes two more categories are also used, too: courteous language (丁重語/teichougo) and word beautification (美化語/bikago).

I won’t mention the details about any of them today, but it’s very difficult to use them properly in a perfect situation, even for Japanese people. So, when we start working after graduating school, companies usually offer training sessions on the proper use of formal Japanese and other business manners.

However, lacking some proper formalities is not a big problem as long as you are talking to someone in person. You can show your politeness with your face, the way you talk, or your behavior. So, I’d say the most difficult situation is chatting online or emailing when you can’t see their face or hear their voice.

Actually, I just encountered this problem recently when I sent a business message. It was a mass email so everyone read the exact same thing. Many of the recipients were just fine, but there were two people that got upset: one thought it was so vague because of the keigo and the other one thought it was unfriendly because it had too much keigo.

Later on, I did a little investigating which involved my correspondence and I found out that many of them liked its politeness. Honestly, I got bit confused and felt a little regret that my native language is one that requires these formalities.  I do understand its purpose, but it can be tough to please everyone.  On a more positive note, I was given a great lesson on how difficult it can be to walk the thin line of using formal Japanese.

A Controversy Over if Keigo is Necessary?

As you see, using keigo is very difficult, so if you’re someone who would like to avoid learning formal Japanese because you find it unnecessary, you wouldn’t be the only one. On 2-Channel, I came across a thread discussing the controversy over whether keigo is necessary, or not. Please let me introduce you to some opinions out of it.

1他人と人間関係を築くという事は大変煩わしい事だと思いますが、

「敬語」を上手く駆使しなければ円滑な社会生活を送れないという日本の文化によって、より一層人間関係が大変なものになっていると思うのです。

俺は敬語を多用する日本の言語文化が嫌いです。

皆さんはどう思われますか？

It’s difficult as it is already getting along with someone and trying to make friends, but what makes things even more complicated is that we aren’t able to speak freely to each other because we need to stick to the cultural formalities. I hate the Japanese culture, which forces us to use keigo. What do you guys think about this?

7敬語がある事によって人とのコミュニケーションおいてに求められる能力のハードルが すごく高くなっていると思うんです。

コミュ障と言われている方達が沢山いますが、もしも日本に今ほど敬語が存在しないのであれば彼らはコミュ障ではなかったもしれません。

I think keigo makes communication more difficult. There are a lot of people called コミュ障 (comyu-shou), which is an abbriveation of コミュニケーション障害 (communication shougai) meaning communication disabilities. If there weren’t as many forms of keigo in the language that there are, those people might not have been coined comyu-shou.

8下級生にタメ口使われてる

I’ve been spoken to by lower grade students with informal Japanese.

13距離を置けるからむしろハードル下がってる

It’s easier to communicate (for comyu-shou) because you can create more personal space by using keigo.

15敬語は楽でいいよね

上でも下でも同格でもとりあえず敬語喋っとけば問題ない!

I like keigo because it’s easier.

It wouldn’t cause problems when using keigo, regardless of whether you are talking to higher, or lower standing people.

25以前床屋でこんな事がありました。

新人の店員が俺にタメ口で話しかけてきたんです。

俺はこう思いました。

（俺の事なめてんのかこいつ）

俺は腹が立ちその店員の態度に不快感を感じたまま店を後にしました。

その店員は、親しみを込めてタメ口を使ったのかもしれません。

しかし、店では敬語を使われるという事に慣れている俺は、

それをフレンドリーさの表現とは受け取る事ができませんでした。

これは敬語が多用され浸透している国ならではの問題ではないでしょうか。

The following occurred in a hair salon just the other day.

A freshman started talking to me with casual Japanese.

I thought, “Is he looking down at me?”

I got upset and left the place with an unpleasant feeling.

He might have used casual Japanese trying to be friendly.

However, I’ve got used to hearing formal Japanese as a customer, so it really didn’t seem to be a friendly expression to me.

This problem only occurs in countries that use a lot of formalities, doesn’t it?

30 年上年下を気にする必要が無いのでいいと思います。

It’s good with me as long as I use keigo not only to older people but also to younger people.

35そうですね。

私もそう思います。

私はこう思うんです。

完全に敬語、もしくは、完全にタメ口、

どちらかに完全に統一すればいいと思うんです。

そうすれば言葉を使い分ける労力が無くなりますし、

敬語を使われなかったから腹が立つ、といった事も無くなります。

Yeah, I agree. I’d say, we should standardize our language and use strictly, either casual Japanese, or formal Japanese. If we could, we wouldn’t need to waste our energy choosing words and we wouldn’t be upset by being spoken to without keigo.

45敬語で話すの会議とタメ口で話すの会議はタメ口の方が意見バンバンでるんだとさ”

Did you know that more ideas come up in a meeting when people speak with casual Japanese in comparison to speaking with formal Japanese?

5敬語は現代には必要ない

Keigo is unnecessary these days.

These opinions are from 2-channelers who are known to have comyu-shou, so they might be slightly biased. Personally, I agree that it would be much easier to communicate with people if the Japanese language was standardized in either the formal or casual form, but it doesn’t seem like it will happen any time in the near future. So, for now, mastering the Japanese language must include mastering formal Japanese.

It’s very likely that the way the language is today is the very way that it should be and couldn’t work any other way.  Perhaps there are unseen disadvantages to having a language without keigo, or solely with keigo.  One thing is certain however, I really do like the following quote, but I’m sure this won’t mean the end to this discussion for many of you.

Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untravelled, the naive, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as “empty,” “meaningless,” or “dishonest,” and scorn to use them. No matter how “pure” their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.

-Robert Heinlein

Bonus Wallpapers!

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Don’t get me wrong – I love Japanese just as much as the next weeaboo – but there were times that I got so bored with the vocabulary I was learning, especially verbs. I wanted to be able to express myself, be more animated, but I didn’t know how. I felt like a stale saltine cracker, using the same boring verbs over and over again amongst my friends. That was, until I learned how easy it was to modify the verbs I already knew by using onomatopoeia in Japanese.

The Power of Onomatopoeia

It’s probably not a question your Japanese teacher will bring up, but have you ever noticed how vague many verbs in Japanese really are? For instance, the word 笑う can refer to smiling, laughing, chuckling, or any other type of laughter. The verb 飛ぶ (tobu)、or 跳ぶ (tobu)、covers jumping, springing, and flying! As a rule, Japanese verbs have far more general meanings in comparison to English. However, this “insufficiency” is more than compensated for by the almighty onomatopoeia.

If you’re familiar with the term onomatopoeia in English, you’ll already know that it refers to words that mimic sounds like “sizzle,” “pop,” “bang,” or “cock-a-doodle-doo!” However, onomatopoeia in Japanese are a much more important part of the language, covering words that describe emotions, mental states, actions, and much more.

In fact, onomatopoeia are so prevalent in Japanese that there are three different categories of them: giseigo, giongo, and gitaigo. If you are interested in learning more on this subject, I’d recommend checking out Tofugu’s Japanese Onomatopoeia Guide. Japanese onomatopoeia also tend to follow one of the following forms: り endings、as in ゆっくり (slowly); duplication, as in ワンワン (bark-bark); and と endings, as in ちょっと (a little). The are written in either hiragana or katakana, but sometimes both are okay.

Onomatopoeia in Japanese are very in-depth, making them confusing for learners at times, but the basic function of an onomatopoeia is to describe things, whether it be actions or states of being. Onomatopoeia have the power to describe many things, but for now, let’s just stick with the verbs.

Onomatopoeia in Action

Grammatically speaking, the adverb usage (describing an action or process) is the default function of an onomatopoeia in Japanese, making it also the easiest. For the most part, you can just plop an onomatopoeia right in front of a verb and call it good.

“BUT WAIT, THERE’S NO PARTICLE!?” you may be thinking. Well, you’re not off that easy. The particle you should learn to associate with onomatopoeia is the particle “と.” In fact, the “と” in と-ending onomatopoeia is the particle と (it’s just been made easier for you)! Just as “と” is used to quote speech in Japanese, it is also used for sounds and onomatopoeia, though most times it is optional. When と is employed optionally however, it’s main effect is making one’s language more poetic.

So what verbs can you use with onomatopoeia? This is a difficult question. Onomatopoeia are often used with general verbs in order to further specify them. In addition to that, they can also be used with the verb する, to do. The use of onomatopoeia with the verb する often seems to be the result of simplification, having been paired with a more specific verb originally, just as ニコニコ笑う (nikoniko warau) has become　にこにこする (nikoniko suru) over time.

However, be careful: sometimes the meaning of an onomatopoeia can vary depending on which verb they are paired with. For example, ガツガツ食べる (gatsugatsu taberu) means to gobble something down, but “ガツガツする (gatsugatsu suru)”　means to do something with an obvious sense of greed (Where’s my money man? Where’s my money!?). Overall, there is not much consistency, and that’s what makes onomatopoeia tricky.

Enhancing Your Verbs

To make things easier, I’ve made a list of some common general verbs that can be made specific by adding onomatopoeia below. From an English speaker’s perspective, Japanese verbs may seem vague, but the difference between words like smile and laugh, or between jump and fly, can be communicated far more expressively through the use of onomatopoeia:

Key:
(と) = optional と usage
と = required と usage
strike-through = verb has been simplified to  する
verb / する = both する and the general verb can be used

寝る　（ねる）

ぐうぐう寝てる

コックリ寝る する　to nod off
ぐうぐう (と) 寝る　 fast asleep and snoring
すやすや (と) 寝る　sleep peacefully
うとうと寝る する　to doze off

歩く　（あるく）
とぼとぼ (と) 歩く trudge
ちょこちょこ (と) 歩く trot
のろのろ (と) 歩く / する　inch (along)
よろよろ (と) 歩く / するstagger, stumble
ふらふら (と) 歩く / する　shamble, teeter
ブラブラ (と) 歩く /する　stroll, loiter
ぞろぞろ (と) 歩く　swarm, cluster

食べる　（たべる）

ガツガツ食べてる

ガツガツ (と) 食べる to eat greedily or with a burning desire
パクパク (と) 食べる to eat with your mouth flapping open and shut
むしゃむしゃ (と) 食べる to munch and crunch on something
ぺろぺろ (と) 食べる to lick (e.g. ice cream)

見る　（みる）
じろじろ (と) 見る　to stare scrutinizingly
ジーと見る　to stare someone/something down
キョロキョロ 見る する　to look around restlessly
チラチラ (と) 見る　to glance at here and there
まじまじ (と) 見る　to look at something with astonishment

飲む　（のむ）
がぶがぶ (と) 飲む    to gulp something down
ちびちび (と) 飲む　to take a small sip, just to wet the mouth (used with sake)
ぐびぐび (と) 飲む　to drink (used with sake)
ごくごく (と) 飲む　normal drinking

飛ぶ/跳ぶ　（とぶ）

ビュンビュン飛んでる

ひらひら (と) 飛ぶ　to flutter (like a butterfly)
ビュンビュン (と) 飛ぶ　to soar through the air (like a fish from the water)
ポンポン (と) 跳ぶ　to jump up and down (like on a trampoline）
ぴょんぴょん (と) 跳ぶ　to leap (like a frog）
ふわーふわー (と) 飛ぶ　to float lightly
ぶんぶん (と) 飛ぶ　to fly with wings buzzing

泣く　（なく）
ワーワー (と) なく　to cry
メソメソ (と) 泣く　to weep
ぐすんぐすん (と) 泣く　to sob
おいおい (と) 泣く　to blubber
しくしく (と) 泣く　to whimper
わんわん (と) 泣く　to howl
ヒーヒー (と) 泣く / する　to pule
えんえんと泣く　to mew

笑う　（わらう）

ニヤニヤしてる (I don’t know why he’s smiling…)

にっこり笑う する　to grin
げらげら（と）笑う　to laugh out loud
ニヤニヤ　(と) 笑う / する　to grin stupidly (to laugh/smile for no reason)
はははと笑う　to laugh ”hahaha”
ニコニコ　(と) 笑う / する　to smile
くつくつ (と) 笑う　to titter (used in classical Japanese)
ワハハ と笑う　to laugh “haw-haw!”
ニタニタ　(と) 笑う / する　to grin broadly
おほほと笑う　to laugh like a rich old woman, “ohoho!”
クスクス (と) 笑う　to giggle, to laugh under one’s breath

Adding More Emotion

Besides adding extra words, the way you say something can also strongly affect the emotive quality of speech, no matter what language. Now, I know that we’ve all been taught that Japanese is a very precise language, with flat tone quality and clear vowels, and that might all be true, assuming we were talking about a country of robot zombies.

Onomatopoeia are like the rebels of the Japanese world – they like to break all the rules. Since onomatopoeia are used to express emotion and describe details, the way they are said is often different from normal speech.

For example, if someone says “ruff-ruff” in English, they would most likely do so in a way that mimics a dog, rather than saying it in their normal voice. Japanese onomatopoeia are similar in that they too are said in a more expressive fashion. More specifically, the sound qualities of onomatopoeia are directly correlated to their intended emotional effect, more so than other word classes. This phenomenon can be seen clearly in the different forms of onomatopoeia:

と ending

Although the rules of Japanese state that all sounds must end in a vowel (expect ん) because of the syllablery nature of the language, onomatopoeia ending in  と are often pronounced with an abrupt stop, changing the と ending into a sharp “t” sound.  For instance, the onomatopoeia ドサっと (dosatto, with a thud) would be pronounced “dosat.” This abrupt “t” sound symbolizes quickness, the stopping of action, of the single occurrence of an action.

ん ending

Onomatopoeia that end in ん are pronounced with a nasal sound, producing a feeling of “prolonged resonance” or rhythm. An example of this would be どかん （dokan） which symbolizes the sound of a boom or explosion. Can you imagine hearing the sound of an explosion resonating in the distance?

Long vowel ending

The presence of a long-vowel at the end of a onomatopoeia represents the feeling of “prolongation or continuity.” Therefore, onomatopoeia like フワー (fuwaa, to float or drift) are pronounced with special attention to the elongated vowel sound to really capture a sense of airlessness.

り ending

The onomatopoeia form ending in り conveys a feeling of softness or slowness.　のそり (nosori) means slow movement, and is usually pronounced with a gentle り sound.

Reduplication

Just as in many other languages, the reduplication of a sound symbolizes repetition in sound or action.  Usually these onomatopoeia are produced more quickly, but that depends on what sound is being mimicked.  An example of this would be ごろごろ (to roll). You might hear this onomatopoeia over and over again like “ごろごろごろごろごろごろ”, especially by little children when they roll down hills for fun!

Here’s a small sample of reduplication in onomatopoeia, presented in a very *ahem* interesting way:

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Onomatopoeia make things fun in Japanese! They give the language pizzazz, spice, jazz – they bring words to life. Without them, all we could talk about would be the stock exchange, the weather, or types of fish – you decide.

Using onomatopoeia with the verbs you already know can give you a quick vocabulary boost. The use of onomatopoeia is also a big contributor to true fluency in Japanese, so you can totally impress your Japanese friends with these fun little words. Fun, easy, and useful words? I feel like there should be a loophole somewhere here.

Are onomatopoeia in Japanese fun for you, or are they just a pain? Let us know in the comments section below! Also, let us see what kind of sentences you can create now that you know some crazy cool new verbage!

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Sources:
Japanese Onomatopoeia