Those phrases you hear a lot ~Greetings~

おはようございます。The weather has been awful here. But since i'm an indoor type, it has never felt more like home. Speaking of weather, Japanese absolutely looove talking about weather. Want some proof? Re-watch all those animes whose plot you'll never experience IRL. So if you ever encounter a wild Japanese in their not-so-natural habitat, try telling them how sunny it is! Maybe I'll cover common small talk sometime later, maybe.

Before any small talk, let's try some thing easier. Greetings. Few words and that's it. You'll be seen as a polite Weeb. Isn't that nice.

Here is a list of the most commonly used greetings.  

English	Reading	Japanese	Special Notes
Good morning ‘Morning	Ohayou Gozaimasu Ohayou	おはようございます おはよう
Good afternoon/Hello	Konnnichiwa	こんにちは
Hello	Moshi moshi	もしもし	That “Hello” in a phone call
Good evening/night	Konbanwa	こんばんは
Good night G‘Nite	Oyasuminasai Oyasumi	おやすみなさい おやすみ	That “good night” you tell your mum before going to bed.
I’m leaving	Ittekimasu	いってきます	Like, leaving your house. Not the break-up type of leaving
I’m home	Tadaima	ただいま
Welcome home	Okaerinasai	おかえりなさい
Welcome/Welcome*	Irasshai/Irasshaimase	いらっしゃい/いらっしゃいませ	The latter is used ONLY in a store, restaurant, etc
Let’s dig in	Itadakimasu	いただきます	Say it RIGHT BEFORE eating
Thanks for the meal	Gochisousama deshita	ごちそうさまでした	Say it RIGHT AFTER eating
Good bye	Sayounara	さようなら
Bye-bye	Bai bai	バイバイ
See you tomorrow	Mata ashita	また明日

Those phrases you hear a lot ~Thank You~

So, let’s  jump to the chase. It is important to show gratitude to others even if you don’t mean it. That’s how the adult world works.

So, here’s a little list to properly convey your gratitude in Japanese. Please mind that using overly casual or impolite expression on a wrong person can get you a negative feedback. Don’t even think about following animes. Just because Naruto say サンキューto Kakashi doesn’t mean you should say it to your teacher. Especially if said teacher doesn’t speak weeb.

The Phrase	Reading	When/How to use it
誠にありがとうございます	Makoto ni Arigatou Gozaimasu	When talking to a customer or someone you should respect
ありがとうございます	Arigatou Gozaimasu	When talking to stranger or older people. Very commonly used
ありがとう	Arigatou	Casual thanks, to friends or younger stranger (e.g. little kid you don’t know)
どうも	Doumo	Another casual way of saying thanks, less common than arigatou
サンキュー	Sankyuu	Use if you’re young. Very casual. Came from the English word Thank you in case you didn’t notice
サンクス	Sankusu	Even more casual than Sankyuu. Literally “Thanks”
あざっす	Azassu	Impolite way to say thanks. Only use to people close to you

Those phrases you hear a lot ~Sorry~

If you’ve been watching animes you have probably hear some if not all of these common phrases. Just like any other vocabulary words, memorize and use ’em right away! Saying the correct phrase in the right time will make you a cooler weeb!

The first thing is how to say “Sorry”. Japanese absolutely loves apologies. It doesn’t matter who is wrong or what actually happened they just want an apology! With this list, everyone can apologize to their waifus for cheating with another character. Neeeaaaaat

The Phrase	Reading	How and when to use
申し訳ありません	Moushiwake arimasen	When you’re very sorry and want to say “sorry” in a super polite way
申し訳ない（です）	Moushiwake nai (desu)	When you’re not all that sorry but you want to stay polite anyway.
すみません	Sumimasen	That “sorry” you say when you bump in to someone. Plainly an “Excuse me”
すまない	Sumanai	If you’re a guy or a very masculine girl. Not very polite
すまん	Suman	If you’re a guy or a very masculine girl. Casual
わるい/わるかった	Warui/Warukatta	The English equivalent would be “My bad”. It’s your fault but you don’t feel guilty enough to apologize
ごめんなさい	Gomen nasai	Very casual and friendly. Psst, don’t use it to your superior
ごめん	Gomen	Say it to your buddies or people younger than you. Say it to your Japanese boss to earn some frown
メンゴ	Mengo	Don’t.Use.It.Ever. Unless you’re a teenager with issues

The Moonrunes

Let’s start off with the moonrunes we all love and worship. What makes Japanese tricky to learn is the fact that they use 3 kinds of writings: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Here are the charts

Hiragana

Used to write most things and usually combined with Kanji character(s). Anyway, memorizing it is very important because in Japanese, Hiragana is love, Hiragana is life.

Katakana

Mainly used for foreign (or foreign sounded) words. By foreign, i mean foreign for the Japanese, like, English, French, Portuguese, etc, etc.

Kanji

Probably the hardest part in learning Japanese. These “things” came from China long time ago and now used by every normal Japanese. A total of 13000 characters can be encoded in various Japanese Industrial Standards for kanji. What a number! But relax, the most popular 2000-3000 characters will be enough to get you going! After you master a nice amount of Kanji, the I-Thought-It-Was-Chinese moonrunes like 魔法科高校の劣等生 will be decipherable , or at least, will start to make sense.

There’s no chart, go buy a book or something. But here are the basic of the basic to get you started

The ones written in Hiragana is the Kun-yomi (the reading native Japanese came up with) and the Katakana ones are On-yomi (the reading they get from the original Chinese reading). Most Kanji books and dictionaries are written in this format. So, remember it (please).

はじめまして

The title means “Nice to meet you” if you’re curious.

I’m gonna post random Japanese lessons for… reasons. My primary goal is to help otakus and weebs with their Japanese because saying “That neko is sokawaii” doesn’t count as speaking Japanese.

Stick with me and you’ll go from

“OMG! Taiga-chan is so kawaii~ Watashi want to make her mai waifu”

to

“おーまいがっ！大河ちゃんめっちゃかわいい～嫁に来てほしいわー”

Okay, maybe not really, but it’s still better than telling people how oishii your breakfast is.

Have a nice day