Japanese Language Tips: 3 Common Mistakes amongst Foreigners

Minasan konnichiwa!

As a Japanese teacher myself, I find some common mistakes amongst learners of Japanese due to the culture difference behind the language. So today, I'd like to discuss 3 common mistakes.

Sayoonara :“I won’t see you again!” -– said by a souvenir shop keeper

You probably learnt “goodbye” as Sayoonara in Japanese. Yes, that’s how we (Japanese people) learnt it at school and that’s why your Japanese teacher taught you this way.

However, in the real world (outside school), we rarely use “sayoonara” amongst ourselves. Even when we do, it is used with different meanings in different contexts. Sayoonara is used in farewell or breaking up situations. Especially in the latter case, it means “goodbye forever”. Therefore, if you’re a shop clerk, don’t say “sayoonara” to your customers, but “arigatoo gozaimashita” (Thank you very much). Otherwise, you might end up in losing your regulars!

Watashi no nihongo wa warui desu :“My Japanese is vicious” – said by a student



A common tendency is to simply translate our native language. In this case, the student probably wanted to say “My Japanese is bad”. Yes, warui means bad, but in a moralistic way. Therefore, in the situation “He has a fault” or “She is wrong”, we can say “kare/kanojo ga warui desu”. However, your Japanese cannot be moralistically bad! If you want to say “My Japanese is bad/not good”, you need to say it another way, like “I’m not good at Japanese”. So in Japanese, say “Watashi wa nihongo ga heta desu”. (I hope you won’t have to say that though!)

Anata mo genki desu ka? :“Hey stranger, are you fine too?” – said by a close friend



Even some Japanese teachers teach “you” as “anata”. However, the usage of “anata” is different from that of “you” in English. We hardly ever call our friends “anata”, except jokingly. We use the person’s name. (For example, Kazue mo genki? Or Tanaka-san mo 0-genki desu ka?) Japanese love to be called by name; we feel a bit sad when we’re called “anata”, because we each have our unique name.

Hope it's all clear. :) but don't worry making mistakes! By making mistakes, I can notice and correct them.
I made a lot of mistakes in English too :P (and still... maybe forever!?)

I'll update once I find some more. Jaa mata ne!