Someone just asked about travel phrases in Japan and I mentioned using [ここに座ってもいいですか]. And it got me thinking about one of my fondest memories from past trips, that came about when I used the phrase [すわってください] while asking if an おばさん would like to take my seat.
I studied Japanese at school for a year or so, over 20 years before this moment. I knew hiragana and some basic words, please, thank you, excuse me etc. but honestly not a whole lot else. On that trip, I'd look up phrases I needed on my phone just before I needed them and refer to them as I spoke 😊 or would play charades, with hand gestures and bows, either way, we bumbled through.
This moment though, I will treasure, we got on the train early, we were used to public transport at home, which is not renouned for being on time. Gradually the train seats filled up and this lady stepped onto the train, with her head turning looking for a seat. Without a thought I hopped up and said "Suwatte kudasai", i hadn't studied it for the trip, I remembered it from my Japanese class at school and it just came out. The lady looked over, I smiled, gestured at my now empty seat and repeated "suwatte kudasai" with a smile and a bow, then just walked over to the doors, that were across from where the elderly lady was standing and my family followed suit. There were now 3 empty seats.
Some minor chaos ensued, I didn't realise that the lady was with someone and that she had a little push along shopping trolley. Her and a younger lady started speaking hurriedly and rather loudly for what felt like forever but it was probably only 20 seconds or so. I have no idea what they said. Then the elderly lady went and took her seat. The younger lady stayed by the doors with the trolley. The train continued to fill up.
We only had a few stops until it was time to get off, I waved at "おばさん" and said "さようなら" she climbed up out of her seat, navigated her way through the river of people that had flooded in between us over the last few stops. She said a symphony of words as she gave me a massive hug. I hugged her back and then it was time to jump off the train. My family waved and bowed as おばさん, now おばあちゃん continued on her train ride.
This happened in Kyoto, around 2015. It was my first trip to Japan, I am lucky enough to have been to Japan a handful of times since and have experienced so much, but I've never been back to Kyoto (I loved it, but we've simply explored other parts of Japan).
I guess the point is, speaking to an elderly lady like you're their teacher isn't ideal, but it was all I had and おばあちゃん was happy.
When did you not so perfect Japanese make for a great moment?
by UsernameUnattainable
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I sat next to a really cool old lady on the Shinkansen. She saw I was doing Wanikani on my iPad and when I came across a kanji I didn’t know, she’d give me hints in Japanese while miming the words. It was really fun.
She was about as good in English as I am in Japanese, which is like a rough N4-N3 and she was trying to explain to me that she studied in Canada for a few months when she was young and still had a Brazilian friend she would write to. She tried to tell me that she and her Brazilian friend were “something” but I didn’t know the word so I pulled up the dictionary on my iPad and asked her to say it slowly, but I must have misheard her because it autocompleted to オーライ芸者.
She looked embarrassed but then started laughing while I was apologizing and also laughing.
I still have no idea what she was actually trying to say, but thank you random old lady for making a boring train ride awesome.
I was on a train once going from Takanabe to Nobeoka, or there abouts, and a mom with her kids – a boy of about 5 and a girl who was about 1 got on.
The boy was very into his Switch, and the girl was being fussy to the mom’s chagrin, so I started making faces and copying the baby, which kind of got us playing – she’d touch her nose, I’d touch my nose, etc. The boy began playing with us too.
When the mom got off, she thanked me. I said it was no problem and how it was like playing with my nephew.
Another time in Boston, an American baby was playing with my pins that I had on my bag, so I encouraged it. Her mom thanked me too, in Spanish.
Sometimes you don’t even need words – just being willing to be fun and play is enough.
If i needed fuel to keep practicing then this story/thread filled my tank up with good feels! Thank you!
When I was a kid in the 90s, I was fascinated by Japanese, and although I didn’t have too many learning opportunities at the time, I picked up a few phrases here and there.
I was traveling with my family to Disney World and we were going to eat at a restaurant in “Germany” in Epcot, and part of the theme of that restaurant is that they put different groups of people together to eat at large, family-size tables. In this instance, the people we were sitting with were a middle-aged Japanese couple, I could tell from their surname. I pulled out my best “yoroshiku onegai shimasu” with a little bow and they both burst into happy smiles, thanking me and asking if I spoke Japanese. I honestly answered no, just a couple phrases, but I could tell they were still just really surprised and thrilled with the interaction, and it really broke the ice and made them feel more comfortable sitting with us.
It was a small thing, but it’s stuck with me to this day, how reaching out to someone in their own tongue can sometimes be just the right thing at a given moment.
This isn’t really responsive to the request, but you just reminded me: Japan is, so far, the only place I’ve used by very basic French skills. I was at Fushimi Inari, and was at a vending machine. I wanted to get something, but only had a 500 yen coin and didn’t want the resulting change, since I was leaving soon — but with the rest of the loose change I had, I was like 10 yen off exact change. Was debating internally what to do (first world problems man), when this French girl asks me if I was going to buy something (I’m white and there was a massive French tour group that day, so I guess she assumed, or just didn’t speak English). I said no, go ahead, but then was like actually yeah do you have 10 yen, and she’s like yeah sure, looks for it, then unironically says voilà (which is amazing to me lmao), I thank her, and get the drink. Riveting story, I know
I had a rough Japanese-English conversation on the street that started with them trying to give me pamphlets about some religion and the quintessential “日本語上手” LOL. And then I said 彼は仏ですかね？and then they were actually surprised LMAO and I got some variation on “oh wow you do know some Japanese ok” Thank you wanikani!!
There was one time on my trip when I was in Don Quixote going down in the elevator with a bunch of people, and there were these two college age girls talking to each other and they had said something/were making some sort of joke in broken English and giggling to each other. As we were getting out of the elevator I said “英語上手” to them and we all cracked up for a few seconds before moving on with our days.
Last year I went to Japan for the first time on a solo trip. I was on Miyajima and was going up the cable car ropeway. For the first leg you take a 6 person car up. There was a group of five 20-something Japanese girls ahead of me in line and we ended up all packed into this cable car headed up the mountain.
It’s absolutely stunning, so I’m looking around, taking pictures of the scenery, half listening to them talk about where they want to eat when they go back down because one of them was really hungry, and then one of them asks the others if anyone can speak english and the others say they can’t, which I thought was pretty thoughtful, but I wasn’t going to barge into their conversation.
Thinking back on it one of the girls opposite me must have thought my looking around and taking pictures was nervousness or something because she touches me on the knee to get my attention, and in that slow and loud way that people pronounce words when they don’t think the other person will understand, she says 「ごめんなさい」
At the time I had no idea why she was apologizing, but I thought it was kinda funny, so I looked at her quizzically, tilted my head to the side, paused for a moment and said 「なんで、どうしましたか」
All of them either broke out laughing or released an 「へーーー」. We then had the typical tourist chitchat, where are you from, why are you in Japan, yadda, yadda, but I did tell the one hungry girl about the あなご place in town I’d planned on going to later on. I hope they went there, it was really good.
Was at a beach in Fukuoka with a friend back in 2023 and was just swimming about close to the shoreline and talking. We noticed a few Japanese guys taking pictures of jellyfish on the shore and one of them dropped his phone into the water and exclaimed a loud “EH?” and my friend and I both laughed and shouted at the same time “危ない!” to them. The Japanese guys laughed and said it back while fishing his phone out.
During the same trip I was staying at a lovely hotel that had a massive manga library you could read from and bring to your room if you wanted. I was heading up to my room in a lift and a Japanese guy was holding three volumes of Steel Ball Run. While I was looking at it he raised the manga up slightly to me and said “JOJO!” and we both chuckled and I said back “大好き ジャイロ ツェペリ” and he nodded with a smile. >!I then joked with my friend if I should spoil it for the Japanese guy but he shook his head smiling saying “no don’t”.!<
Fun times, hoping to head back and know more Japanese when I do.
One time I was alone heading to a train station to meet up with a friend. I had stickers all over my luggage, and a sweet older lady that was walking beside me decided to start up a conversation. I couldn’t pick up most of what she said, but I knew she was commenting on my luggage and how cute it looked because of the stickers. I kept saying あの…日本語…まだ…ちょっと… but she just kept talking 😭 I’m asian but very obviously not Japanese, so I’m not sure where she got the idea that I’d be fluent enough to start a conversation with lol
I think when I couldn’t respond to her questions and kept repeating my wonky ass japanese, she finally realized and she laughed. She ended our conversation(?) and I think I heard a がんばれ in there (I was clearly struggling with the amount of luggage I was carrying).
Another interaction I had on that same trip was when me and my friend were buying souvenirs in Kamikochi and I wanted to buy snacks or something for my diabetic dad. So I asked the store lady 甘いじゃない……ある？ She looked thoughtful for a second then came back with a salty snack. I’m still not sure if what I said made sense grammatically but I’m always gonna be proud of the fact that she actually understood what I meant ✨
I’m going back to Japan next year and It’s been motivating me to really study up. Especially on my listening skills! To whoever that older lady was, I’m so sorry I couldn’t hold a conversation with you. You seemed really friendly and I still to this day feel so bad 🥲
Pretty much every day while I was in Japan. The most memorable ones were…
* Was at a feudal checkpoint recreation in Hakone where I noticed the staff were talking the heads off Japanese visitors but ignoring the gaijin. At one point I tried to go into a place the wrong way an old guy (staff) yelled at me from where the entrance was pointing to a sign. I yelled back while walking over 「すみません、見ませんでした！」He stumbled forward in disbelief saying 「日本語！」like a stunned anime character, looked a little disappointed when I told him I actually don’t speak it very well, then talked my head off about the place anyway.
* Was buying a ticket at a place in Kyoto and did it in Japanese. The woman at the counter excitedly called the other two women she was working with to come see what was happening lol.
* In Tokyo I ended up in a small bar chatting and drinking with a group of Japanese friends celebrating a guy’s birthday. They were really excited I could speak (broken) Japanese and liked all the traditional Japanese snacks had they had brought, so they took me out for a late night dinner at a yakitori place where they ordered like half the menu for me to try (“by the end of tonight you’re going to be a real Japanese!”). I wanted to grab the check to say thanks for a fun night but one of them had “gone to the bathroom” and beaten me to it. This was in Shinjuku too, so I’m especially proud of the fact that I actually managed to get taken to a “good place” by strangers I had just met there without getting scammed.
* Got hammered at an izakaya with a salaryman who only spoke Japanese.
On the pedestrian bridge to Enoshima I stopped for a minute to watch some surfers pass by. They looked up at me and I waved and yelled 頑張ってください!!!
They smiled and all yelled 頑張りましょう!!
It was small and basic but I’ll never forget the small moment of joy.
As I was walking around Tokyo I heard a girl in a group say: 誰かに写真を頼みたいけど恥ずかしい
So I immediately turned around, gestured to her phone and said 撮って？ At the time I couldn’t even figure out how to continue this phrase, but she understood and had me take a few pictures of their group.
Even though I couldn’t properly form a question, I was glad that I was able to understand her crystal clear
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