Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 1

33 1) Ima, na-ji desu ka. What time is it? - Yo-ji ja nai desu ka? Isn’t it four? 2) San-ji desu yo . It’s three. -Anou, yo-ji ja nai desu ka. Umm, isn’t it four? Recall that what is obvious from the context is usually not mentioned in Japanese. In the dialogue above, Ms. Tanaka sees Michael going somewhere, and checks if he is going to work. All she has to say is ‘Is it work (that you are going to)?’ A sentence X wa Y desu is usually translated as ‘X is Y’. However, unlike the English translation, where X equals Y (Y is the identity of X), the interpretation of the Japanese sentence is more open and flexible. Consider the following: Honda-san wa shigoto desu . This sentence does not mean ‘Ms. Honda IS work’, but rather for Ms. Honda what is under discussion is the work. So, there are numerous possible interpretations depending on the context. For example, she is at work, her priority is her work, her plan for the weekend is to work, what she likes is her job, to list a few. So, be aware of the context and be imaginative. Now, test your imagination. What can the following possibly mean? Honda-san wa Panda desu. 2-1-2 Clock Time Hours are named by attaching –ji to the number. Minutes will be introduced later. You can attach –han to the hour to mean ‘half past the hour’. Note that, unlike English, when asking what time it is, ima ’now’ is commonly used in Japanese, as shown in the dialogue above. 2-1-3 Hesitation Noises: Anou and Etto Hesitation noises are very common in Japanese conversations. Without them, a conversation may sound too mechanical and abrupt. Japanese conversations tend to favor less direct and less confrontational exchanges. ‘Beating around the bush’ may not be such a bad thing when speaking Japanese. One way to do it is to use hesitation noises. A lot of them! Anou and etto are two of the most common hesitation noises in Japanese. Anou is the all mighty hesitation noise while etto indicates that you are searching for the right answer. So, when asked what your name is, for example, anou is fine, but not etto . Anou is also used to get attention from a person, but not etto . Besides the hesitation noises, you also hear Japanese speakers elongating the last vowel of each word, or inserting desu ne between chunks of words to slow down speech.