Have you been studying your numbers lately?

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十、十一、十二
いち、に、さん、し、ご、ろく、しち、はち、きゅう、じゅう、じゅういち、じゅうに
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

十二、十一、十、九、八、七、六、五、四、三、二、一
じゅうに、じゅういち、じゅう、きゅう、はち、なな、ろく、ご、よん、さん、に、いち
12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

一つ、二つ、三つ、四つ、五つ、六つ、七つ、八つ、九つ
ひとつ、ふたつ、みっつ、よっつ、いつつ、むっつ、ななつ、やっつ、ここのつ
1 (thing), 2 (things), 3 (things), 4 (things), 5 (things), 6 (things), 7 (things), 8 (things), 9 (things)

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Greetings

Ah, I'm hesitant to even talk about greetings.

I've always had a bit of an aversion to teach the things that everyone else is teaching, and especially the things I've already taught.

But maybe, just maybe, you don't have your greetings down pat. In that case, skipping this itty bitty list may not be in your best interests:

こんにちは（konnichiwa // hello; good day; good afternoon）
こんばんは（konbanwa // good evening）
おはようございます（ohayou gozaimasu // good morning）

Pro tip: Say おはようございます！when you cross paths with old ladies on the street. It's fun. (I fear that may be an "amateur tip." Sorry.)

If you want to nerd out on greetings, go here: How to Say Hello in Japanese: Slang, Audio, & More.

OK, we did the "Japanese greetings" thing. Now let's have some fun...

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"Down pat," you say?

Isn't that a strange phrase?

It means "memorized or mastered perfectly."

How would we say that in Japanese? One phrase that comes to mind is 身に付ける (みにつける), which some dictionaries will say means "to learn; to acquire knowledge."

Japanese-only dictionaries give a bit more detail:

身に付ける：
知識・習慣・技術などを自分のものとする。体得する。習得する。
ちしき　・　しゅうかん　・　ぎじゅつ　など　を　じぶん　の　もの　と　する。　たいとく　する。　しゅうとく　する。
To acquire knowledge, habits, or skills. To master. To learn.

Uh, aren't we supposed to be studying travel language?

Yeah, I'll get to it. Give me a second! I'm just taking the roundabout route, yo.

If we look at a literal breakdown of the phrase 身に付ける, we can see that it means "stick" (付ける) "to" (に) "body" (身).

"stick to body" → "to learn; to master; to acquire (e.g. a skill)."

Makes sense!

But the important thing to note is that it's not what we say in English.

Conversely, there are phrases that we use in English, like "down pat," that aren't really used in Japanese.

And there are cultural examples, too. Case in point: "How are you?"

Now, to be clear, there are some phrases that more or less mean "How are you?" in Japanese. The first one that comes to mind is お元気ですか？（おげんきですか？）

I have one of those handy little travel phrasebooks for Japanese sitting on my desk as I write this. It helps me to think about what I do and don't want to cover in these travel lessons.

While useful, a book like that simply doesn't have the space to explain the nuances and proper usage of phrases. Accordingly, they introduce a dialogue like this (though of course theirs doesn't have a literal breakdown):

A:
お元気ですか？
おげんき　です　か？
How are you?
Literally: “energetic / full of spirit + です + か?”
Note: The お is an honorific prefix. It just makes the word more polite.

B:
はい、元気です。あなたは？
はい、　げんき　です。　あなた　は？
I’m good. And you?
Literally: “yes, + energetic / full of spirit + です. + you + は?”

↑ This Japanese isn't wrong. It is, however, problematic.

First, let's never call someone あなた, "you," unless you do not know the person's name. Better:

はい、元気です。Name-さんは？
はい、　げんき　です。　Name-さん　は？
I’m good. And you?
Literally: “yes, + energetic / full of spirit + です. + Name-san + は?”

Second, people don't ask things like "How are you?" in Japan... as often as we do in many Western cultures.

Speaking very generally about a country of 100 million+ people, "small talk" is not much of a thing in Japan. So things can often get awkward when you start asking a Japanese person how their day, weekend, and so on was.

They'll respond to you, probably, but if you live in Japan long enough, you'll start to notice that you're initiating these types of conversations a lot more than the local people.

But I want to get to know people! How do I connect with Japanese people?!

I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer that question, to be honest. I'll try over the next few lessons, though.

Since we're jumping all over the place, though, I think maybe we should backtrack a bit.

You may recall that in the last lesson we looked at strategies for approaching strangers. Specifically, we looked at approaching people outside of stations and at bars and asking them for recommendations.

Let's imagine that you've actually managed to get through that painful process, and now you actually find yourself having a conversation in Japanese. Agggghh!!

All fear aside, now that you're talking to your future best friend, you should probably introduce yourself...

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Introductions

Normally when you meet a person in Japan, you start with:

初めまして。
はじめまして。
Nice to meet you.
Literally: “we are meeting for the first time.”

Then you would follow that with "Name + です."

If you're giving a full-on self-introduction at a school or a company, you might also mention where you're from, what your occupation is, etc.

We talked about nationalities back in this lesson: [NDL #649] - Travel: Things Everyone Will Say to You.

And we look at lots of introductions in our Toby in Tokyo video course.

Anyway, after you give your name (and possibly some other info), you end your intro with:

よろしくお願いします。
よろしく　おねがいします。
Nice to meet you.
Literally: “please treat me well.”

↑ Translating this culture-heavy language into English is problematic... which is why we're saying "Nice to meet you" twice.

More importantly, we're facing a big problem. In the situation described above, it would be a bit odd to suddenly say "Nice to meet you," seeing as how you're already having a discussion about recommendations, yeah?

So now what?

Option #1: Just be jarring and go straight into the introduction described above. It's awkward, but the person listening will probably shift into the routine "meeting people" script.

Option #2: Try to say what you would say in English.

I can't help but go with Option #2 in most cases. I know I'm supposed to only say what Japanese people say if I really want to sound like a native speaker. But sometimes saying (in Japanese) what I want to say (in English) is simply the most fun. Also, we've already broken the standard rules of "how you're supposed to meet people" as a member of Japanese society. So...

There you are. You accosted some poor person waiting outside of Shibuya Station and asked them to recommend a good izakaya. One thing led to another, and now you find that you and this person are having a semi-English, semi-Japanese conversation that is a lot of fun for all parties involved. You want to say, "By the way, my name is Name."

So you say just that:

ところで、私の名前は Name です。
ところで、　わたし　の　なまえ　は　Name　です。
By the way, my name is Name.
Literally: “by the way, + I + の + name + は + Name + です.”

Be sure to follow that with よろしくおねがいします, like we saw above. I'll bet that the person you're talking to instinctively hits you back with their own よろしくおねがいします.

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Who am I?

Japanese is famous for having a bunch of different ways to refer to yourself... although you should just avoid saying "I" any time it can be inferred from context that you're talking about yourself.

But we had a sentence above that did require you to say "I", so we might as well look at your options.

The standard word is 私 (わたし).

If you just wanna remember one word, go with that one.

If you're a male, I'd recommend going with 僕 (ぼく). I actually use 俺 (おれ) to refer to myself more often, but that has a rougher sound to it, and you should only use it around close friends or family members. I do not use it, for example, on the rare occasions that I'm working at my editor's office in Tokyo.

If you're a girl, try あたし, which is pretty common. At least, it's common for girls in Tokyo. I won't even get into possible regional variants of things like this.

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Since we're living in this dream world where you successfully approach strangers in Japan, start conversations with them, and become instant friends, next time we'll look at how to invite people to join you for food, sightseeing, and fun stuff in general.

Get excited.