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Due to the positive response and the number of people heading to Japan, we decided to give you this year’s last installment of survival phrases a little early! In this edition, we get another dose of essential phrases; plus some tips on dining at someone’s house. This episode is another must for all you Japan-bound travellers out there. Don’t miss this one.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 27th, 2005 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Survival Phrases Season 1 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
30 Responses to “Survival Phrases #3 - Dining Tips”
Tuesday at 6:30 pm
I don’t understand ‘o-kaike’ as written. I’m comparing it to the hiragana and not coming out right… Can someone explain, and the difference with o-n whatever that’s after it? Thanks, -beth
Friday at 7:41 pm
Hmm… they’ve spelled it out in romaji(alphabeth) as okaike, which is ok, and a valid way to do it, but it doesn’t represent the japanese way to write it exactly. It is spelled out as “o-ka-i-ke-i” おかいけい お会計 (actually, the お isn’t a part of the word, but is something called 美化語, or beautification of the language. Makes it sound more polite). After that, it’s “o-ne-ga-i shi-ma-su” which basically means please. So when at a restaurant, and you ask for the “bill please”, you should add “onegaishimasu” to “okaikei”
Hope that helps
Jonas
Friday at 8:43 pm
Beth-san, thank you for posting! And, Jonas-san thank you for answering! You did a great job!
The PDF file has been corrected, as it should have read o- ka-i-ke-i; the final i was omitted.
Yes the “o” or “go” prefix is used to express respect or politeness. They are not inherent to the words, but are attached depending on the situation, a speakers habit, etc.
In this case, the “o” makes the word for bill polite o-kaikei. The “o” in o-negai shimasu is actually the same prefix, but how we get this structure is quite advanced Japanese.
A rule of thumb I heard about is topic was, the “o” tends to be used with Japanese words, while “go” tends” to be used with words of Chinese origin. Was this helpful?
Thank you too Jonas-san! Great to see you helping other listeners!
Friday at 9:05 pm
Peter-san, no problem
Teaching others is the best way to learn, you know
Not going to teach you “super polite japanese” here beth-san, since it gets much more complicated than normal japanese (even japanese people have trouble using polite japanese correctly (e.g. “gojousha dekimasen” signs etc)). But just to make you aware of its existence; there are 3 types of “keigo” or polite japanese: “sonkeigo” elevates the person you speak to, and is polite towards that person. “kenjougo” lowers your own position, and is often described as the “humble form” of “keigo”. And last, its “bikago” which isn’t really keigo, but when used, sounds more polite or prettier; mizu -> omizu, mise -> omise etc.
Hope this wasn’t too confusing! At the beginner level, you don’t have to think about this at all. As you learn more, you will pick up this by yourself im sure!
Jonas
Saturday at 7:45 am
thanks! The politeness level introduction was especially helpful!
Saturday at 8:18 am
Beth-san, keep the posts and questions coming!
Thursday at 8:04 am
What is the difference between o- ka-i-ke-i and o- kanjo when asking for the check at a restaurant?
Sunday at 9:03 am
how do we spell in japanese “on three” before the itadakimasu?
in japanese : 1 23, cheers,
Saturday at 12:10 pm
Hi, I noticed in the vocabulary quiz at the end of this lesson there are a couple problems.
Questions 1 and 2 are a bit wrong. These are the shortenings of Ake Ome and Toko Yoro. Their answers seem to be backwards and the first question doesn’t actually say what you are looking for the shortening for in the question.
Take a l.ook at the first two vocabulary quiz questions and you will see what I mean.
Tuesday at 5:12 am
Anyone interested in Portuguese, visit the this site for a Portuguese translation of this lesson.
http://aprenderjapones.blogs.sapo.pt/2008/01/21/
Doomo Arigatoo
Mata ne
Wednesday at 8:00 am
i always hear the word すごい
Friday at 11:59 am
I loved the survival phrases to eating with friends and family. I had been pronouncing “great” wrong in Japanese. Glad I have the correct pronunciation now.
Thursday at 5:40 am
very very nice desu!
Saturday at 5:12 pm
Why can’t i open line to line audio transcript for this lesson? It’f fine in #1 and #2 but #3 is empty. Is this something to do with the server? Onegai, minna-san. Arigatou.
Thursday at 5:49 am
evlxamgf0jh35hya
おかいけい お会計
Thursday at 12:37 pm
mckqem698hudjfs5
として
Wednesday at 8:28 pm
Wow! This PDF’s are really awesome!! Of course the audio lesson either. Sayonara!!
Wednesday at 3:27 pm
Doumo arigatougozaimasu.
Thursday at 3:31 pm
emmrie-san
Thank you for posting your comment! Looking forward to hearing from you soon again!
Saturday at 2:12 am
Hello,
I have been studying Japanese on my own for the past 7 months or so. I haven’t heard sugoi used when describing food. These lessons really do teach you things that are not in textbooks. It is always oishii or oishii desu.
I am getting a lot from these classes. It will prepare me for the Japanese class that I am taking at the community college next year.
Keep up the great work. (even though I know there are hundreds of lessons that I have yet to get to)
Monday at 10:48 am
Nicholas Sumasさん,
Thank you for your nice comment! Good luck with your Japanese class at community college next year. Let us know if you have any questions
Saturday at 8:32 am
Im really happy that you did a summary this time its perfect if you just want to her the words one more time!
Monday at 10:55 am
Josuaさん,
We’re glad to hear that you enjoyed it!!
Saturday at 3:45 am
Konnichiwa, Steven desu!


It’s because of her I have found this sugoi site!
Watashi wa Berugii jin desu. Ima, Nihongo no gakusei desu.
This is a very good and entertaining site to learn Japanese!!
I want to thank you all for all the hard work you guys have put into making this awesome, genki site!!
Could you guys say hello to Hiroko san for me?
Mata ne,
Steven
Monday at 9:38 am
scarpelsさん,
Thank you for your nice comment!
We are very glad that you found our site! We hope that you continue to enjoy the lessons
Wednesday at 3:54 pm
I also have the same question as Winnie. But I see no one answered it so I’ll post it too: What is the difference between o- ka-i-ke-i and o- kanjo when asking for the check at a restaurant?
Thursday at 10:43 am
Jay-san
They both mean the same.
I think okaikei is more common phrase.
Friday at 1:25 pm
Arigatō Naomi-san!
Sunday at 12:58 am
Dinner party success!
We were ready to toast and I said (in usual crazy party Rachael voice) “We need to toast in Japanese!!” My friends humor me all the time because I do crazy things like rewrite their orders in German, so they shouted “Kanpai” for our toast and “Itadakimasu” when we started eating. D
Monday at 9:27 am
Rachael Kvapilさん,
You even have your friends using Japanese! Great!
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