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.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 27th, 2005 at 5:19 pm and is filed under Survival Phrases. 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.
14 Responses to “Survival Phrases #3 - Dining Tips”
beth says:
February 10th, 2006 at 2:27 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
Jonas says:
February 10th, 2006 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
Peter says:
February 10th, 2006 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! 
Jonas says:
February 10th, 2006 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
beth says:
February 11th, 2006 at 7:45 am
thanks! The politeness level introduction was especially helpful!
Winnie says:
November 30th, 2006 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?
patricia says:
October 28th, 2007 at 9:03 am
how do we spell in japanese “on three” before the itadakimasu?
in japanese : 1 23, cheers,
tequilatamm says:
November 3rd, 2007 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.
Carla says:
January 22nd, 2008 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
Nicole says:
May 30th, 2008 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.
kranz says:
August 16th, 2008 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. 
Leave a Reply
Subscription Information
Course Information
Technical Information
Feature List
Video Guides
Privacy Statement
Category: Survival Phrases |
Share This