Learn the basic sentence structure to introduce yourself in Japanese
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| Erin: In this lesson, you'll learn how to introduce yourself in Japanese. |
| Erin: Okay, Risa. When I meet someone for the first time, how can I introduce myself? |
| Risa: It’s simple. First, say はじめまして(hajimemashite). |
| Erin: This means “It’s nice to meet you.” |
| Risa: Then, you are going to introduce your name, using a very essential sentence pattern, A は B です。 (A wa B desu.) |
| Erin: One more time. |
| Risa: A は B です。 (A, wa, B, desu.) |
| Erin: Let’s break it down. So we have A, followed by... |
| Risa: は (wa) |
| Erin: And then B, followed by... |
| Risa: です (desu) . |
| Erin: Okay, so the pattern one more time? |
| Risa: A は B です。 (A wa B desu.) |
| Erin: So where we have A and B, we can start inserting different words to make a sentence to introduce myself, right? |
| Risa: Yes, you can say, わたしはしおりです。 (Watashi wa Shiori desu.) |
| Erin: わたし (watashi) means I, and しおり(Shiori) is a person's name. So we just put one of those into the A is B structure. A は B で す。 (A wa B desu.) And we get? |
| Risa: わたしはしおりです。 (Watashi wa Shiori desu.) |
| Erin: What do we have so far? |
| Risa: はじめまして。わたしはしおりです。(Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Shiori desu.) |
| Erin: “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Shiori.” So I can use this when I meet someone for the very first time in Japan. Okay, listeners, now you try! Imagine your name is John. Say “It’s nice to meet you. I'm John.” in Japanese. |
| [Pause] |
| Erin: Did you get it? |
| Risa: はじめまして。わたしは、ジョンです。(Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Jon desu.) |
| Erin: "It’s nice to meet you. I'm John." |
| Erin: Now, imagine your name is あいこ. Say "It’s nice to meet you. I'm Aiko" in Japanese. |
| Risa: はじめまして。わたしは あいこ です。(Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Aiko desu.) |
| Erin: "It’s nice to meet you. I'm Aiko." |
| Risa: You can leave off わたしは (watashi wa) and simply say your name plus です (desu). So you can also say あいこです。 (Aiko desu.) to say "I am Aiko.” |
| Risa: And next, you can say... よろしくおねがいします。(Yoroshiku o-negai shimasu.) |
| Erin: This expression means "Please be good to me." It is a commonly used expression which corresponds to "It's a pleasure to meet you." |
| Risa: All together, when you meet someone for the very first time, you can say... はじめまして。わたしはしおりです。よろしくおねがいします。(Hajimemashite. Watashi wa Shiori desu. Yoroshiku o-negai shimasu.) |
| Erin: "It's nice to meet you. I'm Shiori. Please be good to me." This is a set phrase commonly used when you meet someone for the first time. |
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