25 ESSENTIAL Japanese Words for EVERYDAY Conversation

when it comes to learning Japanese you've got the big scary intimidating stuff like learning hundreds if not thousands of characters and then there's the complicated grammar which can cause a real headache but there's also the fun easy to master bits which you can learn in a day and get out and start using right off the bat you'll find men speaking Japanese and everyday conversation a lot of people don't use full sentences they just use one simple word to express a feeling or emotion and if you master the twenty five commonly used words on this list today the moment you set foot in Japan do we able to pick up on conversations happening around you more importantly you'll be able to show appreciation for the food you eat the people you meet and just have a lot more fun along the way as well so today we're joined by my good friend NAT ski however while this is our day out in Tokyo and the key 25 words we used along the way let's go this is the room what do you think it's often hear the word kid air when somebody walks into a nice clean beautiful space like this or it can be pretty or beautiful when you're referring to someone's face so for example first to show netsuke this photo of Natalie Portman and of course Reata now aren't we okay that's key you know what's in this bag this your Christmas presents loser from 88 Christmas presents whose sort means no way or you're lying it's often used in jest between friends and often twinned with this short as well deshou means right you saw this oh you're lying right I'm not lying these your Christmas presents not one not two but three your first present it is retro arcade pac-man Oh psycho psycho psycho means the best the number one the top most amazing thing there's nothing better than it often used to exaggerate something in this case retro pac-man I think it fits the bill rather well mmm second present tiny arcade pac-man the exact same game but in a much more smaller form factor it is almost comically small TI it means tiny cheese signings small most people know the word cheese silo people don't know chichay which is tiny it's kind of small cheese i twinned with that feeling of surprise you know when you discover tiny pac-man I wonder if there's a smaller pac-man no there isn't it's just a tiny beer third present see each I better good friend good where's my corn automata to snag one of the one that you miss their Santa quick mr. Santa Kris I'll take it nuts cause she caught ow that's cuz she's a great word to know it literally means nostalgic whether it's a retro video game from your childhood or this lovely photo of Nazi and I the first time we met six years ago I look at that it's first photo of us together I feel that's Kushina feel nostalgic that's goofy [Music] are you done yet a silver sea saga scene is busy you can use it if you're busy at work maybe the middle of the week you've got a busy schedule say silver see you finished I had that hard I had to literally means empty stomach the polite way of saying it is all knuckle sweeter but had a head is a lot more colloquial informal and you're more likely to hear it amongst friends but should we go for lunch let's go let's go I found a good fried chicken restaurant about 25 minutes away should be turning a 5 minute man look sad and dockside your friend says that it's pretty much game over it means they'd rather do something else men docks I kind of means troublesome bothersome pain in the ass the way I like to interpret it as a British person is it means that's a lot of effort isn't it so when your friend says that it's game over man looks at alright let's try somewhere else [Music] what do it go before the homophobic or normal deaf client I see the word for big is or keep in the heat at the moment but you're surprised by something that's really big you might hear the word fifth I like these German sausages my my my my everybody knows the word delicious but delicious is beliefs you but I find the way she could you say even if it isn't delicious they're just stable easy because it's almost like to show respect for the restaurant he'll rain or the person who's cook the dinner just to say police she I've never ever heard a Japanese person criticize of meal they've had so if they say the my she's the next level up from Alicia do you know they like it you know they genuinely like it and look at his little face oh my boys awesome engine us misery see another good work misery she means rare or unusual sausages like this are rare in Japan often german restaurants Mizrachi great word to no means rare or unusual for example snow in tokyo amazing a day when asked he goes without alcohol laser does shoot a day where I'm not smiling visit us hey exactly every day every day that was a good feel little pretty stuffed oh yeah what you will do now got a coffee no me no me just you sit there then we mean sleepy or drowsy which you might be feeling after the big meal we just had it's the last word you'll hear before someone closes their eyes and goes sleep for a nap alright I'll get the coffee then you wait here see in a minute I'm not there Tommy see ya [Applause] sorry Shana Chris assuming they're gonna star might they still be there Sammy's gina asking don't shake wake up put your coffee well I'll make that way that way unbelievable it's all right for some isn't it go around spending great expense and coffee while others have a nice afternoon nap after a good lunch so let's see ah yeah obviously the word for hot is that's three a lot of people know that but if you're short on that sweet actor that's the noise people make when they've just had their mouth burn now if I just burn themselves in general that's it similar to the word it tied it timings painful but if you actually hurt yourself and say ouch they short on it too it's a diamond on my psyche avatar much they're much too seriously another good word that you hear come up in Le every other conversation with friends it's an informal phrase Maji there it means seriously or for real I hear certain people use it more than others for example real true 10 sees the word mash they're quite a lot in conversation but it's not polite so be careful when you're using it the more safe option is hon tony right on Tony Montana Cortina why I hold it - neither one yeah I'm trying to cut caffeine outside drink a lot of coffee I'm trying to be a little bit more healthy going forward house here mine is there I've had a nice lunch messengered coffee now do some shopping shopping yeah it's really boring to modernize the word for boring in Japanese people often shortened it to saman I they drop their bath sounds just because it's more easy to say I don't think I'm shopping to that for it I'll get you another Christmas presents Superman unbelievable got some hats can I hear your thoughts starting with this one we think of that duster with us sir uncle unsophisticated unfashionable not good about this one Oh God freedom cut we cool fashionable good car court means appearance e means good so literally a good appearance you can't use the word cat qui to mean cool what we do in English where we can say oh that sounds cool it's usually for appearances alone physical things but nevertheless I am chuckling there you go no doubt about it [Music] Japanese stores are so intensive though there's so much going on there speakers lights flashing TV screens play so bloody loud one fact aside that is a great word do this so it means noisy like this store like this shop has two meanings that literally mean noisy or it can also mean annoying for example if you pissed off your friend by that's key do you look like crap today who the same Naruto literally you're annoying me go away you know that bad you look right I think I found a skis second Christmas present this is suck it as a cup of Sukkot in the shape of a sperm who thought this was an appropriate idea oh my god your second Christmas present it certainly exceeded my expectations very cool yeah yeah have a have a look at that Christmas oh yeah get in the spirit [Laughter] no you drink here this is quickly turning into a video that is far from family-friendly but we've heard nasty saves to get a minute ago so gays the more informal the more masculine way of saying Sugoi the word that you probably hear more than any other in everyday life in Japan whether it's on TV or on the streets Sugoi means amazing incredible and sooo gay is the more masculine version of it and that is Sudhir very much too gay we're drink it yeah not here you can't drink that on the street hear what people think let's go and have a proper drink gonna need it after that try the droop they've all been waiting for sperm liquor I just this day wasn't at all scripted or planned no no this is a complete spontaneous turn of events and I want you to drink that drink drink it I want the full review why is this a thing okay little face what's going on mother mother mozzie my not surprised Marva means well horrible not tasty completely undelicious disgusting basically don't they use that in a restaurant though because you will get thrown out the window it's not phrase you hear often only when people are drinking questionable and daring items such as this one bunny mother ego have some water wash your mouth out from the sperm look here maybe next week got a Christmas party up in Tahoe can you join on nervous oh really what mizakowski means difficult it's used in two ways first it means difficult as in difficult aka the pac-man game we saw earlier that was mr. Keshe that was pretty difficult and also it means know in Japanese the word for now is ear but nobody ever says yeah because it just seems too rude it seems a bit to crash in reality the only time you use ear is when you're turning down a compliment so if someone ever compliments your Japanese for example says your uncle Joseph you would say are though here yeah no I'm not that good in reality mizuka she is used to me knows if I asked Nats gif he's free next week to go to a party and he said no it's difficult that means it's game over once you've heard Ms Akashi basically it means no shut it down from there you can't correct is one of the most commonly used words you'll ever hear in Japan memory which we heard earlier means sleepy drowsy the Scarlet er insinuates that you've had a long day usually at work doing something physical and you're kind of exhausted physically you're ready to go at home you ready to sleep as now skis right now good night now ski so that was our down and take you in the 25 words we used along the way to have fun better fun time very fun I hope you learn some new words and all the ways well guys I'm sure you already knew quite a few of them but hopefully there's one or two new ones and if you're wondering if this is actually good the tiny chick eyepatch manner we didn't unboxing on a separate video where you can see if they're actually playable or not but if you didn't learn any new words you at least learned that this is a drink best avoided sperm the kid stay random seriously don't do that Oh any thanks for watching guys we'll see you next time this was supposed to be a family-friendly video that's gone out the window Creek where take it get that drink huh

Channel: Abroad in Japan

Views: 623,859

Rating: 4.9838467 out of 5

Keywords: japanese, learning japanese, japanese phrases, study japanese, japanese conversation, japanese study, basic japanese, beginner japanese, abroad in japan

Id: VE8napIxLKM

Length: 13min 45sec (825 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 15 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/ResistantLaw]

I should point out that most of these are just adjectives. If you are somewhat experienced in Japanese then you might already know most of these.

In the video he provides romaji, which makes sense because his viewership is mainly English speakers. I decided to write them in kana since this is a Japanese learning subreddit. But, if he only used kana for the words, then for some I decided to add the kanji version in parentheses directly after it. Anything after the - is straight from the video.

1. きれい - "Pretty", beautiful or tidy
2. 嘘 (うそ) - "Lies" or "No way!" | うそでしょ (You're lying right?)
3. 最高 （さいこう) - "It's the best" or (literally) the most - When you're overwhelmed by something being so amazing
4. ちっちゃい (小っちゃい) - "Tiny" in a cute/adorable way
5. 懐かしい (なつかしい) - "That takes me back" or (literally) nostalgic
6. 忙しい (いそがしい) - "I'm busy" or occupied
7. 腹減った (はらへった) - "I'm starving" (Formal version is お腹すいた)
8. めんどうくさい (面倒くさい) - "It's bothersome" or "It's a lot of effort" (Used when you feel like quitting on something)
9. でかい - Huge or gigantic (Big is 大きい)
10. うまい - “Delicious” or really tasty (うまい is more casual than おいしい)
11. 珍しい (めずらしい) - “It’s rare” or unusual
12. 眠い (ねむい) - “I’m sleepy” or drowsy
13. 寂しい (さみしい) - “Lonely” or sad
14. 熱い (あつい) - “Hot” or heated (Shortened to あつ! for “Ouch”)
15. 痛い (いたい) - “It’s painful” or sore (Shortened to いた! for “Ouch”
16. まじで - “Seriously” or “You’re not joking?”
17. 本当に - “Really” or truly
18. つまらない - “Boring” or tedious (Often shortened to つまんない in speech)
19. ダサイ - ”Uncool” or unfashionable
20. かっこいい - “Cool” or attractive (Not typically used to describe situations like we do with “cool” in English)
21. うるさい - “Noisy” or annoying
22. すげい - “Incredible” or amazing (Masculine form of すごい)
23. まずい - “Disgusting” or awful (Never say it near whoever made dinner)
24. 難しい (むずかしい) - “It’s difficult” or complicated (The common and polite way of saying “not possible”)
25. 疲れた (つかれた) - “I’m exhausted” or worn out (Typically expressed at the end of the work day)

[u/ResistantLaw]

Glad to see that other people love Chris Broad / Abroad in Japan.

If you have never seen his videos, most of his content is actually going out and exploring Japan, or talking about Japanese rules/traditions/etc. He doesn't have a ton of videos about the language (but he does have a few).

Also, if you're wondering, yes he speaks Japanese pretty well, but he doesn't do it much in his videos since he primarily has an English audience. If you wanna see him talking in Japanese, there is a video titled "Why I Don't Speak Japanese in Videos" on his Journey Across Japan, where the challenge for the day was to speak Japanese for the entire day.

[u/Br1ghtest]

Natsuki is the real star though!

[u/Squantz]

I love Chris Broad!

[u/AnimazingHaha]

This guys cool

[u/crusted-sanwhich]

Love that Chris is getting some love here , been watching him for years now. He makes it so fun , the best Japan based YouTuber out there. No one can convince me otherwise.

[u/geekything]

Love Chris' videos!

[u/[deleted]]

I love this guys channel. Can’t stop binging.

[u/dubbsmqt]

Can you provide these words in text format?