Greetings
Now let's learn about how people in Japan greet each other.
How do you generally greet your friends? Do you shake hands? Do you simply wave? High five them? Do you hug them? Do you just say "hi"? For the most part, in the United States, we say "hi" and sometimes wave when we greet our friends.
In Japan, we seldom shake hands, hug each other, nor kiss each other. Instead, we bow to each other. For example, when we meet someone for the first time, we bow, saying "Hajimemashite. Doozo yoroshiku." We bow to each other while saying "Ohayoo (Good morning)," "Kon'nichiwa (Good afternoon)," "Sayoonara (Good bye), or "Arigatoo (Thank you)," and so forth.
Learn how to bow through "japan-guide.com." Click here.
The University of Tokyo, とうきょうだいがくTookyoo Daigaku, is the oldest university in Japan. It was founded in 1877. The building in the photo above is he Yasuda Auditorium on the University of Tokyo's Hongo Campus. For more information go to http://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/index_e.html.
Warm Up
What is one thing you want to do when you see another person? Say hello? Tell them your name? Before we get started, a fun thing to do when learning something new is to see what you already know. See if you know the meaning of the following vocabulary in English.
Click each link to see the answer.
| あいさつ | aisatsu | |
| こんにちは。 | Konnichiwa. | |
| さようなら。 | Sayoonara. | |
| じゃ、また。 | Ja, mata. | |
| ありがとう。 | Arigatoo. | |
| はじめまして。 | Hajimemashite. | |
| どうぞ よろしく。 | Douzo yoroshiku. | |
| おなまえは。 | Onamae wa. | |
| しゅっしんは どこ です か。 | Shusshin wa doko desu ka. | |
| とうきょう です。 | Tookyoo desu. |
How do you do? はじめまして。
Greetings - Click Play to hear the greeting Konnichiwa.
Don't panic if you don't know much in Japanese yet. This is a beginning course and this is the beginning!
Click this link How do you do? to view a presentation. Here is a print version of this activity. You will still need to use the online version to hear the conversation.
Make sure to listen to the conversation taking place. You may want to go back and review the vocabulary at this time and then view the conversation again. This is an excellent practice and a super way for you to begin building a vocabulary in Japanese.
After you have listened to the conversation a couple of times, go back to the conversation and repeat after the speaker as each line is said. Try to imitate the speech of the speakers as closely as you can. Listening to Japanese and repeating Japanese are excellent ways of becoming proficient at your new language.
The more comfortable you feel with pronouncing Japanese words, the easier it will be for you to learn and experience greater success with your new skills! You should get to a point where you feel very comfortable speaking out loud the new words you are learning. Another excellent way to practice Japanese is to record yourself speaking Japanese and then listen to yourself. This will help you compare your own pronunciation with that of the speakers on the recording in the course.
Graded Assignments
Please return to the Section 1 Tasks & Assignments folder to complete the graded assignments for Section 1, Part A.
