Q: How do you say bad in japanese? - Carly
A: Bad is 悪い　= wa ru i.  But more often than not you’d usually say 良くない　= yo ku na i, which means “not good”

Be genki,

Richard

Q: What would “very” be in Japanese?  Sinead

A:  Very is とても =to te mo.   You do hear it a lot!

Be genki,

Richard

Q: Hello! I just love this site. It is so informational; I like it a lot!! I am wondering what does the word “futari” mean? I see that sometimes quite a few times in songs.  Kirari

A: This is an easy one, “futari” means “two people”, which is quite easy to work out when you see it written in kanji:  二人.

In songs it usually means something like “you and I” or “both of us together”, but it’s also really useful in restaurants as one of the first question you’ll get asked is:

何人ですか？　= nan nin desu ka? = How many people?

So if it’s just the two of you you’d say “futari”.

Be genki,

Richard

Q: Hey Richard I love your website! But however I have a quick question. I might be going to Japan soon and I’m worried that I would pronounce things wrong of say something I didn’t mean/get lost Yikes! What is some simple Kanji for Women’s bathroom or Men’s bathroom, or maybe even just some basic “must know” things. Thanks! -  Jackie

First of all don’t worry about pronouncing things wrong, people will often assume you speak no Japanese at all ( I even get that after doing an hour’s presentation in Japanese!) so any mistakes will be politely ignored!

With regards the bathrooms, the two kanji you need are:

女　(onnna = women’s bathroom)

男　(otoko = men’s bathroom)

Hopefully they should be easy to remember!

You should be fine to get around with little Japanese, maybe the word that will give you the most mileage is:

ありがとう　= a ri ga to u = thank you!

Be genki,

Richard

Q: how do you say hi in Japanese?

A: Good question!  “Hello” is usually translated as こんにちは konnichiwa, and you’d also use that for friends when going out etc.  I don’t think there is really anything we use like “hi”,  although just saying “元気？= genki?”　is quite common, meaning “What’s up?”

Be genki,

Richard

Q: Um.. one question whats the diffrence between Hiragana and Katakana? - Alexa
A: Katakana is used mainly for writing words that are borrowed from English ( or other languages) such as ゲーム = ge mu = game.  Hiragana is used for filling the bits in between the Chinese Kanji Characters.  If you speak English and you’re just starting learning Japanese, katakana is more useful than hiragana!

Be genki,

Richard

Q: Konnichi wa! ^^ O genki desu ka? Hey I have a question for u..um how would you say “It’s gunna be ok”, “your cute”, “i promise” in Japanese..oh and How would u say my in Japanese? well Arigatou Richard-Kun Mata ne Jade

A: Hi Jade. Konnhichi wa!. Kochira genki desu yo!

For it’s gonna be OK, you’d normally just say “大丈夫ですよ！ = dai jyu bo desu yo = it’s OK!”

For “you’re cute” you’d simply say “かわいい = kawaii” The person you’re talking to would hopefully know you were talking about them!

You can hear these two pronounced on my useful Japanese phrases page:
“I promise” is another one you hear all the time, it’s “約束！= ya ku　so ku”. You would then curl your little finger around your friend’s little finger to seal the promise!

Finally “my” is usually said as “私の = wa ta shi no” for girls or “僕の = bo ku no” for boys. (Although in some formal cases boys might also use watashi no).

Keep the questions coming,

Be genki,

Richard

Q:  Hi, my name is jonathan and I wound up stumbling upon your site when i was searching on pointers on how to learn japanese. I found the katakana voice chart extremely useful to start and i got a copy of rosetta stone japanese but when i started playing around in a sense i found that the japanese tend to swap back and forth in between all forms instantly. I provided a link to show what im talking about, my goal is to one day read these menus but im not sure on what to do, they go from katakana, to english, to kanji, to hiragana in one  sentence, im so lost!

A: Hi Jonathan,

Thank you very much for getting in touch.

The first thing to do is to not panic, and just relax while learning for a little while.  Eventually everything will fall in to place piece by piece.

With regards the mix of kana, kanji etc. that’s just how it’s written. I guess it’s like a Japanese learner saying
“in English they switch between upper case and lower case letters all the time”.

As you learn more vocab and structures, and especially as you learn to hear and speak more Japanese you’ll soon see how it works.  Again, just relax and go with the flow for a little while longer!

Q: I have rosetta stone, i made the alphabet for katakana and hiragana into note cards to study when im on the go, but  even then i feel lost as to where to go. Even in rosetta stone they go from onnanoko to onnanohito with out saying what to is (which obviously is and) or in hiragana form there is no explanation at all

A; This is probably the only thing about the Rosetta Stone that I don’t like. They probably could do with explaining things a little more.  But if you do the listening parts before the writing parts then it is a lot easier and eventually you do figure out which is which.  The theory is that if you work out which is which on your own it sticks with you, whereas if you are just told which is which you’ll probably get them confused!

But yeah, when I was using it to learn Thai this was something that confused me no end in the beginning.

Q:  nor are their spaces to make と stand out as and and not part of a word, also when you reach larger sentences they don’t explain what each smaller word means or break it down.

It’s just how Japanese is written.  Again it’s a case of learning lots of little bits as you go along and you’ll be able to pick out and separate the bits you do know.  This is one reason why kanji is so useful because it
breaks up the kana!

Q If you could help explain or point me in the right direction in any way i would greatly appreciated. Thank you very much your your site and your help =)

A; As I say, just relax and don’t worry about it.  You wouldn’t expect a Japanese person to jump straight into Shakespere and understand everything straight away, so just keep at it a piece at a time and every couple of
weeks or so something will just click and it will all become clear!  You have the right tools and the confidence so just keep going, you’ll get there pretty soon.

Be genki,

Richard

Q: I have a question about the: 70 page Katakana Worksheets PDF Book. + FREE download A4 poster book, etc  If I buy it, I have to download, or you send the stuff?
And if you send it, how much do you charge for shipping and handle?
I hope you can understand my questions.   Marycruz

A; Hi Marycruz.  It’s a file that you download, so there are no shipping costs and you can get it right away.  Here’s the order page!

Enjoy!

Q: o genki desu ka? sensei. i want to ask what mean omoi,  dakishimete, basho, toki, i see this word in many song. ja ne  - esura

Hi Esura,

Kochira genki desu yo!

Here we go:  Omoi = 想い = a thought (although it could mean “重い = heavy”, but probably not in a song!)

dakishimete = 抱きしめて = hug me

Basho = 場所  = a place

Toki = 時　= a time

Be genki,

Richard