Japanese learning blog
Practical guides on speaking, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and study planning, written for learners who want to use Japanese in real life.
All articles · Page 42
Japanese for Job Offers and Salary Negotiation: From Naitei to Acceptance
A Japanese job offer is called a naitei (内定), and the written conditions arrive as a rōdō jōken tsūchisho. The polite way to handle it is to thank the company, ask for time to check the conditions, ask your questions in soft, indirect Japanese, and then accept or decline clearly and quickly. This guide gives you the exact lines for each step, including a negotiation dialogue.
11 min readJapanese for Business Conferences and Trade Shows: Booth Talk and Follow-up
At a Japanese trade show (展示会) the conversation follows a pattern: a short greeting, a business card exchange, a question about what the company does, a demo, and a promise to follow up. If you can handle those five moments in polite Japanese, you can work a hall full of booths. This guide gives you the lines for each, as a visitor and as an exhibitor, plus the email for the next day.
10 min readJapanese for Online Shopping: Delivery Times, Returns and Support Chat
Online shopping in Japan is smooth until something goes wrong: a missed delivery, the wrong size, a broken item. Then you need a short set of Japanese for the redelivery call, the return request and the support chat. This guide covers ordering, the address and time slot, cancelling, returns and refunds, and the polite, slightly formal register that support staff use and expect.
10 min readJapanese for Long-Distance Relationships: Video Calls, Feelings and Visits
A long-distance relationship with a Japanese partner is mostly spoken Japanese: late-night video calls, voice messages, and the small daily questions that keep two lives connected. The register is casual, the sentences are short, and feelings are said more lightly than in English. This guide gives you the call phrases, time-zone talk, natural ways to say you miss someone, the lines for planning a visit, and the polite Japanese for meeting the family later.
10 min readJapanese for Minpaku and Airbnb Hosts and Guests: Check-in to Reviews
Minpaku (民泊) is a private home rented to travellers, the kind of stay you book on Airbnb and similar platforms. Hosts write polite messages and house rules; guests ask about keys, Wi-Fi and the bath; and both sides must keep the neighbours happy. This guide gives the Japanese for the whole stay from both sides, from the booking confirmation to the review.
10 min readJapanese for Freelancers Finding Clients in Japan: Quotes, Deadlines, Invoices
Freelancing in Japan runs on a small set of documents and a polite register: a self-introduction, a mitsumorisho (見積書) for the quote, a clear agreement on nōki (納期), the deadline, and a seikyūsho (請求書) for the invoice. The conversations around them are formal but formulaic. This guide gives you the Japanese for each stage, including the delicate art of chasing a late payment without losing the client.
10 min readJapanese for Ski Season Jobs in Japan: Resort Work, Dorm Life and Safety
Ski resorts in Japan, from Niseko and Furano in Hokkaido to Hakuba, Nozawa and Myoko in the Alps, hire thousands of seasonal staff every winter, many of them foreigners on working holiday visas. The job needs practical Japanese: a few polite lines for guests, workplace phrases for coworkers, dorm etiquette, and a short list of safety words that you must understand instantly. This guide covers all four.
10 min readJapanese for Accompanying Spouses in Japan: Dependent Visa Life and Work
If you moved to Japan because your partner's job brought you here, you are probably on a dependent status such as kazoku taizai (家族滞在), and your days are built around paperwork, errands and a new neighbourhood rather than an office. The Japanese you need is daily-life Japanese: city hall, the clinic, the neighbour in the lift, the volunteer language class. This guide gives you those phrases and the lines for finding work when you are ready.
11 min readJapanese Speaking Practice for Small Talk
You want to speak Japanese in a brief chat before a meeting, but the first question often gets an answer but no natural second turn. This guide turns that moment into a small, repeatable speaking skill.
6 min readJapanese Speaking Practice for First Introductions
You want to speak Japanese in meeting a new classmate, but a memorized self-introduction can sound finished before the conversation begins. This guide turns that moment into a small, repeatable speaking skill.
6 min readHow to Talk About Hobbies in Japanese
You want to speak Japanese in explaining a hobby to someone curious, but a hobby noun alone gives the listener little to respond to. This guide turns that moment into a small, repeatable speaking skill.
6 min readTalk About Your Weekend in Japanese
You want to speak Japanese in sharing a weekend story on Monday, but learners often list activities without giving a reaction or detail. This guide turns that moment into a small, repeatable speaking skill.
5 min readPractical guides
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