Japanese for Technical Interns and Factory Work

The safety words that must stop your hands

Treat these as reflexes rather than vocabulary. When someone shouts abunai you stop your hands and step back before you know why, and when someone shouts tomare you stop the machine, the trolley, or your feet. The trap is the half-second of translation, so practise the sound until the reaction comes first. Say them yourself as well: if you see a sleeve near a roller, your abunai is as valid as the leader's, and nobody will tell you off for a false alarm. The blunt forms ending in na are commands shouted because there is no time for kudasai; they are not anger.

Kiken and chūi appear on signs and on the machines themselves, often on a yellow label next to the part that bites. On your first day walk the line and read each label aloud. When you warn a colleague outside an emergency, use the polite forms: sawaranaide kudasai, hairanaide kudasai. In an emergency use the short ones and use them loudly.

The KY habit and pointing and calling

Most factories run a short hazard-prediction routine before work, called KY from kiken yochi. The group looks at the task, names the dangers in it, and names the action that prevents each one. It ends with pointing and calling, yubisashi koshō: you point at the guard, look at it, say its name, and shout yoshi. This is not theatre. Saying it aloud stops your hands from moving on habit. In the first week you will mostly listen and answer yoshi; by the second month you may be asked to name a danger yourself, so learn the pattern of the sentence now.

The morning meeting and the day's instructions

The day usually starts with a chōrei, a short standing meeting. The leader gives the line assignments, the target quantity, yesterday's defects, and any change to the process. You will not understand every sentence for weeks, but the shape repeats, and three things matter: which line you are on, how many pieces, and by when. Listen for those numbers, and if one is missing ask for it at the end when the leader says nani ka shitsumon wa arimasu ka. A question at the meeting is normal; a wrong quantity at three o'clock is not.

Machine and process words in general terms

Every factory has its own product names, but the general words for machines, parts, and steps are shared, and they are the ones pointed at you with a finger. Many are loanwords with a Japanese pronunciation you may not catch at first: konbea for conveyor, suitchi for switch. Learn the pair of words for good and defective items early, ryōhin and furyōhin, because inspection is where new workers are judged. The five words of 5S, the tidiness system most plants use, also appear on the wall and in the meeting, so know them by sight.

Confirm an instruction by repeating it back

Japanese workplaces expect fukushō, repeating an instruction back, and a new worker who does it is trusted faster than one who nods. The form is simple: take the leader's sentence, change the request ending to a plain masu form, and say it with the numbers. Kensa shite kudasai becomes kensa shimasu. Then add the one thing you are unsure of as a question with ne or ka. The reply you will hear is a short sō, sō or hai, onegai, and that is your permission to start. If the reply is a correction, repeat the corrected version too.

The mistake learners make is to repeat only hai. Hai alone tells the leader you heard a voice; the numbers tell him you heard the instruction. If you did not catch the quantity, say the rest and leave a question where the number was: nan-ko desu ka.

Reporting a defect or a machine problem at once

Japanese companies teach hōrensō, a set of three habits: hōkoku, reporting; renraku, keeping people informed; and sōdan, consulting before deciding. On the line the first one matters most, and it has a time limit. A scratched part reported now is one part; the same scratch reported after lunch is a batch. The same applies to the machine. A strange noise, an error on the display, a part that jams: stop, do not fix it yourself, and report it with three pieces of information, where, what, and whether you touched it. The reply will usually be a question or a wait there, so stay by the machine.

Asking to be shown again without losing face

The fear of asking twice is the biggest single cause of wasted parts among new workers, and it is a fear the seniors do not share. A demonstration takes a minute; a wrong batch takes an afternoon. The polite way to ask is to request the demonstration, not to confess ignorance: mō ichido misete moraemasu ka puts the focus on the task. Add yukkuri onegai shimasu if the first demonstration was fast, and ask to try it yourself once while the senior watches. Then close with a short thank you and repeat the steps back in order.

Asking a fellow intern instead of the senior feels safer and is usually worse, because you both learn the same mistake. Ask the person who showed you, and ask on the same day.

Break and shift phrases

A line cannot stop because one person walked away, so breaks and handovers are announced, not taken. Tell the leader when you go and when you are back, and hand over the state of your station in one sentence. Shift words matter for your own schedule too: nikkin and yakin, day and night shifts, and zangyō, overtime, which is often asked as a question you are allowed to answer honestly. The end of the day has its fixed pair: osaki ni shitsurei shimasu from the person leaving, otsukaresama desu from everyone still there.

Dormitory and daily-life phrases

Many interns live in a company dormitory, a ryō, and the rules there are as fixed as the ones on the line: rubbish days, bath hours, quiet hours, and who to ask. The person to ask is usually a dormitory manager or a life-support contact from your supervising organisation, and the most useful sentence you own is sōdan ga arimasu, I have something to discuss, because it opens a conversation about money, health, or a problem with a colleague without having to explain the whole thing in the first breath.

Respect words toward a senior worker

The floor has its own titles, and using them correctly is the cheapest respect you can pay. A senpai is anyone who joined before you; a shidōin is the instructor assigned to you; a hanchō leads a team; above that sit the shunin, the kakarichō, and the kachō, and you will hear all of them addressed by title alone. Use the family name plus san for colleagues, the title alone for leaders, and never your own san. The senior's reply to your thanks is often a brisk ii yo, and that is not coldness; it is how a senior accepts thanks on a line.

Teach yourself to hear plain-form instructions without flinching. Yatte, motte kite, and mite are how a senior speaks to a junior he trusts, and answering them with a polite hai, yarimasu is exactly the register the floor expects.

The programme, and a first-month speaking plan

Technical intern training and the newer specified-skills routes both bring skilled workers to Japanese factories, and both usually involve a supervising or support organisation, a set contract period, and a Japanese language requirement at some stage. The details change, and they differ by sector, so confirm the current rules, your rights, and who to call in a problem with your supervising organisation or employer rather than with a forum. What does not change is the language of the shift, and the plan below gets ahead of it before the line teaches it to you by embarrassment.

• Week one: the fifteen safety words and the KY replies, said at full volume with the pointing gesture, until they need no thought
• Week two: the machine and process table said aloud as you touch each object, plus one repeated-back instruction every day
• Week three: three defect reports and three machine reports rehearsed in the where, what, touched-or-not order
• Week four: the break, shift, and dormitory phrases used for real, then a recording of yourself checked for volume and clarity