Braving Japan: 3 Ways to Make Japanese People Understand You

For many people, the scariest thing about being in a foreign country is not being able to communicate with the local people. Making oneself understood is not just a convenient way to buy a souvenir; in an emergency situation it could be important to ones health and safety. With this in mind, please allow me to dig into my 18 months of experience living in Japan, and present to you 5 ways to make Japanese people understand you.

Find an English Speaker

The best way to communicate with a Japanese person is to find one who speaks English. But how can I tell who speaks English you ask? The short answer is: you can't (with any certainty at least). But you can go to places where people are more likely to understand you. Here are a few of the best:

Large Hotels: American chains like Hilton and Hyatt might be the best, but any expensive hotel is likely to employ counter staff that understands English.

Tourist Information Booths: Most popular tourist towns have at least one booth or small office dedicated to helping guide visitors. The language skills of the employees can be hit or miss, but it is their job to assist you so they will go out of their way to help in anyway they can. Feel free to utilize the tips to follow with the information booth attendants if the need arises.

English Schools: I consider this a last resort, but in dire straits it's nearly a guarantee that branches of major English schools will have employees who can understand you. The biggest schools are Nova, ECC, Geos, and Aeon; and their signs are ubiquitous in major urban areas. If you're really lucky a foreign born English teacher may be between classes and have a minute to spare for you. But it is not these folks job to assist you, so please only try the schools if you are desperate for help or in some kind of emergency situation.

If you have tried to find someone who understands English and failed, then it's time to move on to the other ways of making yourself understood.

Modify Your English

It is estimated that there are over 10,000 English derived words in common use in Japan. If you are trying to express something relatively simple, there is a chance you can make yourself understood by simply modifying the way you say the word in question. Always speak slowly and clearly when trying to do this. Here are a couple tips when modifying your English.

-Japanese has 5 main vowel sounds: "ah" as in Acapulco, "eh" as in bed, "ee" as in sleep, "oh" as in go, and "ooh" as in cool. Changing the vowels in words your trying to say to match these vowels can sometimes do the trick. For Example: The painkiller Bufferin would be pronounced "Buh-fuh-reen", with the last syllable changing from "in" to "een".

-Japanese does not use consonant combinations. Each consonant is followed by a vowel sound, with the exception of "n" and "m" which sometimes appear alone. This means extra vowels are often needed to make English words understandable. For example: If you are looking for a cross necklace, saying "cross" may not be effective, but if you modify it to "ku-roh-su" you may make yourself understood.

To help you get a better idea for the Japanizing of English words, here are a few common examples.

Camera = "cah-meh-ruh"

New York = "Nu Yo-ku"

Baseball = "beh-soo-boh-ru"

If you can take the most important word you are tying to communicate, and modify it following these rules you have a chance of making yourself understood. This is not effective more than 50% of the time, but it is easy to try and saves lots of extra effort when it does work.

Write it Down

Though it is often difficult to believe, Japanese public school students study English for 7 years. Then why do I need all this help being understood you may ask? Well, that's a question for smarter people than I. What I can tell you is that a person who can't understand a single word you say to them may actually be able to read those same words if written down. This is somewhat counterintuitive, but if simple words are used it is astonishing how often they can be understood. This is one of several reasons it is wise to travel with a pen and pencil at all times.

These three methods of being understood are some of the most effective I have used in my time here. I hope that they will save you some difficulty in your travel, or maybe even encourage you to visit a country you might be worried about communicating in. For other tips on life and travel in Japan, check out my other articles.