So I’m on vacation in Hawaii, and I figured I’d try out my beginner’s 日本語 on the many Japanese people staying at my hotel. I’ve been studying at home for about nine months, but my focus has primarily been on learning to read. But suddenly I find myself surrounded with real live Japanese folks! Woo! A golden opportunity to practice!

It’s been interesting. I've actually managed to have a few reasonable conversations. It's the opposite of my experience with Spanish: in Japanese, I can understand much of what they say back to me, but danged if I can't say the simplest thing when I'm under pressure. (In Spanish, I can always spit out something, but danged if I can't understand the rapid-fire responses I get.)

Anyway, I have had some embarrassing moments. Here are some examples. Do feel free to comment on my inept grammar and usage.

Day one. A Japanese family plops down right next to me at the プール。Score! I bravely introduce myself.

Me: 日本人ですか？
Bemused Japanese vacationer：　はい！　
Me: 日本語を勉強します！
Bemused Japanese vacationer：凄い！素晴らしい！ どうして？
Me: (speechless).

Day two. I notice that one of the concierges has a Japanese name. Woo! I bravely introduce myself.

Me: 日本語を勉強します！
Concierge (pausing and looking at me with something like pity): 難しい、ですね？
Me: (again at a loss for words. At last I spit out はい、難しいですよ。
Concierge (in English): Will there be anything else?

Day three. I see a Japanese family in the omelette line. I address the nearest one, a kid around age 10 or so.

Me: おはようございます！
Unimpressed Japanese kid (in English): “What?”

Day four. I’m at lunch, and my lunch partners scoot, leaving me alone. At the next table, two middle-aged Asian women are chatting and laughing, and I’m convinced I hear them speaking Japanese. One pauses and looks over at me and smiles. My big chance!

Me: こんにちわ！
Friendly lunching tourist (smiling politely): What’s that?
Me: Erm, I said hello in Japanese. Where are you from?
Friendly lunching tourist: Korea.

Day five. I meet a Japanese mom in the hot tub, speaking only briefly. Later, we meet again in the swimming pool, where the water is (in my opinion) way too warm, because of the hot late afternoon sun. She and her daughter are romping in the water, and she seems genuinely interested in helping me practice my Japanese. I actually manage to carry on a reasonable conversation about the pool, the weather, Hawaii, and where we’re each from. (She is from Niigata.) Then I try to make more conversation.

Me: 娘はよく泳ぎますですね.
Polite Japanese mom: (something very fast, ending with プールが大好きです。
Me (haltingly): Er, プールの水は温かい、ですね？
Polite Japanese mom: …
Me (flustered): Er, プールは暑いですね？
Polite Japanese mom (looking at me doubtfully): そうですね。
Me (unable to conjure up a single Japanese word): Well, uh, nice to meet you.
Polite Japanese mom: Nice to meet you too. さようなら。

Day six. Japanese guy stops right in front of me as I sit on my pool chair. I conspicuously brandish my Japanese-language “Kyoda Times”, hoping he’ll inquire about my love for Japanese. Instead he looks over me and addresses a pool attendant in lightly accented English. “Can I get a setup over here for 4 people?”, he says.

Day seven. In the hot tub, I find myself next to an exotic-looking middle-aged woman, and I’m sure she’s Japanese. I finally work up the courage to speak to her, but this time in English.

Me: Where are you from?
Exotic middle-aged woman: El Salvador.

I genuinely enjoyed reading this and laughed aloud a few times. Hopefully your stay in Hawaii was pleasant apart from those incidents...

I admire your bravery, I definitely couldn't make myself to chat with a random Japanese person, not at my current level. My loss I guess.

You're definitely braver than I am

Wow, You have failed so much and kept on, no doubt you will be a great contact maker with the japanese. I think the problem is that your japanese is not good enough yet. If you knew more japanese then I think that instead of talking about weather and pool water, you would talk about, for example, the differences between japan and hawaii, or the stuff that happens in the world, but as you are not yet in the confort zone, it's hard to get out of a peculiar situation. Perhaps talking to the japanese in english first would help you get more contact with other people, and then maybe you can talk with them a little bit in japanese too.

If you are in Oahu, get away from there! You will never experience the real Hawaii on that island. Go to Kauai or Maui and find some hippie to show you the heavenly spots hidden away from even those born in Hawaii.

Lol. This reminded me of my first week in Japan.

Haha, bodhisamaya, if you're ever back in Hawai'i let us know in advance..

Loved reading these stories. I've had similar experiences when trying to practice Japanese here in NY. がんばってよ！

oregum Wrote:Lol. This reminded me of my first week in Japan.

So you were already good on your second week? Tell us your secret

Thanks for sharing, that was hilarious. You are damn brave!

I only run into Japanese people on the train (and they're always reading) so I tend to keep my head down. Now I can imagine what it will be like to actually converse with them!

LoL, I'm glad you guys enjoyed my stories. For the record, I am on the Big Island of Hawaii, not Oahu; I come here every year. And yes, my Japanese is not good enough to carry on a particularly interesting conversation. I do need to find a conversation buddy back home.

Nonetheless, I'm glad I tried; it really is true that you learn a lot from your mistakes. After every conversation, I went back to my dictionary and pondered what I could have said differently, or I looked up a word the speaker had said back to me.

I have a couple more funny stories to share, but we're checking out today, so I may not get to it for another day or so.

bodhisamaya Wrote:If you are in Oahu, get away from there! You will never experience the real Hawaii on that island. Go to Kauai or Maui and find some hippie to show you the heavenly spots hidden away from even those born in Hawaii.

Or just bypass the overcrowded, overpriced, and overhyped Hawaiian islands, and make your way to the Philippines or Indonesia! When going to these countries, if you plan your trip right, you'll probably spend more on your plane ticket than the rest of your vacation.

Last time I went to the Philippines, I stayed at my uncle's house, which is walking distance from the beach and is in a small town of just a few hundred people. When I went to the beach with my brother and two cousins, we were the only people there. Nothing is quite like relaxing on a beautiful, yet deserted, beach that stretches as far as the eye can see. Highly recommended.

I also do recommend the Philippines (Get away from Manilla though). The Visayan islands are wonderful!
Though Hawaii is only over-priced and over-hyped if need typical boring tourist comfort. A camping permit in Kauai is $3 per day (hostels are $25/night) and hitch-hiking is very safe and common. There is a farmer's market somewhere on the island everyday where you can buy fresh fruits and vegetables fairly cheap, if you don't know where to pick them growing wild for free. It's is really impossible to over-hype Hawaii if you know how to experience it to it's fullest.

I feel like I've had these exact conversations, only instead of speaking in Japanese, I spoke in English. And instead of having the objective of learning Japanese, my objective was to hit on the girls.

Great stuff - definitely made me laugh.

I had it happen at the bus stop the other day. A man and woman were standing about 8 feet away from me where I sat waiting for the bus. It was really loud with all the traffic going by, but from the little slices I heard, I thought it likely they were speaking Japanese. My heart was racing as I worked up the courage to try to talk to them. After awhile they stopped talking to each other for a comfortable enough time for me to make my move -

Me: ”すみません,日本人ですか？”
Man:"Huh?"
Me:"Uh...are you Japanese by chance?"
Man:"Oh no I'm Korean."

Ooops! But he was really nice, and I chatted with him for a few minutes in English.
I could've sworn I heard patterns that sounded like Japanese, but with the traffic it was hard to hear anything. And I have really no familiarity with how Korean sounds.

On a semi related note-
One time I was at the club, and all night long I kept seeing these three smokin' Asian girls. I'm super shy about approaching women, but many times I noticed them in my area, and I thought maybe they were interested in me. I finally worked up the courage to go talk to them, but they were about to walk out the door. So I stepped over to them and said Hi, and started talking to them for a few minuets. Things were going ok, but then I made a monster mistake -

Me - "Are you exchange students?"
Girl - (instantly enraged)"I'm from here!!!"

バカ！Learned my lesson there. She was maybe a bit stuck up - I mean yeah it was pretty dumb on my part, but she kinda overreacted. I just wanted to find out if they were Japanese, as I was just starting to learn the language, but that was not the way to do it. So ever since then I've tried to be carful about how I approach the subject. Live and learn.

Groot, you definitely have the right attitude and the necessary bravery to learn quickly. You'll go far with Japanese.

vileru Wrote:

bodhisamaya Wrote:If you are in Oahu, get away from there! You will never experience the real Hawaii on that island. Go to Kauai or Maui and find some hippie to show you the heavenly spots hidden away from even those born in Hawaii.

Or just bypass the overcrowded, overpriced, and overhyped Hawaiian islands, and make your way to the Philippines or Indonesia! When going to these countries, if you plan your trip right, you'll probably spend more on your plane ticket than the rest of your vacation.

Last time I went to the Philippines, I stayed at my uncle's house, which is walking distance from the beach and is in a small town of just a few hundred people. When I went to the beach with my brother and two cousins, we were the only people there. Nothing is quite like relaxing on a beautiful, yet deserted, beach that stretches as far as the eye can see. Highly recommended.

Nah, come to Cheung Chau a small island 50 minutes by slow ferry and 30 minutes by fast ferry from Hong Kong. I live only 100 meters from the beach. ごろごろしれいる

Groot Wrote:Day five. I meet a Japanese mom in the hot tub,

The "I meet a hot japanese mom in the tub" would've been much more interesting to read

What a great read! I admire your courage to approach these people and practice your Japanese. I think that's amazing

And yeah, I've mistaken Japanese for Korean and Korean for Japanese sometimes. That's coming from me, someone whose heritage language is Korean. But it's always been when hearing conditions were quite less than ideal. Still, the similarities are there.

It's pretty easy for me to tell Koreans and Chinese from Japanese people just by their fashion and behavior, unless they are second generation etc.

Jarvik7 Wrote:It's pretty easy for me to tell Koreans and Chinese from Japanese people just by their fashion and behavior, unless they are second generation etc.

Agreed. Especially after living in Japan.

Last time I went on a vacation to Korea I got asked by like 10 people whether or not I was Chinese -_-

Yeah, my husband gets mistaken for Korean by other Asians a lot.

Aijin Wrote:Last time I went on a vacation to Korea I got asked by like 10 people whether or not I was Chinese -_-

Wait, you are not Chinese? :o