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Traveling to Tokyo with English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| i_forget Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5187 days ago 35 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Greek*, English, Spanish | Message 1 of 7 04 October 2014 at 1:23pm | IP Logged |
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So.... beginning of April 2015 I will be in Tokyo for almost a week! I don't know any Japanese
of course. Do the locals speak Enlgish? Will I be able to use the public transport system and get around easily? Should I learn any Japanese (don't really have time for this)? If someone has been there and done it let me know!!! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4434 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes  Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 2 of 7 04 October 2014 at 8:30pm | IP Logged |
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I was in Japan before in the 1980s when very few Japanese would travel abroad. Now you will find many who
attended universities in places like the US because of less competition and the costs are lower. In the major hotels in Tokyo or Osaka everybody at the front desk can speak English. You can ask your hotel for a transit map and plan out your trips accordingly. Subway stations, street signs have English versions underneath. If you are taking a taxi, it would be easier to ask someone at a hotel to write the names of places in Japanese & Chinese symbols on paper just in case. Tokyo is a poorly planned city that isn't laid-out in a grid like New York, San Fran., Calgary or Taipei so navigating on your own can be a challenge. I was visiting China recently. In a lot of remote places you may find the hotel staff can speak some English but not fluently. I didn't have problem with the chambermaid who told me I left a shirt on the couch before leaving. If you need to translate for everything, it's more time consuming unless you have a friend who can speak Japanese to travel with you. The other scenario would be a tour with an English guide. Edited by shk00design on 05 October 2014 at 2:47am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| i_forget Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5187 days ago 35 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Greek*, English, Spanish | Message 3 of 7 04 October 2014 at 11:53pm | IP Logged |
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yeah i watched videos on youtube and it seemed English friendly... let's see!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4324 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 4 of 7 05 October 2014 at 3:32am | IP Logged |
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If you're staying there for a week in three months, at least get basic notions of Japanese, like how to present yourself, ask where something is, how much something costs or (increibly important!) "what is this food made of?".
Yes, Tokyo's foreigner friendly in terms of having bilingual signs all over the place, but in my experience, relying in a Japanese person's English skills is a bit like playing Russian roulette. I also find that not knowing how to even ask how to get from point A to point B is a perfect way to get stuck in the extremely expensive tourist exclusive zone, and miss out on a more down to earth, less doctored Japan. The Japanese are generally very kind folk, but they're kinder still when they realize you're trying and that you don't want to put yourself above them. Even memorizing a simple "I'm sorry, my Japanese is very crude. Could we speak in English?*" will earn you a lot of points. Speaking from experience, when I was staying in Japan a few years ago for study, the fact that I spoke in Japanese (regardless of my level) got quite a few shopkeepers very excited, and some even threw in "omake" (something on the side, sometimes a gift, sometimes a discount) just because I'd made an effort. *"Sumimasen, nihongo wa sugoku heta nandesu. Eigo de hanashite kuremasenka?" 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| i_forget Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5187 days ago 35 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Greek*, English, Spanish | Message 5 of 7 05 October 2014 at 4:04am | IP Logged |
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https://www.langage.com/vocabulaire/learn_japanese.htm Even if i learned this by hurt, it
would make no sense not even to me saying those words! Seems like an alien language to me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lakeseayesno Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico thepolyglotist.com Joined 4324 days ago 280 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Japanese, Italian Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 6 of 7 05 October 2014 at 6:23pm | IP Logged |
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Let me get this straight: you come to a forum devoted to foreign language learning only to ask if foreigners are capable of speaking yours because you're too lazy to spend the following 90 days memorizing a few courtesy formulas?
... welp, none of my business if you are, is it. Have fun in Japan. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5371 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 7 of 7 06 October 2014 at 4:35pm | IP Logged |
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I was in Japan three times in the last 5 years.
The very first time I set foot there, I went to buy a train ticket to leave the airport and the clerk spoke no English. Later, I went to validate my train pass -- which only foreigners could buy -- again, no English. Gives you an idea of what you're up against. The Japanese are, nevertheless, extremely tolerant of non-Japanese-speaking foreigners, and English-language signs are common. However, this last visit (August 2014), I got a sense that knowledge of English in the public service industry had somewhat spread, perhaps because they are gearing up for the 2020 Olympics. But you are going to Japan and you want to make the most of it, so get cracking, buy a course and start studying. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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