Listen to the native speakers greeting each other, and then go ahead and practice saying each Japanese phrase aloud. Once you’re feeling confident with Japanese greetings you’ll learn some different ways to say goodbye in Japanese as well.
Resources for further reading:
- The time it takes to learn Japanese properly - Find out how to pronounce Japanese words properly
Common Japanese Greetings
Practice Your Pronunciation With Rocket Record
Greetings like “good morning” or “good afternoon” are incredibly important in Japanese. As the Japanese culture is more formal, going through the ritual of greeting another person is an important way of showing respect. Japanese tend to bow while saying おはよう ございます (ohayō gozaimasu) "good morning," こんにちは (konnichiwa) "hello," or こんばんは (konbanwa) "good evening."
Broadly speaking, bows can be divided into informal (around a 15 degree angle), formal (around a 30 degree angle), and very formal (a deeper angle bow). It's polite to greet every person individually, even if they’re in a group. That means that if you’re walking along the road and pass a group of five people, you’ll have to say こんにちは (konnichiwa) "hello" and bow five times!
Informal Japanese Greetings
When speaking to a close friend, it's common to use short greetings like やあ (yā) "hi" and よう (yō) "yo." Listen below to hear some informal Japanese greetings.
Regional Japanese Greetings
There are some greetings that you will only hear in certain regions. For example:
Saying Goodbye
You have probably heard さようなら (Sayōnara) "Goodbye" before, which is the most common way of saying goodbye. You may have also heard しつれい します (Shitsurei shimasu) "Goodbye" or "Excuse me," another formal farewell phrase which translates literally to “(I am) being rude."
Casual Farewells
Now let’s listen to some casual farewells.
That’s it for today’s lesson. Using different greetings will make you sound more fluent, so try to remember as many as you can.
If you want more lessons on Japanese salutations then I recommend that you check out the following:
- Japanese Salutations.
- Using polite Japanese words will help in your travels.
- Saying sorry in Japanese.
じゃあ また！ (Jā mata!) "See you later!"
Sayaka Matsuura: Rocket Japanese