Learn about saying goodbye
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| Now that we’ve covered basic readings, today we will introduce ways to say goodbye because obviously you don’t want to just walk away after a conversation. You want to end it, wrap it up. Okay so a basic way to say goodbye that can be used for all occasions is Sayōnara. Sayōnara which literally just means goodbye. Now I know that in English, we often pronounce it was Sayonara but in Japanese, there is really no strong intonation. It’s just flat Sayōnara. Sayōnara with no strong intonation. |
| Now Sayōnara is fairly polite. So you can use it for all occasions and for people of all ages, social status, what not. Now let’s break it down by syllable. Sa-yo-u-na-ra. Sayōnara and the more casual way to say goodbye is bye, bye or Jāne but this is used only amongst close friends. It would be considered really rude if you use it on someone significantly older than you. So be careful and when I say older, I mean even if the person is just a few years older, it could be considered rude depending on the relationship. For example, when I get to know an older colleague enough to joke around with them, I would still use honorific form or the polite form. I would never say Jāne or bye, bye to an older colleague or a mentor for that sake and for business settings neither Sayōnara or bye, bye is acceptable. |
| The best thing to say is Shitsurei shimasu. Shitsurei shimasu. which could be translated as please allow me to excuse myself and when you say this, don’t forget to bow. A more formal way to say this would be Shitsurei itashi masu. Shi-tsu-re-i-i-ta-shi-ma-su. Shiturei itashi masu. For example, with colleagues, you could say Shitsurei shimasu. but to a company president or a corporate client, you would say Shitsurei itashi masu. which is a grade higher. So it all depends on the relationship and the situation and today’s Sachiko secret is about my favorite topic Talking on the phone. |
| We will go over how to start and end a phone conversation. Now the first thing you say when picking up the phone is Moshi moshi. Mo-shi-mo-shi. Moshi moshi. Now in modern day Japan, we only use it for that one purpose to say hello on the phone only when you are picking up the phone would you say this but this is actually short for the term Mōshi masu. Mōshi masu which is a polite way of saying I am about to speak or I am speaking. When they first invented telephones, I guess they were saying Mōshi masu, Mōshi masu just as a way of testing the phone or just making sure that the person on the other line can hear you but that got shortened from Mōshi masu, Mōshi masu to Moshi moshi which is much easier to say. |
| So when the phone rings, you can say Moshi moshi or just say Hai which means yes and after a nice long conversation, you can use the phrases we learned today to wrap up. Typically you would recap the next time you will see or talk to that person such as So I will see you Sunday. Then put a question Jā or Dewa. Then say goodbye either in the polite form or the casual form depending on who you are talking to. So to put all this together for example the casual way would be Jāne or bye, bye and the polite way would be Dewa shitsurei itashi masu or Dewa shitsurei shimasu. So to put all this together after the long conversation, recap when you will see that person again. I will see you Sunday Jā shitsurei itashi masu or Jā bye, bye. Now you are ready to pick up the phone and have a conversation. |
| Okay so to close our today’s lesson, let’s practice what you’ve just learned. I will give you the English equivalent of the phrase and you are responsible for shouting it out loud in Japanese. You got that. I will give you a few seconds before I give you the answer. So good luck Ganbatte kudasai. The most common and useful way of saying goodbye Sayōnara Sa-yo-u-na-ra. Sayōnara. The two casual ways of saying goodbye. Bye bye, Jāne, bye bye, Ba-i-ba-i or Jāne Ja-a-ne Jāne and for business settings, we have two ways of saying goodbye. The first one, the simpler one is Shitsurei shimasu. Shi-tsu-re-i-shi-ma-su. Shitsurei shimasu and the more formal way of saying it is Shitsurei itashi masu. Shi-tsu-re-i-i-ta-shi-ma-su. Shiturei itashi masu. All right. That’s going to do it for today. See you later which in Japanese is Matane. |
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