LITMIR.BIZ

      Introduction

      So no one understands your Japanese? Worse yet, you don’t understand theirs. You’ve planned your Saturday night, spent a week studying one phrase, and you can’t wait to use it. You’re at a club, armed with the latest edition of Learn Japanese in 27-and-a-1/2-Minutes-a-Day for moral support, and you lay the phrase on that good-looking local. What happens? The response isn’t like in the book. Why?

      Basically, because the Japanese don’t play by the book when it comes to their daily language, just as Westerners don’t. So what can you do? Well, you could give up and decimate your chances of getting with anybody, or you could learn to speak real Japanese.

      Just as we speak in a relaxed, colloquial manner, so do the Japanese. On trains, in bars, during ball games, or when getting intimate with their partners, they all use shortcuts—it’s only natural! If you want to talk the way the Japanese do, then you need to know what to say, how to say it, and when to say it.

      And better still, you’ll need to know the cultural context it all happens in. We’ve built in lots of little morsels to help you paint a picture of the real Japan as you go along—this book will be your roadmap on the path to love and satisfaction in Japan! Right then? Okay, let’s go!

      INFORMATION

      It’s tricky to teach the proper pronunciation of a foreign language in a book, so we’re not going to try, hoping you’ve already got the basics. To help you out, though, we’ve joined two and sometimes three or four words together, to make compound words or phrases that are easier to pronounce. Most of them are hyphenated to highlight merged words, to emphasize the slang suffixes and particles, and to facilitate pronunciation and memorization.

      For example, the components of fuzakenaide-yo

      We’re sure that you’re familiar with the polite question forms des-ka

      Slang that is too faddish is not included in this book, because it comes and goes too quickly. If you use old slang, the reaction of your Japanese date will likely be, “He thinks he’s being cool but nobody says that anymore. Hah, hah!” So we’ve avoided hot slang—if it’s out of date people will think that you’re funny or square. But feel free to use what you pick up on the street.

      VARIATIONS

      The terms “boy” and “girl” are used throughout the book, but we’re definitely referring to the post-puberty phase here. To eliminate the embarrassing problem of boys using girls’ words or vice versa, we’ve indicated words suitable for use by girls and boys with the symbols ♀ and ♂ respectively. Words and phrases not marked can be used by both sexes, and (b g) means a boy should use it when talking to a girl. For example:

      Don’t be upset.