Learning Colloquial Japanese

Does anyone know of a good book for learning colloquial Japanese? Or any other study tips?

I already have 'Making Out in Japanese' and other books that teach the more polite (mas) form, but would like a book that gives me more structure and useful for day to day language. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I don`t know of any books that teacher coloquial Japanese because every area has there own dialect. Which areas coloquial terms to you want to learn. Osaka-ben, Mikawa-ben or the entirely different language up in Hokuriku? I suggest moving to the area of the dialect you want to learn. But I`ll give you a head start.
Dou suge jan! - "Far out bra" in Mikawa-ben

I believe that if you progress to some level, the "-ru" form (the casual form) will DEFINITELY appear, because to form certain structures you NEED the other form.

But in the beginning, all books give "...masu" form because that's what people would be using a lot, and also because this way the sentence structures are easier to introduce. With the basics in place, you'll learn the colloquial form as soon as you come to Japan or start attempting to talk with Japanese-speaking friends.

Thanks for your help. I do agree that you need the -mas form, but as a rule I find they do use the -ru form. At this stage I just really want to get by and chat casually with friends, I'm living in Okinawa now, but rather than dialect as such I was hoping to learn more of the -ru form.

I find that as a beginner the -mas form to the -ru forms differ quite a bit and they generally don't cover the -ru form until quite advanced stages. I just find that I'm trying to figure it out myself and thought that there must be a book that could help! Thanks for your advice all the same!

I thought you must be talking about the "...ru" form... yes a colleague of mine learning Japanese said he was just getting into this form in Chapter 15, 17? of Book 2 of a certain textbook series, I know it shows up pretty later in regular lessons.

It might be an idea to find a textbook with a good index at the back... I was checking a few textbooks I have at hand, and it is true I find the index lists only the "mas(u)" form or "ru" form, and none of them together. Let me look around if there is a textbook that has a useful index or a simple dictionary :)

Hey! I do face the same problems! I have being attending Japanese classes for almos 1 year - and I've already reached intermediate level, as I had some knowledgment of the language - but even so I hadn't learn so much of day to day forms. I ask teachers to teach us so and they say "Mazu, doushi -masu oboemasen kereba, narimasen!". They say that learning that first, it will be easy to learn colloquial forms. But the problem is: I just can't read simple texts like children's manga! I know the ru forms, but Japanese use forms like "iku no ka", "ikanakucha", "arau no yo", and I have no idea what those mean for, neither know some book or site that teach it... will I have to figure out by hearing people saying? I do not think they will teach it at school -they want us to be the most polite as posible. tsc tsc. If somebody can help me, pls, mail me!

By the way, my mail is brunoaragaki@yahoo.com.ar! Doumo Arigatou!

I understand your frustration, but to some extent there is no way around it.

Even though you say "day to day form," I'd say in a grownup world, more than half the time people use the "-masu" and the politer form. The way I take it is that reading manga and watching TV programs in Japanese are the means to acquire additional info. about and usage of Japanese, where you can pick up some expressions and try those out with friends. So while classes teach regular form, and the students, if needed, learning from supplemental means "familiar forms" would work out fine together I thought.

Another thing is that it is true that those "familiar" expressions are difficult to teach in a class, or actually unsuited to be taught in class, because those expressions really vary widely depending on whether the speaker is male or female, and depending on the closeness between the speakers, ages, social background/status, among other factors. So the logic of the teachers would be that what the individual students need will be picked up along the way by the students themselves engaging in real-life conversations when they get to use Japanese language.

And I must say the teacher is probably right in saying "Mazu, doushi -masu oboemasen kereba, narimasen!" It should be "mazu, doushi no -masu fomu o oboenakereba narimasen! :)

By the way, the expression "ikanakucha" comes from "ikanakute wa (narimasen)," another expression for saying "ikanakereba (narimasen)." So
they all are connected. No single form exists unrelated to others. :)

If you want to ask about specific expressions, I'll be glad to answer on this forum to the extent I can.
"iku no ka" sounds like a man's speech, asking "are you going?"
"arau no yo" sounds like a woman7s speech, "you've got to wash (it)"

Outrageous Japanese: Slang, Curses & Epithets http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0804816948/serialexperilain/

Beyond Polite Japanese: A Dictionary of Japanese Slang and Colloquialisms
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/4770027737/serialexperilain/

I am surprised that no one mentioned music! :P

Well some1 might have but my word search doesnt think so and I dont want to read this thread.

Good luck.

Hey, AKsan, doumo arigatou gozaimashita ne! I'll surely ask you the meaning of some expressions I find! I do agree with some things you say, like the students themselves have got to acquire the expressions they need on their day-to-day life. But on the other hand, if we are not taught such expressions, in some occasions we will be not able to understand what is beeing said in some occasions. That's why I "ganbaru" (I don't know how to say that in English. English is not my mother tongue as well!) learning manga, listening to japanese music and other stuff that could give me "input" in Japanese culture and language - two very really close connected aspects of Japanese life! I must emphatize I don't live in Japan. That makes even harder to acquire those "day-to-day forms"! Dakara kotoshi Nihon e iku tsumori desu. (pls, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!)
Ja, mata!
brunoaragaki@yahoo.com.ar

Thanks for all your help. I have been watching more videos (with subtitles) recently, I find that really helps. If you're serious about your studies I think its essential to know all forms, but to speak a few phrases casually there really isn't much out there - even something so simple as ''Where are you from?'' is said so differently than in any of the books. I've never had anyone say to me ''O-kuni wa nan des ka?''... Making out for Japanese seems to be the only book I've found that has those usual expressions, yet doesn't give the grammar explanation.


I just don't understand why someone wouldn't have written something already, it seems to be a common problem that alot of people I know face.
I guess it's really just like the Japanese learning English from Japanese textbooks - ''I'm Fine, And you?'' ''How do you do'', ''May I...''

There are really no books that I know of that teach colloquial Japanese. Additionally, when Japanese people tour other parts of their nation they often take a colloquial “dictionary” along for the particular region that they are visiting.

I find this subject somewhat humorous because I learned Japanese when I was going to high school in Okazaki city. Almost everyone in Okazaki speaks Mikawa-ben and I never noticed until recently. Now, that I am take Japanese in college for an easy "A". My Teacher is always circling my answers in green because they are all grammatically correct, however, they are all in the Mikawa dialect.

Furthermore, this may sound like a weird thing to say but the best way to learn a dialect is to get a girlfriend or boyfriend that speaks that dialect...because then you will have motivation and a practice partner among other things.

Hey, Will, I must be going about it the wrong way then. I am trying to learn Japanese to get a Japanese girlfriend!

I find the best way to learn is to talk to friends. That said, I never learnt Japanese properly at highschool (though I am taking classes) but tons of Japanese go to my uni, so I tend to speak casually more often than formally!
That said, casual form does depend.
For instance, instead of ikanakucha, I often say 'ikanakya' which is from 'ikanakyanaranai' or 'ikanakerebanarimasen'. It sort-of gets shortened and shortened.

Haven't you learnt plain and polite japanese in school? Like, the dictionary form and the polite form? The dictionary form is generally what you use when speaking in plain form (e.g. ikimasu - iku). Another thing you'll generally pick up just by talking to friends is that particles aren't always necessary. When saying 'doko ni ikimasuka' I generally just say 'doko iku?'. If you need it for the sentence to make sense, include it. if not, it can often be omitted. However, i wouldn't start doing that until you've talked to people enough that it seems natural to omit it.

The other thing is, if you speak polite japanese to people, chances are they'll respond that way. Try telling them you'd like to learn casual japanese, so they know to use it with you, and that you don't want them to be polite?

Anyway, any questions, feel free to ask ^^; Unfortunately, I know casual japanese way better than I know polite Japanese - and I'm going on an exchange soon, so I'm studing my polite japanese hard! :P

If you have any questions though, my email's Liekun@gmail.com

Gambatte ne!

try this website.it starts off with the basics and progresses to some very compplex grammar.it usually points out the casual and general usages of verbs.hope it helps!http://www.guidetojapanese.org/

I can recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Manga-Way-Illustrated-Struc...
"Japanese the Manga Way"
It covers grammar in both polite and casual style, and also shows male and female speach.

Hey,

Not sure if you're still checking this thread but there is a book called Colloquial Japanese available on Amazon.com.

I don't have any experience of the book so I can't say how good it is. Maybe worth checking out though.

Let me know how it is if you go for it.

N

Watch anime like Card Captor Sakura. The character Keroberos speaks Osaka-Ben. Another is Pekopeko-san. The entire anime is done in some form of Kanto-ben. I think Osaka from the sound of it. Or watch Japanese TV online if you can find it. Japanese comedians like Downtown tend to use the Osaka-Ben.

Please dont learn Japanese from anime people.. -.-
By that I mean, obviously once youve reached a certain level of proficiency, anime can be a good way to expand your vocab and stuff, but too many people memorize (mis)translated japanese they hear in anime and use it. Which results in a few things, including the extremely annoying anime kids that yell kawaii!! sugoi!! baka!! every 5 minutes and many more extremely annoying (mis)use of random Japanese. Please. If ur serious, get a book.

What DOES work imho = Skype. Once you have mastered enough Japanese to have a conversation (even if its only formal), start talking to japanese ppl on skype. Youll suck and itll be embarassing at first but youll be surprised how fast youll improve.