Japanese Greetings

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

How to pronounce Japanese greetings

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 “Ohayō gozaimasu,” “Konnichiwa,” or “Konbanwa” depending on the time of the day.

Bows can be divided into informal-15 degree angle, formal-30 degree angle, and very formal, deeper angle bows. You are expected 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, “Konnichiwa,” and bow five times!

Informal Japanese Greetings

Nowadays it is quite common to use short greetings, like “yā” and “yō,” however, it is more common to say nothing between close friends. They just start talking without greetings. Listen to the link below to hear some informal Japanese greetings…

Regional Japanese Greetings

There are some greetings that you will only hear in certain regions.

Saying Goodbye

You have probably heard “Sayōnara” before, which is the most common form of saying “Good-bye.” You may have also heard “Shitsurei shimasu,” another formal farewell phrase which translates literally to “I’m being rude by leaving your presence.”

Casual Farewells

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.

Jā matta!

Sayaka Matsuura: Rocket Japanese