37 Must-Know Japanese Expressions You Won't Find In Your Textbook

This article is written by one of the language teachers at italki                                                      Image by Yoshikazu TAKADA (CC BY 2.0)

There are some phrases that are hard to translate into a foreign language. You may find some of them in Japanese as well.

“How do you say… in Japanese?”

I often see questions like that on italki. Same here, I sometimes cannot find better words to describe what I want to say when I speak English.

The phrases below cannot be translated literally or directly in the way we hear or say them. All of them are informal and some are slang. Therefore, it is important to only say them to those who are close to you. The reason I am introducing these casual expressions is because you may not to find them in your textbook, yet they are widely used. I hope this helps answer some of your questions. Have fun!

* We do not say きをつけて when writing letters. We say that only the situation on the street when we say “bye”. In letters, we say just じゃあね as in “see you” or じゃあまた as in “see you again”.

Now, I will tell you some Japanese expressions translated into English. We have some phrases that English speakers never say.

Let me write some down for you. 

 * (this is the hardest to translate for me. For example, if there is just a subtle difference or doubtfulness, you can say this) 

Please leave any requests on how to say a particular word or phrase in Japanese, and I will do my best to answer them.

Just please remember that some phrases may be difficult to translate. So the most important thing, I suppose, is to start thinking in the language that you have been learning, and get a feel for it.