In this lesson
Everything in this lesson is a fixed phrase. There is no grammar to learn and nothing to analyze — you memorize each chunk whole, the way you memorized “thank you” as a child, long before you could parse it. These seventeen chunks are the social glue of Japanese: they open interactions, close them, smooth over bumps, and — most importantly — rescue you when you don’t understand what someone just said.
By the end of this lesson you can:
- open any interaction with sumimasen and close it with arigatou gozaimasu,
- greet anyone correctly at any time of day,
- accept or decline anything offered to you, politely,
- and recover from any reply you didn’t catch — without freezing, and without embarrassment.
That last one is the real skill. Every question you ask in Japan invites an answer at full native speed. The repair kit in this lesson is what makes the rest of the course usable in the field.
As always: play every phrase before reading it, repeat it aloud, then tap to check the meaning.
Chunks: sumimasen — the master key
If you learn one word in this course, it’s this one.
sumimasen does three jobs. (1) Excuse me — before approaching a stranger, squeezing past someone, or getting attention. (2) Sorry — for small social friction: blocking an aisle, taking someone’s time. (3) Thank you for the trouble — when someone goes out of their way for you. When in doubt, sumimasen is almost never wrong.
Said louder and across a room, it summons staff. This feels rude to English speakers — it isn’t. It’s the correct way to get service in Japan (more in Lesson 5).
Every interaction you will ever have as a traveler starts with this word. It licenses the interruption; it marks you as polite before you’ve said anything else.
Chunks: greetings for every hour
ohayou gozaimasu — good morning, until mid-morning.
Konnichiwa.
konnichiwa — the daytime default, through the afternoon.
Konbanwa.
konbanwa — after dark. Three greetings cover the whole day, and nobody will mind if your switchover time is off by an hour.
sayounara is a real goodbye — leaving your hosts, parting from someone you spent the day with. Leaving a shop or restaurant, you don’t need it: arigatou gozaimasu on the way out does the job.
Chunks: thank you & sorry
arigatou gozaimasu — always the full five-word-feeling chunk, never a clipped “arigatou.” The short form is casual register, and this course never gambles on register: the full form is correct with everyone, everywhere.
gomennasai is the personal apology — you stepped on a foot, knocked something over, made an actual mistake. For mere social friction (interrupting, squeezing past), sumimasen is the better fit.
Chunks: yes, no, I’m fine
hai is yes — crisp and frequent. (Careful: when a Japanese listener says hai, hai while you are talking, it doesn’t mean yes — see “How to behave” below.)
Iie.
iie is no — said softly, often with a small wave of the hand.
daijoubu desu is the traveler’s Swiss-army answer: I’m fine, it’s okay, no harm done — and, crucially, the polite no thank you when offered something you don’t want.
Chunks: the hand-off
douzo offers and yields: handing something over, holding a door, waving someone ahead.
Doumo.
doumo is the light thanks that answers douzo. Together they make the smallest complete exchange in Japanese — someone hands you your change, douzo; you take it, doumo. You’ll hear this hand-off a hundred times a day.
Chunks: the all-purpose please
onegaishimasu turns a point into a polite request. Point at a pastry in the case — onegaishimasu. Hand a taxi driver a written address — onegaishimasu. Slide your passport across the hotel desk — onegaishimasu. On its own it means “please take care of this”; later lessons put words in front of it, but bare + pointing already covers an enormous amount of ground.
Chunks: the repair kit
Here is the technique that makes this whole course work: the instant you lose the thread of what someone said, deploy a repair chunk — immediately, cheerfully, and without a flicker of embarrassment. Freezing is a dropped exchange; repairing is a working conversation. For a traveler, deploying repair instantly is fluency.
wakarimasen — the honest reset button. Said with a smile, it invites the other person to try another way (slower, simpler, gestures).
The kit is a ladder, and this is rung one. Didn’t catch it? Mou ichido onegaishimasu — hear it again.
Yukkuri onegaishimasu.
Rung two. Still too fast? Yukkuri onegaishimasu — slower this time.
Kaite kudasai.
Rung three. Still lost — or is it a number, a time, a name? Kaite kudasai — get it in writing. Numbers and times written on a receipt or a palm need no Japanese at all.
Drill these until they come out faster than the panic does. Every lesson from here on includes one exchange that is deliberately too fast for you — because the correct answer to it is one of these four chunks, not a translation.
Chunks that snap together
The chunks combine, and two combinations are so useful they’re worth drilling as units — between them they answer nearly every yes/no offer you’ll get in Japan:
The accept half of the pair. A bag? A receipt? Shall I heat it up? Whatever was just offered, this takes it.
Iie, daijoubu desu.
The decline half — waves the offer off, politely. Between them, this pair answers nearly every yes/no offer in Japan; you’ll use it constantly from Lesson 3 onward.
Hai, douzo grants a request or hands something over.
Sumimasen. Onegaishimasu.
Sumimasen + onegaishimasu — attention, then request — is already a complete transaction when paired with a point.
Dialog
Checking out of a small guesthouse in the morning. You hand back the room key, collect your passport, and manage to bump the host’s foot with your suitcase on the way out. Nine of this lesson’s chunks, one complete interaction — listen to the whole thing cold first, then go line by line.
Ohayou gozaimasu. Ohayou gozaimasu. Sumimasen. Douzo. Doumo. Hai, douzo. Arigatou gozaimasu. Gomennasai! Daijoubu desu. Sayounara. Sayounara.Repair drill
You ask a station attendant about your train (never mind how — pointing at your ticket works). His answer is at full native speed, and you are not expected to understand it. That’s the drill: notice the thread is lost, and deploy the kit — instantly, pleasantly.
Tsugi no densha wa juu-ji ni-juppun hatsu, ni-ban-sen kara desu. Sumimasen. Mou ichido onegaishimasu. Tsugi no densha wa juu-ji ni-juppun hatsu, ni-ban-sen kara desu. Sumimasen. Kaite kudasai.He writes 10:20 — ② on a slip of paper. You point at it, he nods — hai — and you’re done: arigatou gozaimasu. No translation happened, and none was needed. Asking twice and then asking for writing is not failure — it’s the standard operating procedure this course is built on.
How to behave: thanks, bows and hai
- No tipping — ever, anywhere. Leaving money causes genuine confusion; staff will chase you down the street to return it. Your verbal thanks — a clear arigatou gozaimasu — is the tip.
- Bowing: a small nod is plenty. Return a bow with a slight nod of the head and shoulders. Don’t escalate into a deeper bow — that triggers a politeness loop neither of you can win. Nod, smile, done.
- hai means “I’m listening,” not “I agree.” While you’re speaking, a Japanese listener will often say hai, hai — that’s aizuchi, the sound of paying attention. Don’t stop talking, and don’t count it as a yes.
Checkpoint
Can you, right now, out loud:
- open an interaction with a stranger? (sumimasen)
- close one warmly? (arigatou gozaimasu — the full chunk)
- greet someone this morning, this afternoon, and tonight?
- hand something over, and thank someone who hands you something? (douzo / doumo)
- accept an offer — and decline one politely? (hai, onegaishimasu / iie, daijoubu desu)
- apologize for stepping on a foot? (gomennasai)
- recover from an answer you didn’t catch — three ways, without freezing? (the repair kit)
If any box stayed empty, replay that section before moving on. Lesson 2 assumes every chunk here is automatic.
Vocabulary reference
All seventeen chunks in one place. This table is a reference, not the lesson — the chunks live in the sections above.
| # | Romaji | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sumimasen. | excuse me / sorry / thanks for the trouble | the master key — opens everything |
| 2 | Arigatou gozaimasu. | thank you | always the full form — never bare “arigatou” |
| 3 | Gomennasai. | I’m sorry | personal apology — bumps, mistakes |
| 4 | Hai. | yes | as aizuchi: “I’m listening,” not “I agree” |
| 5 | Iie. | no | soft; often paired with daijoubu desu |
| 6 | Daijoubu desu. | I’m fine / it’s okay | also the polite “no thank you” |
| 7 | Douzo. | go ahead / here you are | offering and yielding |
| 8 | Doumo. | thanks (light) | the reflex answer to douzo |
| 9 | Ohayou gozaimasu. | good morning | until mid-morning |
| 10 | Konnichiwa. | hello / good day | daytime default |
| 11 | Konbanwa. | good evening | after dark |
| 12 | Sayounara. | goodbye | real partings — not needed leaving shops |
| 13 | Wakarimasen. | I don’t understand | the honest reset button |
| 14 | Mou ichido onegaishimasu. | once more, please | repair kit, rung 1 |
| 15 | Yukkuri onegaishimasu. | slowly, please | repair kit, rung 2 |
| 16 | Kaite kudasai. | please write it down | repair kit, rung 3 — numbers, times, names |
| 17 | Onegaishimasu. | please (all-purpose request) | point + onegaishimasu = complete request |
Anki deck
Drill this lesson’s audio anywhere: download the Lesson 1 Anki deck.