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Daily lessons · Day 20 of 90

Feelings and small talk

Answer 'how are you' with more than 'fine'

Someone asks how you are and you say げんきです, and the conversation stops. Today gives you a wider range of answers, the vocabulary for how you actually feel, and the two small sentence endings that make small talk feel like a conversation rather than an exchange of statements.

Beyond げんきです

Real answers to おげんきですか:

genki desu.
I'm well.
The standard answer. Fine, but it ends the exchange.
māmā desu.
So-so.
Honest and very common. Invites a follow-up.
chotto tsukarete imasu.
I'm a bit tired.
つかれています, from つかれます. ちょっと softens it.
isogashii desu.
I'm busy.
An い-adjective, from day 15. The universal Japanese answer.
Why it works

Note that おげんきですか is not the everyday greeting English speakers assume it to be. It is asked of someone you have not seen for a while, not someone you saw yesterday. Asking a colleague おげんきですか every morning is slightly odd. おはようございます on its own is the normal thing.

ね and よ

Two characters that change the temperature of a sentence:

ii tenki desu ne.
Nice weather, isn't it.
ね invites agreement. It assumes you both see the same thing.
kore wa oishii desu yo.
This is delicious, you know.
よ adds something the listener does not know.
sō desu ne.
That's true. / Let me think.
Agreement, and also a way of buying a moment.
sō desu ka.
Is that so.
Receiving new information. Not a real question.
Why it works

ね and よ are close to the difference between shared and new. ね says we both know this; よ says I am telling you this. Getting them the wrong way round is not a grammatical error but it lands oddly: いい てんきですよ, told to someone standing next to you in the sunshine, sounds like you are informing them of the weather.

Keeping it going

Small talk in Japanese is more about reacting than about producing:

hē, sō desu ka.
Oh really.
へえ is a genuine reaction sound. Use it.
hontō desu ka.
Really?
Interest, not doubt.
naruhodo.
I see. / That makes sense.
For when something has just been explained.
ii desu ne.
That's nice.
From day 13, and useful far beyond invitations.
Why it works

These are あいづち, the short reactions a listener makes to show they are still there. Japanese conversation expects far more of them than English does, and their absence reads as boredom rather than politeness. If you take nothing else from today, take that listening in Japanese is an active job, and a well-placed そうですか does more for a conversation than a correct sentence.

Carry over, from earlier days

māmā desu.
So-so.
chotto tsukarete imasu.
I'm a bit tired.
ii tenki desu ne.
Nice weather, isn't it.
naruhodo.
I see.

Check yourself

8 questions. Nothing is saved unless you finish.