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Greetings & meetings
How to greet people, introduce yourself, and handle the small rituals of a first meeting - the part of Japanese that makes the strongest first impression for the least effort.
Japanese rewards getting the opening right. Nail the greeting and the self-introduction and people relax immediately, even if the rest of your Japanese is shaky.
Greetings by time of day
Drop ございます from おはよう and it becomes casual - fine with friends, too familiar with a stranger or a boss. When unsure, keep ございます.
Introducing yourself
A natural self-introduction runs in this order:
＿＿と もうします is more polite than ＿＿です for names in formal settings. よろしく おねがいします has no clean English equivalent - treat it as the ribbon that ties off any introduction.
The polite exchanges after
おげんきですか isn't a throwaway “how are you?” - it implies you haven't met in a while, so don't use it with someone you just saw. For a stranger, the greeting alone is enough.
These phrases get built into real conversation in the90 day course. The first week needs no account.