Tip: NEVER use google translate for Japanese! (Even for travel) It’s so bad!
Google translate isn’t great, but when I was there it was a nice assist to the engineer who spoke just enough English to work in America for our Japanese company.
It’s all advertising anyway. Just do what you do in America, let it work on you subliminally to convince you to buy cartoon themed products you don’t need or want.
i may not need them. But i do want them
Just on my way to the airport for a one month solo trip to Japan without knowing the language, feels kinda scary and exciting at the same time. No expectations, I sometimes just love the feeling of hurling yourself out of your comfort zone and having to adapt I find that those situations are a really good place to grow.
There’s actually a lot of people that know some English there, and if they don’t know it then they frequently use hand signs or gestures to convey to tourists like you what they mean
I was surprised when I travelled, but it makes sense considering America’s massive influence on Japanese culture. It shows when you see places like MOS Burger (like American fast food but Japanese-made, has things like sweet potato milkshakes and shrimp burgers. Super good and cheap btw!) or things like Disney in every toy store
As long as there is significant tourism there will always be some level of english knowledge, but you still get the expirience of being functionally illiterate while roaming the city, and that is a wierd place to be when you get used to it. Even when going to places with a different language that still use the same alphabet this change is not nearly of the same magnitude.
That’s very cool! Welcome to Japan. Where all you going?
Staying in Osaka for now, I have a couple of days in Kyoto for buisness later and am planning on visiting Tokiyo, but did not reserve anything in advance. The rest of the time I the plan is to ve rock climbing and hiking outside as much as the weather allows. The trip from the airport to the city centre was already a fun experience, I met a bunch of other clueless tourists and we managed to get the right train together. Now time for my first time dealing with jet lag!
My hovercraft is full of eels
If I said you had a nice body, would you hold it against me?
Never been to Japan, but here’s a meme describing my opinions on Japan after being an otaku for 10 years
Depends on where you go. Some places do have subtitles. lol
Google translate/lens was absolutely goated for my japan travels. I really dislike google and try foss alternatives all the time but it was like having real life subtitles, good quality and adequate translations.
Yep, this. Even some hotel staff start their own Google translate up.
Yeah, the translation is better than trying to deal with a shopkeeper who doesn’t want to yukkuri the fuck hanashite kudasai or whatever. I have a vocabulary of maybe 800 words but whatever you’re speaking is way outside it.
What would you recommend instead of Google lens/translate?
DeepL
If you’re interested in learning the language, but don’t have 3 years to prepare:
Jisho.org is an online English-Japanese dictionary that helps you find words by selecting radicals from a chart. You can learn to break down 99% of common kanji into their radicals within a week and then it’s a matter of selecting 2 or 3 radicals in the chart and matching the picture. Finding all the kanji in a sentence (or more likely, the three kanji on a menu item) should give you a decent idea of the full meaning. Now you point at the menu, say the standard question from your phrase book, give a polite nod, hold out your money at the appropriate time, and you’re nihongo jouzu.
Edit: I would only recommend this method if we’re not using Google Lens. Lens is way faster and you can still decipher the menu with your dictionary after your food arrived.
Not the most ethical answer but a paid chatgpt subscription.
Even a medium sized local model can do 90% of the job now.
Just gotta set it up ahead of time so you can use it outside the house.
I travel a lot so I’m not sure I’d want to have a server running at home. Or do you mean I set it up in my hotel?
While i ment at home. Im going to be honest giving it a few moments thought. Since your already traveling you likely have a laptop. A ryzen laptop while expensive. Arn’t really that much more then a good work station/gaming laptop both are fucking over priced as fucking hell right now to be fair. But your paying 3.5-4k either way. A ryzen laptop with lpddr is like 3800-4000 dollars for 128 gigs of ram. You could totally do a local model right from your hotel room.
Frankly i would say this is a more realistic option after the bubble goes pop and you can pick up something like this for like 2000 bucks. Since the laptops tend to be really nice reguardless and at least justifiable around that price point.
I lived in Japan for 6 years. This is kind of true, but if you can point then you can get what you’re after.
I don’t know, I thought half the fun of Japan was the not knowing what I would stumble on.
Neil Degrasse Tyson said it best on why he hates algorithms, “they don’t let me find anything, they take away the wonder”.
The old point and grunt, it served me well when first arrived in Asia 20+ years ago. Greetings from Hanoi.
Hanoi is great! Loved driving there
You are a daredevil! Driving here actually not to crazy once you get used to it. Sort of like a Tai Chi/Buddhist driving thing where we all move together and you don’t hit me and I don’t hit you. It looks like chaos but it works
Such a powerful quote. I’ve heard the guy can be a jerk but he sure is inspiring.
I’ve always found him to be a great source of wisdom. While also being a great example of how to not act.
The dude is a self centered egotistical ass who is so full of himself it’s disgusting.
He’s also an extremely well educated speaker who has a very deep understanding of many subjects and a fondness for teaching others.
Aka he’s human.
I would feel like I was annoying the fuck out of all the locals if I had to do that. Cannot imagine how stressful that would be.
Depends where you’re at. Tokyo they will mostly speak to you in Japanese, so i would attempt there. But I was in Okinawa for most of it, and most locals were good at English and used you to practice.
Helped many kids fulfill their school projects by letting them ask you questions on the street, in English lol.
It’s no different to seeing someone in your country who can’t speak. You both just figure it out together.
Such a powerful quote. I’ve heard the guy can be a jerk but he sure is inspiring.
There was someone local in a state furry chat who kept talking about his Japan was the best, talked a lot of anime quotes, and no amount of people who know what Japan is actually like could convince him otherwise.
He’s apparently stuck there now and drinks most of the time because he didn’t and still doesn’t realize how goddamn racist his assumptions were and how it got him nowhere.
- he assumed everyone would like him cause he’s American and <insert nebulous reasons>
- he thought most people would speak English
- for some fucking reason he thought most of it was like Tokyo or specifically Akihabara(sp?)
So I’m cackling at this like how fucking appropriate
Maybe it’ll build character in him
Any TRUE weeb will also know the negative aspects of Japan!
Paris-Syndrome, but Japan.
I might’ve met him or at least someone similar, he wore a kimono to a bar and was disappointed that not every Japanese person asked him about it. He would try to use it as a conversation starter; eventually he drank himself into a stupor and passed out outside of the bar.
I definitely had a “what the fuck have I done” mini panic attack moment entering the Tokyo airport. But basic Japanese to keep manners got me by.
There kind of are though? Most signs are in multiple languages (Japanese, English, Korean, and Chinese), and for the ones that aren’t, they usually have Romanji appended.
Plus, train stations, etc. Are very ample signage, and important information over the train intercom are in both Japanese and English (ie. “Now arriving at Ueno”). Also, train stations all have their own little jingles. So you can know where you are based on the song, when the train starts moving.
I know only a smattering of Japanese, but it was an incredibly easy country to get around in…
Are you really asking if they use Japanese in Japan?
The joke is more on if foreigners assume that there’s subtitles in real life when they hear spoken Japanese. Basically, the meme is on the language barrier (for those who know zero Japanese).
Ah, the non-slop version of this meme. Nice work, thank you for your service.
I visited Japan in 2008, before Google Lens was a thing. My Japanese was rudimentary, like A-level. But I got by. I had a problem with my Suica card and the people in the subway station didn’t speak any English and my Japanese certainly wasn’t enough for the situation, but together we fixed it. And another time I wanted to ask something in a store and the woman had to fetch her coworker who spoke English, so that was fine as well. I would guess that today English is more wide-spread, particularly in Tokyo. So I wouldn’t be worried to visit today, when my Japanese is even worse than it was back then. I must say that trying to communicate with a language barrier, while frustrating, is also what brings us together as humans. Most people around the world are decent people and are willing to help somebody in need. That makes for nice vacation memories.
This is why travel develops character
Unless you are in the US. “speak ‘murican!!”
Naw, speak French. It’s way more fun.
At least watching people get upset is more fun.
Not sure about the French part tho.
Especially if you’re the American. Troll the shit out of the Swede who didn’t think French would be needed here
Ganbate, OP-san
