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OffTopic > English Survival Sheet (E3)

#76500 - sgeos - Wed Mar 22, 2006 4:40 am

Some of my Japanese coworkers are going to be going to E3 for three days, so I figured I'd prepare an English survival sheet for them. =) (Link to old topic.)

For the people who are especially unmotivated, I'm trying to figure out the simplest way to communicate important phrases. In general, basic needs can be communicated with one or two words. My current list contains (Japanese, proper form, crude form):
Code:
トイレは何処ですか？   Where is the bathroom?     Bathroom?
これはいくらですか？   How much does this cost?   How much?
はい。              Yes.                       Yes.
いいえ。             No.                        No.
○○は何処ですか？     Where is ○○?             Where ○○?
～下さい。             Please～                   Please～
有り難う。             Thank you.                 Thanks.
有り難う御座います。   Thank you very much.       Thanks.
手伝ってくれませんか？  Can you help me?           Excuse me.
??が欲しいです。      I want ??.               Want ??.

食べ物    food
飲み物    drink

I'll also cover the counting system. Any other important words or phrases I should add?

I'll write up an article on tipping, as that is a cultural difference. I'll also write something about collecting and showing written material (business cards, etc), and anything else that seems useful.

Last, is there anything about LA or E3 a visitor really wants to know?

-Brendan

#76510 - keldon - Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:45 am

People are likely to direct you towards junk food spots. You might want to consider what type of food you want beforehand if you are picky about what you want to eat.

Eat in a place when it is busy - otherwise your food is not likely to be fresh. Otherwise ask for something slightly different such as special fried rice without pork, forcing them to cook you a fresh meal.

Another cultural difference with eating, I believe, is that we tend to clear the plate. If a lot of food is left on the plate, it indicates that you didn't like it.

Knowing the daily greetings, such as good morning/afternoon/evening makes you feel good when you get it right.

If offered with something you wish to decline, politely reply, "No thanks".

And you will be surprised how easy it is to pick up the basics of a language - let them have fun with it.

#76535 - gauauu - Wed Mar 22, 2006 3:29 pm

I'm surprised that their English is that limited. Almost every educated professional here in China knows the very basics of English that you listed. Is it different in Japan?

#76680 - sgeos - Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:28 pm

keldon wrote:
And you will be surprised how easy it is to pick up the basics of a language - let them have fun with it.

This is true if the student is motivated. I'm going to assume that the only motivation my coworkers have is wanting to survive a 3 day trip to the states. I'll leave it up to self motivated individuals to ask questions and "try".

I want to prepare bare basics for the people who are not interested. I'm thinking one page and one hour. Naturally I want want to include a little more than the bare basics for those with either interest or pre-existing ability.

gauauu wrote:
I'm surprised that their English is that limited. Almost every educated professional here in China knows the very basics of English that you listed. Is it different in Japan?

Very different in Japan. Individuals from countries that were historically strong are generally bad at learning foreign languages. (Americans, British, Japanese) On the otherhand, individuals from countries that were not historically strong are generally good at learning foreign languages.

Individuals who live in "smug" countries don't need to bother learning foreign languages. I think a lot of it has to do with attitude, but the Chinese I've met are pretty good language learning. Koreans learn Japanese at a frightening rate- their six months is roughly equivalent to my four years.

In Japan everyone goes through 6 years of English IIRC. The English education system is a joke. Maybe there is a supply issue, but they don't tend to hire qualified people in Japan. They want young teachers and there are a lot of "Barbie and Ken" jobs.

When I was looking for English work, I was told by a school that certification didn't mean anything to them. They wanted someone like "an older brother". It was a Mickey Mouse (read nonsense) job teaching English to children.

In China they typically want to hire older teachers with more experience.

-Brendan

#76689 - tepples - Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:30 pm

sgeos wrote:
I think a lot of it has to do with attitude, but the Chinese I've met are pretty good language learning.

Probably because Chinese live in a multilingual environment anyway (e.g. Mandarin and Cantonese).

Quote:
Koreans learn Japanese at a frightening rate- their six months is roughly equivalent to my four years.

Japanese and Korean are thought by some to be related. Even if not, they are both SOV and agglutinative. They learn Japanese faster than English speakers do for the same reason that French speakers learn Italian faster than, say, Russian speakers do.
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