Page 35 - Easy Japanese - Learn to Speak Japanese Quickly! (TUTTLE)

used among friends or to refer to those in subordinate positions.
Be conservative and start with “surname -san” or a title such as sensei. If a
person expresses a preference for how he/she wishes to be called, abide by that.
Another thing to note is to not overuse personal references, which is one of
the most common errors made by foreigners who are used to using these in
sentences. Recall that the subject is not mentioned in Japanese when clearly
understood from the context, thus you would say Amerika-jin desu or literally,

“American person am” instead of Watashi wa Amerika-jin desu “I am an
American” if it’s obvious that you are talking about yourself. Remember that
Japanese has its own way of saying things and directly translating words and
structures from a foreign language rarely works.

GRAMMAR NOTE Affirmation and Negation
Hai means “what you said is right” and i’ie means “what you said is incorrect”

regardless of whether the sentence is affirmative or negative. Ee and iya are less
formal versions of hai and i’ie. Note how they work in 2) below, where the
question is in the negative form.

1) Gakusei desu ka. Are you a student?
-Hai, sō desu. Yes, I am.
-I’ie, gakusei ja nai desu. No, I’m not.

2) Gakusei ja nai desu ne? You are not a student, right?

-Hai, gakusei ja nai desu. That’s right. I’m not a student.
-I’ie, gakusei desu. No, I am.

GRAMMAR NOTE Echo Questions

While it’s common for things that are clear from the context to be left unsaid in
Japanese conversations, sometimes the context may not be understood by
everyone involved. In such cases, people use echo questions (echoing back all or
part of what has just been said) for clarification. In Dialogue 2, Mei uses the
echo question “Do you mean me?” to check if Yuki is referring to her.
While echo questions are not unique to Japanese, they occur a lot more

frequently in Japanese conversations. This is because echo questions are not only
used for clarification, but also to slow down the pace of conversation or soften
the tone. When an echo question is used for this purpose, an answer is not
necessarily expected.