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- "さようなら"
91 Comments
1610
Isn't さようなら supposed to be used like farewell for an extended period of time?
It is not to be used like an english day to day (good)bye
In Japan though, if you try to say さようなら to someone like when leaving school or something, they will think you're weird. さようなら sounds more like "I'm breaking up with you." or generally "Goodbye forever" than "Bye!". If you are in 小学校 (elementary school) then you would be taught to say 先生さようなら (goodbye teacher). However, when you get older, you use 失礼 します (excuse me) formally, or またね(see you later), じゃあまたね (well, see you later) じゃあまた,じゃあ, or それじゃあ (for guys mainly). If you're going to see someone tomorrow, like a classmate, then you could say また明日 (see you tomorrow, or literally, again tomorrow). Don't say さようなら please.
315
How would you say "goodbye" in a formal way, for example when you leave a restaurant?
Once I used sayonara when leaving a restaurant in Japan and a friend of mine told me that it sounds old fashion. Also, I never heard anyone use it while I was in Japan.
"Sayonara" is a somber, long-term "farewell". You might never see the other person again, and it's very sad. It's not the thing you say when you part company with strangers.
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/japanese/how-to-say-goodbye-in-japanese/
Option 3 is probably what you're looking for.
315
Thanks for the reply, but it is still unclear. Your example is about leaving work where there are people that I know. I am talking about a more general 'goodbye'.
Is it ok to say お先に失礼します when I want to say goodbye when leaving a shop or a restaurant?
I'm having trouble finding information that covers your exact situation. Just because they use office life as their examples doesn't mean that's the only place you can use them. Thanking people for their work seemed appropriate. Perhaps option 8 or 10 over here?
https://www.fluentin3months.com/goodbye-in-japanese/
296
'Goodbye' originates from 'God be with ye'. - in other words it expresses the sentiment that God should look after the person to whom it is said.
'Fare' is verb of declining usage meaning to perform/do in a particular way, so 'farewell' literally expresses the sentiment that the person should perform well (e.g. in terms of health).
I would say the Japanese is closer to the latter in meaning, as, for one thing, it does not make reference to a deity.
We haven't covered the "te-form" yet and probably won't for a little while. The te-form is basically how you put two verbs together in a "do x and do y" construction.
行く (iku) is "to go" and 帰る (kaeru) is "to return/come back". Conjugating them together into 行ってきます (ittekimasu) is literally "I'll go and come back", but is more closely equivalent to "See you later."
Sayounara is a formal good bye for a long period of time or when your pathes will cross again a long time from now.
Mata ne is like saying "see you again" but is informal and should only be used with friends and family members.
To make it more formal, you can say Mata aimashou. Which basically means "lets meet again soon"
Mata means "again."
Sayonara is always remembered as the famous "Hasta la vista, baby" by Schwarzenegger, in the spanish version. It would have been pointless to use a spanish sentence in the spanish version (nobody would get the joke). Not sure why, but Spain changed it for a japanese version .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxobpBKInFw
The sound in Japanese is really the tap (a.k.a. flap), but it can sometimes sound like an American R or an L. A native Japanese speaker does not distinguish between these sounds.
A tap/flap is the sound in the middle of "water". It's not /t/ and it's not /d/. But we interpret it as like /d/ because the tap/flap is not a core sound in English.
The 'ou' combination in Japanese is whats called a "long vowel". The added 'u' is supposed to be a signal to extend the length of time that you pronounce that 'o'. At that point it often becomes a dipthong. So, "sayoonara" (notice the doubled 'o') or "sayounara" (which is apparantly more common) works, but not "sayonara" because that is too short an 'o'.
Are you asking about how many characters are in the Japanese writing system? Because they use 4 systems all told, and only rōmaji (the Roman alphabet they borrowed) is an alphabet with letters (26).
There's also hiragana and katakana, which are twin syllabaries that have 46 base syllables each. (The sound values are the same, but the characters are not interchangeable. There are rules regarding when to use which system.) We're learning hiragana right now.
Then there's kanji, which is a logographic system borrowed from Chinese. There are about 2,000-3,000 in common use in Japan.
Depending on how you look at it, the word is NOT 4 syllables long, but actually 5 syllables; OR it IS four syllables but the second syllable is pronounced with twice the duration of the others. It's a good idea to familiarize yourself with long vowels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw0s7wUoQZg and double consonants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNgRjzc_-fc before you continue.
さ - sa
ち - chi
ら - ra
It's the two opposite-facing ones with the top stroke crossing the vertical stroke I have trouble remembering the difference between. The other one, none of the strokes intersect.
It's a bit like remembering the difference between p d g q
. Practice, practice, practice.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.innovativelanguage.com/sns/em/content/lp/kana/hiragana_chart.jpg
English ears hear "D" because the actual sound, the alveolar tap /ɾ/, is not a core sound in our language. We have it, but only as a variation on D and T, so we don't perceive it accurately.
In Japanese, the alveolar tap is a core sound of their language, and its variants are R and L. This is why Japanese speakers have trouble with the English R and L.
In Japanese, the difference between pronouncing vowels and consonants for normal, short, and extra time makes all the difference in the meaning of the word, so they need to indicate this when they spell the words.
In Japanese as in English, /o/ pronounced long becomes the diphthong /oʊ/ and /e/ pronounced long becomes the diphthong /eɪ/.
Couple questions I could use some help on.
First --nevermind that first one. I scanned through and saw an answer to it.
Secondly, when I hear an "r" sound it sounds like the person is rolling an l into an r. Is that how they say "r" sounds? I was trying to say an r in different ways and, for me at least, it sounds like sticking your tongue on the roof of your mouth then leading into whatever syllable. (re, ra ri) to list a few examples. Is that how you are supposed to say those syllables then?
う is U
and is only used to make お O
long.
い is I
and is only used to make え E
long.
We do the same thing in English, we just don't usually write it. Say "no" and really draw it out. That's a diphthong--it starts with one vowel and ends with another. Say "play", nice and slowly. Same idea.
https://americanipachart.com/
Scroll down to "DIPHTHONGS: THE 5 VOWEL CLUSTERS OF STANDARD AMERICAN" and play /oʊ/ and /eɪ/.
https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/
http://www.easyjapanese.org/kana_img.html
http://japanese-lesson.com/characters/hiragana/hiragana_drill/index.html