[MinnaNoKeiGo] New episode: Anime in Japanese a boom or a doom? case of "you"

Hey guys, what is you favourite way to refuse softly in Japanese??
:thinking:

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Gee, this video makes me feel even worse about the time that I managed to provoke a bus driver into yelling “No! No! No!” at me through the loudspeaker on his bus. :grimacing:

Posting your chart from the last video is very helpful.

Some ideas for videos:

  • Tips on interactions with employees in コンビニ、スーパー、レストラン、お店. For a person visiting Japan, these are the primary interactions they will have.
  • Tips on specific non-verbal or semi-verbal interactions. It took me a week in Japan to consistently remember to cast my eyes down when bowing. I wasn’t too worried about it, because I knew that we are just big blundery foreigners. But it was really delightful when we got interactions correct, and felt as if we had earned a little respect. There was one interchange when we exchanged bows with a very well dressed elderly couple we passed on the street. Strangely, this little transaction was one of our top memorable moments in Kyoto.

Maybe these aren’t full fledged ideas for episodes. But they are the things that I was concerned with getting correct, and which just studying language doesn’t quite get you all of the way to.

Keep making videos!

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絶対いやだ!

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Not to mention regional standards on whether or not to flag down a bus. :stuck_out_tongue:

(Because if you don’t flag down the bus that you want, how do you stop the busses that you don’t want from stopping?)

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Excellent videos, especially the charts with variations.

Suggestions:

  • You’re already doing this but more stuff about how certain words/phrases are interpreted by native speakers and/or how hearing those words/phrases make them feel. For example, I think it would have been difficult to grasp what たしかに conveys to the hearer before watching your video.
  • Maybe theme series such as “Just landed in Japan: Japanese Words your new neighbour wish you understood” or “Making sense of common sense in Japan”. 検討します would probably fall in the common sense category.

Looking forward to your next video

Edit: just watched the intro video, really like the concept of taking what is taught in the textbook as your launchpad into more common and casual forms.

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I wanted bus number 17 to Ohara. And, there it is, driving off, right now.
So how am I supposed to know that am am not allowed to step out into the street and wave both arms at the bus?

And when the bus slows down, how am I supposed to know that I am not allowed to run towards it with a victorious grin on my face, as if to board?

I am still so embarrassed. Everyone on the street was staring at the dumb 外人.

Then there was the day at the 仏壇店, where the the shop attendant couldn’t hide his mirth at my questions, and was sharing the comical story of the ignorant アメリカ人 with his co-workers in the back as I left the store.

In credit to myself, at least I was not afraid to try. And fail. :no_mouth:

This is why we need these wonderful videos from Bledem and Kei, so we can never fail spectacularly again!

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@RoseWagsBlue I did not understood what happend to you in this number 17 bus haha, how did happen he yelled to you ? :scream:

Actually we did a video on what to say in convenience store, Refusing PLASTIC BAGS at the supermarket in Japan & other SMART ways to REFUSE! - YouTube, would you like something else like this ??

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Wah these are very challenging topic because concretely they are very difficult to find haha ! I will have to follow a new coming guys and note all the miss! (because when I was like that now I did not know it was miss and now I don’t remember haha).
If anybody in this forum comes to Japan soon, maybe I can do that haha

Chart about what to say to refuse in a soft, polite, subtle, well beautiful way !

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They have a loudspeaker thing with speakers outside of the bus. So when he yelled “No No No” at me, everyone on the street looked.

It was so humiliating.

I will look up the video on コンビニ. :slight_smile:

I also screwed up very badly at the Tokyu Hands store.

Lol at least you make it sound funny. What happened in the Tokyu Store? they made you buy the full store associated with all the plastic bag of the planet and, of course, the point card ? :smiling_imp:

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Way worse.
I was yelled at by an employee. Even worse than the bus. :expressionless:

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Ooo, ooo, story time! Gather round, all.

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How soft are you refusing if you’re using that many exclamation marks?

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You sure had some adventures, haha

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The Story

@Belthazar, @plantron, @Kumirei

First, I am a polite, meek, well mannered, orderly, rule obeying gal. I will back down to almost anyone, anytime.

Several WKers can attest to that, they have met me in person.

OK, so I might be a little excitable and overly enthusiastic sometimes.

I am particular about writing implements. I don’t mind an old fashioned pencil (I prefer a color other than yellow, but I will use yellow if it what is available). But if I am using a Pen, it almost certainly needs to be a Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen. They are a super cheap fountain pen, about 15 US bucks or 1500 円. But they hold up for many many years, and write very nicely.

If I have something nice to write with, I will write. If I don’t, I won’t.

I intended to mail some letters and postcards from Kyoto.

But I left my Pilot Metropolitan at home.

I figured it out while I was still on the plane, gorging on wonderful Japan Airlines food. But how hard can it be to get a fountain pen in Japan, the fount of all fountain pens?

I had already marked the location of stationery stores on my hand drawn maps of Kyoto (yes, there has already been discussion and humor at my expense for our decision to go to Kyoto with only hand drawn maps and compasses and no phones) . There was a store on 烏丸通 and one on 四条通. A couple of days into our visit, we walked down からすま to the first store. It was awesome. We bought a bunch of beautiful stationery for gifts. On the counter, I saw a display with my Metropolitans. For 3000円. Twice the price on US Amazon. So we decided to keep walking up to しじょうどおり to the Tokyu Hands Store.

Tokyo Hands is only partly a stationery store, but we did buy some cosmetics items for gifts on the second floor. In one corner on the third floor was a Kiosk with fountain pens. I saw Pilots, but not my pen. I asked the gentleman at the counter. He did not know exactly what I was looking for so he went to get another employee who knew more English. That employee (a young woman) had me speak the product that I wanted into her phone, but nothing came up.

At this point, the employee is digging through boxes of pens behind the counter. It did not occur to me in my wildest imagination that it would be inappropriate to peek over the counter to see if anything looked like the pen I wanted.

As soon as I peeked over (I was not leaning on the counter), she straightened up, and exclaimed “Stop!” with both arms stretched towards me, as if warding off a zombie.

I have never ever had someone yell at me in this manner. I jumped back and bowed my head and said "すみません!” “ごめんなさい!”

She kept digging for pens. At that moment, peeking up from my bowed head, I saw a small display with my pens! I let her know, and picked out a pen. They were 3000円, but I had to buy one now that I found it.

That is the whole story. Except when I went to the checkout counter and stood in line, an employee came out from the next counter to direct me behind the little foot steps on the floor. I had not looked at the floor. I did not know that there might be valuable information printed on the floor.

I stood in the foot steps.

I miraculously did not get thrown out of the country.

And I won the best prize in the Capcha machine.

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Xは大丈夫 :sweat_smile: Because I didn’t how else to say it, your video helped a lot!

Heh. You do get that a bit sometimes from shopkeepers in Japan. Because they can say things in Japanese like “Apologies, honoured customer, but please don’t lean over the counter”, when all they can say in English is “stop!” or “no!”, it often comes out in a little bit of a panicked shout.

Gatcha machine? :slightly_smiling_face:

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I was just watching gardening videos on youtube, and your latest came up on my feed.
These are getting even better. Very extremely useful stuff. I hear two people talking, and it is a very hard time for me to dismantle and understand all of the connectors and casual stuff. These do such a great job of explaining it so that it make sense.
I will watch a few more times later, to give more constructive criticism.
These are so good, maybe I will even get a youtube account. (I don’t have accounts for anything other than WK and Amazon, so this is a big deal for me.) :slight_smile:

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I am really glad to hear that haha, we really work hard to help people in or outside Japan haha.
But I am very doubtful about non-wanikanian user being able to understand this haha :grimacing:

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