1

Where are you going? Major cities will allow simple English to be understood. You aren't going to learn enough Japanese to try talking anyway by December. Learn "thank you" and "please can I have...?" and "Where is the...?" but leave the rest to English, friendliness, and a guidebook.

2

While I agree with Glenski--you really can get around well with English, I think the iPhone app "Learn Japanese" by Codegent is good for a beginner or non-Japanese speaker.

3

Fully agree with Glenski.

As for phrases, the language section in your guidebook should be sufficient. In any case you would only say simple things if you also want to understand the reply.

I don't know all that much about iphones but as for travel in Japan they could be useful for accessing train timetables/connections and maps, so I would rather look in that direction than looking for an electronic phrasebook.

4

While it's true that you can get by just using English in major cities, I've often ran into situations where some simple Japanese phrases would have made life much easier. Recently I've stumbled upon a very interesting App that's pretty much perfect for your use-case. It's called "travel parrot". This app gives you lots of suggestions for holding up a simple conversation and the Japanese people I was able to talk to reacted very surprised and pleased - although I really don't speak Japanese much myself.

Check it out, they have a page I can't link here. Have a nice trip and good luck in Japan!

5

Thank you very much for your kind responses.

Dear Glenski
I'm relieved to hear that it must be no problem in English in major cities. I'm planing to go to only big cities such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara and Hiroshima for my first trip to Japan. I appreciate your reasonable advice!

Dear Jbeckstr
Actually I'm also interested in learning Japanese. I'll use the app which you recommended. Thank you very much for your tipp!

Dear bamse
Yes, as you say the language section in the guidebook would be actually sufficient for the content. Only if I could hear the correct pronunciation.. Apps for train timetables/connections and maps must be also useful. I'll look for them, too. Thank you very much for your advice!

Dear stevenmillerkansas
I just checked out the app which you recommended. Wow, this is really what I imagined! I'm looking forward to seeing how much Japanese people understand my "Japanese". Thank you very much for the good info!

6

Fortunately pronounciation is one of the easier aspects of the Japanese language. Just don't pronounce them as you would English...

7

Dear bamse

It's really good to know that Japanese pronunciation is not difficult. Thank you for the good info.
Actually in the app "travel parrot" I can play the voice over. This gives me confidence that I'm not making some horrible mistake.

8

I'm also going to Japan at the end of the year, and I don't speak Japanese.. maybe we should meet up and get lost together? lol..

I'm planning to heavily use Google Translate app... You can say anything in your native language, and it will speak back in Japanese.. you can do it the other way around as well.. ask the person you're asking to speak into the phone in Japanese, then translate into your native language..

Another app that might be useful is Hyperdia, which contains information and timetable for trains and such..

9

re 8: English to Japanese or vice versa is not easy to translate for machines. It is probably fine for simple sentences (Where is the station?...), but I would not rely on it too much for anything more complicated.

Could be a fun way to socialize with the locals though.

Edited by: bamse

10

Japanese pronunciation is not that bad. They have fewer phonemes that English. The problem is when Japanese people speak English or Japanese-English words. You won't be able to understand something like "McDonalds", for example. ma-ku-do-na-ru-do (that's right, that many syllables and no S sound)