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  • Pimsleur Japanese I - Unit 03 - Notes

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    Iwan Risgianto Delrisghie
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    In Japanese culture, directly asking "How are you?" with "ikaga desu ka?" is less common as a greeting than in English-speaking cultures. While a literal translation, some Japanese may find it an open-ended question difficult to respond to. An alternative polite greeting is "ogenki desu ka?", meaning "Are you well?". By saying "ogenki desu ka?" instead of "ikaga desu ka?", the speaker shows deference to the person being greeted in Japanese culture.

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    In Japanese culture, directly asking "How are you?" with "ikaga desu ka?" is less common as a greeting than in English-speaking cultures. While a literal translation, some Japanese may find it an open-ended question difficult to respond to. An alternative polite greeting is "ogenki desu ka?", meaning "Are you well?". By saying "ogenki desu ka?" instead of "ikaga desu ka?", the speaker shows deference to the person being greeted in Japanese culture.

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    31 views1 page

    Pimsleur Japanese I - Unit 03 - Notes

    Uploaded by

    Iwan Risgianto Delrisghie
    In Japanese culture, directly asking "How are you?" with "ikaga desu ka?" is less common as a greeting than in English-speaking cultures. While a literal translation, some Japanese may find it an open-ended question difficult to respond to. An alternative polite greeting is "ogenki desu ka?", meaning "Are you well?". By saying "ogenki desu ka?" instead of "ikaga desu ka?", the speaker shows deference to the person being greeted in Japanese culture.

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    Pimsleur Japanese I

    Notes on Unit 3
    Each culture has its own way of greeting an acquaintance. In many Englishspeaking cultures, people greet one another by asking how they are. Such expression as How are you? How is everything? and Hows it going? are all popular and friendly way to greet a friend or acquaintance in the United States. ikaga desu ka?, an expression youve used in Units Two and Three, is a literal translation of How are you? While technically correct, it is not used as frequently as its English counterpart, unless you know that the other person has not been feeling well recently. Some Japanese people may find it hard to respond to the open-ended question, ikaga desu ka? An alternative to ikaga desu ka? is ogenki desu ka? or literally, Are you fine, or healthy? This is introduced in Unit Three and used thereafter. You put o before genki, as an honorific, to show your deference to the other person. Therefore you dont use it when responding to the question. Simply say, hai, genki desu. okagesama de.

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