"I think it's a gun pressed up against my dick." 15 minutes later. "I couldn't speak any japanese and his english was terrible. But what can I say?"

I was looking at my sight stats a little earler and I saw someone made it to this blog searching for this:

how do i say "hello, how are you?" in japanese?

I'm the 3rd result on that there. And I didn't even answer the question. I'm there because I quoted the movie Sphere.

I noticed that and I said...damn that's kind of sad. I can answer that question! Even with my year and a half of no practice. So I'll do that.


So, how do you say "hello, how are you?" in japanese?
It could vary depending on the time of day, but for starters let's say you're talking on the phone.

Japanese in this pinkish color.
English pronounciation of that same phrase in this greenish color.
And the rough translation in this purplish color.

もしもし！お元気ですか？
moshimoshi! ogenki desu ka?
Hello! How are you?

MoshiMoshi is like, the general telephone greeting. Be careful not to say "mushi mushi" 'cause mushi means 'bug' and you'll be saying "bug bug" to the person on the phone. Would be weird! Ogenki is slightly polite way to say feeling. Genki is feeling. You see? Desu is like...uh...in this case it's what they call the polite copula in Japanese. I have no idea what that means, it's just something you gotta know. Google tells me "A copula is a word that combines the subject and its explanation. The verb be is the English copula. The Japanese copula is not a verb." So the word Be. Okay. So far we have Feeling Be. So what is Ka? In Japanese, adding ka to the end of almost any sentence will make it a question. You kind of figure out which question word it is with context. So, now we have Feeling Be Ka, or Feeling Be How? or How (you) be feeling? How are you (feeling). Nice, right?

Now what if you're not on the phone? What if you run into someone on the street? Well, if it's the first time you see a person and it's early in the morning you'd say:

おはようございます!　おげんきですか。
ohayoo gozaimasu! ogenki desu ka?
Good morning! How are you?

Ogenki we covered. Ohayoo gozaimasu is just how you say good morning. I'm not going to get into why. Look it up. Google is your friend.

What if it's the day time, but like, after breakfast?
Well you're screwed!

Hahaha! Just kidding.

こんにちは!　おげんきですか。
konnichiwa! ogenki desu ka?
Hello! How are you?

Konnichi is basically the way you say hello after its morning. You can really say this any time of the day. It could be translated to Good Afternoon.

And what about night time? Well, after the sun has set, you can get away with saying this:

こんばんは!　おげんきですか。
konbanwa! ogenki desu ka?
Good Evening! How are you?

Konbanwa is similar to konnichi way. Nichi means day, ban means night. In general anyway. Google should confirm all this. Check it.

Anyway, that's for you, anonymous websurfer! Enjoy.

You should know have enough information to fill out the first three problems on this homework sheet!

Maybe next week I'll show you how to fill out the rest! Stay tuned!