HELP ME SPEAK JAPANESE PLZ

[abitofBaileys]

No really. I need some things for work and I don't have the time to put all this grammar together and fuck it up like I usually do. And because some people in here can speak it, I would like to ask for help regarding some phrases.

I know the vocabulary already, but putting them together into a sentence and having a correct grammar is the problem.
Vocabulary:

卵
tamago
Egg

揚げ卵
age tamago
Fried egg

スクランブルエッグ
sukuranburueggu
Scrambled egg

オムレツ
omuretsu
Omelette

お楽しみお食事
o tanoshimi o shokuji
Bon appetit

リーク
ri^ku
Porree

キノコ
kinoko
Mushrooms

チーズ
chi^zu
Cheese

エビ
ebi
Shrimps

ハム
hamu
Ham


Now what I need to know is if you want to say:

"What can I do for you?"
"We have fried eggs, scrambled eggs and omelette. You can choose between those ingredients: (list with "to")."
"Anything else?"
"You're welcome." (after they thank you)
"I'll be right there for you."
"Do you want your fried egg over easy (flipped) or sunny side up?"
"2 minutes, please." (Also, 3 minutes, 4 minutes and 5 minutes)
"Right now!"
"No problem."

 

Thanks =<

[Havoczephyr]

I myself will be of little help but, instead I request whoever responds to this to break it down. I'm in the early stages of learning japanese myself and would like to see how the above sentences would be constructed. its all great and nice to learn the basics to say hajimemashitte and neko desu, but I wouldn't mind seeing how various uncommon sentences are constructed.

[UNREAL BLACK THING]

I'm in the early stages of learning japanese

I ditto this. I rly wish I could help.
Curbeh could prbly help you out...

[LivingShadow]

I downloaded this a while back but I've yet to actually put any effort into reading it. From what I can tell it looks like something that would help.

[abitofBaileys]

Thanks. But that is useful if you want to learn Japanese.

I want instant sentences because I need them, I can learn the language later.

[LivingShadow]

Considering the phrases you're asking for I presume this is a restaurant job.

Anyway, here's one according to Google (checked by a electronic dictionary)

Ready in five minutes.
五分で準備ができて
go fun de junbi ga deki te (according to a kanji to romanji converter)

I'll let the more experienced handle the rest, and possibly correct me on that.

[ShinMasaki]

Wall 'o Text

+

... Chibi you do know I'm opening an Ahnenerbe restaurant café bar arcade meido shop when I finish my apprenticeship and have money?

=

 

*****

揚げ卵
age tamago
Fried egg

This is wrong. The 揚げ literally means 'frying'...but when talking about fried eggs, the term you would use is:
目玉焼き
medamayaki
Fried Egg

*****


Now what I need to know is if you want to say:

"What can I do for you?"
Gochumon wa 「ご注文わ」　(Lit. "Your order?")
Nani ni nasaimasu ka 「何になさいますか」 (Lit. "What will you have?")
Onomimono wa 「お飲み物わ」　(Lit. "What will you have to drink?")

"We have fried eggs, scrambled eggs and omelette. You can choose between those ingredients: (list with "to")."
wareware ha medamayaki to sucranburu eggu to omuretsu o itamemashita. Anata ha sorera no youzu no naka kara sentaku koto ga dekimasu.
「我々は目玉焼きとスクランブル・エッグとオムレツをいためました。あなたはそれらの要素の中から選択することができます：」　
(Lit. "We have fried eggs and scrambled eggs and omelet. You can choose among from among these elements:")

"Anything else?"
hokani nanka　「ほかに何か」　(Lit. "Anything else?")

"You're welcome." (after they thank you)
doitashimashite 「どういたしまして 」 (Lit. "You're welcome")

"I'll be right there for you."
watashi wa choddo sokoni iru deshou. 「私はちょうどそこにいるでしょう」　(Lit. "I will be right there")

"Do you want your fried egg over easy (flipped) or sunny side up?"
...
...
I DONT KNOW HOW TO TRANSLATE THIS
...
...
Your typical Japanese breakfast 'egg' is always served sunny side up and only by request will they scramble it. I don't believe I have ever seen an 'over easy' egg served in a Japanese restaurant.
...
...

"2 minutes, please." (Also, 3 minutes, 4 minutes and 5 minutes)
ni-fun*, onegaishimasu. (*san-fun, yon-fun, etc etc.) 「二分、お願いします。」「（三分、四分...)」 (Lit. "Two minutes, please." "(three minutes, four minutes, etc etc.)"


"Right now!"
imaima　「今今」 (Lit. "Right now")

"No problem."
nandemonai　「何でもない」 (Lit. "It's not a problem" / "It's nothing")

[UNREAL BLACK THING]

Everybody applause for Shin saving Rowan.
Now im gonna go write this shit down as a reference  lol.

[Komidol]

Also Rowan, you'll need a very small amount of knowledge of japanese pronunciation to understand shin's post if you want to actually *say* these phrases.

Sounds literally work like this,

a = ah
i = E
e = eh
u = (o)u
o = O
n = uhn (this noise is sort've treated like a vowel, if the concept of a "vowel" existed in Japanese)

I assume you already know the fundamentals from watching anime for a long amount of time, but I just wanted to make sure.  The constants have (usually) the same noise but the vowels must be pronounced as above.  So literally ka, ki, ke, ku, ko would be pronounced kah, KE (not keh, the E is literal, so it sounds like ki), keh, kou (souunds like ku), and kO.  

There are a few exceptions but the most major one I notice in your phrases is the "fu" sound.  For minutes (such as ni-fun, which is 2 minutes) the "fu" sound is only a common romanization.  The sound does not actually exist in English.  It is closer to "hfu", so ni-hfun (for two minutes) or the "wh" in "who", so ni-whun.

Hope this makes sense.

[Pete278]

Goddamnit, I find a thread where I could be useful, but by the time I've woken up the problem's already solved.

Though, aren't waiters meant to use keigo, not plain form? Okyakusama wa kami-sama desu.

EDIT: At the post below mine, it's sanbun, iirc. Three always gets to be weird in counters, though I haven't used minutes in a while, so my memory might be off.

[Exciel]

As far as minutes go there's a special rule with pun or fun but you might be able to get away with it regardless. Roppun and happun shouldn't be said as rokuppun or hachippun however.

一分 Ippun- one minute
二分 Nifun- two minutes
三分 Sanpun- three minutes
四分 Yonpun- four minutes
五分 Gofun- five minutes
六分 Roppun- six minutes
七分 Nanafun- seven minutes
八分 Happun- eight minutes
九分 Kyuufun- nine minutes
十分 Juppun- ten minutes

At least that's what Japanese 101 told me.

[abitofBaileys]

Oh wow guys, awesome.

This is wrong. The 揚げ literally means 'frying'...but when talking about fried eggs, the term you would use is:
目玉焼き
medamayaki
Fried Egg

I thought so, I can't trust Google regarding such words.

"We have fried eggs, scrambled eggs and omelette. You can choose between those ingredients: (list with "to")."
wareware ha medamayaki to sucranburu eggu to omuretsu o itamemashita. Anata ha sorera no youzu no naka kara sentaku koto ga dekimasu.
「我々は目玉焼きとスクランブル・エッグとオムレツをいためました。あなたはそれらの要素の中から選択することができます：」　
(Lit. "We have fried eggs and scrambled eggs and omelet. You can choose among from among these elements:")

I can NEVER learn that lol. Any chance there's a method to shorten the sentence? I guess this is Japanese how you'd expect it from a newspaper. I can basically leave out the "wareware ha", but what about the second sentence?

I DONT KNOW HOW TO TRANSLATE THIS

Also Rowan, you'll need a very small amount of knowledge of japanese pronunciation to understand shin's post if you want to actually *say* these phrases.

Sounds literally work like this,

a = ah
i = E
e = eh
u = (o)u
o = O
n = uhn (this noise is sort've treated like a vowel, if the concept of a "vowel" existed in Japanese)

I assume you already know the fundamentals from watching anime for a long amount of time, but I just wanted to make sure.  The constants have (usually) the same noise but the vowels must be pronounced as above.  So literally ka, ki, ke, ku, ko would be pronounced kah, KE (not keh, the E is literal, so it sounds like ki), keh, kou (souunds like ku), and kO. 

There are a few exceptions but the most major one I notice in your phrases is the "fu" sound.  For minutes (such as ni-fun, which is 2 minutes) the "fu" sound is only a common romanization.  The sound does not actually exist in English.  It is closer to "hfu", so ni-hfun (for two minutes) or the "wh" in "who", so ni-whun.

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks, but since I'm both an autodidact and a weaboo I already know how to pronounce the language. You guys should listen me imitating Nanaya. I don't want to boast but my pronunciation is really good.

As far as minutes go there's a special rule with pun or fun but you might be able to get away with it regardless. Roppun and happun shouldn't be said as rokuppun or hachippun however.

一分 Ippun- one minute
二分 Nifun- two minutes
三分 Sanpun- three minutes
四分 Yonpun- four minutes
五分 Gofun- five minutes
六分 Roppun- six minutes
七分 Nanafun- seven minutes
八分 Happun- eight minutes
九分 Kyuufun- nine minutes
十分 Juppun- ten minutes

At least that's what Japanese 101 told me.

Oh yeah, that's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks.

Ah btw, this has nothing to do with Ahnenerbe. At work there are currently lots of Japs having business travels. And they get up EARLY. And they want eggs. ALL of them. At the same time. Communication is everything then. But I look forward to let out a "Keikaku doori" with Kira voice if the omelette is perfect lol.

[F9|Chibi]

Eggs are great.

[LoliSauce]

Ah btw, this has nothing to do with Ahnenerbe. At work there are currently lots of Japs having business travels. And they get up EARLY. And they want eggs. ALL of them. At the same time. Communication is everything then. But I look forward to let out a "Keikaku doori" with Kira voice if the omelette is perfect lol.

This makes me laugh thinking about it.

I DONT KNOW HOW TO TRANSLATE THIS

Shin, as for the sunny side up vs over easy problem, couldn't he literally ask if they want the egg flipped over?  Or maybe he could ask for the wellness of cooking, as if you were going to order meat cooked to different degrees of wellness?

"We have fried eggs, scrambled eggs and omelette. You can choose between those ingredients: (list with "to")."
wareware ha medamayaki to sucranburu eggu to omuretsu o itamemashita. Anata ha sorera no youzu no naka kara sentaku koto ga dekimasu.
「我々は目玉焼きとスクランブル・エッグとオムレツをいためました。あなたはそれらの要素の中から選択することができます：」　
(Lit. "We have fried eggs and scrambled eggs and omelet. You can choose among from among these elements:")

I can NEVER learn that lol. Any chance there's a method to shorten the sentence? I guess this is Japanese how you'd expect it from a newspaper. I can basically leave out the "wareware ha", but what about the second sentence?

Why not just list the ingredients out (wareware wa medamayaki to scramble egg to omelette o itamemashita.) and then just ask them which they'd like (nani ni nasaimasuka?).  It probably isn't quite correct, but they should be able to understand, and it'll allow you to cut down on how much you need to memorize.

[ShinMasaki]

Shin, as for the sunny side up vs over easy problem, couldn't he literally ask if they want the egg flipped over?  Or maybe he could ask for the wellness of cooking, as if you were going to order meat cooked to different degrees of wellness?

Hell if I know. There are only two ways I eat eggs: tamago (nigiri) or sunny side up. F'k you guys and your super poached/soft boiled/triple flipped/stepped on and spit on eggs...eat it the way it was meant to be eaten...as a full grown chicken.

Anyway, again, I'm not particularly sure on the wording for it, but I guess you could use:
anata ga gokibou desuka tamago ga hanten?「あなたがご希望ですか卵が反転？」 (Lit. "Do you want to flip your egg?")

However, "hanten" means inverse or to reverse. I don't know if the meaning is properly conveyed as it is a word you wouldn't really use with an egg.

Why not just list the ingredients out (wareware wa medamayaki to scramble egg to omelette o itamemashita.) and then just ask them which they'd like (nani ni nasaimasuka?).  It probably isn't quite correct, but they should be able to understand, and it'll allow you to cut down on how much you need to memorize.

Do your best to accommodate your customers through the language barrier. At least showing that you are trying is good enough. "wareware wa medamayaki to scramble egg to omelette o itamemashita. nani ni nasaimasuka?" should be sufficient to convey what you want across. You could always also take pictures of the different eggs and just show them the pictures and see if they want one or the other. Most Japanese menus have pictures and pointing out an item on a menu is rather typical.

Though, aren't waiters meant to use keigo, not plain form? Okyakusama wa kami-sama desu.

EDIT: At the post below mine, it's sanbun, iirc. Three always gets to be weird in counters, though I haven't used minutes in a while, so my memory might be off.

Yes, technically if you were in a Japanese restaurant one would be using keigo rather than ordinary speech. However, it is entirely situational. Now in a setting where you wouldn't be expecting to have someone addressing you in Japanese, standard speech would be acceptable as you would be seen possibly as a Japanese student or something rather than a native Japanese speaker. I learned this the hard way. I work at a Japanese restaurant myself as a manager and have addressed Japanese natives under for honorifics and as such, they assumed that I was 100% fluent and started asking me more stuff than I knew. Talking in a more informal standard speech to my customers, however, and they know I'm not native Japanese because that's not how a native speaker would address another in a restaurant setting.

So technically, you should be using full keigo, but to a beginner speaker, just the basics should be sufficient. Now later on, you may want to change that speech pattern to something more formal when you are more comfortable with the language.

As far as the -pun-, -fun, -bun suffix for lengths of time, you can go ahead and simply use -pun as you'll be understood regardless. Technically you shouldn't be, but it works just the same. At least thats what I do when talking to our chefs and they do the same when talking to us (at least those who speak Japanese...to everyone else, its a mean growl or something  )

[ShinMasaki]

Ah btw, this has nothing to do with Ahnenerbe.

It's the first thing that popped into mind since you posted that other post...

... Chibi you do know I'm opening an Ahnenerbe restaurant café bar arcade meido shop when I finish my apprenticeship and have money?

[ShinMasaki]

Okay, so just to double check, I checked in with one of my Japanese co-workers regarding the phrases and such that I listed for you before. Here is what she says:

"We have fried eggs, scrambled eggs and omelette. You can choose between those ingredients: (list with "to")."
wareware ha medamayaki to sucranburu eggu to omuretsu o itamemashita. Anata ha sorera no youzu no naka kara sentaku koto ga dekimasu.
「我々は目玉焼きとスクランブル・エッグとオムレツをいためました。あなたはそれらの要素の中から選択することができます：」　
(Lit. "We have fried eggs and scrambled eggs and omelet. You can choose among from among these elements:")

Is an odd sentence and while technically correct, you would be better off with:

watakushitachi ha medamayaki to sucranburu eggu to omuretsu ga arimasu.
「わたくしたちは目玉焼きとスクランブル・エッグとオムレツがあります。」
(Lit. "We have fried eggs, scrambled eggs and omelet.")

She also said that you may use:

Nani ni nasaimasu ka
「何になさいますか」
(Lit. "What will you have?")

after the above and it would be both correct and polite.

So...

watakushitachi ha medamayaki to sucranburu eggu to omuretsu ga arimasu. Nani ni nasaimasu ka.
「わたくしたちは目玉焼きとスクランブル・エッグとオムレツがあります。何になさいますか」
(Lit. "We have fried eggs, scrambled eggs and omelet. What will you have?")

"I'll be right there for you."
watashi wa choddo sokoni iru deshou. 「私はちょうどそこにいるでしょう」　(Lit. "I will be right there")

Again, while technically correct, as a wait staff, you would be better off using:

Shou shou omachi kudasai. Sugu mairi masu.
『少々お待ちください。すぐ参ります。」
(Lit. "It will be a just a moment. I will be with you shortly.")

"Do you want your fried egg over easy (flipped) or sunny side up?"

Okay. I asked her about this and she didn't know what an 'over easy' egg was. I showed her a picture of a fried egg (medamayaki) and she said 'medamayaki'. Then I showed her a picture of an over easy egg and she said 'medamayaki'. Then I told her the two eggs were technically different in western culture and she was like 

An over easy egg is still basically a fried egg, so Japanese would still call it a fried egg. Rather, you could ask your customers how you would like it cooked, the yolk that is.

Kimi wa hanjuku desuka katame ni yaki masuka?
「黄身は半熟ですか固目に焼ますか？」
(Lit. "Is the yolk soft boiled, fried or hard?")




******

Note: Triple-post because when Shin-sensei speaks, Shin-sensei demands the attention.

[LoliSauce]

Note: Triple-post because when Shin-sensei gets corrected by his Japanese co-workers, Shin-sensei demands the attention.

fixed

Interesting how they refer to the different level of cooking for fried eggs.  I wasn't actually too far off when I was referring to talking about it like you would the wellness of a steak. 

[abitofBaileys]

Yes, there are like several definitions for several ways of cooking the eggs, it's pretty weird.

watakushitachi ha medamayaki to sucranburu eggu to omuretsu ga arimasu. Nani ni nasaimasu ka.
「わたくしたちは目玉焼きとスクランブル・エッグとオムレツがあります。何になさいますか」
(Lit. "We have fried eggs, scrambled eggs and omelet. What will you have?")

Yes, that is something I may use. It's not long, it sounds correct and it's exactly the information they need.

Shou shou omachi kudasai. Sugu mairi masu.
『少々お待ちください。すぐ参ります。」
(Lit. "It will be a just a moment. I will be with you shortly.")

I know this phrases from animu. But I didn't remember them. But yeah, I'll use them.

Okay. I asked her about this and she didn't know what an 'over easy' egg was. I showed her a picture of a fried egg (medamayaki) and she said 'medamayaki'. Then I showed her a picture of an over easy egg and she said 'medamayaki'. Then I told her the two eggs were technically different in western culture and she was like 

lol no problem. Today I found out that most japs specify if they want their egg regular (THAT'S the word for flipped fried eggs) or sunny side up. So no need to think about that until your heads begin to smoke.

An over easy egg is still basically a fried egg, so Japanese would still call it a fried egg. Rather, you could ask your customers how you would like it cooked, the yolk that is.

Kimi wa hanjuku desuka katame ni yaki masuka?
「黄身は半熟ですか固目に焼ますか？」
(Lit. "Is the yolk soft boiled, fried or hard?")

Hmm I cannot ask that. All I am able to ask are the things I listed up there. Everything else not. I know it's strange but I would feel strange about asking about the yolk, too.

Note: Triple-post because when Shin-sensei speaks, Shin-sensei demands the attention.

And you get it. And on top of that, a thousand HEATS.


Btw, this is what it looks like when you see me:

[UNREAL BLACK THING]

You WISh nekoarc would...stalk you as watch you cook your eggs.

[ShinMasaki]

needs moar raepface

[Rokunaya]

Btw, this is what it looks like when you see me:

Dude, if you look like this AT FUCKING ALL at your store, I will FLY DOWN THERE JUST TO EAT THERE 

[ShinMasaki]

Dude, if you look like this AT FUCKING ALL at your store, I will FLY DOWN THERE JUST TO EAT THERE 

sounds like a plan. and just to screw with him even more, make sure you start talking Japanese when ordering your eggs.

[abitofBaileys]

lol you guys.