よろしく

Oh yeah, how could I have forgotten? Also yesterday I had a nice little exchange with a few junior high school boys who were riding their bikes on my street when I was walking to the 公民館. One of them called out "Hello!", and I said "Hello, konnichiwa!" and they laughed and said "konnichiwa," and the first one turned to another one and said "atarashii sensei" (new teacher), then to me, "Ne?" And I said "Hai, hai, sou desu," and smiled, and then the same one (I guess he was the outgoing one lol) said "Nihongo, jouzu!" (You're good at Japanese.) And I laughed and said "Iie, mada mada desu ne," like you're supposed to when someone praises you (No, no, I've got a long way to go...), and they laughed and all said "Yoroshiku!" and "Jaa ne!" and rode off down the street. It was really nice, I thought.

Jarryd later told me that at 一中 they have a stated goal to be the best in the nation at 挨拶, greetings (aisatsu). In other words, all the sort of ritualized things you say to people when you meet them or see them or arrive or leave or whatever. Well, I guess it's good to have lofty goals....

Meanwhile I've found myself having trouble explaining よろしく, yoroshiku, to people who've never taken Japanese...I'll end up saying "well, it's just what you say to people, it doesn't really mean anything." Which is sort of true. It's part of the phrase どうぞよろしくお願いします, which means something like "please treat me kindly," but we don't say that in English. So yeah. It's a useful phrase to know if you're ever in Japan. ^_^

またね。