Using a 🔰 "Beginner" Badge to Stay in Japanese Mode

Japanese
#1

Hello Bunpro community!

I’m heading to Japan for 7 weeks in April to improve my Japanese while working remotely. After several previous trips, I’ve noticed a common challenge: even when trying to speak Japanese, conversations often default to English once people recognize I’m struggling.

To overcome this, I created a simple solution – a badge on a lanyard with:

  • The Japanese beginner symbol :beginner:
  • “日本語を勉強中” (I’m studying Japanese)
  • “ゆっくり話してください” (Please speak slowly)
  • My first name with “僕は” (I am) before it

The beginner symbol (famously used by new drivers in Japan) signals that I might need extra patience and struggle in challenging situations. I deliberately kept it simple – no demanding phrases like “please use simpler terms,” as the symbol itself should convey this already. But from my experience, it’s easy for people to forget that we need more time to process, so I kept the hint to speak slowly.

My name is on the badge because Japanese conversations often reference the person by name (like “[Name]-san”) rather than using generic terms like “you.” This should make interactions more comfortable. I chose my first name since it’s easier to pronounce than my last name.

I chose a lanyard over t-shirts or stickers (which I had considered first) for practicality – it works with any outfit and in any weather. It’s also easy to hide it when I’m not in the mood to talk.

Here’s how it turned out:

Lanyard
Lanyard1280×1030 226 KB

I created a version in case anyone wants to make their own (add your name & cut at the dashes):

Nihongo-Wakaba-Badge
Nihongo-Wakaba-Badge956×1370 114 KB

What do you think? Any other tips for maximizing Japanese practice during my trip? My goal is to use Japanese as much as possible and look up anything I don’t understand later.

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Talking to people in Japan - advice?
#2

Have you tried steering the conversation back to Japanese by either continuing to speak Japanese or by flat-out telling them that you would prefer Japanese because you are currently learning it?

If neither of those worked - I’m not sure why the badge would work. Either way, I think conveying your intention via spoken words would be more natural than a badge.

If that happened to me in my native language, I would be very confused what you want from me. I’d much prefer to hear the equivalent of “Hi! [Question/request or whatever other reason you are talking to me.] Since I’m a beginner, could you maybe talk in slow [target language]?”

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#3

I think this is a cool idea. I am going to be moving to Japan and wanted to have a similar type of thing on cards that I could pull out depending on the situation. I wonder if a laniard for this would be weird though. Do you know of any other people doing the same thing and their experiences?

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#4

I think it’s a great idea, especially for shy people. I think my wife and I just might use these when we can finally go!

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#5

It’s a nice idea, but I would only use it in situations where it doens’t cause any 迷惑 to my conversation partners.

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#6

In my opinion, this is probably the most awkward way to convey your intentions.

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#7

If you’re staying in Tokyo, I highly recommend going to the ‘English Only Cafe’ in Chiyoda City. The name is deceiving given that other languages are spoken based on demand (like Chinese, Korean, Spanish and, of course, Japanese). They separate the languages by table, and also frequently have people change tables, so that you’re not just talking to the same group of people the entire time. When I went last October, they had at least 2 (and up to 4) tables available for people wanting to practice Japanese. Again, the number of tables will change based on demand.

To get in, you need to RSVP the event in the Meetups app (which you need to show them) and buy a drink at the cafe. The first time you go, they’ll have you read their rules, which you have to agree to. They have a lot! Then again, it’s Japan, lol. After that, you’re then free to practice Japanese with other native and non-native speakers. You also get to meet lots of people, though they are mostly college students. Still, it’s a great way to practice speaking!

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#8

It’s a cool idea, but I think many of them will default to English anyway.
I don’t know if you’ve decided where to stay, but staying in the middle of nowhere is what I would recommend, since you’re much less likely to encounter English speakers than you are in a city.

1 Like
#9

Love the idea! I don’t think it would be helpful on a day-to-day basis because, as mentioned earlier, it might turn out awkward. However, using it at meetings or other places intended for socializing to let people know that you are interested in speaking Japanese despite struggles seems very cool.

#10

Just to be clear: My intention is not to make everyone I talk to a Japanese teacher. I would have put the sentence "Please correct my mistakes“ on the badge if that was my goal. But I didn’t want to demand anything from anyone, so I deliberately opted against that.

My intention is rather to default to Japanese and make clear that most of the time, I DO understand them and if I look baffled, that’s normal and they don’t have to worry, they just need to wait for a few seconds until I make clear to them, if I do understand them or it’s above my level.

In my past experience in Japan – and I have been there for 4 months overall – I felt that people I talked to in Japanese felt very quickly like they had to help me with body language and English.

So quite the opposite of what many of you fear happened: Many times I made staff struggle because they thought I do not speak any Japanese other then a few words. So they didn’t even try to express what they were saying in simpler or slower Japanese, which I would have probably understood.

If they had only known, I think it would have made the whole interaction much smoother. And that’s exactly what the badge is supposed to help with. I’ll have to wait and see if it works, of course. But I‘m not seeing random people as my teachers. I’m trying to help them understand how they can make sure I understand them without having to embarrass themselves by trying to speak English, which many people did not like or be able to speak in my experience.

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#11

This actually a really cute idea haha but any form of drawing attention to myself would conflict with my introverted objective of staying undetected in public (which is already hard when you’re visiting Japan at like 6’4’’ :joy:)

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#12

You should write on it that you don’t speak English. That’ll force them into using Japanese.

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#13

I’m gonna go against the grain here and say this is actually a pretty good idea for 3 reasons. 1) Japanese people are already famously awkward with foreigners, and leaning into it with a badge is likely to ease some tension. 2) One of the reasons Japanese people are awkward with foreigners is because their entire society is built in a way to eliminate ambiguity. This will likely make them feel more comfortable especially when you start the conversation. 3) It is strange, but if you can get over your own awkwardness about being the only one wearing a lanyard, the fact that it’s unusual is likely to draw additional people to try to talk to you or even just ask what the deal is. :laughing: I think it’s a great idea if you’ve got the cojones to actually wear it in public.

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#14

It would probably be more embarrassing for an introvert like me.

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#15

It’s actually not uncommon to see Japanese office workers wearing lanyards out and about during lunch time, at least in cities. Was just out today and noticed quite a few staff from the local ward office and some other nearby businesses still wearing their work lanyards while grabbing lunch at the grocery store.

So contrary to what others have said about you being the only person wearing a lanyard, you may actually need to draw attention to it since some people might see it and assume you’re an office worker somewhere.

(Although from the design you posted above yours looks pretty different from the average office worker name tag lanyard/ID badge so I’m going to assume people will notice it).

#16

I’d be a bit hesitant to use this lanyard on staff, considering:

  1. Just like how we are excited to practice Japanese, the staff member might want to practice English
  2. The staff might be busy
  3. The staff member might be responsible for providing service to foreigners. They don’t want their boss to see them “slacking”
  4. The staff member feels it’s rude to use “dumbed down” speech toward an adult customer, or their boss might perceive it like that

I’m not saying don’t try speaking Japanese to staff, but there’s already a power imbalance between customer and staff, and this lanyard reinforced that.

2 Likes
#17

It might also completely backfire and make people feel like they need to make even more of an effort to use English with you :sweat_smile:

It doesn’t actually say anywhere specifically on the lanyard that you want to speak Japanese, just that you’re learning.

Why don’t you just say something like 日本語で話していいですか？もしよろしければ、練習したいです in situations where it seems appropriate. As some other people have pointed out - in certain situations it will just be impractical or excessively inconvenient for the other person to force the conversation into beginner Japanese. You’ll get an intuition for good practice opportunities versus when to admit defeat. Plus, if you have a few set phrases to do with specifically requesting to practice Japanese that you can confidently say at the beginning of the interaction, not only will these phrases be cemented in your mind from repetition, but it’ll also steer the convo more naturally into Japanese while demonstrating your ability.

In many ways it is a battle of sorts, and the only truly fair way to force the conversation into the language you want to speak is to be good enough in that language that the conversation will be quicker and more convenient for both of you to speak in that language. So the only truly fair way to do this is to get better in the language. But to get better in the language you need to have conversations in that language, and the only way to… :thinking:

…so it is a difficult Catch 22, but I found the best way to be just to ask politely like I wrote above when you get a feeling that the timing is right

Hope this helps :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#18

The lanyard idea actually comes from not trying to force anything onto anyone. If people want to talk to me in English, I’m happy to do so. My experience has been that most people wouldn’t want to do that though, so for them the lanyard is supposed to do 2 things:

  1. Make clear that I do speak Japanese to some extent, so people can safely approach me if they feel like they want to talk to me.
  2. Clarify the situation when they approached me with sophisticated or quick Japanese without noticing the lanyard and see that I’m struggling.

I had these two situations in mind when designing it.

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#19

I was in the same situation but I don’t mind them answering in English and me continuing to try to say it in Japanese. When they tell me something in English, I even repeat what the said in Japanese just to see if I got right what they were trying to meet.

Discussions could go like :

  • Drink ?
  • 飲み物？お茶ください
  • Green Tea ? Cold ? Hot ?
  • 冷たいです, Cold.

To be honest I don’t blame them to want to switch to English if they know a bit of english, and want to get the point through. We would like to train more slowly, but at the same time there is a queue of customer behind, and I also felt a bit of frustration from some when I started in Japanese but couldn’t understand the next sentence the would tell me.

Basically, it’s making them a bit losing their time, and I we tend to believe we do them an honor by trying to learn their language, but at the same time sometime it feels like we are the one trying to get some recognition.

So personally, while I still use those situation to try to speak japanese, I don’t mind them too much going for English if they just want to do their job as effectively as possible.

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#20

I think the easier way is to just travel to the inaka where this won’t be a problem at all!

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