Words you hear daily in Japan but never see in media

Japanese
#1

Something I’ve noticed over the years is how there is a lot of “daily” Japanese that you hear in Japan but rarely see in media. I think most of it is to do with boring daily life things like announcements, warnings, or customer service language. I would guess that these sorts of words can be especially hard to learn if you aren’t in Japan, since even if you are immersing 24/7 with native media the frequency is just too low.

The example that made me think of this is 点字ブロック. 点字（てんじ） means “braille” but 点字ブロック refers to tactile paving.

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If you are catching a train in Japan then you are very likely to hear this word in the warning announcement that plays before the train arrives/passes, meaning many people hear it multiple times per day. It sounds something like this:

The important phrase here being:

危ないですから黄色い点字ブロックまでお下がりください

(I’ll leave the translation as an exercise for the reader :wink: )

I was still a beginner in Japanese when I arrived in Japan originally (about 6 months of study under my belt) so I naturally picked up a lot of these without realising over time, but I wonder if anyone has had trouble with these sorts of words when visiting Japan or has noticed the same phenomenon? Any words that have stuck out to you in the same way as 点字ブロック has for me?

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#2

And it was invented in Japan! How cool is that?

NGL I hear this in my dreams :’)

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#3

Kind of just a small riff of your post and the train announcement thing, but it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to hear/figure out the counter for train cars: 両[りょう]. I could follow along with most of the announcement, but then right at the end, I’d just hit a huge WTF?!?, and I couldn’t figure it out with my dictionary. No wonder, since counters usually get stuffed pretty far down query results. I can still hear that announcement in my mind…

「この電車は4両です。」

When I finally did figure it out, I felt like such an idiot for not being able to context-clue my way into that answer. :woozy_face:

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#4

someone asked me 店内で？ within my first 3 months of being in Japan and I was so confused and overwhelmed I went home and cried LMAO so, mental load accounts for a lot I think

Edit to add:

I feel like 処方箋 is a fairly useful word I often see IRL but don’t really see in media. It marks a pharmacy that does prescriptions (I.e. not just toiletries and otc meds). It took me ages to work it out too.

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#5

You ain’t kidding. One time I dropped my ID while out jogging and someone turned it in to a koban or something. I can’t/never had need to manually write a lot of kanji with a pen, but I could bust out my address usually no problem. I was so damn nervous at the city police station that I was having trouble just writing my address in kana, nevermind kanji. Brain was straight redlining.

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#6

This is a great thread. Here’s a few I learned:

営業中 (えいぎょうちゅう)
∙ open (e.g. store)

調整中 (ちょうせいちゅう)
∙ under repair, out of service

工事 (こうじ)
∙ construction work

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#7

This songs starts with the announcement of the train that まもなく参ります, but it doesn’t say anything about it being 危ないですから黄色い点字ブロックお下りください
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=DpQrBqzmAeM&si=H6rPQJYxrpKxyMbK

Nice thread!

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#8

Yep. Was scratching my head about why it’s 下がり - ‘go down’ in my brain but it was being translated as ‘step back’ probably because of まで. All very simple words and grammar yet IF I had heard everything correctly, that would still require me to pause and parse out for a while. Reading it would still make me pause and think.

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#9

Do these count:
In my dreams

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#10

Thanks for posting this! Brings me back.

Just walking around and listening to the tannoy or just sitting on the bus and conversation generally really is my biggest hurdle at this point in learning Japanese properly (especially, like you mention, words like this specifically!)

I’d almost go compile a list of videos of random scenes like this, just to compensate a little bit.

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#11

Don’t forget the very important 準備中（じゅんびちゅう）which, although literally meaning “in preparation”, is just a nice way to say they aren’t open yet

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#12

Need to figure out how to add these to the N5 vocab list :thinking:

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#13

Reminds me of the always depressing 臨時休業 when I am really wanting something and they are closed unexpectedly.

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#14

something I never hear in media but am forced to listen to for at least 5 hours in a row whenever I’m in Japan is

ドンドンドンドンッキドンキホーテ
ボリューム満点激安ジャングル (ジャングルだ)
ドンドンドンドンッキドンキホーテ
何でも揃って便利なお店
ドンキホーテ

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#15

Two words come to mind for me:
伝票（でんぴょう）
消毒剤 (しょうどくざい）

伝票 I often see in restaurants and in online order emails (伝票番号), so yeah unless you’re living in Japan I don’t think you’ll really come across it.

Pre-2020, I don’t think I’d ever really seen 消毒剤 in any media. However, since Covid you now see it in every clinic, malls, hotels, etc.

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#16

Seeing this thread while visiting Japan for the first time, trying to puzzle out announcements in the train : this is perfect :joy:

I already had まもなく figured out since I heard it so much in just a few days, but happy to finally get the full content of the famous yellow blocks announcement aha. I did get what it was about since 黄色○○○ブロック is pretty transparent but couldn’t quite get the entire sentence.

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#17

this is a cool one because if you see it written in kanji it makes perfect sense even if you’ve not heard the expression before 間もなく/ 間も無く

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#18

Now I will “hear” てんじ every time. Thanks for the post and the recording :+1:

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