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The One Million Meanings of Yoroshiku
So, you’ve learned different ways to say "Nice to meet you!" in Japanese. One way to say “nice to meet you” is “yoroshiku onegai shimasu”.
But yoroshiku onegai shimasu isn't just for the first time you meet someone. It has a whole host of different uses.
Let's look at the main different meanings of this magical, multipurpose Japanese word.
1. Yoroshiku means "Please!"…
So, you’ve learned different ways to say "Nice to meet you!" in Japanese. One way to say “nice to meet you” is “yoroshiku onegai shimasu”.
But yoroshiku onegai shimasu isn't just for the first time you meet someone. It has a whole host of different uses.
Let's look at the main different meanings of this magical, multipurpose Japanese word.
1. Yoroshiku means "Please!"
Yoroshiku, as we learned before, can be used when meeting new people, and means "please be kind to me", or "please look favourably upon me":
初めまして。フランです。よろしくお願いします。
"Hajimemashite. Furan desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."
Nice to meet you. I'm Fran. Please look favourably upon me!
2. Yoroshiku means "Thank you!"
As well as please, yoroshiku can mean thank you. Specifically, it can often mean “thank you in advance”. Said when giving someone work to do:
とじまり、よろしくね。
Tojimari, yoroshiku ne.
"I'll leave you to lock up. Thanks."
娘をよろしくお願いします。
Musume o yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
"Thanks in advance for taking care of my daughter."
Shop “Yoroshiku ne” T-shirts:
3. Yoroshiku means "Hi!"
This is one of my favourites. Yoroshiku can mean "regards", like "send my regards to so-and-so", or "say hi to so-and-so", or even "send my love to so-and-so":
お父さんによろしくお伝えください。
O-tou-san ni yoroshiku o tsutae kudasai.
Please send my best regards to your father.
お姉さんによろしくね。
O-nee-san ni yoroshiku ne.
Say hi to your sister for me.
What's your favourite use of yoroshiku? Did I miss any out? Let me know...yoroshiku ne!
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Updated 10th August 2021
Six Ways To Say "Happy Birthday" In Japanese
So you want to wish your Japanese-speaking friends "happy birthday" in Japanese.
Whether you're sending a birthday card, or just writing a message, here are six different ways to share the love.
First of all, let's say “Happy Birthday”:
So you want to wish your Japanese-speaking friends "happy birthday" in Japanese.
Whether you're sending a birthday card, or just writing a message, here are six different ways to share the love.
First of all, let's say “Happy Birthday”:
1) お誕生日おめでとう！ o-tanjoubi omedetou
Simple and classic, this one means "happy birthday", or literally "congratulations on your birthday".
2) お誕生日おめでとうございます。 o-tanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu
Stick a "gozaimasu" on the end to make it more polite.
Good for people older than you, people you know less well, and definitely good for your boss.
3) ハッピーバースデー！happii baasudee!
This one is actually one of my favourites - a Japan-ified version of the English phrase “happy birthday”.
Shop Japanese “Happy Birthday” T-shirts:
If you're writing a message, it's good to follow up after the birthday greeting by also wishing the person well:
1) 楽しんでください tanoshinde kudasai
"Have fun!"
e.g. お誕生日おめでとう！楽しんでください ^ ^
"Happy birthday! Have fun :)"
2) 素敵な一日を sutekina ichinichi o
"Have a great day."
e.g. お誕生日おめでとう！素敵な一日を〜
"Happy birthday! Have a great day."
3) 素晴らしい１年になりますように subarashii ichinen ni narimasu you ni
"I hope it's a wonderful year for you."
e.g. お誕生日おめでとうございます。素晴らしい１年になりますように。
"Happy birthday. I hope you have a wonderful year."
As you may have noticed, birthday messages wishing someone well for the year are kind of similar to a New Years' Greeting in Japanese.
それじゃ、素敵な一日を！ sutekina ichinichi o!
And with that, I hope you have a wonderful day!
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Updated 10th August 2021
Umbrellas Lost And Found - The Hundred Yen Shop
Did you know Japan has the most umbrellas per person, of any country in the world? For every person in Japan, there are 3.3 umbrellas.
At least three of them are mine, left outside shops and restaurants…
In 2011, I had just moved to Japan and I moved into my new flat on the outskirts of Nagoya city. At the weekends I'd head to Daiso, the 100-yen shop, to buy bits and pieces for my new flat.
One day, I left my umbrella in the stand outside the 100-yen shop. It was quite a nice umbrella - a neat little folding one, and it had been a present from my brother, so I went back to the shop the next day.
My little blue umbrella wasn't in the rack, so I asked at the till.
Did you know Japan has the most umbrellas per person, of any country in the world? For every person in Japan, there are 3.3 umbrellas.
At least three of them are mine, left outside shops and restaurants…
In 2011, I had just moved to Japan and I moved into my new flat on the outskirts of Nagoya city. At the weekends I'd head to Daiso, the 100-yen shop, to buy bits and pieces for my new flat.
One day, I left my umbrella in the stand outside the 100-yen shop. It was quite a nice umbrella - a neat little folding one, and it had been a present from my brother, so I went back to the shop the next day.
My little blue umbrella wasn't in the rack, so I asked at the till.
My Japanese was quite limited then, but I knew how to say 傘を忘れました (kasa o wasuremashita, "I left my umbrella").
The shop assistant looked a bit bemused, but wanted to help me, so she asked me what the umbrella looked like.
I told her the umbrella was 小さい (chiisai, “small”). I gestured to show it was very small.
She asked me:
ああ、折りたたみですか。
Aa, oritatami desu ka?
Oh, is it "oritatami"?
I didn't know what "oritatami" meant, and I didn't have a dictionary with me (it was 2011, and I didn’t own a smartphone), so I repeated that it was small.
The shop assistant bustled about, murmuring:
"Oritatami, oritatami, oritatami..."
She went off to look somewhere else, and then came back and apologised profusely. My umbrella was gone.
I walked home. It started to rain.
At home, I pulled out my romaji dictionary. And that was the day I learned that “oritatami” means "folding", as in, a folding umbrella.
! I'll never forget that word, I thought.
I lost my little umbrella, but I gained a new word in my vocabulary. You need a lot more than 3.3 words per person, after all!
"Does Japanese Have Plurals?"
After the excitement of our first school Summer Barbecue, I spent the day in bed watching one of my favourite films in Japanese.
It wasn’t a Japanese film though. I watched Hot Fuzz (or to give its Japanese title ホット・ファズ -俺たちスーパーポリスメン "Hot Fuzz: We Are The Super-Policemen!")
Watching British comedies dubbed into Japanese might not be the "purest" way to listen to Japanese. But if you enjoy it, it's definitely worth doing. Dubbed films are easy to watch, too, assuming you've seen the film before and know the plot already.
Anyway, there's a little scene in the Hotto Fazzu dub that's a nice example of Japanese plurals in action, so I thought I'd share it with you.
After the excitement of our first school Summer Barbecue (back in 2017), I spent the day in bed watching one of my favourite films in Japanese.
It wasn’t a Japanese film though. I watched Hot Fuzz (or to give its Japanese title ホット・ファズ -俺たちスーパーポリスメン "Hot Fuzz: We Are The Super-Policemen!")
Watching British comedies dubbed into Japanese might not be the "purest" way to listen to Japanese. But if you enjoy it, it's definitely worth doing. Dubbed films are easy to watch, too, assuming you've seen the film before and know the plot already.
Anyway, there's a little scene in the Hotto Fazzu dub that's a nice example of Japanese plurals in action, so I thought I'd share it with you.
Angel and Danny are in the corner shop, and the shopkeeper asks them:
殺人犯たち捕まらないの？
satsujinhan tachi tsukamaranai no?
"No luck catching them killers then?"
"Killers" is translated as 殺人犯たち satsujinhan-tachi. You take the word 殺人犯 satsujinhan (murderer) and add the suffix たち (tachi) - which makes it plural.
See? Japanese does have plurals! ... when it needs them.
Danny doesn't notice the shopkeeper's slip-up (she knows more than she's letting on), and replies:
人しかいないんだけど。
hitori shika inai n da kedo.
"It's just the one killer actually."
PC Angel, of course, mulls over the shopkeeper's words, and realises their significance: there's more than one killer on the loose.
It's a turning point of the movie, and it rests on a plural. Yay!
You can use たち like this when you need to indicate plurality:
私たち watashi-tachi we, us (plural)
あなたたち anata-tachi you (plural)
ジョンたち jon-tachi John and his mates
It's not that common, but it does exist. Keep an eye out for it! You never know, you might just solve a murder case.
First published 8th Sept 2017
Updated 11th Dec 2020
Tadoku - Let's Read! Course Introduction Video (and transcript)
Tadoku (多読), also called Extensive Reading, is the practice of learning a foreign language by reading lots of easy books. It's a really fun way to explore the Japanese language, without feeling pressure to understand every word.
This footage is from the 2019 Tadoku Summer Course at Step Up Japanese in Brighton, UK. In summer 2020, we also held our first Online Tadoku course.
Thanks to Daniel Sheen for making this video!
Watch the video, or scroll down to read a transcript. Click "CC" to turn on the subtitles 👍
Tadoku (多読), also called Extensive Reading, is the practice of learning a foreign language by reading lots of easy books. It's a really fun way to explore the Japanese language, without feeling pressure to understand every word.
This footage is from the 2019 Tadoku Summer Course at Step Up Japanese in Brighton, UK. In summer 2020, we also held our first Online Tadoku course.
Thanks to Daniel Sheen for making this video!
Watch the video, or scroll down to read a transcript. Click "CC" to turn on the subtitles 👍
What is Tadoku?
David: Tadoku is the practice of reading lots and lots of books, with the focus being on skipping things you don’t understand.
Fran: I think that lack of pressure’s really important, isn’t it? Skipping things, and… it doesn’t matter if you don’t understand everything.
Let’s take a look inside a Tadoku class at Step Up Japanese (filmed in 2019):
Fran: What did you read today? How was it? What was your favourite part? What was your least favourite part?
Snippets from students’ conversations about books:
A: I work in a publishing company – we make books – and this is from my publishing company.
B: Oh really?
A: And that one, yeah.
C: She’s actually a ghost! Oh no! And he’s really scared.
What do you like about Tadoku?
Sara: It’s quite nice just to kind of come back from work and just sit and you’re getting your practice in but it doesn't feel quite so much like practice, because you are focusing on the story, and I quite like the whole rules of the whole thing, which is like, you know, don’t sit there looking words up, just try and work it out from the context of it all, but yeah, I do actually sit and enjoy little stories more, that way.
David: I enjoy Tadoku, as it gives me the opportunity to read Japanese, without the pressure of understanding every single word.
Fran: I really like that experience as well, like you’re reading a book and then like a couple pages on you’re like “Oh, that’s what that word means!” – you didn’t need to look it up.
Sara: It’s like a little gold star for yourself as well, like: “Oh, I did know that!”
Would you recommend Step Up Japanese?
David: I would recommend Step Up Japanese to friends and family, and have. I really enjoy classes, I really enjoy the teacher, I really enjoy all of the students as well, it’s just like a really friendly bunch, and I’d like for more people to be part of the Step Up Japanese family.
Games in Japanese - Course Introduction Video (and transcript)
On Games in Japanese (日本語でゲーム), we practise communicating in Japanese by playing games!
This footage is from the 2019 Games in Japanese Summer Course at Step Up Japanese in Brighton, UK. In summer 2020, we also held our first Online Games in Japanese course.
Thanks to Daniel Sheen for making this video!
Watch the video, or scroll down to read a transcript.
On Games in Japanese (日本語でゲーム), we practise communicating in Japanese by playing games!
This footage is from the 2019 Games in Japanese Summer Course at Step Up Japanese in Brighton, UK. In summer 2020, we also held our first Online Games in Japanese course.
Thanks to Daniel Sheen for making this video!
Watch the video, or scroll down to read a transcript. Click "CC" to turn on the subtitles 👍
What is Games in Japanese?
David: In 日本語でゲーム (Games in Japanese), we play a variety of games, only ever using the Japanese language.
Showing students how to play:
Fran: どれですか。(Which one is it?)
Fran: そうですね。木が同じです。(That’s right! KI [tree] is the same)
Fran: ３，２，１、はい。(3, 2, 1, go!)
Fran: あ！あ！ハサミ！(Ah! “Scissors!”)
Fran: 私は取ります。(So, I take the card)
Sara: You’ve got all the numbers, the names out on the floor, and it’s the reading and trying to get to it before everyone else, which is quite funny.
N: クエスチョン、はてなマーク (“question mark”)
What do you like about “Games in Japanese”?
David: I find it difficult to play games in only Japanese, but I really relish the challenge to speak only Japanese. It really makes me have to think in a way that maybe I wouldn't have the opportunity to do if I wasn't taking the course.
David: サングラス (“sunglasses”) (Laughter)
Sara: It’s very good vocab practice. I think it’s more, the games we have, it’s a lot more sort of random words so I feel like you’re a lot faster with it, so you tend to do a bit less thinking about the words that you want, you just kind of go like “that word, quick!”
Fran: はい (OK, let’s go)
A:ピエロ (“clown”)
Sara: So you’re trying to beat everyone else to it, so it's a bit more, a bit more silly.
Fran: 音楽 (“music”)…音楽 (“music”) (Laughter)
A: クモ (“spider”)
Sara: ドラゴン (“dragon”)
B: 花 (“flower”)
Sara: I quite like that game, it was funny.
Would you recommend Step Up Japanese?
Sara: I think Step Up Japanese is really good way to go, it’s really good practice, it’s a really relaxed atmosphere, and Fran’s such a good teacher. I’ll go home and I’m like, right, “I’m gonna do this”, I feel motivated to keep going at the weekends.
How Do You Say "Nice to Meet You" in Japanese?
Hurray! You've met another Japanese-speaking person. Time to introduce yourself.
But how do you say "It's really nice to meet you" in Japanese? The first phrase you'll want is:
はじめまして。Hajimemashite. "Nice to meet you"
Hajimemashite literally means "we are meeting for the first time". So you can only use it the first time you meet someone.
Hurray! You've met another Japanese-speaking person. Time to introduce yourself.
But how do you say "Pleased to meet you" in Japanese?
The first phrase you'll want is:
はじめまして。
Hajimemashite.
"Nice to meet you"
Hajimemashite (almost literally) means "we are meeting for the first time". So you can only use it the first time you meet someone.
The other super-useful phrase is:
よろしくおねがいします。
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.
"Please be kind to me."
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu is hard to translate, but means something like "please be kind to me".
It means that you are looking forward to having a good relationship with someone.
Shop “Nice To Meet You” Japanese necklaces (Step Up Japanese x designosaur):
Make it more polite
Add douzo to make your greeting more polite:
どうぞよろしくおねがいします。
Douzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu.
"Nice to meet you" (polite & a bit formal)
You could also say:
お会いできてうれしいです。
O-ai dekite ureshii desu.
"I'm happy to meet you." (more polite & formal)
or even:
お会いできて光栄です
O-ai dekite kouei desu.
"I'm honoured to meet you." (even more polite & formal)
Keep it casual
If you don't feel like being so polite, you could also say:
どうぞよろしく。
Douzo yoroshiku.
"Nice to meet you" (a bit more casual)
よろしくね。
Yoroshiku ne.
"Nice to meet you" (very casual)
It's good to be nice-mannered when you meet new people though, right?
"Nice to meet you too!"
Last but not least, when someone says yoroshiku onegaishimasu, you can add the feeling of "me too!" by replying with kochira koso ("me too!"):
こちらこそ宜しくお願いします。
Kochira koso yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
"No, I'm pleased to meet you." / "The pleasure is mine."
Now, go and find someone new to speak to, and tell them how pleased you are to meet them.
Yoroshiku ne!
Shop “Nice To Meet You” Japanese necklaces (Step Up Japanese x designosaur):
Updated 26th Oct 2020
Like many people in the UK, I studied French in school. I liked French. I thought it was really fun to speak another language, to talk with people, and to try and listen to what was going on in a new country. (Still do!)
When I was 14 we went on a school exchange to the city of Reims, in northeastern France. I was paired with a boy, which I’m sure some 14-year-olds would find very exciting but which I found unbearably awkward. He was very sweet and we completely ignored each other.
That was nearly 20 years ago, and I didn’t learn or use any more French until, at some point in lockdown, I decided on a whim to take some one-to-one lessons with online teachers. Here are some things I learned about French, about language learning, and about myself.