01-10-2013, 08:08 AM
(30-09-2013, 11:49 PM)swakoo Wrote: [ -> ](30-09-2013, 06:46 AM)Jon-san Wrote: [ -> ]To be able to read Mandarin is a help. Alternatively, the handphone cam is prob one of the more useful tools you can utilise. Just take a picture of the food you want to try, whether it is at the shopfront or at the malls, and use that as a guide to ordering your meals. FYI, many local eateries do not provide picture menu, only worded menus. So it is useful to learn the japanese names of things like prawn/shrimp, squid, meats, noodles, etc.
In the near future
Google glass translates menu as you read
Cool!
All we need now is for Google to come out with "Google Ear" and "Google Speak" to help us translate for our listening and speaking purposes, so that we can communicate in any languages...
In the meantime, perhaps it'd help to learn,
1. Japanese alphabets of Katakana (used for pronouncing foreign words eg. above pic of menu by 'swakoo') and Hiragana (used for pronouncing Japanese words). For the Chinese, their Kanji should be easy to understand as it usually have the same meaning as Chinese characters. However, most will not be using the simplified character set.
2. Learn a few basic Japanese phrases eg. To ask for directions, order food,.... With the internet and YouTube, there're lots of free resources out there. If not, use your handy mobile apps to help you out of difficult situations.
Another thing that's not widely known is, the Japanese actually studied English as a 2nd language in school.... IIRC, for at least 10 years! The problem is whenever they hear English being spoken, their brain goes into seizure and they're unable to understand a single word... Try to speak slowly and use words only a pre-school kid can understand. When it come to speaking, they're unable to produce many sounds due to their own Japanese phonics set being of only 5 basic sounds... a, i, u, e, o. So, in the worst case situation, just use simple written English sentences to communicate.
IMO, part of the fun of the travelling experience is to communicate with the locals, not in English, but a mixture of spoken, written, gestures,...