General Emailing
Emailing is important. Here is a few more things that you can use in Japanese emails.
Recap
In my last Japanese blog, titled Emails & Dates I learnt about how to write emails as if I was arranging a meeting at work!
Homework
For my homework, I had to use what I learnt from the previous blog and write an email to book a hotel for a few nights!
This is what I wanted to write in English:
Hello [Hotel]
I would like to stay here with my mum, dad and brother for two nights from 2nd January to 3rd January.
My dad and brother are vegeterian.
Thank you,
Amy
I knew how to say ‘Hello’ in Japanese, and from the previous blog, I knew about mannerisms at the beginning of Japanese email, so I wrote:
Hello, [Hotel]
Thank you for your support/kindness/work
Konnichiwa, [hotel]
Osewa ni natte orimasu.
For the next part, I needed to figure out how to say that my family wanted to stay, I googled a few different phrases I could use, and wrote them down:
I want to stay here
Koko ni tomaritai
Can I stay here?
Koko ni tomatte mo iidesuka?
Can my family stay here?
Watashi no kazoku wa koko ni tazai deki masuka?
Can my mum, dad and two brothers stay here?
Watashi no okasan to otosan to hutari no kyodai wa koko ni tazai deki masuka?
I wrote a few more of these, and I wasn’t sure which one was the best to use, so I was going to leave that to ask my tutor during the next Japanese lesson.
I then looked up what my next parts of the email would be.
2 Nights
2-haku/ 2-paku
For the dates, I found out that “January” is “ichi-gatsu”, “2nd” would be “futsuka” and “3rd” would be “mikka”
From January 2nd to 3rd
Ichi-gatsu futsuka kara mikka wa ikaga deshoka?
For this next part, I decided to not use my brother and dad, instead I just used a placeholder name ‘John’;
John is Vegeterian
John-san wa bejiterian desu
So, I had all the separate parts of the email, now I had to put it all together! So this is what I ended up with:
Konnichiwa, [Hotel].
Osewa ni natte orimasu
Koko ni tomatte to hutari mo iidesuka?
chi-gatsu futsuka kara mikka wa ikaga deshoka?
John-san wa bejiterian desu.
Ohenji omachi site orimasu
Arigatou gozaimasu, Elliott.
Feedback
I started my homework off with “Konnichiwa, [hotel]” when instead I should’ve used the full hotel name or the person in charge of the hotel-
So for example, if it were a Premier Inn I would say “Konnichiwa, Premier-Inn sama.” or “Lastname sama”.
I did use “Osewa ni natte orimasu” correctly though!
In the next part, like mentioned before, I wasn’t too sure how to say that my family is staying, and this is the feedback that I got for that:
My family is planning to stay in this hotel
Watashi no kazoku wa kono hotel ni taizai suru yotei desu
“Taizai” means “Staying” (for travelling), “Yotei” means “Plan/Schedule/Appointment” and “Taizai suru” turns “Taizai” (noun) into a verb.
In this context, using the word “Taizai” makes the most sense, but another word which is close to this is “Tomaru” which means “Staying over to sleep” - as if you were staying at a friends house. And another way to say this is “Syukuhaku suru”
Something I can additionally add onto my email would be:
Do you have an available room?
Aki beya wa arimasu desho ka?
“Aki beya” means “empty room/available room”, where “aki” means “empty/available” and “beya/heya” means “room”
If I wanted to say who in particular is staying in the hotel with me, I would use much more formal words in an email to refer to each family member.
Mother
Okasan (neutral) / Haha (formal)
Father
Otosan (neutral) / Chichi (formal)
So instead I would write out:
Me, mum, dad and two siblings are planning to stay.
Watashi to haha, chichi, hutari no kyodai ga taizai yotei desu.
Something that's useful to remember is that in English if we list out things, we go: “Item 1, Item 2, Item 3 and Item 4”, where we use “and” before the last thing.
But in Japanese, it’s flipped, and instead, it’s: “Item 1, and Item 2, item 3, Item 4”
If you’re booking a hotel it’s not really necessary for them to know who is there, they just would like to know the number of people, so in this case, I can say:
My family is 5 people
Watashi no kazoku wa go nin desu
I was correct with how I wrote the dates, and with saying that John was a vegetarian, but a better way to write this would be:
Can you change to a vegetarian meal?
Vegeterian no osyokuji ni kaete itadake mesu deshoka?
This one was difficult to pronounce!
Where “Osyokuji” means “Meals” (formal) and “Kaete/Kaeru” means “change”. And “Itadake masu deshoka?” means “Can you do this?”
The rest of my email (the signing off part) was alright!
Study Notes
Questions
When talking about hotels, you might be asked this:
Where are you planning to stay? / What hotel?
Doko no hotel ni taizai suru yotei desuka?
I’ve always wanted to stay in fancy hotels with swimming pools, so I could answer this with:
I’m planning to stay in a hotel with a pool!
Watashi wa puru no aru hotel ni taizai suru yotei desu
Additional words/phrases
The format above could be used to write a few different things too:
Cafe with coffee
Coffee no aru cafe
House with a pool
Puru no aru ie
amy.elliott2002@yahoo.co.uk
Portsmouth, United Kingdom