最近、もっと質問をもらいました。だから、他の人が手伝うために、このブログで高騰することにしました。
(I've been receiving more questions recently so I'm going to post them to this blog in order to help others.)
質問
Your organization seems intended for English speakers who want to achieve Japanese fluency. Is there a group that teaches rudimentary Japanese in the Twin Cities area? I would like to learn rudimentary Japanese before I tour Japan for approximately three weeks in 2024.
返事
初めまして。マリキタです。連絡してありがとうございました。宜しくお願いします。
Thank you for writing. I asked around and no one seems to know of any group which teaches rudimentary Japanese phrases in the Twin Cities. The closest to one I can think of are the adult education classes offered by Tetsuya Shimano. He teaches in both Minneapolis and Saint Paul at a very reasonable cost. If you take his classes, please tell him I said, "Hi."
You'll learn a few phrases in his classes but I'm more inclined to recommend the Youtube videos by Tanaka San since it may be faster and they're more detailed:
https://www.youtube.com/@japanese_tanakasan
She recently posted a video teaching Japanese train announcements which can be so useful. She also has videos about going into a コンビニ or eating sushi.
When visiting Japan, the problem isn't so much speaking Japanese but understanding what is said. Japanese is one of the more quickly spoken languages and, to make it more challenging, there are three main levels of language politeness. The service industry primarily uses 尊敬語（そんけいご）. To give you an idea of when it's generally learned, 尊敬語 is taught in colleges and universities during the second semester of the second year of Japanese.
Since I've been receiving questions like this on a more regular basis, I'm going to start posting my answers to our website in the hopes that it helps others as well as reduces my time in answering them. I'll remove all personal identifiers before I post them.
Enjoy your time in Japan. 日本旅行を楽しんで下さい。
宜しくお願いします。
マリキタ