Simple Tricks to Keep a Conversation Going in Japanese

みなさん、こんにちは！

Have you ever felt stuck in a conversation and ran into an awkward silence not knowing what to say?

In this guide, I will show you some useful phrases and fillers that can be useful to maintain the flow of a conversation.

“What is XXX in English?”

When you have a conversation in Japanese, you may encounter a situation where the other person say some words you don’t know. In this case, you can use this phrase.

XXXは英語えいごで何なんですか？

What is XXX in English?

“Please say one more time”

When you want the other person to repeat what they said, you can use this phrase.

もう一度いちど、言いってください。

Please say one more time.

“Please speak slowly”

If you want the person to speak slowly, you can use this phrase.

ゆっくり話はなしてください。

Please speak slowly.

“Well…”

There are few filler words in Japanese that can mean somewhere along the line of ‘well…’, ‘let me see…’ and ‘ummm’.

えーと

Well…/Errr…/Let me see

「えーと」is probably the most common filler word in Japanese. This can be used not only at the start of a sentence but also at random parts of a sentence.

うーん

Ummm…

あのー

Well…/Let me see/Ummm

These two are also common filler words. They tend to be used more at the start of a sentence.

“Is that so?”

You can show that you are engaged in a conversation by showing a reaction to what the other person said. In this case, these phrases will be handy.

そうですか。

Is that so?

そうですね。

I agree / I see

「そうですね」can mean ‘let me see’ when the 「ね」is elongated.

なるほど。

I see.

“For example…”

When you want to provide examples, you can use this phrase.

例たとえば

For example

Work on your strategies

In addition to these phrases, it’s important to work on communication strategies to keep the flow of a conversation – Listen carefully and respond questions with reasoning and examples.

For example, this is an example where you didn’t add reasoning and examples.

先生せんせい

日本語にほんごの勉強べんきょうは楽たのしいですか？

あなた

はい、日本語にほんごの勉強べんきょうは楽たのしいです。

Here is a better example for the same question.

日本語にほんごの勉強べんきょうは楽たのしいですか？

あなた

そうですねぇ。はい、日本にほんに興味きょうみがありますから、日本語にほんごの勉強べんきょうは楽たのしいです。例たとえばアニメを見みながらリスニングの練習れんしゅうをすることが大好だいすきです。

Conclusion

In this article, I showed you some phrases and fillers that may help you improve the flow of a conversation in Japanese. I am sure you can sound more natural and sophisticated by using these tricks. If you know more useful phrases, please let me know in the comment section below.

読よんでくれてありがとうございました！