Eleanor Barker answers your travel questions
I'm running out of time to learn some Japanese before my holiday. Can you help with just enough to show good manners?
Daijobu desu (no worries!) Any Kiwi who has been paying attention to Māori pronunciation will have an advantage in Japan. Japanese and Māori have the same five phonemes, although technically four of them are slightly different. Both languages have phonemic contrasting based upon length, e.g. kēkē (armpit), keke (pie). I find Romaji (the Romanisation of the Japanese written language) to be fairly phonetic. Anime television shows will help with your pronunciation, as will Terrace House on Netflix.
When I first went to Japan I noticed that many locals do have a bit of English, but tend to be shy about using it. You don't need to be fluent to get around, but locals will be stoked if you have a go at speaking to them in their mother tongue.
When you have words, rather than a real grounding in a language, "wakarimasen" - "I don't understand" - will come in handy. "Nihongo" means Japanese or Japanese language, therefore "Nihongo wakarimasen" ("I don't speak Japanese"). Sukoshi means "a little" and will be handy to remember if anyone thinks you are fluent - high praise!