Essential Japanese Phrases for the Classroom

Unfortunately, summer is over. That means it’s time for students and English teachers to return to the classroom. Heck, teachers working for eikawa (conversation school) may have never even left. Autumn is also considered the next hiring season for schools in Japan, so many teachers meet entirely new classrooms.

Around this time, deciding whether to use Japanese in the classroom is always a tricky decision. Perhaps more so with the stress of the coronavirus pandemic still looming over our shoulders. Teachers want to immerse their students in English, but Japanese comes in handy for new or unruly students.

There are also occasions when teachers might be expected to use Japanese in the classroom to help communicate more effectively or when the learners are too young to be effectively engaged in English.

For these situations, here are some practical Japanese terms and expressions you can use in the classroom.

Taking attendance

Photo: iStock: Xavierarnau

One situation where speaking Japanese is useful is during roll call. It can be an essential part of the job at some schools to record attendance and even make reports about it. You can try encouraging them to “I’m here,” but in Japan, students will typically answer roll call by saying hai (はい).

Classroom order and discipline

Photo: iStock/ D76MasahiroIKEDA

In Japanese, there are many ways to tell someone to be quiet. Not surprisingly, the Japanese word closest to the English phrase “shut up” (黙(だま)る) shouldn’t be used in class. It sounds rude, too direct and cold.

Instead, when the students are misbehaving, Japanese educators are more likely to speak more indirectly, such as “be quiet,” which is conveyed by calling the students “noisy” (煩い(うるさ)い).

Giving commands

The shinasai form (-しなさい) is a Japanese word used to tell someone to do something. Likewise, the –nasai form (~なさい) is a useful contrast to the -te form (-て) that most students learn early on.

Using -なさい puts you on a higher level than the person you are speaking to. This makes it especially useful for the classroom as it enforces the teacher-student roles.

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Of course, not everyone is teaching children. Sometimes it’s inappropriate to remind someone that you have senior status in the class. In private lessons with adults, it may be better to use the ~て form to give a friendlier vibe to the conversation.

Restrictive forms

While -て and -なさい forms can be tricky, making the opposite form is a lot easier. The easiest way to make a firm order not to do something is by simply adding -な on the end of verbs, so for example, くる (kuru) becomes くるな (kuruna).

The only problem with the -な form is that it can seem too harsh. Hence, Japanese women will try to avoid using it entirely. As a result, -ないで (naide) is often more helpful in classes as it is less direct and bossy. One exception to this is when issuing commands to a room full of students, in which case the な-form is used so you can make the order stand out.

To complicate matters, in the slangy speech of some young, rough Japanese students, な can be used as a contraction of なさい. So for these students, 食（た）べるな and 食（た）べな have the opposite meaning! Thus, be careful of the situation.

Repeat after me

Toorini (とおりに) is attached to words to means that someone should copy the speaker. This is especially useful during writing classes for younger students or for older students when you say something that listeners should do.

As you get more confident at using Japanese in the classroom, you will want to mix this form with other forms you learned earlier.

Do you have any tips or phrases teachers should use in the classroom? Let us know in the comments!

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• kevin says:

  December 12, 2015 at 7:49 am

  Was just wondering. What is the correct way to say ” I’m present or I’m here” In japanese. Like you would when answering the Roll Call at school!
  • Clament Chin says:

    September 24, 2016 at 10:16 pm

    Japanese students anwser it by saying `Hai’ or `Hai, imasu’.
• Kita says:

  October 16, 2015 at 2:57 pm

  Love it! Thanks~
• Ross McCallum says:

  October 14, 2015 at 12:45 pm

  Thanks for making this, I really appreciate articles like this. Nicely presented too, Gaijinpot. 🙂
• B says:

  October 12, 2015 at 4:40 pm

  本を閉じる means to close a book.
  開いてください　or　開けてください is the phrase you should use I think.
• renzkun says:

  October 12, 2015 at 4:33 pm

  Very informative thumbs up!
• Derek says:

  October 12, 2015 at 4:08 pm

  There’s an error here. 閉じる means to close, 開ける is the proper term for opening.