Blog Akirademy - Enjoy Japanese Experiences

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How can I say I love you in Japanese ?

Everybody who learns foreign languages will find out the way to greet or to say the love and compassion. The Japanese are very special, they has the unique way to express love and feelings for their lover. Now let’s explore the Japanese culture from the way to say I love you in Japanese.

In Japanese, "love" is, "愛" (ai) , and the verb form "to love" is, "aisuru（愛する）". "I love you" can be literally translated as, "aishite imasu （愛しています）". "Aishiteru （愛してる）", "aishiteru yo （愛してるよ）" or "aishiteru wa (愛してるわ, female speech)" is normally used in conversation. "Yo" and "wa" at the end of sentence are sentence ending particles.

However, the Japanese don't say "I love you" as often as people in the west do, mainly because of cultural differences. I am not surprised if someone from Japan says that they have never used this expression in their life.

The Japanese generally don't express their love openly. They believe that love can be expressed by manners. When they put their feelings into words, it is preferred to use the phrase "suki desu （好きです）". It literally means, "to like". "Suki da （好きだ）," "suki dayo" (好きだよ, male speech) or "suki yo (好きよ, female speech)" are more colloquial expressions. There are many variations of this phrase, including regional dialects (hogen). "Suki yanen （好きやねん）" is one of the versions in Kansai-ben (the Kansai dialect). Since the phrase can also mean "I love it", and because of the popularity of Kansai-ben, it is used as the name of an instant noodle soup product

If you like somebody or something very much, "dai (literally means, big)" can be added as the prefix, and you can say "daisuki desu （大好きです）".

There is another word to describe "love" which is "koi （恋）" can be roughly translated as "love" in English. However, they have a slightly different nuance.

The kanji character for "kokoro (心, heart)" is included as part of both kanji characters. Compare the kanji characters below (From left "kokoro," "ai" and "koi").

心、愛、恋

Both "ai （愛）" and "koi （恋）" can be roughly translated as "love" in English. However, they have a slightly different nuance. Here are some proverbs that include "koi."

恋に師匠なし

Koi ni shishou nashi - Love needs no teaching.

恋に上下の隔てなし

Koi ni jouge no hedate nashi - Love makes all men equal.

恋は思案のほか

Koi wa shian no hoka - Love is without reason.

恋は盲目

Koi wa moumoku. - Love is blind.

恋は熱しやすく冷めやすい。

Koi wa nesshi yasuku same yasui Love becomes deep easily, but cool

The Japanese sometimes use the English word "love" as well, though it is pronounced as "rabu （ラブ）" (since there is no "L" or "V" sound in Japanese). "A love letter" is usually called "rabu retaa （ラブレター）." "Koibumi （恋文）" sounds a bit dated, and it is more of a literary word than a conversational word. "Rabu shiin （ラブシーン）" is "a love scene". Young people say "rabu rabu (ラブラブ, love love)" when they are very much in love.

Expressing your love in a foreign language is way trickier than it seems. And in Japan, love is quite a serious affair so use the true sentences in the true situation to expressing yourself.

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Japanese language is of course both difficult and exciting at the same time. And as you learn more about it, you will find out that there are many meaningful Japanese words which English does not have. The more we think about them, the more interesting they become, until the point we will see that they are really meaningful in our life. So here are the 5 cool and meaningful Japanese words we should learn.

1 - Itadakimasu

This is a pretty well-known Japanese word, even for people who haven't learned Japanese before. In simple way, we can understand "Itadakimasu" as "Thanks for the meal" or "Let's eat". However, if we dig in deeper, we can say "Itadakimasu" is somewhat relate to Buddism. The action of clasping 2 hands together with slight head bow can be seen as an act of prayer. In Buddism, all lives are considered to be precious, when you do "Itadakimasu", you have to finish all your meal as a way to express gratitude since the "food" gave it life to you.

2 - Shinrin-Yoku

This is one of many cool and meaningful Japanese words as it refers to the action of going into the forest to relax and enjoy life. In English, "Shinrin-yoku" can be translated to "Forest-bathing" (pretty interesting translation, too). On the contrary to its "fancy name", this activity is not hard to do, simply go into the forest, walk slowly and breathe, submerge ourselves into the nature. As it is proved, "Shinrin-yoku" is a excellent healing way, it can help alot in improving human's health such as reducing blood pressure, reducing stress, improving mood, improving sleep and body energy, .etc... In term of spiritual idea, it is like becoming one with the nature, relax and put all worries behind for better present, and future. If you are interested in this activity, you should check out this site for more information.

3 - Ikigai

Are you struggling to find your dream? Are you struggling to find your purpose in life? If that is the case then this word will give you a big help. In Japanese Kanji, "Ikigai" means "reason for being", or we can say "reason for living". The more we think about it, the more meaningful things we can see around this word. If we divide this word, we will have "iki" which refers to "life" and "kai" which basically means "realizing what we expect or hope for". We can also translate "Ikagai" as "the thing that makes you wake up everyday", so let ask ourselves: "What give us motivation to get up early and say good morning?".

4 - Yugen

Brace yourself because we are going deep into meaning of one part of Buddism in general and Japanese culture in particular - Yugen. "Yugen" are explained to be awareness of the Universe which triggers the emotion and feeling about the world. Sounds complicated isn' it? To make it easier to understand, first we will have to understand one concept from Buddism which is "nothingness". "Nothingness" does not mean "non-existance", but rather means "everything will constantly changing, some will evolve, some will dissolve, that is the way of the world". In Japanese concept of aesthetic, this means appreciating the constant changes of the world, instead of clinging into the clinging into the forever existance of things, such as the sunset scenery, or gazing at the boat which are gradually disappearing. If we apply this meaning into daily life, we will see that everything around us will constantly change, for this reason, we should focus on our present, instead of clinging into the glory or the sorrow of the past, as everything will disappear, and only present remains.

5 - Hikikomori

"Hikikomori" is actually not a popular Japanese word around the world until recent years. However, in truth, it refers to a real-life situation, or people who locks themselves in their own room, seperating themselves from society. This situation is seen as a extreme state of isolation, the bad part is that it happens more and more nowadays. This might not be the worst in other countries, but in Japan, seems the percentage of "hikikomori" increases so much that Japanese Ministry of Health has to give out a definition and 6 different criterias for "hikikomori". Interesting Japanese word, but quite terrifying at the same time indeed. So, should we ask ourselves "am I an hikikomori?".



And those are the 5 cool and meaningful Japanese words that can help alot in our life. Stay tune, and for now, good luck and have fun in your Japanese learning journey!

Source: blog.akirademy.com

Japanese is a unique language for several reasons. It has a different sentence order (subject object verb) than most other major languages. It has three different writing systems, too – hiragana, katakana, and kanji. For some people, Kanji is a nightmare, I mean who like to memorize 2000+ symbols to support for learning a language ? Whatever you like or don’t like kanji, here some tips for you to learn 1000 kanji in 2 months: