How to text friends in Japanese

Do you have a Japanese friend or are you looking for one? 
Thanks to the technology, we can meet and communicate with someone living far pretty easily these days. We have google translation and all kinds of apps out there so you don’t need to be able to speak Japanese fluently to talk on SNS with a Japanese friend. But if you know some Japanese, your conversation with him/her will be a lot more fun and it will be easier to make new Japanese friends!

This time I wrote about how to text friends (casually) in Japanese.
Most words here are short and easy to learn. Learn useful phrases and enjoy texting your Japanese friends!

Useful phrases

Saying Hello/Start a conversation

元気？ (Genki? ) :How are you? 

We use this a lot when we want to say “Hi” to someone.

いま暇？(Ima Hima ?) :Are you free now?/Do you have time now?

Ima means “Now” and Hima means “Free/Have spare time.”

何しているの？（何してるの？）:What are you doing? 

– してる (shiteru ) means doing something.
To answer this question, you can use – てる/-でる (teru/deru) at the end and say like,

テレビを見てる (Terebi wo miteru)  :Watching TV

本を読んでる (Hon wo yonderu)  :Reading a book

寝てる (Neteru) :Sleeping

はじめまして (Hajimemashite) :Nice to meet you

When you talk to someone for the first time, you can say like,

はじめまして                    (Hajimemashite)
[Your name] です。       ( – desu)
よろしくお願いします。(Yoroshiku onegaishimasu)

Nice to meet you.
I’m [Your name].
Please accept my introduction.

Making Plans

〜は暇？/空いている？ （-wa hima?/aiteiru?）
:Are you free on/at-? 

You can say like,

日曜日は暇？(Nnichiyoubi wa hima?)
:Are you free on Sunday?

夜8時は空いている？ (Yoru hachiji wa aiteiru?)
:Are you free at 8 pm? *夜 Yoru is Night/pm. 朝 Asa is Morning/am.

〜へ行こう （-he ikou）：Let’s go to -.

〜をしよう (-wo shiyou)：Let’s do – together.

〜しないといけない (-shinaito ikenai)：I have to do -.

Ending a conversation

じゃあね （Jaane）:See you

またね （Matane）:See you/I will see you again.

また明日 （Mata ashita）:See you tomorrow
*Ashita is tomorrow.

おやすみ （Oyasumi）:Good night

Other things

Internet slang

笑/w  (warai) 

People put this at the end of a sentence as to say lol .
To emphasize, you can use it several times like 笑笑/wwww

りょ (ryo)

It is a short and very casual version of saying 了解です (Ryoukai desu),which means I got it/OK/Gotcha.

A: 明日、朝10時に集合ね。     (Ashita, asa juji ni shugou ne)
B: りょ                                      (Ryo)

A: Let’s meet at 10 am tomorrow. 
B: OK (Gotcha!)

There are a lot more expressions but the words above are the most common ones we use. Next time when you have a chance to chat with a Japanese online, try using them. Japanese people know that Japanese is hard to speak/use for a foreigner, so I’m sure you will get some respect and your conversation with your Japanese friends will be more fun! 

One thing you want to avoid is to use Emoji or Text Faces (like  (*♡∀♡)  ) too much. Back then they were cool, but nowadays only old people use them often and people will think you are “Not cool” if you over use them.
1 or 2 every time you say something will be enough and don’t try to look fancy on texting!

See you next time.
Taka

*I’m a professional composer by the way.
You can listen/download my music below.

Multicolors
Free Somebody
Skyhigh

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me : [email protected]