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Genki Desu Ka

MiaCarlax

先輩
28 Nov 2006
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This may seem like a stupid question. But my japanese is terrible and in pursuit of trying to learn I rammed my head with podcasts and speaking with japanese people online.
Through japanesepod101.com they said that genki desu ka can be translated into how are you/ are you well
And someone I talk to backed this up and also said that saying just genki is fine when Im talking to him. (he is native japanese living in england atm)
But when I was talking to another person who is living in japan, I asked genki desu ka (to my knowledge how are you) and he laughed at me. Saying I was asking how his health was and that i seemed abit silly, correcting me with daijoubu
Which confused me abit. Am I wrong in asking genki desu ka or genki. Or was he just being abit picky? Is daikoubu a better way of asking someone how they are? Or is that also wrong?

Also can someone help me with replies that I could use to how are you, that would be much appreichated
My computer still doesnt show hiragana or kanji so can you reply in romanji if possible :)

thanks
 
To my knowledge, genki desu ka does mean how are you ? But I suggest you put a honorific o infront of genki so its o-genki desu ka. Maybe thats why he interprented it different, dont really know. You can also say daijoubu desu ka, but I would translate that more as Are you ok ? Anyway you can use both..
 
I think you would use genki really as a means to ask if the person is well, or doing well... Possibly more often if you haven't seen a person in a while, and you could also say genki deshita ka?... Which is closer to "have you been well?"...

Daijoubu ka? also, has a distinct feel of asking someone if they are physically alright, say if your friend slipped and fell on some ice, and you were concerned you might ask of them, daijoubu ka!?...

...where daijoubu itself can be used just to ask, is this okay, is that okay, is it okay--- It can also be used as an isolated word (like much of the Japanese language), as simply daijobu?? to ask if someone is okay... Confusing I know.

The Japanese language is fairly flexible in the way that you can say things, and you can omit certain parts of the phrase depending on context & familiarity with the other speaker...

When you're saying that it's okay, it would be okay, when speaking with someone familiar, it might be better to say ii yo, it's good, it's okay, no problem... rather than daijoubu... Also, you can say something like, [tabette] mou ii, "is it okay if eat? / would eating be okay?"...

The phrase "How are you" is pretty much as I've described it above, it's not necessary to ask if you already know they are well, but it may be more natural just to greet them with something like ohayou, konnichiwa, or konbanwa... depending on the time of day.

I've never greeted someone with daijoubu, and it still seems to have the meaning of "ok, alright, safe?" and it seems unnatural to me to use it as a greeting, maybe someone can correct me on this....
 
Thank you for your help. Cleared that up for me. Its just in general conversation with friends, the second thing I say to them is. How are you or What have you been up to.
So thats what I say when trying to speak japanese too.

Certainly cleared up the meaning of daijoubu
didnt know it had so many meanings and variations thou
 
To ask what someones been doing, you might say nani o shite imashita ka?, but that may not really translate directly to "what's up...", more litterally, "what have you been doing?" (non-present).
 
I think you would use genki really as a means to ask if the person is well, or doing well... Possibly more often if you haven't seen a person in a while, and you could also say genki deshita ka?... Which is closer to "have you been well?"...
I've never been asked Genki deshita ka ? but were it to happen out of the blue I would take it as "Were you well/were you doing alright?" To which I would try to reply under my breath without missing a beat Okagesama de "Yoku narimashita" or "Daibu mashi ni narimashita" (Thanks to you, I am much better now). :p

Genki ? is good for friends or close aquaintances, I usually use Ogenki ? only because it's feminine, sweet, and the guys love it. 😌

What was the context behind the daijoubu misunderstanding....not to probe too much, just out of curiousity. I've never heard it as an "aisatsu" or greeting either. :)
 
Some of the responses you can use when asked "genki?" are;

zekkōchō desu (on top of the world)
genki ippai (full of genki, or similiar to "feeling like a million bucks")
or simply add sugoi or sugoku before genki, "sugio genki" (really good)

for a negative response, like "not so good" you can use "māmā" or;
genki dewa arimasen
genki ja nai
geknki dewa nai

Please, if there is a mistake in my suggestions, point them out. I am also new to japanese, but at least know these basic terms. Feel free to correct/add to my comment
 
Some of the responses you can use when asked "genki?" are;
zekkōchō desu (on top of the world)
genki ippai (full of genki, or similiar to "feeling like a million bucks")
or simply add sugoi or sugoku before genki, "sugio genki" (really good)
for a negative response, like "not so good" you can use "māmā" or;
genki dewa arimasen
genki ja nai
geknki dewa nai
Please, if there is a mistake in my suggestions, point them out. I am also new to japanese, but at least know these basic terms. Feel free to correct/add to my comment
Genki is used for someone you haven't seen for a while, talking over the phone, or in a mail message and is very similar in English to finding out 'how are you?' A million responses are theoretically possible but overwhelmingly the concentration of answers come out either 'fine' or 'not so good.'

In Japanese : genki ([desu]yo), totemo genki, genki ja nai, genki ga nai....Now that I think about it, anything else would almost sound almost ostentatious or pretentious under normal circumstances...I'd probably think they were either sick or on drugs...:eek:
 
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