Should I speak Japanese in a Japanese Resturaunt?
 

I always wonder this, I obviously am not fluent but I can still say some things in Japanese. Is it a good idea? Would they appreciate it?

Help is much sppreciated :pinkbow:

In Japan? Yes.

In the US? Not necessary. As long as you know what you are saying, it can't hurt. Are you sure the employees are Japanese?

Maybe... if you can break your bad habbit of addressing everyone あなた.　

When I told you about this a few months ago, you said "Thanks for the advice!" but kept doing the same from the next day on.　;)

If in Japan you should speak Japanese as much as possible. In England I know of 2 Japanese resturaunts, both of which have staffed entierly by Chinese. It could be interesting to see their reaction though..

I say no.
Since you're asking if you should speak Japanese, I'm going to guess that you're not in Japan (since there would be no question about it).

But you don't know if the staff is Japanese, or if they themselves know the language. Just treat it as any other resturaunt, and don't worry about trying to impress them.

I mean, you don't speak Italian when going to Olive Garden, right? ;)

very true . . . :p

Alright, thank you everyone for your advice, I'm going to wait a little until I'm a little more confident of my speaking befroe I try ^_^

EDIT: As for them being Japanese? I'm one of the majority who can't specify beyond Asian -.-

I've encountered many Japanese restaurants in the U.S. which were mainly staffed by Chinese, Koreans, or Vietnamese. In fact I usually assume that a U.S. Japanese restaurant is run by non-Japanese until I have reason to believe otherwise. It's not a bad rule in my area, since ethnic Chinese tend to outnumber other East Asian immigrants here, and it's pretty clear that people in the restaurant business are more interested in what they think will sell than in sticking to their own ethnic cuisine.

However, there is a simple question you might ask before trying out your Japanese skills on a restaurant staff member; have you already heard the person speaking Japanese in the restaurant? If so, it may not matter what their ethnicity is, as you already know they use the language. If not, then it's probably a bad idea to assume they know it. If you can't tell what language they're speaking, then maybe you should strengthen your own Japanese skills a bit more first. ;)

Here's a bit of a compromise to consider.

If you are sitting at a sushi bar, thanking the chef in Japanese won't hurt. No matter what the nationality, that is a phrased learned while training as an itamae. Even one of my favorite itamae who is Mexican, smiles and responds in Japanese to simple polite phrases.

In my case, I got lucky years ago when simply please and thank-you to a chef who is Japanese led to regular lessons in how to order my food.

You might get away with the same for the waitstaff, but not necessarily. A Korean waitress would understand your attempt, but might not appreciate it at all. And in Dallas, many of the Japanese restaurants are Korean owned.

Well here in California (non LA or SF area) most of the Japanese restaurants are ran by Chinese and most the employee's are not even of Asian decent.There is one I know for sure are Japanese. That's one out of like 7.:vsign:

In Melbourne, Australia where I'm from there are also many Japanese restaurants that have non Japanese staff but there are also many that do. Melbourne has a reasonably large Japanese population, concentrated in a few suburbs. On the couple of times I've been back to Aus in the last 6 years I've been to a couple of restaurants with Japanese staff where I have spoken Japanese. They were pretty surprised and somewhat excited to learn I live in Japan. I'm not fluent in the language but they seemed to appreciate me having a go at it and I certainly know enough for the fairly basic conversation you have in a restaurant. Anyway I reckon have a go if you want to. I doubt it would ever cause offence and there's no need to be embarrassed if you get something wrong!