Since arriving in Japan, I have received many compliments on my Japanese language skills, mostly totally undeserved. In fact I'm pretty disappointed with my poor ability, considering I did study quite a bit before I left; yet I continue to impress people by saying only a few words!
This is largely because Japanese people are generally very polite and kind, and also pleased to see foreigners taking an interest in their language and culture, I think. A little bit of effort goes a long way.
However, I do have one secret weapon, which I am happy to share. It's my opinion that the most rewarding word to learn in any language, the one that will help you the most with the least effort, is to learn the word for "ummmm..."
Hear me out. First of all, um is an excellent filler while you scramble frantically in your head for the word you need. It reassures your interlocutor that more will eventually come, and may even make it look like you are thinking deeply before choosing the appriopriate statement (a philosopher!) rather than flailing frantically and hoping to not come up with a random Spanish phrase instead.
Secondly, it's a very colloquial phrase, so it reassures people that you have spoken this language with actual humans before, and that you are not expecting them to speak in your language instead.
Lastly, it gives you confidence for both the above reasons, lending you the strength to go on! It will be short and easy to pronounce, too, since after all it's used for the same reasons by native speakers when they're not sure what's coming out of their mouths next.
In Japanese, it's "ano", with even accent on both syllables, though the ooooooooooooooo can be drawn out while you think. Especially for women, whose polite speech verges heavily on the self-deprecating, it's useful to begin an utterance with it as a sort of apology for interrupting or for requesting something.
It is important to try to get the right intonation. In Spanish, um is "o sea" (also fun to say!). There was one graduate student in Spanish Lit I remember who, though a native speaker of English, spoke very good Spanish. But while she spoke fluently and inserted o sea at regular intervals, it was always in this flat monotone which made it seemed pointless - if it's obvious your ums are scripted the whole effect falls away!
This is of course my foreigner's take on the whole matter. But whatever its true use in colloquial Japanese, my regular use of ano definitely helps me get up the courage to talk to people, and so I am grateful! Ano, arigatou gozaimashita!
