FWIW, It’s not your primary point, but your aside about Chinese is way wrong. Here’s what you said:

“One nice thing about learning Japanese kanji is that once you learn all 2000 characters, you are 1/5th of the way to reading Chinese fluently! Another reason I regret not studying Japanese kanji: I’m tasked with learning Chinese by 2015.”

It’s just wrong in so many ways. Kanji does not equal Chinese. Yes, they were borrowed from Chinese, along with the OnYomi, but most meanings have drifted considerably in the interim. And that’s beside the fact that Chinese and Japanese are from completely different language groups – the grammar is totally alien. And then you have the simplified characters (mainland) vs the traditional (everywhere else). There’s a ludicrous chasm between the two.

What can mislead is the fact that Chinese people have an easy time picking up kanji – but it’s maybe like a Greek or Roman understanding our medical words. Just because I know the words “telescope”, “chronometer” and “cryptography” doesn’t mean I can understand Greek. It’s really that different.

I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer, just preparing you for the battle ahead. if you’ve only learned a few hundred Kanji in 3 years, you’re going to have to step up your game.

You should study for and take the jplt as well. http://www.jlpt.jp/e/

best of luck

I totally relied on the the osusume method before I thought of doing that (or maybe it was before I had a phone with dictionary capability). Btw that and “kore” you can eat pretty much anywhere!

“Otsukare sama deshita” is a constant source of fascination to me because actually, as I understand it, there is no translation for it. You have chosen “you must be tired” but I like to translate it as “(whatever you have done) its finished” – because tiredness come into it, but its not entirely it. It is also neither positive nor negative (even if you did a mediocre job you still get Otsukare sama deshita) and I don’t feel it carries praise.

Nonetheless, its one of the most useful phrases to use when you walk past co-workers on the way to and from the teachers bathroom. ;-)

At the risk of sounding like an FDJI, one little nitpick: Sumimasen doesn’t imply that you don’t deserve to exist or live. Sumimasen is a negative form of the verb sumu. Sumu has several meanings, depending on which kanji is used for the “su” part of the word. One meaning is to live (in a place), written as 住む. The negative, sumimasen (住みません) means “I don’t live (in a certain place).

However, the sumimasen you listed above, the catchall phrase that means “I’m sorry/excuse me/etc” is written with a different kanji: 済, meaning “to end/finish.” Thus, a literal translation of sumimasen (済みません) might be “I’m/it’s not finished.” Though it’s doubtful most people are thinking about this phrase literally.