7.7 Making an appointment — Epoché
What you will be able to do Ask when would suit somebody, in three registers. Propose a time and ask whether it is convenient. Recognise a refusal that contains no negative. Close an arrangement with the right parting formula. Prerequisites : lessons 7.6 and 4.12 — travel, and the clock and calendar. Everything in this lesson is built from pieces you have. The clock and the days came in 4.12; the suggestion and invitation forms came in 4.13. What is new is one noun, meaning roughly convenience or how things stand for you , and it carries the whole conversation. The two exchanges below are the same arrangement at two distances. Read the first for the formal shape and the second for how little is left of it between friends. The first exchange A telephone call to make an appointment. The receptionist is at the top of the politeness range. Caller こんにちは。よやくをしたいんですが。 [1] — Hello, I'd like an appointment. Receptionist いつがごつごうよろしいでしょうか。 [2] — When would it be convenient for you? Caller なんじにしましょうか。 [3] — What time shall we make it? Receptionist あすまたここであいましょう。 [4] — Let's meet here again tomorrow. The caller's first line ends in a form that trails off — I would like an appointment, but… — and the but is not a hesitation, it is the politeness. Stating a wish outright is too direct; leaving the sentence open invites the other person to complete it. The receptionist's reply is the most formal version of the question in this lesson, with an honorific prefix, a formal adjective and a softened ending. Recognise it; do not try to produce it yet. The second exchange The same arrangement between friends, and a parting. Friend A いつならつごうがいい？ [5] — When will it be convenient for you? Friend B では、あとであいましょう。 [6] — Well, see you later. Friend A いつかちかいうちにあいましょう。 [7] — Let's meet sometime in the near future. Friend B そのときにあいましょう。 [8] — See you then. The first line is the same question with everything stripped off: no prefix, no polite ending, and a conditional in place of the subject particle. Four syllables shorter than the formal version and identical in content. The last two lines are parting formulas, and the third is the one to be careful with — let us meet sometime soon is, in both languages, frequently a way of not arranging anything at all. Who is speaking to whom The question about convenience comes in at least four sizes. The table below has three of them and the exchanges have two more. From the longest to the shortest they run: honorific prefix plus formal adjective plus softened ending; prefix plus polite ending; plain polite; and the bare plain form with a conditional. Which one you use is decided by who the other person is, not by how well you know them, and getting it wrong in the short direction is worse than in the long one. A refusal will not contain a negative. This is the thing to take away. Asked whether Thursday suits, a Japanese speaker who cannot do Thursday will say something like Thursday is a little… and stop. The sentence has no verb and no negative, and it is a complete and unambiguous no. An English speaker waits for the rest of the sentence, does not get it, and concludes that Thursday is fine. It is not. The same applies to the intake of breath, to the word meaning a little used on its own, and to a long pause. All three mean no. If you hear one, propose a different time immediately — that is what the pause is for, and doing it promptly is a kindness rather than a retreat. Appointments are kept exactly. Ten minutes late is an event requiring an apology and, if you can manage it, a telephone call in advance. Arriving five minutes early is the norm for anything professional. This is not a stereotype; it is the actual expectation, and it is the easiest piece of Japanese etiquette to get right because it requires no language at all. Saying it another way Six more. The first two show the question losing its formality one piece at a time, and the last is the politest way of not making an appointment at all. Japanese English When いつがつごうがいいですか。 [9] When is a good time for you? the same question, polite and without the honorific prefix いつつごうがいいですか。 [10] So, when is it convenient for you? shorter again, and entirely ordinary between colleagues なんじにきましょうか。 [11] What time? proposing that you come at a time, rather than that you both meet ごよやくはいただいていますか。 [12] Do you have a reservation? what you will be asked on arriving: do you have a booking ごよやくはされていますか？ [13] Do you have an appointment? the same in a different honorific form — both are common ごえんがあったらまたあいましょう。 [14] It would be nice to see you again if the opportunity arises. a parting formula that arranges nothing, and is meant not to What is going on The noun that carries the conversation. It means something like circumstances or how things stand , and it is used of people rather than of times: you ask whether the other person's circumstances are good, not whether the time is free. This is why the answer can be a refusal without being about the calendar at all. The trailing sentence is a system, not a habit. Ending on the word for but , or on a form meaning it is that… , softens anything: a request, a refusal, a piece of bad news. You will meet it constantly and it is taught properly in the second phase. For now, notice that a sentence that stops is finished, and that the unspoken half is usually the negative one. Business appointments are made by email and confirmed by telephone, in that order. The email carries the proposal and the telephone call confirms it, which is the reverse of the pattern in much of the English-speaking world. For anything social, a messaging app does both. The year is often given by era. Official appointments — hospitals, city offices, banks — may write the date using the regnal era rather than the western year, and the form you are handed may have boxes for it. The staff will fill it in for you if you ask; the background lesson 12.1 deals with where the system comes from. New words Word Meaning Notes よやく ja yo yaku