First Dinner with a Host Family: Politeness and a Food Restriction
You are in a 5-minute speaking assessment. Your teacher plays the host mother, and you are meeting her for the first time at the dinner table. The brief says: greet her, give her a small box of sweets from your country, explain that you cannot eat pork, accept the offer of a bath after dinner, and ask permission to use the phone to call your parents at 8:30. You have two minutes to prepare and must speak only Japanese. Your teacher will respond naturally, including one follow-up question about what you can eat. You are worried about being too direct when refusing pork, and about using the right level of politeness: the host mother is an adult you have just met, but the conversation is friendly and at home.
1. Write the greeting and gift-giving lines you would use, and explain why you chose that politeness level.
Read the worked answer
はじめまして。どうぞよろしくお願いします。これは私の国のおかしです。どうぞ。
- です/ます is required: the host mother is an adult you have just met, and the setting is polite even though it is at home.
- はじめまして fits a first meeting; よろしくお願いします is the standard set phrase, not よろしく alone.
- Give the gift with both hands and say どうぞ, not あげます. あげます describes giving as a fact and can sound like a transaction; どうぞ performs the offer.
- Avoid やあ or 元気？ - too casual for a first meeting with an adult.
2. How would you explain that you cannot eat pork without sounding as if you dislike the host's cooking? Give the Japanese you would use and the reasoning.
Read the worked answer
Say it once, softly, then move to what you can eat: すみません、私はぶた肉が食べられません。でも、さかなとやさいとたまごは大丈夫です。
- 食べられません (potential negative) describes inability; 食べません sounds like a choice, and きらいです sounds like dislike of the host's food.
- すみません is a light apology, not a long apology. Over-apologising makes the table uncomfortable.
- Adding でも、さかなと…は大丈夫です gives the host something to cook and shows you are not rejecting the meal.
- If asked 何が食べられますか, answer with a short list, not a speech.
3. The host mother says おふろ、どうぞ。How do you accept, and how do you then ask about the phone? Explain the order and the forms.
Read the worked answer
ありがとうございます。お願いします。それから、八時半に電話をかけてもいいですか。
- Accept the bath first: ありがとうございます。お願いします。 is warmer than a bare はい.
- ～てもいいですか asks permission; it is the right form for using the phone. 電話をかけます would announce a decision, and ～てください would order the host mother.
- それから signals a new topic without changing the polite level.
- A softer alternative is 電話をかけたいんですが、いいですか, but keep one request form, not three stacked.