How to Say ‘Nice to meet you, I'm Emily Smith.’ in Japanese
はじめまして、 Emily Smith です。
hajime mashi te Emily Smith desu
[hah-jee-meh mah-shee teh dess]
🇯🇵 In Japan: In Japan you'd normally give your family name first, or just your family name alone at a professional event. Saying it Western-style is accepted for foreigners, but recruiters will likely call you by your family name plus さん.
Phrase Breakdown
はじめまして、
hajime mashi te
Nice to meet you,
This is the first-meeting greeting. Pause briefly after it before saying your name.
はじめまして、どうぞよろしく。
Nice to meet you, pleased to make your acquaintance.
Words in this phrase
はじめ
hajime
[hah-jee-meh]
beginning; first (as in ‘for the first time’)
In greetings, はじめ is part of はじめまして and comes from 初め (first time). It signals “this is our first time meeting.”
はじめは緊張したけど、音楽の話で仲良くなった。
At first I was nervous, but we became friends by talking about music.
まし
mashi
[mah-shee]
polite verb ending part
Part of polite verb forms used in formal speech.
丁寧に話しまし た。
I spoke politely.
て
te
[teh]
te-form ending
This て makes the phrase a gentle request or friendly instruction: please take care.
てはお気をつけての終わりです。
て is the ending of お気をつけて.
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