Making friends at the club: Building rapport

💬 [来ました] is the polite past of [来る] (to come). In self-introductions like [はじめて来ました], Japanese often says "came" where English would say "this is my first time here."

💬 [はじめて] often goes before a verb to mean "for the first time doing that." You can reuse it with other actions too, like [はじめて会いました] for "We met for the first time."

🇯🇵 [ようこそ] sounds warm and welcoming, but it's more something a host says to a newcomer than something you'd say back. At a club or group event, staff or regulars might say it to someone attending for the first time.

💬 [私] is often pronounced more like (watashi), but in casual speech many people shorten it toward (watashi) without fully saying every sound clearly. In conversation, Japanese often drops [私] completely when "I" is obvious from context.