Topic: Animal Crossing New Leaf - Quick Japanese Reference Guide

Hey! If you've been on the island, a lot of people in the international group ONLY speak Japanese, or Japanese with poor English. This can get VERY confusing. Here is a quick guide on a few phrases you might notice said (translated to English), and a few things you can say. (Note: If you see boxes instead of Japanese letters, you may need to install the Japanese language pack on your computer).

Kana (Pronunciation) - English
うん (Un) －Yes
はい (Hai) - Yes
いいえ (Iie) - No
フレンド(Furendo) - Friend (Code)
フィッシング(Fisshingu) - Fishing
いきたくない (Ikitakunai) - I do not want to go
なにじん OR なにじんか (Nanijin/Nanijinka) - What Nationality?
アメリカじん　（Amerikajin) - (I am) American
おめでとう (Omedetou) - Congratulations
にほんごわかりません (Nihongo wakarimasen) - Don't understand Japanese
エイゴわかりません (Eigo wakarimasen) - Don't understand English

If they translate something to English, they likely will not use spaces. (This is, as you may guess, because spaces are not used in Japanese.)
I plan on adding more..
I'll add more once I come across it. I've noticed if you invite them into your town (or you go to their town), they are very generous with items. Plus, it's pretty cool being able to interact with someone on a game on the other side of the globe =)

I can read Hiragana and most of Katakana, although my vocabulary is somewhat lacking outside of basic nouns and short, commonly used phrases, I've got the Japanese grammar down pat. Luckily for me most Japanese phrases are short in this game due to the lack of typing space.

I was once asked:
なにじん (Nani Jin) - What Nationality?

Was beaten in a minigame and I said:
Omodetou (おめでとう) - Congratulations

Or you could just say:
Nihongo wakarimasen (にほんごわかりません) - Don't understand Japanese
Also:
エイゴわかりません (Eigo wakarimasen) - Don't understand English

I'm fairly sure more Japanese understand Romaji than ones that understand English, so even though non-japanese versions of the game don't have a kana alphabet, you can still type out what you mean phrasing it with English letters.

Do the Japanese have access to a Kanji alphabet in New Leaf? I hope they don't...

I can read kana, so that has helped me quite a bit in communicating with them. (As for when I don't know what they are saying, at least I can type it into translator.) I haven't seen any kanji typed in game, I would assume they can't do that on a 3DS. Most of them could read the romaji. I'll add those phrases to the list.