Japanese cool slang

If you've been studying Japanese from textbooks, you might be shocked the first time you hear real conversations from Japanese friends.

People don’t always speak like polite anime characters or JLPT examples. We use slang, shorten words.

Let’s take a fun tour of the slang you’ll actually hear in Japan!

Here are some popular ones:

👉 やばい (yabai)

Meaning: crazy, amazing, dangerous, bad, cool. It depends on context.
Example: このケーキやばい！ (This cake is insanely good!)

👉 うざい (uzai)

Meaning: annoying.
Example: 兄はちょっとうざい。 (My brother is kind of annoying.)

👉 きもい (kimoi)

Meaning: gross, creepy.
Example: それちょっときもい。 (That’s kind of gross.)

👉 まじで (maji de)

Meaning: seriously, really?
Example: まじで？ (For real?)

👉 ワンチャン (wan chan)

Meaning: maybe, there’s a chance.
Comes from English “one chance”.

👉 ガチ (gachi)

Meaning: serious, real.
Example: ガチでおいしい。 (It’s seriously good.)

Your Sensei,
Hikari 👩🏻‍🏫