So You Want To Be Cool And Say うぃ〜す Or おっす Instead Of こんにちは
Okay face it. こんにちは (hello) is boring. You learned it on day 1. It’s day 200, 500, 1000. Do you still want to be saying hello like every other boring person?
You may have heard うぃ〜す or おっす! These are two slangy ways to say hello that you hear in numerous anime and tv shows where the younger character is trying to act cool, casual, and down to earth. Perfect. You can do the same thing now. You finally found a way out of boring こんにちは.
Stop.
If you say うぃ〜す, this is the type of person you will sound like.
Yes, this could be you.
And if you are going to go around with おっす, I’ll only forgive you if you are 孫悟空 and you follow it with オラ悟空!
Okay they’re really not that bad…
And if you are young, a guy, a little rough around the edges, in a school club/sport, then it’s perfectly natural. Though in that case, I usually prefer the simple オー for hello.
Do you use these phrases? Know anyone who does? How do you feel about them?
Founder of Jalup. iOS Software Engineer. Former attorney, translator, and interpreter. Still watching 月曜から夜ふかし weekly since 2013.
I often say やぁ~ but I’m not sure if that’s the local dialect or not, I’ll have to ask! I’ve only ever heard it said between relatives or close friends.
Yeah that’s definitely another common one. Not sure where it originated, but it is used fairly broadly.
あいつみたいになりたくない奴なんて居ないだろ
僕なら、ピースサインをしながら「やぁぁァ」と言うんですよ★
「うぃーす WAWAWA忘れ物」by谷口
なりたくても中々なれないと思うよ!
Yes! I can finally sit at the cool kids’ table!
Success!
So I always thought this was for like rough and tumble punks straight outta manga. That was until I got stationed in Japan.
There are tons of shipyard workers here who are all real rough dudes ranging from age 20-40 who work on our ships here.
You can hardly understand a word they say to each other except for the long drawn out 〜まあああああす they say to finish each sentence.
I bring this up though cause they all great each other pretty much exclusively with おっす、うぃす、ちいす。 Truth be told I’ve even done it with them and although I get some strange looks I almost get the same back.
So although I never say it to like my neighbors who are my landlords and about 60+ yrs old, situationally it can actually work for a gaijin. I say try it.
It definitely has its place with the right people. And a group of shipyard workers sounds like a typical group that makes full use of it.
I’m curious as to who that guy is, since my reading level likely doesn’t even approach that manga yet (then again, it might be an easy read, for all I know).
I take it he’s a dick? XD
He’s arrogant and trying to be cool.