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November 7, 2018
Alexa speaks Japanese

Japanese Alexa Commands: Arekusa, Speak Nihongo!

Alexa! Speak Japanese.

Did you know you can set your Alexa device to answer in Japanese? Same thing with Siri and other AI assistants. While I am certain these commands work for other devices, let’s look at Alexa specifically.
Alexa speaks Japanese

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SETTING UP ALEXA IN JAPANESE

If you have a newer Alexa device, you should be able to set it to Japanese using your Alexa App. First generation Echos do not support Japanese, unfortunately.
  1. Open the Alexa App on your phone.
  2. Click on the bar icon to the top left and choose “Settings”
  3. Choose “Device Settings”
  4. Choose “Language”
  5. Choose “日本語”

JAPANESE ALEXA COMMANDS

You don’t need to be overly polite with Alexa. Drop the kudasai and masu/desu. Most of these commands are taken from the Japanese Alexa help page. (The link changed and I can’t find it now)

COMMON ALEXA COMMANDS

アレクサ arekusa Alexa (the wake word; say this before a command)

Shut her up!

TIME

「何時ですか?」 nanji desu ka?  What time is it?

Most commands have a shortcut which usually can be used in casual speech anyway. For example, to ask for the time, you can just say:

WEATHER

Other weather questions

MUSIC


TIMERS AND ALARMS


INFORMATION

Just as you would in English, ask Alexa trivia, like how tall is Mt. Fuji or Who invented the light bulb.

「空はどうして青いの?」 sora wa doushite aoi no? Why is the sky blue?


MATH

Plus: 「1たす1は?」 ichi tasu ichi wa? What is 1 + 1?

Minus: 「1ひく1は?」 ichi hiku ichi wa? What is 1 – 1?

Multiplication: 「1かける1は?」 ichi kakeru ichi wa? What is 1 x 1?

Division: 「1わる1は?」 ichi waru ichi wa? What is 1 / 1?


NEWS

「今日のニュースは?」 kyou no nyu-su wa? What is today’s news?

To get Japanese news, you’ll need to find and enable the country/ language specific skill in the app and then add it to your briefing.

FUN


Learn More:
Alexa commands in Japanese: (most of the above was taken from this page)
Alexa commands in English:
A site with a great overview of Japanese commands (in Japanese):
https://yuki-no-yabo.com/what-is-amazon-echo/

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