How to say "What's new?" 新着情報？


Google translate shows "What's new?" as 新着情報？ Is it a commonly used
expression?




A literal translation of 新着情報 is latest arrival of information, used on
webpages, programs and newsletters.
<http://jisho.org/search/%E6%96%B0%E7%9D%80>

For casual conversation, there doesn't seem to be a one-size-fits-all
translation. Here are some suggestions:

My ex-girlfriend (Japanese) taught me the following casual expressions.

> 最近どう？ (How have you been recently?)
>
> 良さそうじゃん。(You seem well)
>
> 調子どう？ (How are you? Literally: How is your condition?) Though, it might be
> taken as an enquiry of the listener's health

Weblio has a few more ideas:

<http://ejje.weblio.jp/sentence/content/what%27s+new%3F>

> 変わりはないかい。(Literally: Nothing changed recently?)
>
> 何か変わりはない？ (Literally: Anything different?)
>
> 何か変わったことは？ (Pretty much same as above)
>
> 何か変わったことある。(Ditto)
>
> なにか変わったことない？ (Ditto)
>
> やあ、調子はどう。(Literally: Hey! How are you?/How is your condition?)

There are other more specific expressions, for instance, how is your business
going? and so forth. They depend on the context.

However, it doesn't seem you can use an exactly equivalent expression in
Japanese - i.e. 'Hey! Great to see you. What's new?' As an illustration of
this point, I sat in an English class where the lecturer (who was Japanese)
had everyone stand in a circle and pass around a ball. The person throwing it
said, 'Tell me something new and exciting that has happened to you recently'.
The person receiving the ball usually had to pause a long time and eventually
gave an awkward answer. In my English classes, I generally had to give a lot
of encouragement to get my students to answer a similar question. Answering it
didn't seem to come to them naturally.

More specific questions, however, seem to elicit a prompter response without
the awkwardness.

You could say:

> 元気？ (Are you well?)
>
> 今日何してたの？ (What were you doing today?)
>
> お疲れ！ (Literally a compliment on their hard work that day. Can roughly be
> translated as: Hey! Nice job today. You've earned a rest!)

You have to be careful about not being too casual with strangers and older
people etc.

Edit: The difficulty with 'What's new?' is it bundles a greeting and an
enquiry of news/gossip from the listener. There's no catch-phrase which has
the equivalent value in Japanese. If you want to convey something similar, you
have to go with whatever expression is appropriate for the occasion, which
takes a lot of practice. The same difficulty exists with 'Have a nice day!'.
The translation of いい一日を doesn't really work. You would have to use a native
expression that doesn't exactly convey the same feeling and is adapted for the
situation.




A literal translation of 新着情報 is latest arrival of information, used on
webpages, programs and newsletters.
<http://jisho.org/search/%E6%96%B0%E7%9D%80>

For casual conversation, there doesn't seem to be a one-size-fits-all
translation. Here are some suggestions:

My ex-girlfriend (Japanese) taught me the following casual expressions.

> 最近どう？ (How have you been recently?)
>
> 良さそうじゃん。(You seem well)
>
> 調子どう？ (How are you? Literally: How is your condition?) Though, it might be
> taken as an enquiry of the listener's health

Weblio has a few more ideas:

<http://ejje.weblio.jp/sentence/content/what%27s+new%3F>

> 変わりはないかい。(Literally: Nothing changed recently?)
>
> 何か変わりはない？ (Literally: Anything different?)
>
> 何か変わったことは？ (Pretty much same as above)
>
> 何か変わったことある。(Ditto)
>
> なにか変わったことない？ (Ditto)
>
> やあ、調子はどう。(Literally: Hey! How are you?/How is your condition?)

There are other more specific expressions, for instance, how is your business
going? and so forth. They depend on the context.

However, it doesn't seem you can use an exactly equivalent expression in
Japanese - i.e. 'Hey! Great to see you. What's new?' As an illustration of
this point, I sat in an English class where the lecturer (who was Japanese)
had everyone stand in a circle and pass around a ball. The person throwing it
said, 'Tell me something new and exciting that has happened to you recently'.
The person receiving the ball usually had to pause a long time and eventually
gave an awkward answer. In my English classes, I generally had to give a lot
of encouragement to get my students to answer a similar question. Answering it
didn't seem to come to them naturally.

More specific questions, however, seem to elicit a prompter response without
the awkwardness.

You could say:

> 元気？ (Are you well?)
>
> 今日何してたの？ (What were you doing today?)
>
> お疲れ！ (Literally a compliment on their hard work that day. Can roughly be
> translated as: Hey! Nice job today. You've earned a rest!)

You have to be careful about not being too casual with strangers and older
people etc.

Edit: The difficulty with 'What's new?' is it bundles a greeting and an
enquiry of news/gossip from the listener. There's no catch-phrase which has
the equivalent value in Japanese. If you want to convey something similar, you
have to go with whatever expression is appropriate for the occasion, which
takes a lot of practice. The same difficulty exists with 'Have a nice day!'.
The translation of いい一日を doesn't really work. You would have to use a native
expression that doesn't exactly convey the same feeling and is adapted for the
situation.

