Talking about Your Family
The question of family always comes up in conversation when you're in Japan. Use the following sentence patterns to talk about your family members; if you have some family photos to show as well, all the better!
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How old is your grandmother?
What does your father do for a living?
How many kids in your family?
Where does your younger sister live?
What is your child's name?
How should I answer the question
When describing the number of siblings in your family, include yourself in that number. Japanese people usually ask for the total number before asking how many brothers and how many sisters you've got, and whether they're younger or older.
When answering these questions, remember to use terms that refer to your own relatives, which are completely different from the terms that are used to talk about members of a family other than your own:
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My grandmother is eighty-seven years old.
My father is a newspaper editor.
There are four children, including myself, in my family.
My sister lives in California.
My daughter's name is Ava.
