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Which of the Japanese words below refer to "chit-chat?"
a) 雑談（ざつだん）
b) 演説（えんぜつ）
c) 相談（そうだん）
d) 言い訳（いいわけ）
e) 商談（しょうだん）
f) 冗談（じょうだん）
g) 無駄話（むだばなし）
h.) 論語（ろんご）
Solution: About half of the above words should be familiar to anyone who has completed a first-year Japanese course, while others will only be familiar to those who have a bit more experience reading and speaking Japanese. (And one of these words will familiar to very few readers.) All of the above words have some connection to verbal communications.
b.) 演説（えんぜつ）= speech. This is clearly not the same thing as chitchat.
c.) 相談（そうだん）= consultation--nor is this the same as chitchat.
e.) 商談（しょうだん）= “business discussions.” This is a difficult word, but you can easily crack it if you know your kanji. The first character, 商, appears in a plethora of words that are related to business/commerce:
商法（しょうほう）commercial law
- 商売（しょうばい）commerce
商社（しょうしゃ）commercial firm
- 商人（しょうにん）merchant
d.) 言い訳（いいわけ） = excuse: それは言い訳にならない。That’s no excuse.
f.) 冗談（じょうだん）= joke
b) 演説（えんぜつ）= speech
h.) 論語（ろんご）= The Analects of Confucius. Extra points if you recognized this word.
論語 is used in an idiomatic expression that means “educated fool”—or a person with book smarts but little common sense:
彼は論語読みの論語知らずです。
（かれ は ろんごよみ の ろんごしらず です。）
He is an educated fool.
Now for the correct answers:
a) 雑談（ざつだん） = chitchat / idle talk.
This word is a combination of 雑(miscellaneous) + 談 (conversation):
雑談に時間を費やして しまう
（ざつだん に じかん を ついやして しまう）
to spend time (waste time) on idle chitchat
g.) 無駄話（むだばなし）= 無駄 (waste) + 話 (talk)
無駄話ばかりをする to do nothing but engage in chitchat