basic Japanese phrases

First, for good pronunciation, there are 5 vowel sounds and they're always the same:

a - like "aaah", eg. father
i - like "ee", eg. eat
u - like "oooo", eg. food
e - is "eh", eg. end
o - is "oh", eg. Ohio

Practice saying that over and over "aaah, eeee, oooo, eh, oh", so you'll get in the habit of saying only those 5 sounds.

I'll spell these phrases the regular (romanized) way, then as they might sound in English:

phrase == romanized spelling == phonetic spelling
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello (Good day) == kon-ni-chi wa == cone-nee-chee-wah
Good Morning == o-ha-yo == oh-hi-yo
... and if you want that to be very polite, say: o-ha-yo go-za-i-mas == oh-hi-yo go-zah-ee-mah-s
Good Afternoon == same as "Hello" above
Good Evening == kon-ban-wa == cone-bahn-wah
Good Night == same as "Good Night", unless you're saying good-bye, and then it would be: o-ya-su-mi-na-sa-i == oh-yah-sue-me-nah-sa-ee
Excuse Me == su-mi-ma-sen == sue-me-mah-sen
Thank You == a-ri-ga-to == ah-ree-gah-toe
Thank You Very Much == a-ri-ga-to go-za-i-mas == ah-ree-gah-toe go-za-i-mah-s

One that will probably impress them is something to say when you're leaving someone; you say "I'm being rude":
I'm being rude == shi-tsu-re-i-shi-mas == she-tsoo-ray-she-mah-s