In Japanese, there are many honorific expression to show respect to the person.
One of the reasons why Japanese people tend to be seen "polite" would come from
our language that has various kinds of honorific expressions.
There are three kinds of terms of respect for the person, such as
Teinei go, Sonkei go, Kenjou go.
Teinei go are like "masu" "desu". These come at the end of the sentences.
Most of Japanese learners would know that.
Sonkei go is the term to show the person.
Iu 言う（いう）means "say".
When you mention to what your superior said, you have to choose the word like
”Ｏｓｓｙａｒｕ” It is the Sonkei go of "say"言う（いう）
Kenjou go is humble language.
You have to choose the word "mousu or moushiageru" when you say something to your superior.
When Japanese people handle these three kinds of words according to
various social situation. Young adults would sometimes make mistakes though.
At elementary school and junior high school, children start to learn these words
at school.
3 comments:
This is a really complicated subject for me. When I watch movies, I notice a different manner of speaking, depending on who is addressed, but my Japanese is way too low level to catch the conversation. But even the body language changes - it is striking difference.
Shantal ForSD
Yes, I guess this Japanese
manner is confusing for foreing
people. I'm afraid you lose the
interest on learning Japanese
because of the difficulty.
Oh, not at all. I am well aware that a culture so different from my own has things that I will not understand right away. I have lived as a foreigner almost all my life and I am used to simply accepting things as they are even if I don't understand them.
Japanese culture and language are very different - and thus, also difficult, but that is not a good reason to stay away. A culture that is so old is certainly also very wise and is worth accepting and studying.
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