Japanese Respect Language: When, Why, and How to Use it Successfully

by P.G. O'Neill

This is a concise and user–friendly book for learning polite spoken Japanese or written Japanese.

Respect language—the special style of polite spoken or written Japanese—is involved almost every exchange of Japanese between one person and another, including the simplest phrases of greeting. An understanding of its forms is therefore essential to any serious student of the Japanese language. This programmed course is carefully designed to teach the basic and correct forms which the learner should master for his or her own use, by first looking at the various typical situations to see when respect should and should not be shown in Japanese, and then going on to see how respect is expressed in special forms of speech. In this way the learner is shown how to identify the type of respect for used, the person to whom respect is being shown, and the equivalent form in colloquial language. The insights into both Japanese culture and language will help any student or businessperson traveling to Japan or speaking Japanese on a regular basis.

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2008

Reviews

[Diana Parparita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since language is an ever-evolving living thing, it is important to keep in mind that a book this old may be outdated. However, the greatest issue I have with the book is that it promises to teach students to use respect language, but it only teaches you how to understand it. The book often gives two forms with different levels of respect for the same English word, tells you which one is more respectful than the other, and gives no insight into which situation calls for each of the two levels of respect. There is even one case where the author mentions that you may encounter a certain way of expressing politeness but advises against using it, since it can lead to misunderstandings if you don't know how to use it correctly. Shouldn't the entire point of such a book be to show how to avoid misunderstandings and how to use every form of respect language efficiently? Instead, a lot of it is "you will hear this" and "some women (still) use this form" instead of "it is advised to use this form in this situation, or this form if you are a woman". Not to mention that the author seems to assume that all people who read this book are male.