Looking the part Ac the office aa Japanese company whece about half «dowen Ameri= cans work, the Japanese boss draws the most senior American aside ‘nd ark, “Cant you do something sbout the way dey dees” “What do you mesa?” “Wel, they always look so casual” say che midle-aged Japanese “For one thing, the women come to work in sacks andor skits, and 1s forthe men, they would lok more presentable outside the office if they straightened thee es” "The Japanese bom gos on to mention the flue of most Ameri «ans 9 show up or work preilyon time. “We dont ask foci tall totake part in morning clsthenics bu it woud be a god iden i they arrived before ou Japanese sa started working” ‘After dwelling on the imporance of prompeness, the Japanese homes in on his favorite subject: company regulations andthe need for cmployes to rad he pamphlet on this ubject carflly and tn abide bythe moral exhortations contained therein, ‘Ata time when Americans and other Westerner ae working ‘ncresing number Japanese companies, culture clashes ae becom ing the oder of the day. Japanese dtstieiction with American work cs can often be linked to the ie of form, something Americans have culwlygesned disdain but which Japanese weat withing kino religious reverence. The word for rudeness in Japanese x2 ‘ure (loss of form). A common apology is "Shitsareeshimatita’ (What I dd wat 20 god for). ‘This erence in approaches tothe concep cf form goes beyond sommon idea of Japanese politeness apd American informality Elaa~ beth Gray Vining, the American educator who was English-language tutor to tbe present emperor in the years afer World War Tl com mented at length on the ius she hain rconing dhe dillerent approaches ofthe wo clues toward the enezpt of fom. Inher book Window for he Crown Prine, Mas. Vining bad this say about her rnegoiasons wit his Japanese tutor: ‘The point was made that outward Form of respect when crefily engaged in prc corresponding inward aides, 1 Confucian doctrine that may hae sound paychologial tsi: My own theory, ofcourse, was pedsly the oppo, that var atide comes et that the epi determines the ‘outward expression and the ulinate orm really significant ‘changes of bebavir most tar from within It was a dission ‘peated many times over while [wa in Japan, with the Japa eke invari supporting the outward frm approach ad ‘he inner pet. But perhaps inthe end we might agree that token The importance of form in Japanese vociety emai dnchanged in ite of Mrs. Vinings bet efor. Japanee contin to bow and p= sent cling cards i a stuaized mann, Such behavior goes han in hand with verbal communication, 20 mich so tht sip learning ‘wonls and sentence parters i not enough To get one's message acon flyone alo as wo ater to sch outer forme a deep bow straight nck, 4 conervatvly cu ait Uhave a card therefore Lam Not long ago during an ineriew Tamang fra visting editor with a Japanese oficial, T noticed that our distinguished interviewee nn expression ranging between hortor ad pain. olding the ofc calling cand in one hand and hi Ballpoint en inthe other, my eto was nervously slipping the mans cad back nu ft ito the crevice berwen the body ofthe ballpoint and the lip omits side, Needles to say, my olleague was getting only the most erfancony replies to is questions In Japan, elling er ean extension ofits owner. After exchang- lng cat, each pat is expected to read the other’ cad carey and pice 0 a able, keeping it there for the duration ofthe meting. To J» mos (alin cad) away i to inicate thatthe mecting is re Ho we» cursory glance and put i immediately into pocket or a wi boldee i tatamoun to an ina, Tn tational hindsight, my editor's mutilation of the meal of « ‘vior yovernment official indicted itl more than an innocent lackof acquaintance with Japanese custom. Unfornunately, not everyone is Capable of einga breach ofesquete in rational terms. “One cannot exaggerate the importance of the calling cardia Japan “The most common rues fors Gest vistors to Japan is “Where an T gee some busines car eine in a hurry?” The answer is the ‘once of any major hotel. Butte ost sito be high for a rsh job, wo beter come equipped with about three hundred cards for the Ft week: Incidental, Japanese eaionery shops are usally well eocked with mec files and folder Expandable versions can eld sey- ral handed. Th Japan almost everyone has 2 calling card Japan's public broad cating network, NHK, once sired feature on how exchanging cards fad become the rage rong high school stodens ‘But whereas children, rit, designers, and women in certain po fenions we allowed to ave fancy cards executives and company ‘employes are expected to conform toa fry strict standard, Visions fomnchmes go in fr xtilookng cds made of thinly sliced pauiow= = ‘ha wood of ele merry paper (kaown outside Japan a ce paper, ‘often inlaid with shiny stands, These are the Kinds of curd Japanese expect to get fom bar honest. The ea cling card fran excetive ‘ta sera company i printed on god quay, pli, slightly of: white paper The are, portion, and company adress appear in the ‘how ndinary sort of pefice, Such understated sirplicy i ree a {ign of authority. A company logo is acceptable, but mors, les ar fens advertising slogans and the ke are viewed as cheapeing a card [Rs ul, the more powerfla person, the fewer the numberof charae- ters on his calling car. Hoe received card with us two Kes oni "Yasuhiro Nakasone, Prime Minister” "There are many theories to explain the popuaity of the cling card. One setson is the complet of Japanese names. There ae 0 many porible reading ofthe characters in Japanese pewonal names ‘hat cere respec dictionaries ust for proper names. Another reason 5s the cunsines of Japanese phone books, in which names of compa tier and individuals are aranged a fit phonetically and then onthe task ofthe numberof character strokes. To look up 2 name, you have to know both the pronunciation andthe stoke onder of the fit and sometimes ven the second character, either or both of which could be pee: “Call me when you ate in town. My number is in the book” isa Farewell one never bears in Japan. Dressing doson (On Febery 23, 1989, atthe faneal of Emperor Hirohits, scores of Japanese offal and bosnes leaders cold be cen hari taking their ercout off in spite ofa bone-chilling dil. By the ne the imper- a cof, cated by fifty-one palace gua became visible through the shove dignitaries, wearing only chin jackets or moming ows, ‘were bowing deeply. ly Japan, taking off one's overcoat is sgn of respect. When ering an office ora home, it is best to take one's overcoat off before ine sesde, sot afer: Standing sound in European or American lshion. wating fo someone task “May I take your coat” is coside ed de This lifference in custoas causes minundertandings foc Japanese counties infuenced by European ides, where taking one's coat off ism indication of teak lip oe ata ea | espenenced this ilerence ischand some yeas ago, Working in ‘ho Toyo bara of an American news ageny. 1 vas ssigned to inter view the politician Masayoshi Ora (Ochre), who had been elected Inaer ofthe ring Liberal Democratic Party A few day ater Oia Sy be formally chosen prime minster. As Me Ohira was busy with {yreviousappoinerent he photographer and at dawn oases then fire minister in Me, hin’ cabinet walked yp 0 yu odio us or dog what comes naturally to foreign conespon ‘hn longing around in ou exncous "Kia ake ita dbs da 1 ooror at” ust where do you tw think you ae) chouted the enor politician, using one ofthe more dee verb endings avaiable in Yevenese retrospect, {should he grate for vat outburst because ticremely rare for Jpanee to point out inappropriate Behave by Eorpean or Americ “Asconing to one theory aking off ones con silt vg one's shoes att dos both bj bing comer nen In fy cn, he conto signe enough tat ivitaions to the late Cnpeors incl statd hatin te rent of cold weather he wean af loves care and oes willbe pemited™ ‘Althea, he present of one of Japa’ atrobie companies ves se iting tag the ete feo ner ceremony nest Fecing rin in an uneted open pron west hi ering ‘Wren ase ie was cal he sie and id Tan bear 1k" For the senor snesman, bing nde ab snare eprom of pect or those cou so what ro do with thse conte ons they ave removed them, equ dir depeoing on whee the sting “Wesen or Japanese ye. In the Somer one drapes eater am ad ‘isin the gtr (ena ball antl ted toa ada Please ‘pine Host ot hots wil then tke the oat and pt iin the lone In such + sting the aly difteace between Japanese: and ‘Wests beavioeithat te vitor in Japan remover cost and feorwenrimmedaey afer rming te theo "When eecing 4 tant no (ata oom) of 4 ome 0 sesaurant, one fle ons coat ei, mich a if it were towel ar Pe it neat wall When in dob alow he xp of Japanese fees Isr opie oc cot on anothers. The cast of lng Coats cats back tthe time when Japanese, both men and women, swore aor (ion oreo) that ke sot ain Japanese rea ed tobe folded ina realy presi! mane Well rough Xp women did noe dump thee Kimono they fled them ney an hed chem in deers The cnt of Gling coats il sure to ring and pbc bat, whee management prove cant cubicles, not lockers, for patton to eave thei ded clothing Russian joke dating fom communist imes describes two model ofthe Soviet Red Aemy riding on + Moscow subway Siting cross fom these two cleas-cut, morally upstanding young ae two midlle-aged women weatng lipstick, heary makeup, and ight clothing. One of the women ashes a sil at the younger of the "To which the older soldier says, ‘Dont get «0 exited, Those “women are American tures” "The above story lures how nonverbal mestges can become stored wien they cross cltural aes. Whats tue im Morow is 0 Jess re in Tokyo ln Japan pple ae proud to “drs thee pat” The ‘non eypicl image of Japanese bron is tht ofthe coporite send fut. Chances are he wears gay or dark blue, singl-brested mui, shirt understated (with smal puters), and no jewelry what or eve a wedding band. Tn Japan gangsters dont mind being singled ou immediaraly by ‘everyone—inclodng the poice—ae members of a ley idenifable Jroup. Mate gang memiber tend to ear pointed shoes, lligato-akin Del, back polo shits, and white router. Were not fr thee long “sideburns and permed hig they could easly be taken for ger [Experts ia communication theory have pointed out that if speak 1 clothing, or aonveral appara, confet with his or her verbal Inessge he former wil cancel out the later No matter how belint- the foreign stackokar argues for his frm to be granted retail in Japan, ithe wearing row, double-brearted wit with a tie—pechaps with ge geometric puters that sil of the ils athe Ministry of Finance ar key ty," Mad em Sesh dev” (Your application is till under consideration). On Wall ‘iret, the efecto ch fashion may not necssy be negative ‘The Japanese preference for dark, underted clothing can be Traced brick to feudal time In the latter part of the Edo period (1600-1868) the immense wealth ofthe merchant clase had begun to Undermine «sci sate in which merchant wer ranked below the Fyother thre official designate cases: samurai/ministrate fre, tnd arian, The bight kimono, made with expensive imported dyes, that merchants had begun to port madea mockery ofthe authority of the imponeshed samurai clas. In an atemp to prop up the crm ‘ling socal ores, the suthories fom time to ime ised decrees for- ‘idling merchants o wear bright clos. ‘Ouewardly the merchants compli with the regulations. Bu the ‘hist for hoscy among members ofthis ich new class could not be ‘bed bylaws: Now tat they could no lager spend their money on ‘xpemsive dye, wealthy merchants ved with ne another forthe most ‘expensive dark ber and wen. “Ts this dey, persons of god breeding ae expected to wear clothing of subdued colors made fom the nest materials The only exception fo the ale are young women, who can des any waythey with during ‘their fF hous know a Japanese couple whose son joined a major busines con slomerate For days the family debuted whether she young ran should freara gray or dark bes on isi day at work, The family sere ‘on pay because it was nore fun af). The sommesus was hat dak ‘blu ight be aed eoo adventurous Tn Japa one rarely hast go up to 4 woman a x loshing store ak, “Bazuse me, but do you work ere?” Sales clerks at sch tres in Japan invariably wear black. Whereas in America, store owner often ‘akemployees to wear clothing sold inthe store a female clerk of one ‘FT’ better department store once explained It would not do fous to look mot fashionable than our customers.” “The choice of what to weit for female foreign executives i ot all ‘hat diferene from what i rene of men. Inthe words of a sesior ‘Canadian diploma:"Ar a forcgn woman Thave tended to benef fom ‘wht might be eae the-freignerat-aa-from-Mars synrome, We tre expected t be diferent because we are foreign.” Sine local rules {dno apply foreign women ae allowed tobe more individuals. Sil, when in doubt, assume that conservative clothing of high quali with a miniasum ofl i the most nan. A fear of boing Afeiving in Japan fr many yeas, an exptiterecuned oh home fice for a visit: Having lied in aparments with Low ceilings and isan entirely different sound, produced with te lps only and aot sin ngs, withthe lower Bip oucking the upper zo of teeth ‘The deleterious elt of wring on the laring of sands i 9 strong that some teachers have sugested using no writen symbols at all inthe fst ehrer weck of language sti. Some may a, but howe wil nudents remember words without writing them down? Easy. ‘When the Japanese linguist Kyosuke (Kyeosuke)Kindaichi asked an ‘Ain native speaker o rete some poetry, he real 140 volumes of | verse from memory. Since Ainu had writing sytem, the reciter had never see the poems witen doe, Japanese from No” In Travel fom Takyo, a cassis memoir of expatriate life in Japan blsed more than haa century ago, the Englishman John Mortis ‘writes tha contrary to arent notions the Japanese Tanguage “snot tically diffe eo lear «© spake” Moris goes on to say that ‘nike ther “oriental language” Japanese has no sounds chat are dt elt o produce.” "Monts sight in saying that Jpancte pronunciation pons es ofa acicre ia Japancse The only toubl i ‘ist ines of proceding tothe hard g we then have to move to vowel This a hard act iy are oot wed tot And fou borch itp Inte fying wenn ou wl ed wp sping “ues "have fiend who has ved in Japan fr bal i ie and il an ft pronounce “1,000 yen en with a lear enough accent for the supermarket checkout clei ound what hei saying. He keeps ‘opeating enon” (vith an oraary English «in dhe mile) and get ting lank ok ‘Phe allabie nasa is a8 epportane concept for anyone involved With the Japanese financial indus: Seating Apel 1, 1998, the Japa- se government put into feta series of measures collectively called ‘he Hig Bang it honor of a simile opening of Banca door in the ‘nied Kingdom more dana decade erie. Big Bang in Japanesepronounced big Aan! That lst i cently different from the English ng in “bang ha ifyou don't ow that he subject ie Snancal reform you may think the goverament is outlawing certain paces at ina "Big Ban” When the bic x comes a the end of word, in uit Backhouse tel his students to "pronouace(a ater ong) m8 Enis “sing” butt stop shore ofthe final part of the sound” He adds that in Japanese cere sn contact tween the back af the tne and the off the mouth, Financial wizard learning Jpanese nce robe especialy aware of the lab» Because or’ (to make alos) es the sound, ut plain ‘one (tat) doesnot. Likewise Kau (1 sgn up atin the cae of an insurance policy) fas plan » but awn (to invite someone wo ign up fora policy) must be pronounced with the tongue floating in the mouth Sima, Arye ees to finance while Mga means 0 enter into ledge ‘Now if you relly want to et your teeth (r ost your tongue) on some sjllabic ms, ey givin, That’ the proper name for Japa’ parmentary management commie, So much for language | ‘at has no sounds that are dificult prodace” The Czar of TS ‘Thanks toa twenty-year promotion effort by anasocation of Cnadi~ a lumber ills an increasing share of Japanese howe: today ae erst= dosing North American-style two-by-four architec, 20 named ‘because mich of the wood wed in sich housing i cut o two inches by | fourinches, But due to a clash beween the phonetic stractares of English and Japanese, most ofthe Canadian carpenters ent to Japan to help bul ‘wo by-four houses canna pronounce fu-e-hes. the Japanese name for this typeof rcitecrur ‘The major stumbling block i the sound which only appeas in English in the middle or atthe end of an wterane but neve a he beginning, If evidence is needed o show just ov dificult for native Engh speakers to pronounce a word that bens with sn ask one sy “cea” «word in common win colloquial Eng- sh to mean “eis ™ (Newspaper occasionally refer othe head ofthe (1S. Drug Eaforeement Agency the DEA, a¢ Amerie drug car) A lune number of mative English pears wil sy “zl” instend of tea” Although the Japanese almost always precedes dhe vowel ‘whch in Japanest is pronounced somewhere between an English 2 French even in this imited envionment there are many oc «in which proper simmaniation will depend on the ably of « speaker to deliver a comee inital For example, énibe in Japanese ves “adigoral” or “extra” Most eative English speakers will mis Jake his word oe, which means “watermelon,” Thus aie mon an. additonal onder (sce, oske, whatever is aeady on the ue) can eatin the delivery ofa lie of watermelon, which-—in all seat most Jae er ly Be ey ee 1 good way to Ira how t pronounce a initial a sto keep ning the thice- word expreon “print of Toyo” and a one point Wo veak the phrase between the» adr that one ends up sying in toFToky." Then ty saying “totTokyo.” With abi of concn ‘hon a apanese fiend, sch an evecite should proce poe resale Incidentally there i no end t0 the misunderstanding that can inh vers Japanese words. The word “pubecy” (in lvely italics) on otek should have been expesed with the word "youth And. ‘he word “pri” ona dary ie «misrenderng of “priate” or perional” Ji one cam only wonder wha nuance thesuthor of“ cap meine ery 1 fine ad)” was looking fo. ‘The insertion appears on a high notebook Ill elds one sometimes cores acoc the altmte example, the ne that su alu T the ase of English decor this surely must be a brand of chocolate market by the Honey spay of Tyo. I comes in a can almotidenticl to the one ured ‘and-Aide, The chocolates ate individually wrapped to lok like bandages and the abel reads, Hand Maid Taste Queer te” And on the side of the cnt: *Hloneys Sweet Stall? English as decoration "The English-Language sig above the entrance ex “Delirium Br Con Led” "Bren though the shop was on the fourth flor of biking fad no elevator Iwas athe top ofthe ws in seconds. Along the let from an ofc ona krwer Boo explained tat Deis Bs vrata wholoaler of wedding dress But of couse, weddings inspire both delim and oughly equal porvons. But no. A seamstvess puting the i touches oma fly red Dea Bravery original putt this way: tre a subsidiary of the Dress Black ftion design company, s0 wh ve branched into wedding dresses we had w id two words the til of which were D.B. Tae same a 0. out log” "The seamstress didnot how it ut she had jt given the best sible explanation fr the proliferation of Engsh ames, sgn {nd jingles in Japan on eveything om ewo-ounce notebooks to ton tac, Here ar afew example: s motorycle har prouly prochimns -shrome leering tha iis equipped with a “Chance electric sare place of anignation jurt arth of Tokyo called "Gland Hotel,” « ‘hire with the brand name "Hysteric" (a feral commuter was sporting one). My favorit oft i eather jake bearing the ing "Vigorous Throw Up—Since 1973.” ‘Ac might be apparent fom these examples, it snot necessary Wester eters teary meaning Ie a eas of English s deca ‘Sonneines whole page are fed fom a dictionary or an enc pia and transferred ont the side of a shopping hag. From time fire one does sere the had of rusted poet wih a ear sage but init’ English vocabulary. er isthe message on the sie of bag beled Sound Lise single vosnd can feshen up Heed heart without fll” And surely lephaat-furily shopping bag i the work of a Dadaist diekank ‘eae “Elephant fay are popalar with ws Tce humming makes falepae The word “oy” and “happines” appear consisendly on J Wise cog: English made in Japan Js as decoration may use eyebrows, but che hodgepodge of Latin Jers rarely lens to miscommunication, That snot the ease with 3 fejurte category of exprestions,koown in Japanese as exe ag (Eg Ts made in Japan). The ean and do cae serous problemsFr example, what should foreigner who epesks no Japanese ‘when confonted bya Japenese who ats, ‘Do you have sy ea?” Tei ‘wrong to conslude tha one ising aceased of a theft ‘The coer esponse is Yes, [have « car” “My car o& more ‘inly mai is Japanese for any privately owned passenger chick ‘Maia is bat the tp of an enocnousisberg of Japanese expe sions asembled from English part My fvorite i mastiponpu Mi Up of the words “matsh" and “pam.” the Japanese word des ‘scrupulous politicians who cts public tention on some ing, guratvlyightng «fi, and then attempt eo obtain funds Interested partes return fr extingnhing the Hames Tris good to take note of thse crypto -lounwonds because Japanese speakers unfanliar with Engh sume that since ‘aprsion are of fregn ong foreigners mast undertand ther. ‘Some year ago. an enterprising Jpunese wave agent published book iting hundred of our re expressions under he tle Jem Eng (Ken a Jopen Ee), bt sn ha el (heeft om bing there. ‘yng with mata for weirdness is dura top (doctor sop). ‘i moe commonly wed in bars or st dinners where 3 gues wil the exprsion wl placing hie hand ft acoss he np of «wine whiskey gas or berwecn himself and a package of czas shored in hie direton. Lately the words have become kind of ‘hand for, "No thik you. If ba for my health "The expression fiom profesional boring where datas atop men that one ‘had been pummeled s sever tha the referee halted the match ‘ade a decision infor of his opponent ‘Occasionally wae ao i fected by fashion, At one time m och words began with 7 (fr the Eaglch pref eA ajo. Steven fim created the word rfou (fe-howe) to mean improvement. “Regus” (rive) used a no, isthe brand nae Popular tonic Therein even am athlede drink led Rigatsu (om * snd gt ‘The sible fn too appears with remarkable frequency a shbreviation of ary English word tha begins with the able com ‘om thee being no differentiation in Japanese beeen «final and "hus metaton a short for“Osdipa complera combination of masa ‘other and the fst plabe of complex In a similar vin rie bas ‘eto rr to men obser by young women—fnm rota (Lalit cin of the novel dealing with his syndrome). Pasko, however i hor for pasonar conpyataa (personal compute, while ean com tins and eoniine nd tenelon stands Sor “general conmacton” It al “kon ising! Butit time now to aap My ota (motorycle—fom “ato vad bike") ie prone to ema (ro engine” and “stop” 30 Lave 19 ihe it oa grin utande (gli tand, meaning “stain,” no tobe nfs with dmb condo which i"dek amp") Ts time for me to «tomy job Tam apenas panck,meaning “panei” oa a TV quis low a8 opposed © construction worker who alles “pane lccides, chit ube already han (om “ower” ax in “overdone” arom gpl mill oe) The ect of beth ecg ojuagesis proceeding at a api pce Pronouncing oantwonds The Actes Heine Jaen seed be vt wih her excellent command af Japanese. She had ved in Japan lor some decades and had picked up an extensive vocabulary and an sion perfect een All the sae, one of he Japanese isteners interrupted a conversa on 0 confess that at imes he had reat diicuty understanding what he wasted The educators problem can be summed up in one word: fan words She performed bilan a long as she did ot have to pro- Iuwnce any words that ad entered Japanese om her nasve English very ime she cme across an American pice name she would aban- ‘ho her near erect Japanese and reer to perfect English, The maye betwoen one language and another nay have seemed spl tes, but i baled her istenes, for whom Los Angeles, Calc fonnin the pice the editor came fom, war rumor barton. Hor pret English may have been closer to the ria, b the pho- %snetic symbols she suddenly resorted to ware not the same onee ‘eansmited meaning othe ea of her hot. Since 2 tpical dictionary of loanword contains twenty tho ‘enties the majority of which ome from Engh inkling o's fences with the ‘coreet Baga" forms of thes ahr tain manner ia which ehey have entered Japanese, can (and does) result, ‘communication beailown, It isa if an English-speaking Ruan insisted on “Moscow at Menkes ora Frenchaa sti maitre tel intend of Engh "maid" Likewise to some English peer ee (he ese rice brew) is shi and tual diembowelment ix briar and dart. ‘Obviously some words come prety close and impertect ace don't make much ofa diferene. One example might be “demo cy’ —{de-mol-ra-i] i noe all haf fom demaberasit, Bu that fot the case forthe mest commonly sed borrowings. Foe “equal arse,” ae auch topic of debate Japan asin fas been transformed into soubare—selas buen areumenty being sich ofa mouthf. “akon (air condone) and pactor (personal compute), tnotone shoe a well svn hist rm white sie) ino the sare pater. Asin dhe case of eal hats, the *coreet Engl sno loge eleva As pointed ou eri, there isa whole class af expresions Piece of thick tous with jam and eof, «quick and cheap that coffeehouses provide fom about 800 A, t0 10:00 A, wise ranch sto (hunch st) i an inexpensive mena that high restaurants make aval at noon ony machine gun. This rpid-fve weapon became the ingpi brand name ofthe fist Japanese seals, which in tme alo became generic name. Tha, the English word “aaplr” (no mater how vunced) ets Munk looks Gom sale cles at Japanese stionery COnher anomalies are math (from the English “makeup and vita, reeing wo a baseball game played a ight. A hin stage, one tn longee alc about “correct pronunciation,” These words at Jap sci and they mast be pronounced a sach. The same goes fr lan vs inal languages f dey don't sound sight to the ears of loca caer they cease communicate he truth about katakana seo Jann geht dee hata te ip pace te weg any words of Ign ied ote oe ard ed Rix sping Si oan J Plow, ten Wahigon stort he At Monty can feta sl ofp mg ag sag ap Ie pla belonged ay gg bt ghar poi ‘uki—in an diet dite so alos wren he ties ge 199 se Moder lees ov comb aon cf gee aa nies rier, Ui seal While anh form the mor par of tomy ve, tise, aa gas Gn fe op ain preg ‘he indecae oan sd om) tn 1971, Gaaermer More ator of Kj A Contemplate it, i deel he sme ttc: Meh srs sued tha he cit spa westning he nga t ans Tihs who eo elnino expen” Whatever he yom, nan nw pes Alogi a woe sig spe to slim iad) an ote ape wey Ses a deg i op) fe minis Geno oper orto oy Eee rr ‘pecs beeen wots in open oa ogo ge jive sre, nd parcel oo Be cyt ad Cle he ed alan gen he ind ay igts linked tothe septs we a «device that infor the en of “not orginally fom here.” Although auch drawing of lines between those who belong and those who don a alto salen par of Jape nese social behavior, katana was neither invented in onde to write foreign words nore wsed exclusively for tha purpose present. ‘The Japance had no indigenous writing system unt Baddhise missionaries ought the ata o Japan in the sth century Since the sutras were write in Pali, a Indian language, using Chinese charac: ‘ex fr their sound ve only twas slatively ety tp star using Chinese characters o represent the sounds of Japanese. Since Jaa is» polyllabic language, two alternatives were devised in oe to seid having 0 write complicated Chines character for every syllable ‘One option, hiragans valved asa kind of shorthand by which lex characters were reduce to afew curse lines the second a tive, latakana,reuied « writer to dently only one or to strokes ofa character to tad for the sound of the entire crate, ‘Bort ana systems have been in use for more than ile smoreoier although katakana isthe rc ofthe two esters tod the Fao period (1600-1868) kaakana was often wad on sighs public notices. Until recently the enine Japanese Civil Code, the oo, eid on ktakana to epeser ve inesion (aot iran 8 resent-day Japan). In fac, even a present, katana i by no means usd etl word of foreign origin. Machiko Kyo (Kyoo), tar of Akira Kuo ‘movie Rasomon (RasBaumor), pts the ret two sll of her ‘ma and chin kaakana, Acwes-turned-commentatoe Meiko (ME [Nakamura wes latakana fo here pesonal mame: Topanes equivalents of par,” "thad” and the ike ae often deri in ata, sae feminine endings wich asm, eo yo So ‘eat literature has also been writen in atk, One half of Jui 1 Gusfichiro) Tanizakls sovel The Ke, made up of two combines the name ofthe upmarket Tokyo residential dirt, Shiogane, where the wealthy sophisticates ae belived to lig, and ilanese” which in Japanese pronounced in imitation of the origi rl Talian witha alight engehoning of he penutimate lable “The protation of words of English ogi in Japanese as given ‘he fille enpresion thar Jpunese imports words ony fom English, Ft ae this example shows, there ino shortage of borrowings fom oh languages as well Ande€ Maras, the writer and one-time Fench Init of etre, once sid ing it to Japan that he was hon tr to be ina county where «French preposition has become a noun ynomymous with lve. Manor was referring t0 ably, om the Vench ae ith) meaning “couple” as in“ young couple" These noo- Els borrowing, hough often amusing can case woblem foe seadenes of Japanese who are native English speaker, 01Some yeas ago the word merken (from the German Mabe fry tal) held up trarlation of an atic Iwas doing on modem Japanese ‘theater, Paling > find the word in any dictionary, I called the author ‘who responded by aking dabrs about my sills a transla “eis a Foreign word, you know” Asa fregnes,L was expect to know it. ‘The words gars (sheet glass) and sara (a gas for drinking) incrtably trigger confsion for orsign tadeats of Japanese. Te ist is fiom the Dutch plac and the send i from the Engl glass” As the Ditch tang pst in Nagsaki was the only ofl poi of cotace fir Europeans and Japanese for more than two hundsed yes, many everyday expesions in Japanese are of Dutch origin. Bix not om the English “beer uefa the Dutch bir The same ste fo oi, which is from the Dutch fic and not the English “oes The sme is tre fe pp (cup) ginal opin Durch. ‘Among unusal borowngs are irs (amon re) Som the Russ ian ira and nppo (al Som Korean napa, Decades of dying med= icine in Germany by a generation of Japanese doctors brought ganze (Gandages). The work of an Avsto-Hlngarian amy’ ofr populr= ising sing ete in gree (ron the Geeman Celine, meaning a tract of ln) becoming the stand Japanese expression for ski slope.” But some non-English lanwords have become so embedded in Japanese is now dic al hie gins. Pv Japanese know that | on, the someones colo silo wor by women wnder tele ‘mono (and assimed therefore tobe Japanese) i om dhe Portuguese iho (double), When combined with naa lng) and writen in kane tas nagjuian (long, underkimono), this foreign word is ike a ‘hmcleon on a green le. tpt fo Japanese without anyone a> ing an exbrow. Neither would Japanese student slang be the sme without the word abr meaning “to et cs.” Te comes fom dhe fst we sllae bler ofthe French afeage completed wih the Japanese verb end ing, Ia he 1960s, when radical stdeotspiter groupe fought each other on and off campuses with staves and motor eocktals, ‘entered Japanese from German to become at fist the noun gears ut Inte ism manner to saber 0 turn into the verb gra, mean ing "to engage in vole struggle.” Engl nouns to have ended up a Japanese verbs. One need only pronounce “double” and “trouble” i Jpanese ro taform them into ne Japanese verbs diary (1o have to such) and frabra (to Foul up). ‘tat driver once old te of car that wan ays “obit (ae rouble) (One item of left-wing revolutionary jargon, “wo agitate” became vrs nang siden ative of «generation ago, although the origin vf the Japanese verb may have been “agisrop” (om “agate” and jropagad’). One sll can hear che expresion aie ru (ting up ‘ouble) although the orignal ose of the word wat intended tobe pow riven the sense ofncting the mans to revolution. Likewise, pani” has become tanformed into the verb feta (9 lose ones cool otek zu paride it” (I eal lost my col at that te). Tes alway dificult ell jut how conscious a Japanese spear i wing lunword, especially one tha predates che present wordvide rm in American pop clare, The Iberian origins of emprs impor ‘he deep-fried fh and vegetable dish, are wall known. According tone theory the dish was served on Friday, Catholic fh dys, hence ‘he tint self restrain oe temperance” Dining one day a » Kyoto-syle restaurant in Tokyo I asked the wits if the establishment alo served tempura. Without the slight Gs hesitation she replied, “No, we ony serve Japanese fod.” She wed naware eat tempura is known sound the world 3s Japanese vine and that ne Porniguese wnfumiiar with Japan will have ever ul ofthe ish. IT reall corey the waitress was wearing Kimono. Hr then t won ave ben det ask er f she was aware of the foe then orgie of her undermes ‘rom Pokémon to Godzilla: ow Japanese ‘enriches the English language When the heroine of « Hollywood movie neds to be told that he le lead ely does love he, the crusty mide aged supporting actor loving Cupid brs ou, “Who do you think Twas talking about? Gotailar™in fnancl jour, fing. Fo the past ten yes the Bank of Japan's tend (short-term ‘economic outlok) bas become a regular feats,clecly marked on the calendas of securities anaes and traders at brokerages aun the edd, A fictions Ang monster who tamples Tokyo aeighborhoods tnd lives on 4 regular diet of corsmoter tun caries may seem hive ile in common with statis reese by the Japanese cent bank Bur Coils and canton ae both words of Japanese origin Moreover, both indicat that Japan and Japanese cule ave graduat cl fiom the exotic to the real in the ves of English speakers every whet Hatched at a Japanese mone staio in the erly 1950, Godaila ‘owes its mame ta combination of “gol” (erin) and Aira, apanese for whale"The Bank of aps anton s made up ofthe fst sable Frnt (thet erm) an oa (outlook) ‘Among otber new Japanese words to enter English ae “animes ‘eie," “Pokémon” “zen,” and “Saban.” To be mae, fom Japanese into Baglsh are nothing new: “Sake” “Knon,” jis "sunita" and “ukiyo-e” have been in English dt ies foe more than a century. But wheres the old boroings closely inked wo aspects of tational Japan, the new loanword ‘to the workwide influence of Japa’ ennomy and pop cal. ‘A recent TV commercial on a US, chides network urged vcwerst “See how maay Pokirnon you can collet” The "Pokémon 2 combination of the fist slables of "pockes” and “monster ounced in Japenese rooghly the sme a in Engl), are chara fom avi, lerting to animation or carton pictures. "Keita? (pronounced ia English a karo and in Japa 1s lay-ret-soo) has taken over fom zaiduy, which ance deste famiy-held induseal nd Srancal conglomerates wo inact Japan in the eatly pare ofthis century. "Keren, iterlly mc “networks” zfs le ley interwined corporate groupings “Kaizen,” telly meaning “provement” peste re tation into English ofthe American concept of OC (ality conta ‘or te we of tatitial analysis to improve pact quality “Subaru” merits menion because its only on of wo Japanese ct vames not of foreign origin. The name ofthe Subar, made by Fuji Hew Industis, stands forthe constellation Orion. The Camry, rade by Toyota, the only ater Japanese model with «Japanese same Pronounced somewhat dif in Japancs, st fain the ‘word sien ewa the name—in Engish—of an carl, sce soe model ‘Yee another example ofthe wide-ranging influence ofthe Japanese sngeage is Furyo, 4 powerful, musky fagrnce for men, made in Vance and meted around the word. Fury is one of thovebeary cnet tan Bea, One dictionary defines fro ithe oul dae ftir: 2 rata; a sound, «hooligans bad vk defec- ‘ive depraved” and finally the nuance tha the manufictrer probably Jind in nnd: “wicked” IF Puyo leaves women breaths, i ettinly oes nt ake lsiographers speeches. Lost in translation 1 the introdtion to Lar Jopon book Alex Ker originally wrote in Jipasee the author excused himself for having ake someone ele 10 ‘vasa ison book into English, My fest reaction was, “How poe Ionut” No mater et the dfrenes between Japanese and Eng | surely ranstang one's ow work it one's mother org cannot ea dicultas Kee insted | was wrong, Not long ago publisher asked me to reader ito ‘os ten emays originally wrote in Japanese fr Book that has ‘nce ome oui dualLanguage format—Japanes and English on fe ges 1 gave myrelfa month get through theequilent of sbout Fitcen thousand words but F ended up straggling with the projet for vel over twice that period, [Nothing seemed t work ou ight. found out that words which Sipps othe tongue in Japanese had no easy euialents in English il as. esl ofthese two mont in lnguage Embo Tame to real ve just how mach weal owed to Japanese students of Wester Jearn- ny pst coma, who have lft vs with a legacy of “ransation‘ord? witout which moving dew brown Jape and Woe Tanguages would ake year not months “The isc problem | ficed was tha of literary syle, Brom the point ‘of view of «modern Engl reader Japaneses tered with abuact adjectives. Av there sno Japanese Hemingoay, words such a beati= fal (wut, ind” (brute mand “dicate (i) ae all accepted by Japanese readers at face value. Without realizing i, 109 ‘had Lape na Japanre writing eye ‘While cing my eanbling Japan sentenoss oto compact Enge lish ones, began osnderstand the problems ofthe Japanese wanslator of English wo had to tansorm Jonathan Livington Sag an unde tinguished bot popula American work, fom sparse English into ‘ornate itera Jpanese, To satisfy the expectations of Japanese reader the had to change the English phrase “nthe ong” nto ook, dara tio (inte distan, fr off offing). Bue the easator was ight ‘The Jpunese version of Stepll became an overnight succes, hundreds of thousands of copies a time when tanned li sexs not doing wel, ‘To my surprie, nouns the simplest pacts of speech in. Japan cade up posing he biggest challenge. Verbs, adjectives, and presented exetillysechnical poblens. Nouns on the other hy ‘were ke compreted software, Fo example, how Japanese viewed ‘elaions wih the outside word had come tobe reduced over the ios kind of shorthand for which there cold not have been ay Tish equvalens Perhaps the mont cific of these was the word salen In lid, "Westerner comes closest in meaning eo bt only in speech of Wester exputrnte living in East Asia Inthe Unite S ‘Westerners ae people ving wes ofthe Mivsisipps River As is made up of the characters for Euope, dhe United Stes, ad sons, one woul tink hat the compound might sand for Amer tnd Europeans. lo etal age, however the word eters 0 the ‘wealthy Cnactian peoples rears of where they may lve. By our busines associates, the best thing t0 do isto avid wing amate you) and rad (Das much a possible. After al, that i what Jpa nese do when thy speak each the. ‘The eence of Jaanesestyle communication consists of aang ‘he equivalents of English prosouns as mich a pose and configu ing other pars of speech, such as verbs, nouns, adjectives and sveby-even itefictioni-so that thee ether part of speech trans it the eles ato whois talking to whom and about whom, A good example ofa Japanese uterance that performs ll he above ks is raat. The ver radar (past tee rb), mean "to came, oy anv,” “be present” (depending om content) gene ly refers to an ealted person such at » guest of 4 coxportion, a noes, medical doctor, poical lade, or anyone outide the group ‘hat is welcoming such 2 perton, But sine fahete ends with the forma past ene infection 2 cis elear thatthe person speaking end ‘he person Being spoken t are members ofthe same group aod ae of ual satus The ial particle ee can only be ute bya Female peer chi way in standard Japanese. Having recive this many chs, we vil don't know if the petwon talked about is male or female, ut we ‘nn enough eo surmise that dhe sentence can be translated fore "Helse has ried” 1m fact, “haba cn” ells us more chan we could now fon 2 ntence with pronouns, heczie hi ume wterance can be rendered rectly as “She announced that heake has avd.” To ty tau the vnoun-lke words avaiable in Japanese toy “Kango share ga ‘its Ato © minaan ni iimadie” (She tld everyone that e bad ved) would not ony be unacceptably strange in Japanese, it would ‘ofl give the kad of information about inide-outsider relation “hips that Japanese are keen to know and that cu only be transite ing comet, natural Japanese. radar tlle the Titer thatthe per= om ted abou is an outsider vo the group while the informal past m0sr i es pe ef i ppl anc he person spoken to ae insiders. (As we shall or below, e= nine particles ae restricted to informal stations.) ‘Of oame doing without" you" "he," of “ee” i le easier i language that ha fou verb wo express cating: tw fr ania iti= tate frends and onesl), ahr (for equals, dada (for ones hen in the pretence of stranger, exahed pertons, orn formal Sil on) and meiagor (when the eating is done by ousides exalt ed person). Multiply these four variants of verbs refering to the ac fof eating” by ewo since each ver ha «polite and normal ten atch feminine or mascaline particles atthe end whe snproprite and prety son t Become obvious who is doing what Tacidenally Japanese have «lot of fun ising up the many they have foe you". Ther area lear a dozen words mean Tin common we today ranging fom the formal taba (wed both men and womea) tothe macho or (estcted to men) t archaic sé (growled by samuri in period films). A humorous of fton by Sosei (Soosed) Natsume (the soelit whose apps on the ¥1,000 not) is called vw a Cathe tide in Es seer bland sequent in Japanese is anything bt. The word Tin dhe Japanse tle i uugatn, an expression wed in the ‘Roman which refers to shool of confeinal writing a the cua ‘he lst centryin whic, quite naturally the word 8 (1) appeared pest quency, Tews much ese otanlate his Gentian expres Int Japinse (watabusdi onset) than into English in which ove!” sounds somewhat strange. In Japanese, however, thee ‘atari guten(peivtevehook) and there i eal private mater). Both of these word indicate that wartusiis nt py a fist-person singular pronoun but anormal noun meaning "ate" Other pronoun Japanese wads such a (You) or ane (he she) have clearly recognizable meanings ordinary nouns. Kim am archai reference to an aristocratic pron nin the Sie the J es natonal anther, gay, while ame iti simply “that person.” “Linguists have come up with an important reason why we should soil thinking of ttabubi or areas pronouns. Not only do these ‘words coney meaning ab nouns; they aso fenton grammatically in exactly the same way as nouns. In European languages, pronouns can ‘cay separated from nouns beast they tke diferent forms ofthe osesive or objective fom chose of nouns, For example, in English, 1 's esl idenficble a «pronoun became its poseve case i “in whit objective as is"m" The pono “she” Becomes “hes” aa osestve and er” when used in the objective cise. By contrat, he sestve ease of exdinary English noun is formed by adn, wile objective case has disappeared, In contr utekuc and lange the sme no (ponesire par vl) ar (objective particle) av any other nous, Hence we ean con de hat since cutabushi behaves ike any other noun iti noun, Ia her words, the Japanese language has no ponds, Te moraus or, Do me the favor of dying” Is the Japanese movie equvalen of the Westen gunight, OF course, ‘hore so historical record of even single diel beoween two gu hts (one wearing white tthe othr black) facing each other on Main Street in a font town. Similar there isnot» shed of eve lence of samurai hacking each other to bits for money or honor at i temple or shine ona snl night. "Nonetheless nthe move version of htt. at the good guy draws is ovor ts not uncommon fr him to te in gut one stat vent tha is charming humorous, and of great alt tudents of Jap- se The line “Shinde nrainan"on “You wil do ne the favo of yong ven dhgh the situation is titious, the sentence i the key that Wek the door to narural speech in Japanese, Note thatthe transla Hon contains the wed “you” and “me” a onal prongun. How can hie? English, bu hi the org ee is made up of only two words, neither of whichis aThe ano altough very simple tone eats sey taught feria dents of Japanese, Sole etoal ves in Jpanese the work ofthe Engh penonal pronouns 1, ou "he and "she? ‘Ta become pint in Japanese, one ha oe able 19 these eto! verbs sich tora (con frm rag tovecivewonthing). Hada, whi as been intend ete a ‘er meaning eat als erties the mance of to para and ‘oo commonly se the pit egualent f mor “To contint with the somewhat bizare example of Swonlight the OK Temple et us suppor hit fr some ron the Bad guy Sticken wih eo and ec by his wm sword he He uly, ‘Shin gawd yo the favor of ding). But on t9 mote plavabe amples [ei not uncommon fra sign excuse ok Japanese colleague to wit eter in Ifthe to are sock epi, rf the reign execs mabe one to rang higher on the cocporte ade, the ver mama wl erty appropri To hat cv the fcgn cet wl sy thing ke, Yomadeon omit moraaser h(i Yaad Tayo to wit ewer me. Tapani ilete and ats to wate. A the eth mon (eee nthing inthis cs fv) mst be tn this Kind of constrain by another ve i he frat rite) becres hit jot a the ft example sine wa the Fe of ns (oe) The sentence is pt in «neti gut smock, 40 sake it more poi. 1 tans ite: “Me Ya ‘ont you dame the vor of.» 2" the same Fsgn exce wer 10 ak oneone eps “Tanaka who isnot employed by hit fm © comespond wih ital be more spr fr hi oe dla than moran Hi the same reget wuld besone: “Taboo kite Aeron ha?” (Mu Tana, wont you dome the ar of wtng me ewe) ‘On NHK, Japa plc brodasing ste before apse ls ri i lye, the announce wl “Dew, ite rain (Wal thn le ten [thi piece. Literal this me ‘We hal sve the favor of ou Tintening totic” ‘Aa important variant of diecinal verbs the combination of were (Qo make vomeone do something) and moreu or idan. When ‘king fran exalted individual someone ouside one's own group 2 tell story it is appropiate ro say “Kit itadatrmasn a?” (Can we receive the fivor fing made to Ten [your ton)? Sante ida (10 recive the for of being made odo something) often wed simply at polite form af aru (to do}. When former ime minister Morihro Honoka announced tht he intended 10 tote than double dhe consumption tx he used the expres sate Vdabimarta (We received the fivor of being made to ree your tx “) Nomater how polite the expression, taxpayers would have none of ‘and the plan had to be postponed and later scaled down All the above expresions can be wed with ud, the most com iy taught equivalent ofthe Engh please" Thus “ike fade imate ba” wil dou swell in moses a “Het iadakemain i?" Rada ean imperative form of hudson todo a favor for an inde or beginner, the use of directional vets may seem teribly com> pci, Bat the alkemative ita chiow of eutakuchi® and anata Unfortunately fr to mnt teacher of panes prefer to wold teach ing dcetonat ves to foreign students either because the teachers ‘hemseves have litle analytic knowledge of the inguage they ae sching or Beane dey believe that Foreign students do no have he pay of lang aru Japanese. Whea I interviewed 2 teacher J Japanese, a welFinentoned gentleman in his fier wha made 2 ‘mid-career sift to langunge tain Pecante he lt he should do his Inco help make Japan country open to foreigners, he tured to me ‘ui “Sometimes T wonder iit posible to teach natural Japanese onigners"I did not have the courige oak hts what oer kindof Japanese he had ia ind. Lam nota itudent Yrs before L embarked on what would become a thity-year carer as 1 Tokyo-based news corespondent, rend in high school in Canadataught me my ist sentence in Japanese, My friend cope ot rom Japanese tsk 3 model sentence which the author claimed stood for"Tam student” ‘The sentence read: “Watolh’ 0 gabue den” “Toole at how hard te Japanese work jus 0 say ‘According wo ‘he textbook, surat meat *L” Tedd not occur tous w question that word-for-word rendering of Weak a gate de (Aecoring tthe textbook, aa was pati le sgnyng the ube of a sentence, gate stood for stden, and sk asthe equivalent ofthe English copula“) Tt would be yank ‘efore I would understand thatthe above sentence did noe exit a at- tal Japanese and thet had been more or les invented forthe benefit offoreign stents ofthe language ‘Granted, the sentence Wate oe gute desde xia, bt il docs not mean “Tam a student” ‘These words would appear in this ‘onder inci only in arte instance of confi sich 3 might ane sven ther are to young persons being introduced cay on of is asrudeat, The one who i the student would then resort tthe ‘utterance to mean“Tm the one wo is the student.” ‘The natural form of wlintroducion Tora Jpunesestadat i “Tamabe des Gataer de” (Vesbain this i Tanaka exists cess.” Bor the meaning is clear fm the context and it should be tranlated a "My name ie Tanaka am a student) Unlortunsely for many teachers of Japanese, were textbooks seat out teaching the language with thee two ecrences (which j happen to represent the way Japanese realy do talk eo each oda) it ‘would mean that tents would have wo be coed eat on foto learn= ing o speak without pronouns. Ax explained above, the shocking is hat Jpstene does not contin a ingle tue equivalent of such as“T oe you" “To avid convoluted explanations in leson one that might i age seudenes 2 hey tale language very diferent fom dir ‘many teachers create atl semences tht ae more ike English than rata Jepanese sentences. In other words, Waukee goku dene ina bit of tick perpetrated by wellmeaning teachers a not 8 shock thei student ight aay. Unfortunately the overse oF sutabui and its second-peron -qalent anata (sedi textbooks to stand forthe English pronoun “you cls in foreign sadent becoming fluent in language tha is ro longer English but not quite Japanese. Linguists refer to this as ‘ete language Tes ery t show jst how unnatural sich spech canbe. “love in maura Japanese ix “Asie ima” A foriger i key oy, "Wetabebi wo ante ai bite arn” The sentence may be long bat 0 Japanete eat is ot avery psonate declaration of affection. There have been many explanations forthe "Weak oa gate de” hoak. The most believable that the vt Werte students of Japanese cold sot imagine tat x lnguage could exis in which the word did not aya pot role. When they deranded to know “the Japanese foe I ir native infrmants suppl them with che best that dei lnguage ul offer which was cata, che most sacl acceptable and most cite for of“ No doabt it war well-intentioned gesture, bt it ‘vay jt explain why alot of foreigners ended up taking funny ever The intimacy of rudeness; the pain of politeness A Fine glance, ound-shouldesed slighdy-buit Rober Austelite did tot lok ike a World War H commando. But Atri spoke hal vue language and thas had a sil even the sucessful comple- ‘iomof a number of ations behind enemy lines in Europe ‘Alier esurning from one particularly dangerous inion, Auser- lie and his companions wer o be personally congratulated by 2 gen ‘ral "We did’ know what t expos, real the ings. ‘Many of ‘en were nero They tonight met cers were sf shies.” Bor just then, the general walkad sto the zoom and sud, “Boye, und ficking good jok”"The moment the general utered the aboo ‘wor theseommandos relaxed, Auster recalled. “They sudenly ANoght the senior oer was an okay guy ‘one of us” ‘Autre would go on 10 became 2 profestor of linguistics at ‘Columbian Universi The above story taken rom one of his ects‘comparing polite expessons in European languages with thos avail thle in Japanese Expletives may not seem t9 have much todo with polite language ‘ut linguists genenly consider both polite and impolite wonds to be art of lager system denoting degres of distance and closeness between speaks. In Japanese thi sytem i known ao deguage oF treatment language. Expleives are only impolite when they ar naps propriate. Most of the time, these so-called bad words ae wd European languages o denote intimacy, vem fen fellowship, They ae rude when used toward someone we do oor know wel: Polite apressions when dicted t someone with whom the speaker once Jn an intinatereationshipcan exact mich mare pain than the foulest. ene words In Japanese, polite versus inmate expresions are part of the ‘grammatical structs of the language. The point of Auster’ lecure ‘was that Japanese iaiguage is unique becante it oe only cota ‘pressions that eal pemons spoken to o about, bit alo words eprecate the speak. For example itadat is ve hmbling, ‘meaning “to partake.” Other vein ofthis kind ae mara (to ioma sur (19 vit of make cl it, 1 trouble another with ren). Since swear words in Enginh are taboo, speakers of Japanese fen asked by speakers of English, “How do you swear in Japanese Foreign students of Japanese ae offen disappointed to discover ‘with the exception of due (excement) there wealy ate no Jap swear won atleast none thc ae Knked to sex ct the elimination human waste, or blasphemy: Esen fio not realy swear word since it is umally attached a a suf o other words for eopbass asin _Nidongo gata (Hin Japanese i oy). ‘What Austedite pointed out ws tha Japancie do not nee won because inappropriate we ofthe intimate fori web per fxm the sume funtion a too expesions in English. Thy i posible to insult someone who har pared away by using the Jatebara (to drop dead) instead of makina, tak naar (0 ph say) iar polite variants. ‘What Auster wanted t point outwith his example ofthe fue rwouthed generals that swear word in English ianmuch they con vote intimacy, aston the opporite end of the same continu as roliteneses of the “Would you care to..." ares Likewise, mesiae 0r (to rieto one ips) and Au (0 munch dower) and ada (eo ura) ar also put aa sng sytem. In recent yeas linguists ave begun t pay atention to the eon ‘esting but equally challenging problems posed for non-native lamers hy the obvious paliteneses of Japanese vers the far more opaque rules of Bagi. Non-native speakers of panes ate often told by Japanese fiends ‘hor dey speak ea, dst Kind of language. For example, the dere ‘om ofthe verb "to eis aey used among intimates Bu itt the Ln eof the type textbook for fncgners It takes inet foreign t= lens years lean when to drop de. Another example i particles uch 8 tg ga and d) Robert Sule, Japuneselanguage specials at Comell Univer ha pointed out n't research paper thet partes we omited in oral eanveration. In fc n some sentence such a ‘Watashi, Tanah mesbima” (My name is Tana), inserting te rice wt (before Tanaka) would resin unnatural speech, But, ‘nce dropping the partes scosidered impolite, oeign students ae sont always taught t include a parce in every sentence cven if ‘ng 0 resus in unnatural pcech, As Sue states, “Many foreign learners of Japanese totally lack sentences [without parties] in he Japanese they ave acquire since roost textbooks for freien lerners of Japanese ae (purposely oF ‘voitingly) heavy influenced by stylistic eas ofthe writen la ke and therefore invariably lack examples of thie vor dics ‘sentences witht particles" ‘Of cource, when frcga sents begin ther sty of Japanese, ‘hey ze a rom having entered Japanese society. Asa rely students lear dhe most poite expressions out of neces, The challenge st ‘lens face as they Become moze fly scilzed eto eam to manip Ine greater nuriber of expressions along the diaage spect. Japanese learners of English, on the other hand, content the pit problem. A Japanese photographer famous for his porte of ‘he Dalat Lama real how shocked! he had been on his ft vis to manda when he heard «| Canadian visitor gret the Tibetan leader in Engl “Until the Canadian spoke up, [had been confined, not knw how one uses palit language in English,” the photographer called ‘rece article. "When the Canadian poke up, was both shocked sieved” All the Canadian ha sid wae, “How ar you” Clearly the level of politenes for the Jpanise was ot high ‘enough. He was searching fr something bet, moe exalted sy 0 4 Nol Prize winne: But he fund hs English vocabulary ins ‘my the things he wanted to say in Japanese ‘This flusration is shared by many Japanese when hey com the enormous posites for poitenes in thet own language with ‘at they know of English. Greeting rmeone such athe Dalat Lama in Japanese would requis seat something ike “Ome ni Ear <4" (Ivs an honor for me to have been placed in fone of your ‘Unfortnately, many Japanese emerge fom the above kind oF ‘ace with the firm conviction chat there ae no polite expressions oghish tal, ‘The result is tha fom a state of total inhibition, afd even tute “How are you" Japanese speakers jump to the other extreme ‘often hear otherwise very polite Japanese males ote thes sn Engh a, "Hi, 'm Me. Tanaa" Similay, normally pte Jap an be heard to say in English “What do you want?” a times “What would you tke?” is clealy mor sprepriate Atleast part ofthe problem har to do with how English is in Japan. Although English is compulsory, tudes simply me grammatical rules, which they regurgiat at exam ime ‘Most Japanese lum English rom popular conversation ha ‘they pick up on their wayt impor. Having once writen such boiler myself, mast share the blame for the absence of polite Sons inthe English speech of the 185/00 Japanese who were i ‘enough to buy the book. Such handbooks invariably outa spe, path to fvensy in English. Thre teats, which often provide the ‘ea contact Japanese have with ving Engi, help spread an image ‘hap; care, and uncomplicated English-speaking world wh ‘everyone is fiendly” The American ritual of calling even the wile a ‘he President ofthe United Stas by ber ist same alo reinforces opal stereotypes. Bur the problem does no stop with grammar or media images of Ameicans.To many Japanese, peshaps vena major pie speech i ‘cere for particule people and particular ocasons (Accidentally colliding with a stranger on a crowded ney platform is not oe of ‘hose aerasions) ‘Thikind of culture-bound behavior ha had some serious negative ‘onsequenes fr Japanese businesses wth US subsidiaries. Inthe ear |y 19905, the Japanese government hired Hiro Nishi, an Amed an-tined sociologist, to lok into the penonnel problems of |spanese companies inthe United States, Oe ifthe more stios i vvdertndings Nishida came acoso was "rue" language of Japanese vse Am elierly female asstant (American) complained that her Japanese hos never sed plese” or"Can you... when asking be opy documents ot ty ometine ‘Conftoted with sich complaints, Japanese executives were pur~ sled. From a Japanese point of view, talf were “part of the family” ‘Why would on use pois language 0 someone onthe sare eum? Far ‘rom being impolite, the Japanee bores were expressing the same kind intimacy with rude language that Austere genera achieved "hough judicious use of swear word (Don) say wobat you mean te foreigners ately at certain high schools in Japan, special lites have been setup lor chen who recived part oftheir education abroad. Wii such shilden speak excellent English, French, or German, they ag behind nthe Japanese compared to those educa in Japan, Before stating short speech welcoming « new clas of such tito si (wetaree chide) back t Japan, a teacher tured to his ew stents and sd Ts ale cld Ree.” A. window was open a the back ofthe room. Apparently the teacher expected that stent woul! interpret his words cree, get wp and loe the window In Japan cieumocations are prefered commande ofthe Jonyclove‘he-window variety. To the shock ofthe teacher, not one hid got the ese ‘The above anedote comes from a colamn by 4 well-known Japa ese profesor in the Japanese-laygage Yemiard newspaper. a tthe profewor anes thatthe returnce children failed t respond to the mmcsage their teacher was sending them because they had been ‘ought up “in Europe and Americ where cieumlocutions are not foes? ‘not unum to bear opinion of the Kind vice by the profee. 4c May panes, paps even 2 majority, ae convince that send Jing ube messages through cicumnlocations or euphemism is alt Unique Japanese. I is not uncommon to bear Japaneae comments ‘ers explain his phenomenon o foreigners ad Japanese lke a xan es of fin embin (mental tcepaty), the implication being that Jipanese (alike foreigner) do oot nec! words to coamnicate with ‘oh oee While one ay ape the claim tht Japanse have + monopoly 0m rcumlocutons, the facts that Japanee do have a trong ee ‘oy one hing and mean anther The profesior quoted above pointy tothe eagle ofthe Japanese who, ifn jor before dinner whether his very angry will invariably, “ian abe Bima (Noy hdl ch) Every native speaker of Japanese wil nw that thie statement not to be taken a fice value. Is probably suet wansume thatthe spake is famished. Saying one is hangry i not coded god form, but using such a sand diclaimer does tel the hos tha the guest wuld ik o eat very soon Inthe Japanee business worl ton, ccumlocotion isthe onder of ‘he day Fer eample ia customer sys “We ate staying the mater it is best to asume th the person onthe other end of the line is ying to avoid sying “D0” Likewise, the visitor from abroad who assumes ‘that umeoas invitations fr lunch and dinar mean that deal ‘he wor maybe in for an unpleasant surprise The entering could easly bea mate of form and not content na seme the Japanese should not be blamed for asuming that ‘Sumloctons and formal behavior ate uniquely Japanese, The nes have led in reativefolation fora longtime ante nly recente ly that Japanese are traveling abroad in great numbers. There ate only ‘very few Japanese who know English wellenugh to be able to tel hat ‘words such a “lever” or “marvelous are almost alwys used sacast= «ally in British English asin “Arent you teilycleve® (erandaton: “You twit) or Tso tha jas marvelous for yu” (anlation: “Stop talig about youre you boot") ‘The sad fic, howeveisthac the ble hel by many Japanese that foreigners don't understand creamloatons can become self ful- ing prophecy. f yu sare ff with che assumption thai i imposible ‘communicate with foreigners, chances ar that you will not learn ow to commnicte with them. In aca fact, English is ul of circumlocuions In English there sre many ways of asking five. For example, the English sentence ‘Do you want take the garage ov today?” (poken by a wife to her hnsband) is fa less direc than it Japanese equivalent, ‘Kjos gem ¢ dsbite ne" A whale branch oflinguiatics ae gown up in dhe pat ‘went years consisting of analyzing wich vague English sentences, An "nglish-speaking husband will answer, "No, dont want eo, only if he looking fora fight. Most ofthe ime, he will ecogrize “Do you want to." forwhat it is escunloaton. English abounds with sear net requests, such as, “Would you exind taking out the garbage?” ‘Can Task yout takeout the garbage" “Would it be too mich to ‘or even just "Can yu... which of coure does not mean “Are you Pyialy able 9.7" eis common to hea Japanese init that Japanese is an imei (ae) language, Many examples of the kind atthe beginning ofthis tion willbe presented to the foreigner to prove that Japanese is vague bot English i plain and direc. And yet, slmost all Japanese request sentences ae direct orders that may or shay not end with a pote form of an imperative veh The most common request pattern is the 4 (gerund) ening of the ver fllowed hy Auda (commonly transate as please” but really an imperative of “pass me down"). Although didi appears often in textbook seated for frcign students of Japanese, there ie reson to believe that even this ect ‘hough polite grammatial form it not uted as ofen by Japanese speak erm a Japanee themselves normally belve, After monitoring, therequests of five hundred Japanese customers at a fist food outlet in ‘Toigos Shinjula dst, Hnguist Raber Sule found that a mere 15 percent of men and fewer thin 30 percent of women even bothered to Pobre end oftheir requests ‘The American antopologit Harumi Bef has alo pointed out ‘that when Americans welcome fist tine vistoes to their homes they ‘often give thir guests “tour of the house” Such tours wil include ‘bdrooms and bathrooms. Ocasonally pane wil comment eit- callyon this cstom. Bull thas mean by the American ils that the vitor is welcome. When an American hostess sys, “And thi is the upstairs bathroom,” what she means x “My home your hore.” Americas, ke Japanese, speak idles Incidentally Americans wil feel very uncomfortable when they are invited ta Jypancse homey whew all entertainment wil tke place in the osama, a downsized ‘enion of living oom. “The Japanese profesor writing in the Yomi above comes 10 8 Sighting conclsion, one which i saily becoming more popular very day in intemationalzing Japan. Since foreigners (and "verse shen” of Japenese) cannot be expected to understand Japanese ese toms, Japanese will have w lea two separate ways of commonit- ing—cleaey and precisely when king to foeigoes and vaguely of opaque when dealing with fellow Japanese. This kind of “oul aparthei” offers a god explanation of why sometimes Englith-speak- ing Japanese may give the imprestion of being aide too blunt when speaking to non-Japanese. The oad t fll cross-cultural communicay tn, howeve, is ikly to come fram muta, better undentaing by ‘outsiders ofthe unclear signals tat insiders tend 10 members of thee ve group. ‘The artof understatement Although the quoeation "Speak soli and cary a hig stick” is generally sxbuted to Prsident Theodore Roosevelt safe to sy that under stated behavior is fr more highly valued in Japan than inthe United Sates Focexample jn series of dialogues in 4 Japanese restbook writen for Anrican, the fither of Japanese fan hosting a young Ameri= an says, Jon ct Nile go jr dew ne* (Vou speak Jopancse very wel John). To which Joh epics, "Hato dow ne (Ves thats igh) derby ndiatng tt John may have sequired mechanical pro- ficiency in Japanese bu har yet to achieve cultural competence. Ii fir to say that no Japanese would ever acept a compliment with “Ha 00 stow mand that mach ap anewer coming from the mouth of «non atv speaker would ect an embarased smile from most epee ‘The danger of mechanical skis in Japanese rushing aed of cle curl sensiivty i matter of serious concern Eleanor Jorden, 2 pio= nee inthe teaching of Jpanet inthe U.S. call gale auch a the one sume symptoms of abominable enc Unfortunately, sel deprecation doce not come easly to people brought up inthe competitive environments charicerse uf many of the worls English-speaking societies One wonder just how many American European sidents of Japanese colette Japa nese-educated Korean car manuficarer who told «fori reper, ‘Ui ate Krum tar mane bite rs dake yo" (We jst pre tend to make ca). Ae the time of the interview, the manufacurers Pants were spewing out in easest of two hundred thousand vehicle year. Asf the presen tine the same maker's ann] oop ands "it more than fetes tha Figue Similarly tis o€ uncommon to come aos an att designated ae ving national easure who wile hut what he docs i "and ir ‘ute (ere dabbling). Likewise, the more masterly Japanese ‘peaks Enis, the more be wl be tat he cannot pesca wor, le wl ofcourse, deliver his protestations in the moss grammatically cor- ‘ond unacented Engh Tn Japan sl-ffcement extends to one kin Japanese ocasonal- ly sprinkle thee speech with expresions sucha uk (my spd om) snd ae (my seupid wif). These words mst nt be taken literally, The basi rule that a person is requied by form to deprecate aay- ‘hing done by or belonging to himself, his relatives, or hi frm, Not long ago freign reporce wrote an aie sggstng that che term tapi wife! was dcriminatoy Ii eve eat Jpanese wives do notsay “my supid husband but day have oer colorfal xpresions inching sadeigomi (oversized garbage) to choos rom when eleting tothe mater ‘Of couse, amos all self deprecation in Japan const of form not tubotance. A Japanese father who refers to his son a8 ‘got know ‘well dat no ative speaker of Japanese wil tke the expesion at fice vale. The gu (upd) of uk and gai jt one of many markers in Japanese chat function sims wo the posesve case of nouns i Baran language ‘The e pres, commonly mizendcred 2x "honomble,” oem fan tions as 1 marker indicating posession by someone other than the speaker While in the case of sv (ree tea o ate (sake) the 2 does incate tha ea and sake are held in high tem, when a hast = ‘alle "sract Engh?) than their male counterpart, who gency perceived “goin” a oigher and hence more man ‘Although the above example involves phonetics, she principle af women adhering toa more gentel speech syle seems to coespond 19 Japanese wornen's speech, whichis expected to be consistently mon “polite than tha of males What male the definition of Japanese Ferale speech od stat, with the exception of expressions such athe honorable second flow” much Japanese female pecch behavior ovelaps with erandard speech or even the ppesch ebavor of other groupe. Laci ently vig pecliarspech sve snot uniquely female character~ istic in Japanese. Males have a somewhat smaller but no less colofal ‘ange of expresions ad grammtial fos alle to them expres ‘moods ranging fom quit uertveness to loud boats, Nether are Japanese spech tyes solely gende-baeed. The elderly have hero vy feayig (et) and pec way fending ven tence (i) Japanese chien are lovingly taught vo make cute “mis taker" in” pronunciation, while gangster caleate a. datinctine Spanisb-ye led raloog with special eb and noe oo then ses apart frm ordinary folk ‘Tobe sure, there are some forms of speech that are resected t0 female ie. Foe eampl, a mae will never put an 2a font of alana (fish ity hogorabe fish) or widn (meat). Similarly, unless @ man sree imitate female speech, he will never ter the expreston “I su” (0 think Tl Hke that) wih a ing ionation at de end, Lstead the wil say, "Seo sia? (Lets do that). Be that as ie may female ser can choose tay "Soo even when seis not consciously wpa male speaker, In other word, while ther are some parts of spesch that are sctited to ase by males females, expressions chat maybe used by a male can aio be weed by females so express anetiveness, Likewise, ses wil use vocabulary prefemed by females when they wish 1 Be cle or polite, Ths Japanese women's specs fr more complicated ‘han the popular expresion annaksodt (women’s language) wight ‘ndicate, Unlike ina dialect of Mongolian in which women sways se “erent vowel fom men, or inthe cas of Hebrew in which a worsen wil alway say rca when she wishes something (while a man will sways ay rez) Japanese women's language exists along spectrum of tpeech that sage by spall bet ia “More uaa et, unlike the New York Time atic on voice pitch vwouk! suggest, Japanese women are able © exerie « remattable legreofeoige a to how mach femininity the wish to expres along ‘hat spectrum of they wih to expres anya al Women who wih