My second year of Japanese

The difference between this year’s Japanese course and the last is that we have advanced from basic grammar to casually used conversations, such as polite expressions when you talk to elderly people or your boss, which again differs from the way you talk to your friends. This often confuses me. This week we have been focusing on practising honorific and humble expressions. When we are talking in an honorific of humble manner, many transformations in the wording of verbs take place. For example, “iku” (which means “to go”) has to be changed to “irrashaimasu”; “taberu” (to eat) has to be changed to “meshiagarimasu”…etc. Even if you do not understand Japanese, you can tell how complex it becomes, and there is no connection between the two forms what so ever, is there? There are also plenty more transformations of verbs like these to memorise. Greeting expressions also have their own polite forms. For example, “doodesuka?” (How about it?) has to be changed to “ikagadesuka?”.

The examples mentioned above are examples of honorific expressions. Relatively, there are also plenty of different transformations for humble expressions as well. I am very impressed at how Japanese people can think of so many variations of expressions; it is no wonder they are known to be a very manner-focused country.

A few days ago, for our oral assessment, I was asked to imagine myself in a situation where I had just returned to New Zealand from a study period in Japan, and explain to my teacher using polite expressions, about the people who looked after me in Japan and what I had done. When I had finished my assessment, I felt that it was not easy to speak using these expressions. However, if I am to work in Japan in the future, I must learn all of these expressions by heart.


Admin, (2008) Polite Japanese 敬語. Retrieved October 29, 2008, from http://www.thejapanesepage.com/grammar/chapter_eight/keigohttp://www.jlpt.jp/e/index.html