Things that irk me about Japan 1: Keigo

Keigo, 敬語, created by the Japanese for the purpose of confusing us people who pretend to be able to speak the language, and for the purpose of showing who the native speakers and who the pretenders are.  Ok, so I digress, it really refers to the levels of politeness in the Japanese language, but the ability to deploy it correctly is in fact a clear sign of whether or not you have truly grasped the language.  I don’t even want to talk about the disaster that is my case :P.

In case you didn’t know, Japanese is a very polite language.  There are a fairly limited number of ways to curse in Japanese when compared with English.  In fact, most insults fall under the category of simply being “less polite”.  Or in the case of arguments between friends or couples, politeness sometimes escalates to reflect that your relationship is cooling.  So why does it matter to any of us non-native speakers who are getting by anyway?  Not being able to use as a tourist is not that big of a deal, but being able to understand it is critical.  Any Japanese salesperson, waitress, maid, whatever situation where a person is serving a customer or guest, keigo will be used.  😛 As an anime watcher, it matters because various levels of keigo are used to depict 萌え or setting.  Examples of this include, Mikuru from Suzumiya Haruhi, Aoi from Ai Yori Aoshi, or Yoichi from the recent Asu no Yoichi.  There are tons more examples, but you get the idea.

Keigo is split into three levels:

• 尊敬語　- sonkeigo – Honorific Form.  Used to show your respect for utmost respect for someone of higher position than you in a given situation
• 丁寧語　- teineigo – Polite Form.  If any of you have taken Japanese 101 or probably 102, this is in fact what you learn.
• 謙譲語　- kenjogo – Humble Form.  Used to minimize yourself, demphasize your actions, and what not.

尊敬語 – Honorific Form

“OMG you are the greatest person ever, bestow upon me the privlege of bearing your children!  Your steps cause me to bow in reverence!”

Ok maybe I overdid it, but that’s pretty much the mentality that goes into employing sonkeigo.  Whether or not someone is higher ranked than you can be based on a number of things such as, position in a company, wealth, acheivements, etc.  Some situations where this will be employed:

• You are a maid speaking to your master, or a butler speaking to your master
• You are speaking to a much higher ranking person of your company.  (i.e. me when I am speaking to the CEO)
• You are an employee of a company speaking to a customer/potential customer or another company
• You are asking a favor of somebody, or speaking to someone who you owe a deep favor to
• You are speaking about a national leader or famous historical character
• You are a news reporter speaking to your audience

Sonkeigo largely revolves around verb and noun transformation.  The rest of the grammar largely remains the same.

For example:

初音ミクの新CDだ。- hatsune miku no shin CD da

Translation: It’s Hatsune Miku’s new CD!

Honorific Form:

初音ミクさまの新CDでいらっしゃいます。- hatsune miku sama no shin CD de irasshaimasu

Translation: It’s Hatsune Miku’s new CD!

There’s no real direct translation, since the concept of respect and politeness doesn’t really apply to English.  Probably the best rewording would be, I humbly report that this is the great Hatsune Miku’s new CD.

Other special verbs include:

To go: 行く (iku) → いらっしゃる (irassharu)
To come: 来る kuru) → おいでになる (oide ni naru)
To be: だ (da) / である (dearu) → でいらっしゃる (deirassharu)
To eat: 食べる (taberu) → 召し上がる (meshiagaru)
To look: 見る (miru) → ご覧になる (goran ni naru)
To know: 知る (shiru) → ご存知である (gozonji dearu)
To say: 言う (iu) → おっしゃる (ossharu)

Examples of noun transformation:

君ー＞貴方 Noun for you.

俺、僕ー＞私、わたくし ore and boku become watashi or watakushi (note: watakushi is usually reserved for women and men who want to sound like women, but it is perfectly acceptable for a man to use it in a business keigo context

君の会社ー＞貴社　kimi no kaisha transforms into kisha, which literally means “your precious company”.

謙譲語 – Humble Form

OMG I am the most incapable person ever, nothing I do matters at all.  I am the most insignificant piece of garbage ever.

That’s basically kenjogo in a nutshell.  You minimize your actions as if nothing about you matters.  The uses for kenjogo are identical to sonkeigo because they are usually used in pairs.  You always raise up who you are talking to with the honorific form, and then minimize your own actions with kenjogo.

私は休んでいる – watashi wa yasunde iru

Translation: I am taking a break.

Humble form:

私はお休みしております。 – watashi wa o yasmumishite orimasu

Translation: I am taking a break.

Humbler Humble form:

私はお休みさせていただいております。 – watashi wa o yasumi sasete itadaite orimasu.

Translation: I have humbly received permission to be taking a break.

Some special humble form verbs:

To go: 行く (iku) → 伺う (ukagau)
To come: 来る kuru) → 参る (mairu)
To be: だ (da) / である (dearu) → でござる (degozaru)
To eat: 食べる (taberu) → 頂く (itadaku)
To receive: もらう (morau) → 頂く (itadaku)
To look: 見る (miru) → 拝見する (haikensuru)
To know: 知る (shiru) → 存じる (zonjiru)
To say: 言う (iu) → 申す (mousu)

Another example これは私の初音ミクの新CDでございます。 – kore wa watashi no hatsune miku sama no shin CD de gozaimasu (Ruroni Kenshin uses this form a whole lot)

In the previous example, I used de irassharu to respect Hatsune Miku for and her new CD.  However, here I use de gozaimasu because I am refering to the CD that belongs to me, even though it is Hatsune Miku’s new CD that belongs to me.  Confused yet?  Hurrah for relative honorifics.  If this was Korean, the honorific would be the same regardless of the situation.

丁寧語 – Polite Form

Anyone who has ever studied Japanese out of a Japanese textbook will have learned this first.  It simply refers to the masu and desu forms of the Japanese language and is light years easier to understand than the other two keigo forms.

初音ミクの新CDです。

私ご飯を食べました。

It’s largely identical to speaking in normal form, but just simply end all your sentences with a desu or a masu :P.  I can do this, so it can’t be that hard!

Some situations where you would want to use this:

• You are speaking to someone you don’t know very well, or are meeting for the first time.
• In a business setting, when you do not know whether the person you are speaking to is of higher or lower status than you.  After exchanging business cards and you learn of each other’s positions, sonkeigo and kenjogo should be adapted and used appropriately.
• You want to sound feminine.  (Sorry… Japan is still a largely male dominated society, women are largely expected to be more polite and using the polite form when you’re not supposed to falls in this category).
• You are speaking to your immediate superior
• You have no clue if you should be using sonkeigo or kenjogo (i.e. me, most of the time)

Conclusion

This is by no means a complete explanation of keigo.  There are entire books written on the topic not only for foreigners, but also for Japanese people (yes, even Japanese people have to learn how to speak in Keigo).  But, if all of this is overwhelming to you, the least you should know how to use is teineigo and be able to understand sonkeigo.  Being able to use teineigo will allow you to not offend anybody.  It is appropriate to speak to your CEO in teineigo, just less polite and not ieal.  Being able to understand sonkeigo, will mean you will be able to shop with ease and understand what the heck salespeople are trying to peg you with :P. I haven’t even begun to explain the system of relative honorifics that apply to keigo.  (For example, when speaking to your boss you must glorify him.  However, when speaking to someone outside the company about your boss, you must MINIMIZE him).  The whole system is ridiculously complex, such that even native speakers get mixed up sometimes.

I’m sorry if this post bored you, but I felt like getting this off my chest after a frustrating day at work where I mixed up my keigo and ended up glorifying myself and minimizing my boss.  Thank god I’m a foreigner and they just laughed it off.  I suck at Keigo, so if you find any mistakes tell me and I’ll fix it :P.

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