Quote:
Originally Posted by Junsai
I don't get why it is so hard to know when. Isn't it similar to English? You speak a certain way when speaking to people not your friends, people above you and those below you. You can tell how you need to speak depending on who your speaking to in English why is it so hard to do the same for Japanese. Is it because Japanese has different words for polite and informal? Same can go for English we use certain words with some and not with others.
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Actually, it's not similar to English. Japanese makes greater use of honorifics. There are honorifics for nearly everyone a person might encounter, and not using the proper honorific can be offensive. The same goes for formal and informal language. In Western society, we tend to let it slide a bit more, but in Japan, it can be very offensive.