Quote:
Originally Posted by YuriTokoro
Hi.
Could you correct my English?
"To Praise the Members of Your Family"
You are not expected to praise the members of your family when speaking or writing in Japanese. However, this seems to be a little difficult to understand for some American people. (I don’t know about people from other countries.)
One of my American friends had begun studying Japanese. He wrote me something in Japanese, and he kept calling his wife beautiful. This sounded very strange to me.
In Japanese, we speak about our own family in a modest way. If you praise them, you sound sort of rude.
When I warned him not to praise his wife, he insisted that was his choice and writing style.
He didn’t understand that he should use the Japanese style when speaking in Japanese, as learning any foreign language is connected to learning the foreign culture. He eventually gave up studying the Japanese language.
Nevertheless, many young people read Japanese manga and know much about Japanese culture from them. I believe this is a great thing. Studying Japanese may be easier for them.
Thank you.
Nagoyankee, thanks for the first sentence.
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Impressive, Yuri. Not a lot of revisions needed this time, mainly *minor* word changes.
It's interesting to learn that family members are not to be praised too much in writing or speaking Japanese properly. In the Western world, it's somewhat of an accepted thing that Canadians do not brag too much about accomplishments, or call attention to ourselves just to be praised. We just do what we can, what we are able; be it serving the cause of peace, or teaching others something they wish to know.
I read the part about young people learning Japanese ways of speaking and aspects of culture, and the first thing that came to mind was the "Naruto" manga...it may be my age speaking, but I don't think many young people are learning much from that. It may just be my jaded view about the younger generations speaking.
Great work, Yuri!
