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 Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 7:09 pm
So I've been seeing some of these things and frankly they confuse me ._.
1. After helping one of my Japanese friends (on a だ level of closeness), they sent me back a response which looked something like this:
○○だ
ありがとうございます！助かりました
○○する
So what I don't get is, the switch between casual and polite levels. When you're thanking someone is it normal to do so politely? Would it be rude to just say "助かった"? (If it matters, the person I was talking to was female)
2. I was reading the first couple chapters of ハリー・ポッター and I was surprised to see that Petunia uses です体 with her own husband. Would there be a reason for people to talk politely with their spouses.........?
3. Similar to the above question, in some anime I've seen princess / queen characters talking to everybody using です despite well, being nobility and obviously of higher status than them. Is this just to characterize them and make them more feminine or something?
4. Ok, similar to well, all of the above. Even if authors / anime writers were to make females use です to show that they're feminine, what's up with the random switching of politeness levels at times? For example, here's some dialogue taken from a game, cutting out all the text except for what this specific character is saying (note, she's a female)
橙は私の式神
今は回復して、もっと強くなっているわ
私も式神
ご主人様はまだお休みですわ
何か用？
ご主人様は冬眠中ですが
I don't get this at all ._.
5. When helping out Japanese friends with English (again on a だ level), I've gotten replies back more than once that say something along the lines of "丁寧に返事してありがとう！" despite not having spoken politely at all. Sure, I say something along the lines of これはそれという意味なんだ where I could say the same thing like こりゃそれって意味なんだぜ、このバカ野郎 (lol), but honestly I don't consider the former to be polite at all. Am I not speaking colloquially enough or am I missing out on a meaning for "丁寧" or something? (丁寧 does have a lot of definitions, lol)
教えてくれませんか？ gonk
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Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 3:45 pm
There are a variety of reasons to switch politeness levels, and it can be very confusing.
In case 1, my guess is that with certain set phrases, people just use the politer form without even thinking about it. I would say it's pretty common to use the politer forms of things like "thank you," no matter what politeness level you are on with them. Also, sometimes people change politeness levels simply for emphasis. So your friend may be switching to a higher level of politeness just to sound more forceful and sincere.
In case 2... I would say that relationships between spouses are just as complicated as other sorts of relationships. Think about in English the dynamic of that family. There was probably something lost in the translation of how Petunia and Vernon interact with each other, and so her politeness towards him despite the fact that they are married is probably intended to show some dysfunction. Being polite isn't always polite.
In case 3... Anime is just a bad example of politeness levels. Still, probably what's going on here is that they're making a different contrast. You wouldn't expect to hear a queen use colloquial speech... but you might expect her to use Keigo. Maybe they're emphasizing that she doesn't use Keigo. I think high stations aren't "allowed" to stoop to the level of commoner's speech.
In case 4... Again, those couple times where she uses the politer form could be for emphasis, or it could be unconscious.
In case 5, I think your friend isn't saying, "Thanks for the polite reply." I think they are saying, "Thank you for being polite enough to answer my question (even if it was stupid)."
I could be wrong on these, but I hope this helps. Unfortunately, politeness level is one of those things that there aren't any written down rules for, and most people just follow them unconsciously. They can't tell you what's right, but they can tell you when it's wrong. Fortunately, as a foreigner, for the most part no one will care. xd
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Ivy Lana Lee Vice Captain
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