Sociolinguistica, how to be polite part 2

Estou estudaando uque nem um puto por aqui,... tenho  perdido a hora de dormir, de comer e de fazer o... de qualquer jeito, ontem tive uma puta insonia e fiquei assistindo um anime no meu celular ate duas e meia da manha quadpo acabou a programacao da TV aberta por aqui,.... estou um pouco sem sacvou mandar esse texto em ingles so para nao deixar perdido, mmas que estou sem tempo estou... ai ai 

 

 

 

in  the last class we discussed about how to say thank you and make a compliment in japanese.

 

 

In the Japanese culture is very, very important to say thank you. That's why they have a lot of different ways of doing that. In the western world, we only have to say thank one time and we don't have to say it again in the next day we meet the person, may sound fake, overreacted. An important point in this class: learn how Japanese think life. They understand we live a continuous line together. If you meet the person in the next day is like you were never apart. But westerns think life as individual persons, sharing only some moments together.

 

We discussed about the two kinds of thoughts: the Meta language behavior and the language behavior itself. Being polite in Japanese thank you is not saying thank you a lot of times, how some other cultures do. You have to use your mind in the Meta language way and add some extra information, extra words, to fit the situation.   This is how the structure of the Japanese thank you works.

 

In Japan, most of the times we don't have to say what for the thank you, they already know about we are talking about. Some times is a bit troublesome for me because some people meet me again and show gratitude for something I did and a don't remember what because I still think as a western and we are used to leave the past behind. Every time we meet a person is like a lot of thinks have happened with each other so we don't care to remind the last meet. In Japan, as we said before, is polite to remind about things we had in common, to remind that we live together. I was talking with a Kanda student about relationships between boyfriend and a girlfriend and I asked her why they stay so long with just one person while they are young. She answered that Japanese wants to live a life together. In my country the moments are more important than the whole time.

 

Most of the cultures have different ways of saying thank you in accord with place, with time, with the degreed of the thank you but Japanese are peculiar in these cases because the Meta language behavior predominates. We cannot forget to add more information to express correctly our gratitude.

 

Thinking a bit in Portuguese and in Brazil. You don't have to add things, and you have to explain why you are saying thank you. It's not necessary to say thank you again, but it is very polite if you mention the present or the action in the next day you met the person but not to not broke the continuous line but to say that it was useful.

 

Another difference between Brazil and Japan is that in Brazil we are used to make fun of everything. When we graduate we have a ritual that the class have to make a speech talking about the students and the teachers and we only talk about the peculiar aspect of every person, making fun even with the teachers to say thank you for all the things that passed. Everybody understands and enjoys the ritual, doing this they seem closer to each other. In Brazil is ok to respond a compliment with a small joke. Is a positive way to handle a important situation. In Japan they use a negative way, they compliment the thank you with a negative form, denying, most of the times, that the thing they did was important. Is not wrong, is just different.

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Gustavo Dore
gustavodore@gmail.com