One of the most difficult aspects of Japanese language is its extremely complex speech level system. Even among Japanese, the ability to use speech level system correctly reveals the level of culture of each person.
Most Japanese language materials only teach “neutral” language. However being able to speak “neutral” Japanese is only a small part of speaking Japanese. The neutral language will be extremely rude when showing deep respect is required, and it will make you sound absurdly stiff among your friends.
I know a fair amount of European and Asian languages, and nothing even comes close to the complexity of Japanese speech level system. Actually it often gets very frustrating because the system gets in a way of straightforward communications. However if you want to go beyond the basic communications in Japanese, you have to be able to use the system properly and there is no way around it.
In this section I will explain how to use correct speech levels in details using real-world examples. This section is under development and I will be adding more posts soon. Please support so that I can keep developing the website.
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Basics of Japanese speech level system
Japanese is a verb-last language, and the types/forms of verbs and their modifiers that come at the end of the sentence will usually decide the speech level. The below are all “I think so” at different speech levels. They are all verbatim, and don’t include analogous sentences like “I am of the opinion of”: As…
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Do for me
Japanese extensively uses expressions “do for me” (along with “do for somebody“). The both of the below examples can be translated “he helped me” in English, but while the first one is an emotionless statement that simply states the fact, the second one is from your personal and emotional perspective. “Do for me” is used…
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Do for somebody
“Do for somebody” is the opposite side of “do for me“, and they are both used extensively in Japanese (and Korean). “Do for somebody” is used when you do something solely for the benefit of somebody else: There are multiple “do for somebody” with different speech levels. Since やる、上げる can be very patronizing, they are…
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Male and female languages
Japanese has distinctive male and female “gendered” languages in the spoken form. The written language is neutral. The difference is much more pronounced in informal conversations, and in the most formal spoken language, the difference is usually limited to the use of gender-specific pronouns. Getting this wrong will often have hilarious effects. “I will kill…
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Name Suffixes (さん、ちゃん、君、様、殿)
In Japanese, you usually add an addressing suffix to someone’s name. These suffixes can be added to both family names and given names. “さん” is respectful, most common and acceptable in most social occasions. “様” is very respectful but typically only used in writing, or addressing customers in rather formal settings (high-end hotels, restaurants, etc.)…
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Personal pronoun – I
Unlike in European languages, Japanese has a plethora of “I“, and it is extremely important to use a right one depending on the occasion […]
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Personal pronoun – You
Unlike in European languages, personal pronouns other than “I” and “we” are not commonly used in Japanese. Textbooks and dictionaries may say “あなた” is “you”, but that is only because among all other “you” in Japanese, “あなた” is relatively close to being neutral […]
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Personal pronouns – He, She, They
Most of the practices explained in the article on personal pronoun “you” in Japanese also apply to “he/him“, “she/her” and “they/them” with some differences. Just like “あなた”, it is very rude to refer to your senior with “彼” or “彼女”, and it sounds too formal and/or pompous for everybody else. If you know the person’s…
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Speech level cheat sheet
The below does not come close to cover everything, but does cover a large part of daily conversations. “そう” is to be substituted with an appropriate noun, adjective, adjective-verb(形容動詞). “する” is to be substituted with an appropriate verb.
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Spoken language and written language in Japanese
There is a clear difference between spoken and written Japanese. The written Japanese is very neutral – contains no respectful, humble and/or patronizing languages, and is also gender neutral. This makes written Japanese markedly unnatural when used as spoken language and vice versa. So much so that it is very difficult to write good lyrics…
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Structure of Japanese speech level system
In modern Japanese, there are multiple speech levels as below: The above-mentioned levels create further compound levels. For example; In most of East Asia, someone who is older than you even by one year (using school year) is considered your “senior”, someone who is the same age with you is considered your “peer”, and someone…