(Untitled)

[amles80]

I was reading a little in my Japanese textbook, because there’s no reason to be lazy (and forget everything I’ve learned) because it’s summer! The course ended in the middle of chapter 7, and now I looked at the grammar section of chapter 8. That’s where “short forms” are explained. (That’s good, because now I know that that’s what I’ve been

Comments

[illusoire]

I find the use of polite/plain speech and honourfics in Japanese quite confusing too - I've been doing a few languages exchanges recently and I tend to just use the polite form and -san until my language exchange partner tells me otherwise. It's interesting though - all three of the girls I've been corresponding with (one older, one younger, and one the same age as me) told me not to bother with using -san right from the start, but only one of them (the one who is the same age) said that I didn't have to use polite speech; the other two both commented on how polite my Japanese was, but I wasn't sure if they were hinting that it was unnecessarily polite... Plain speech still doesn't come very naturally to me!

How long have you been learning for? Do you attend a class or are you learning by yourself?

[amles80]

I think it's probably safest to just use the polite form and -san until my the other person says otherwise, I would probably do the same. Even if that's unnecessarily polite in some situations, it can't be wrong, can it? I think they meant it as a compliment, thinking that plain speech is simpler and easier, so speaking politely would require more effort. :) (I'm just guessing! Of course, they could have been hinting something!)

I started learning by myself last year, but I became impatient so quickly because I had no one to help me. I thought I'd learn more and faster from taking a class, so that's what I've been doing between January and May. It was a part time class so I haven't really learned a lot yet, but it's fun when I can understand words or even phrases from things I'm watching. :) I'm not sure if I'll have the time to take the next class after the summer.