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Japanese in Action
Third paperback printing edition, 1979, a very nice well-preserved trade softcover.
218 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1983
About the author
Jack Seward
53 books5 followersSince 1941 Jack Seward has been involved with the Japanese language as student, teacher, and author of more than 30 books. He has also been a lecturer on Japanese culture and communication as well as a professional interpreter and translator. In 1986 the Emperor of Japan awarded Seward the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Third Class, for his efforts. Seward now lives in his native Texas with his Japanese wife.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 26, 2010
I was in Tokyo last week at a conference, and, while trying to get back in touch with my extremely rusty and uncertain Japanese, I remembered Jack Seward's book. The author, who must be the most extreme Japanophile I have ever come across, enjoys regaling you with anecdotes about this interesting language. Here was one of the ones I liked most.
Like many East Asian languages, Japanese grammar makes heavy use of the concept of "politeness" - this is about as important to Japanese as gender is to French or Spanish. Verbs have endings called "polite", "plain" and "humble", and nouns can be prefixed by the particles go- and o-, normally rendered into English as "honourable" or "honourably". So, for example, when I went down to breakfast on the first day I saw a sign on my table which said something you might translate literally as "Please honourably refrain from honourable use of mobile phones in the restaurant". The refraining and the using were honourable because they referred to the honoured guests, but the restaurant was plain, because it belonged to the hotel.
Seward explains all this: the basical principle is that my things are plain or humble, and yours are honourable. He then says that there are standard exceptions to this rule: some things are intrinsically honourable, irrespective of whether they are mine or yours. So you always say o-mizu (honourable water) o-hashi (honourable chopsticks) and o-cha (honourable tea).
So far, I'd seen it before, but I didn't know that there could be exceptions to the exceptions! Seward says he learned this the day he met a tea merchant, and was astonished to find that he referred to tea as plain cha. Since his life was intimately associated with tea, calling it o-cha would have amounted to self-aggrandisement, the rudest thing you can do in Japanese. So in fact it's completely logical if you've absorbed the principle of politeness thoroughly enough.
Seward's book is a little dated, but if you like this kind of story I warmly recommend it. He does his best to get you hooked on Japanese, and maybe you'll find he's succeeded!
Like many East Asian languages, Japanese grammar makes heavy use of the concept of "politeness" - this is about as important to Japanese as gender is to French or Spanish. Verbs have endings called "polite", "plain" and "humble", and nouns can be prefixed by the particles go- and o-, normally rendered into English as "honourable" or "honourably". So, for example, when I went down to breakfast on the first day I saw a sign on my table which said something you might translate literally as "Please honourably refrain from honourable use of mobile phones in the restaurant". The refraining and the using were honourable because they referred to the honoured guests, but the restaurant was plain, because it belonged to the hotel.
Seward explains all this: the basical principle is that my things are plain or humble, and yours are honourable. He then says that there are standard exceptions to this rule: some things are intrinsically honourable, irrespective of whether they are mine or yours. So you always say o-mizu (honourable water) o-hashi (honourable chopsticks) and o-cha (honourable tea).
So far, I'd seen it before, but I didn't know that there could be exceptions to the exceptions! Seward says he learned this the day he met a tea merchant, and was astonished to find that he referred to tea as plain cha. Since his life was intimately associated with tea, calling it o-cha would have amounted to self-aggrandisement, the rudest thing you can do in Japanese. So in fact it's completely logical if you've absorbed the principle of politeness thoroughly enough.
Seward's book is a little dated, but if you like this kind of story I warmly recommend it. He does his best to get you hooked on Japanese, and maybe you'll find he's succeeded!
Displaying 1 of 1 review