My Speech Politeness Toward My Emperor and Toward My Girlfriend

Each language has its own system of showing politeness when speaking. Japanese is not an exception, as it has one of the most complicated systems of showing politeness among human languages. The speech style toward the Emperor and the Imperial family is breathtakingly formal, while the speech style toward one’s boy/girlfriend is overwhelmingly informal and casual. There lies a deep gap between the two speech styles. However, there are several levels of politeness, more precisely four or even five, between the two extremes. In addition, there is a separate system of politeness even in informal speech, so that even very casual speech toward one’s partner is full of devices to show politeness. This presentation reveals the system(s) of polite speech in Japanese, discusses its universality and specificity and shows you how to be polite in Japanese.