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Japanese has multiple politeness levels, in this particular case the message is using keigo which is the most polite. At a guess I'd say that the machine transl
by tjpnz 5y ago
Japanese has multiple politeness levels, in this particular case the message is using keigo which is the most polite. At a guess I'd say that the machine translation is identical all the way down.
- Waterluvian 5y agoThanks. I know nothing of Japanese so this was confusing to me. I'm thinking about it, and I guess there's "politeness levels" in English, but probably not as much so, and usually in a form of passive aggresisveness. That's fascinating. So the "style" of language they use has a huge impact on the message, possibly more so than the actual words? Very McLuhanesque :)
- themodelplumber 5y agoYou even conjugate the verbs differently for your customers. Richard Feynman talked about this point really frustrating him and turning him off Japanese entirely. He just wanted to use words to get things done...granted for informational purposes it's nice to not have to conjugate the verb for download based on who downloaded it.
- Waterluvian 5y agoI kind of get that sentiment. Fundamentally I think it's beautiful and I'm delighted by such variety in human languages. But I spent 10 years learning French and it drove me nuts how many different ways you conjugate verbs.