Respectful Language
There is an entire grammatical rule-set for speaking respectfully to superiors, customers, etc., and this plays a large part in good etiquette. Harmony is a key value in Japanese society and is the guiding philosophy for the Japanese in business settings and in society as a whole. Japanese children are taught to act harmoniously and cooperatively with others from the time they go to pre-school.
This need for harmonious relationships between people is reflected in much Japanese behavior. Many place great emphasis on politeness, personal responsibility and working together for the universal, rather than the individual, good. They present disagreeable facts in a gentle and indirect fashion. They see working in harmony as the crucial ingredient for working productively.
Read more about this topic: Etiquette In Japan
Famous quotes containing the words respectful and/or language:
“He may not shine with courtly graces,
But yet, his kind, respectful air
To woman, whatsoe’er her place is,
It might be well if kings could share.
So, for the chivalric true gentleman,
Give me, I say, our own American.”
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1855–1919)
“UG [universal grammar] may be regarded as a characterization of the genetically determined language faculty. One may think of this faculty as a ‘language acquisition device,’ an innate component of the human mind that yields a particular language through interaction with present experience, a device that converts experience into a system of knowledge attained: knowledge of one or another language.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)