Honorific Speech in Japanese - Manual Keigo

Manual Keigo

For more details on this topic, see Manual keigo.

A form of ersatz keigo is used in some convenience stores and fast-food restaurants, with the young, often part-time employees—often unskilled in standard keigo—being instructed to use these form by instruction manuals. Accordingly, it is known as マニュアル敬語 (manyuaru keigo, "manual keigo") or バイト敬語 (baito keigo, "part-timer keigo"). It features various forms which horrify linguistic purists and confuse those unfamiliar with the conventions. A common example is "udon ni narimasu" (literally " becomes udon", " will be udon") as a polite form of "udon desu" (" is udon"), instead of the standard "udon de gozaimasu" (" is udon (polite)")—the manual keigo form is proscribed on the basis that the udon is not becoming anything, and "ni naru" is not proper keigo.

This can be compared to such English usages as "We will be landing momentarily" (literally "We will be landing for a moment ") for "We will be landing soon"—traditionally incorrect but now common usage with origins in standardized training.