Re: Nanitozo

On May 2, 7:45 am, Phil Yff <phil....@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Wed, 02 May 2007 19:38:26 +0900, John R. Yamamoto-Wilson wrote:
Cindy wrote:

Shitsurei shitemo yoroshiidesuka?

Absolutely, Cindy. Go ahead and be rude. I will rejoice.

I hope you realize that Cindy's expression is more polite than "Itte mo ii
desu ka?" You were the one to bring up illocutionary force. Here,
although the literal meaning suggests the speaker is going to be rude, the
illocutionary force is the opposite. It achieves politeness in several
ways. It uses the more polite yoroshii rather than ii. The question uses
the formal forms. The use of 'shitsurei' implies the speaker is humbling
herself by deferring to the listener. The implication is that the listener
is elevated and decides whether to excuse the speaker or not while the
speaker tacitly admits that departure might inconvenience the listener.

No, Phil, this is why they don't learn. They ask for a favor, so I
volunteer to help. In this case, John needed a phrase equivalent to
"May I go?" so, I provided a nice polite Japanese phrase. Then, what
happened? He told me to go ahead and be rude! Does he understand
this Japanese phrase? I don't know, but maybe. However, in my
experience, many English speakers have a tendency to fuzakeru during
the conversation especially with me. It doesn't seem to happen to
other male Japanese speakers. It must be it (to fuzakeru) about
John. Then, if I take it seriously, more than likely he will say
"Cindy doesn't have a sense of humor". Therefore, I have to act like
a hostess in a night club or a prostitute or something like that so
that nobody will be offended and probably I will be embarrassed and be
laughed at by those old-timers such as Sean and Jim and Ben and the
other Phil and Jeff and so on. You know many male English speakers
suck in their attitudes. It's obvious that they look down on me. You
must have noticed that I have a long thread of conversation with Mr.
Ito. He never treats me like those assholes English speakers. muchan
or Ueshiba-san doesn't do that either. That makes me think "Why do
male English speakers look down on me?" Is it me? Or, is it because
I am female? Is it because I speak Japanese well? Or, because they
have an ED and couldn't have sex regularly with their wife so they
have to take it on me? Or got fired or got demoted or couldn't get an
A in a test or there could be anything, but I don't want them to take
it on me. When they interact with me, I want them to act like those
Japanese guys in this group! That'll improve their Japanese
exponentially.


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