Oi, oi….

I thought it would be far worse, that was fine!!! It actually sounds cute when girls say some of them

Bonus track was fun!

Great lesson. 29 minutes and a bonus track. Also from my time learning the correct, polite form; all we’re taught at Japan Society are basic nouns and verbs. This at least gives me a heads up when I’m hanging with Japanese during a ball game.

As for politeness it’s interesting how similar Japanese are to the Brits, the same polite form for business but when at the bar all hell is allowed to break out. (My English is kaput.)

Uhm, wonder how I’d write this post in Japanese?

Peter -
on that bonus track - I don’t think you really use that in English, either.

貴様・きさま・kisama

this word used to be extremely polite. in old japan it was used when addressing 大名・だいみょう・daimyō, a japanese feudal lord. as natsuko-san mentioned in the lesson, this was extremely honorific and you can see it in the kanji 貴 (precious/honorable) 様 (honorific suffix).

the unrefined 2nd person, お前・おまえ・omae, which is used for addressing inferiors, also once had a place in polite language. In a famous book, Exercises in the Yokohama Dialect, published in 1873 (Meiji 6, 6 years after the end of the feudal era), this word was being taught to foreigners to use in business situations. of course, if foreigners (or japanese) were tossing this word around in business it would simply be insulting.

a friend here once told me that when sophisticated people want to insult you, they won’t use vulgar language. they prefer to use overly polite language. you know, really overuse honorifics. i think this tendency is also reflected in the change from polite to condescending use of words like 貴様 and お前.

one more thing about 貴様, nobody really uses this word anymore. granted, if you use it, you’ll probably find yourself in trouble. but it’s primarily used in manga, anime and subtitles in foreign movies (South Park the Movie used 貴様 for ‘butthead’).

but if you really want to start a fight, the 2nd person pronouns of choice are the much crasser てめぇ (from 手前) or こらぁタコ (thanks to Yūki for this one).

marky

こらyuki!! てめー、切腹しやがれ！　

うるさ～～～～！

な～にやってるんだ、二人の野郎!！だまれ！ないなら、ころすぞ！

jennyさんってひどいんだけど…