Comments on: “Becoming” a good Japanese speaker

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:27:55 +0000

Where it gets really confusing is in keigo, when most anything seems to have “ni naru” tacked on at the end. It makes it indirect and thus polite. Like, you order something at a restaurant, and when the waitress brings your order she might say, “Kohi ni narimasu.” I have heard this referred to as an example of why keigo is in a state of confusion these days, but I don’t understand keigo well enough to comment on that. But it is nice to know that’s what’s confusing to Japanese language learners in regards to keigo is often confusing to native Japanese speakers.

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:11:29 +0000

Hi Johnl,

You may well be right. Based on the examples I’ve seen, it sounds more like a direct (i.e. you did something) vs. indirect (something was done) type expression. It’s not really found English the same way I think, but I could be wrong.

By: johnl

johnl — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:40:40 +0000

My impression is that ‘ni naru’ expressions are more vague, more situational–’the situation was that X happened.’ If you want to be a bit more explicit with an agentive subject-like thingy (I am not sure that ‘subject’ as a grammar term, as understood in English, really applies in Japanese. Jordan–the textbook I studied–uses ‘nominal’) then you could say ‘X ga Y wo chushi ni suru.’ Or something like that…

(I am not a Japanese expert, just a confused user…)
JL