Скачать или смотреть “Your Japanese is so good!” Do Japanese people really mean it?

I got asked this question: “When Japanese people say your Japanese is so good, is that a real compliment?”

Yes, it’s most definitely a compliment, but the problem is, it sometimes cannot be taken as a compliment from the language learner’s point of view.

If you’re a traveler coming to Japan for the first or second time, and it’s like,

お飲み物の追加はいかがですか？
Would you like to order something else to drink?

だいじょうぶです
I’m okay.

And a middle-aged guy is like,
「日本語上手だねー」
Your Japanese is so good!

They mean it as a compliment, and you can take it as a compliment ☺️.

But if you’ve been speaking Japanese for a while,

お飲み物の追加はいかがですか？
Would you like to order something else to drink?

大丈夫です。お冷いただけます？
I’m okay. Can I get some water?

And a middle-aged guy says,
日本語上手だねー
Your Japanese is so good!

You’ll be like, “Yeah, because I’ve lived here like 10 years 😒.”

See, the middle-aged guy is just an insensitive middle-aged guy that you can find in any other country. He can’t imagine that a non-stereotypically-Japanese-looking person can also learn to speak Japanese really well.

It’s because most Japanese people cannot imagine themselves speaking any foreign language so well. Besides, they know Japanese is a much rarer language compared to English. So they are purely amazed that you took the time to learn that.

So 日本語上手だねー is a genuine compliment.

But still, if you’re way past the 上手 level, it’s insulting. So I wish Japanese people would stop saying that.

But if a Kyoto person says it to another Japanese person, it’s an pure insult!!

▶︎ Hi, I’m Kyota, the author of Amazon Best Sellers [Folk Tales of Japan], [Underdogs of Japanese History], and [Horror Tales of Japan].

Please check out my books at ☺️: https://kyotako.myportfolio.com/

#japan #japaneseculture #japaneselanguage #japantravel #learnjapanese