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Business Japanese · Day 3 of 20

The three levels of politeness

Why keigo exists, and when each level is used

Keigo has a reputation for being enormous and arbitrary. It is neither. It is three systems with one job each, and the choice between them is made by a single question: who is doing the action. Get that question straight today and the vocabulary in the rest of the course is just a list.

One verb, three heights

Take いきます, to go. Watch what decides which form you need:

Are you going?the action is theirs
Plain
iku?
Polite · ですます
ikimasu ka.
Keigo
irasshaimasu ka.

いらっしゃる is 尊敬語, respectful language. It raises the person doing the action, so it can never be about you.

I'm goingthe action is yours
Plain
iku.
Polite · ですます
ikimasu.
Keigo
mairimasu.

まいる is 謙譲語, humble language. It lowers you, so it can never be about them.

Why it works

Both keigo lines are the same distance from plain Japanese, and both are polite. What separates them is not how polite you are being but whose action is described. 尊敬語 raises them, 謙譲語 lowers you, and the gap between you ends up the same size either way. Every keigo mistake you will make comes from answering the wrong question here.

Inside and outside

The other half of the system. Who counts as your side changes with who is listening:

buchō, kore o goran ni narimashita ka.
Have you seen this, Mr Watanabe?
Inside the office your manager is above you, so respectful language about his action.
tanaka wa tadaima seki o hazushite orimasu.
Tanaka is away from his desk at the moment.
On the phone to a client, that same colleague gets humble language and no さん.
shachō wa asu modorimasu.
Our president will be back tomorrow.
To an outsider, even your president is on your side, so no respectful forms.
yamada ga sugu ni mairimasu.
Yamada will be right with you.
が not は here, because Yamada is new information in the sentence.
Why it works

Japanese sorts people into うち, my side, and そと, the other side, and keigo follows that line rather than rank alone. Inside your office your boss is そと to you. On the phone to a customer, your whole company including your boss becomes うち, so you humble them. Foreign staff who learn only rank find this baffling; learn the line instead and it becomes automatic.

The three mistakes everyone makes

Each of these is a real sentence heard in real offices:

Telling a client you will visit them
Not this
watashi ga irasshaimasu.
This
watashi ga mairimasu.
Respectful language about yourself. It is the keigo equivalent of calling yourself sir.
Reporting what a customer said
Not this
okyakusama ga mōshimashita.
This
okyakusama ga osshaimashita.
Humble language about the customer, which lowers exactly the person you meant to raise.
Reporting what your manager said
Not this
buchō ga osshararemashita.
This
buchō ga osshaimashita.
Two respectful forms stacked on one verb. Japanese calls this 二重敬語 and it sounds like trying too hard.
Why it works

Notice that the first two are not politeness failures, they are direction failures: the speaker knew the keigo word and pointed it at the wrong person. The third is the opposite problem, someone who knows two rules and applied both. If you are ever unsure, the plain ですます form is always safe. It is never rude, only neutral, and neutral is survivable in a way that pointing humble language at a customer is not.

Carry over, from earlier days

to mōshimasu.
My name is… (humble)
yoroshiku onegai itashimasu.
I look forward to working with you.
otsukaresama desu.
Hello / thanks / well done.

Check yourself

8 questions. Nothing is saved unless you finish.