<!--QuoteBegin-danielyuki+Mar 31 2005, 09:14 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%'
cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (danielyuki @ Mar 31 2005, 09:14 PM)</td></tr><tr><td
id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->
keigo is fading
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center'
width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td
id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Japanese people need help to brush up on their polite language, a government
panel has proposed.
A report for the Agency for Cultural Affairs said 'keigo' - honorific
Japanese - was being widely misused.
Keigo is a complicated form of the language which involves different
conjugations of regular nouns and verbs, or different words entirely.
It is used to address seniors - a
customer, for example - and is meant to humble speakers and elevate listeners.
The government panel has
proposed publishing manuals explaining to people how the language should be used.
"Not just young
people, but grown-ups are not using honorific Japanese properly. With the language guidelines, we hope to spread
the correct use of the Japanese language," education ministry official Osamu Kubota was quoted as saying by
the French news agency AFP.
The government panel cited a 2003 survey on the Japanese language which found
that 96% of people believe keigo remains important, but the researchers noted that it was nevertheless being
used incorrectly.
It tends to take far longer to say something formally in Japan.
For example, the
verb "to be" is iru in informal Japanese, imasu in polite Japanese, and irasshaimasu in honorific
Japanese.
The government report also suggested that the country's ability to read and write Chinese
characters - the mainstay of the Japanese language - be re-evaluated.
A survey in November found that 20%
of students at private universities had poorer language abilities than high school pupils.
Adults
sometimes find it difficult to remember how to write characters because they rely on computers, and have to ask
their children for help.
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i HATE keigo....
i
study japanese everyday i guess... not extensively... jus kanji practice -.- damn kanji... but it'll be
worth it when i'm ahead of everyone in uni