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/jp/ - Otaku Culture

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12748011 No.12748011[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

hey /jp/

this is less of an otaku culture thing and more of a japanese culture thing, but I think you guys might know what I'm talking about.

one of my professors posed this question about differences in language and how these differences reflect ideology

when asked the question "didn't you eat lunch today" in english, the response from someone who had eaten would be yes. but when posed the same question in japanese, the answer would be no.

apparently this extends to chinese and korean languages as well. can anyone who speaks japanese attest to this? is this like, a politeness thing? is it representative of a larger cultural trend? is it even accurate in the first place?

>> No.12748024

I always wake up after lunch time

>> No.12748034

>when asked the question "didn't you eat lunch today" in english, the response from someone who had eaten would be yes. but when posed the same question in japanese, the answer would be no.

that's not true

>> No.12748037

Thanks for the reminder, its lunch time.

Also
>>>/int/ might answer it

>> No.12748045

>>12748034
What part of OP's statement isn't true?

>> No.12748046

Saying that language does NOT affect our thought patterns would be misguided. That much has become apparent to me over the years (I know 4 languages fluently). The question is to which extent, which is harder to answer.

>> No.12748056

>>12748045
the part i quoted

>> No.12748060

>>12748056
>in english, the response from someone who had eaten would be yes.
This is true.

>but when posed the same question in japanese, the answer would be no.
Is this false?

>> No.12748061

>>12748034
I thought it sounded kind of strange, maybe he just relayed the question to us improperly?

>> No.12748075

>>12748060
yea

>> No.12748080

>>12748061
language does reflect ideology and japan uses a lot of softeners. it seems like he's confusing softening of sentences with yes/no. even if japanese people talk really vaguely with lots of softeners they're still saying "yes"

>> No.12748081

The answer would be no if the slope was a liar or hadn't eaten yet.

>> No.12748090
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12748090

I've never heard that before. If someone was asked if they would eaten, it wouldn't make sense to lie right? I don't know what the fuck you're on about OP, but I can't imagine any normal situation where someone would lie about eating

>> No.12748106

>>12748090

His teacher was probably fucked with by people who didn't like him over there.

>> No.12748113

>>12748080
huh, thank you, I think that's probably what he was getting at. he also said to consider "what you assume when you ask a question" but I honestly don't really get what he's going for

>> No.12748117

I think your question OP has more to do with you not being able to do a negative. Why not ask, "did you eat lunch today?" And leave it at that.

>> No.12748138

>>12748117
In that case wouldn't you still have to give a negative response?

>> No.12748147

>>12748011
My Japanese is shit, but I think what he's talking about is that yes and no work sort of differently in different languages. I think the technical term for this is agreement.

Like hai means something more like "I agree" or "That is correct" than it does "Yes". So if you ask someone "Didn't you eat lunch" in Japanese they'd respond in the negative, because they did eat lunch and you just said they didn't.

>> No.12748148

>>12748113
the assumed response != the response

japanese don't ask stupid questions: if they are asking "didn't you eat lunch today?" it's probably a softer way of saying "why didn't you eat lunch today?" (accusatory vs questioning)

i think you're reporting what he said wrong - he's probably right about whatever he was trying to convey

>> No.12748149

>>12748138
I missed my lunch today.

>> No.12748153

>>12748149
I ate breakfast at lunchtime and haven't eaten since

I'll probably die if I don't change my ways

>> No.12748167

>>12748147
there would have to be a semantic error in translation for it to work out that way

>> No.12748181

>>12748148
this is also quite possible. I thought I wrote down the way he phrased it exactly, but maybe I missed something. regardless that's really helpful, thank you

>> No.12748256

>>12748181
there's no real way to translate "didn't" into japanese since it's a weird english contraction with a strange meaning ("didn't you?" -> "did not you?" -> "did you not" ~implies~> "you did (right?)") where in japanese you can say "did you doing not ?" ((thing)(doing)(not)?), which has a way different connotation and pretty much just directly asks if you did or didnt do something but it would be asked like "you did it (?)" not "didn't you (do it) ?"

it's a silly semantic thing but they still wouldn't say no if they had eaten lunch

>> No.12748292

>>12748256
thank you. I emailed him just now to ask for clarification on how the question was posed, maybe that'll help clear this up.

this board is super nice and helpful.

>> No.12748345

isn't this a kusothread?!

>> No.12748346

>>12748153
you will die no matter what you do

>> No.12748382

>>12748011
It's useless trying to answer this question without knowing the specific wording used in Japanese.

>> No.12748459

>>12748382
This

>>
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