Complicated and simple greetings

More than just synonymy

You, a foreigner with rudimentary Japanese language skills, walk into a shop and are confronted with a respectful response from the staff, using 敬語, keigo, the polite register of Japanese. If your only language experience is “kitchen Japanese”, the language of home, or textbook Japanese you may be flummoxed, perplexed, or stumped. Yeah, English is silly with synonyms. And so is Japanese. However, the synonymous words and expressions in Japanese carry meaning well beyond nuance. They show layers of relationships between people.

That's all it takes, sometimes

Katsura Sunshine, a Canadian performer of 落語, rakugo, the centuries-old Japanese tradition of comic storytelling, unpacks with humor the complex ways of expressing thanks from the most elevated to the most abject poverty of language and dereliction of decorum.

A lengthy greeting

One afternoon, my sensei sent me off with some foreign visitors to a performance of 日本舞踊, nihon buyo, a traditional dance. I, a reasonably Japanese-fluent person, did my best to translate the introductions for each act, identifying the performers and their roles. Everything went smoothly until the formal ご挨拶 , goaisatsu, the formal greeting following the first act. The speeches continued for some minutes with much bowing and many rounds of applause, and my foreign guests were rapt, anticipating my skillful interpretation. They were incredulous when I translated the lengthy speech as “Hello and thanks for coming.” Yep, that was it.

The power of a simple greeting

You’ll see signboards in many cities urging residents to greet each other. The city I live in has a few of these, some erected by the municipal government, and others by the PTA of the neighborhood school. I often greet people as I pass them but I don’t always get a response. It doesn’t bug me but it makes me realize that there are many new foreign and Japanese residents who might not be in the habit of greeting strangers. I suspect the pandemic has gotten people out of the habit.

The other day at the shopping center, I took a break on a bench with 失礼します, Shitsureishimasu, excuse me, and the woman next to me asked if I spoke Japanese. We ended up chatting about the rising cost of living and our daily routines. And we might bump into each other the next time we're shopping, perhaps sharing deals and discounts.

Do people in your neighborhood greet each other? Have you heard or used variations on greetings and thank yous?