Language in a Japanese University Community

概要

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Language use in Japan is highly complex. Speakers rely on finely tuned awareness of numerous conditions while engaging in communication, often adapting different levels of politeness within a single dialogue. These conditions can include location of communication, purpose of communication, and relative status of theother person -based on age, years of seniority or junior status, and membership or non-membership in a group. The university, with its numerous status makers, such as ranking of professors, division of students into separate years and student membership in additional groups, such as sports teams, provides an ideal environment to observe all the levels of linguistic politeness. For those students with less polished linguistic skills, it is proposed that the university is also an ideal environment for them to learn how to master linguistic politeness. By learning how to speak appropriately to people with different status levels in the university community students can gain a valuable linguistic skill that will help them in the post-university world of employment.
2012-03-20