Learning L2 Japanese 'politeness' and 'impoliteness': Young American men’s dilemmas during study abroad

要旨

Interviews conducted in English with four male second language (L2) learners of Japanese who studied abroad for an academic year illuminated the dilemmas they experienced during their social interactions in Japan as young American men. Dilemmas arose from within themselves and from the expectations and perceptions that native (LI) Japanese speakers had of them. On the one hand, some of the L2 learners felt discomfort with the so-called polite desu/masu forms that they associated with social distance, which appeared to be incompatible with friendliness that is highly valued in politeness in American English. On the other hand, they felt that LI Japanese speakers expected American men to act and speak informally and did not expect them to use desu/masu forms or other honorifics. Some LI speakers also addressed them in the informal plain style in situations where the use of the desu/masu form is the LI Japanese norm. At the same time, they were mostly deprived of the more manly impolite language commonly used among young Japanese men in informal settings. These learners' use of the desu/masu forms or apparent overuse of the informal plain forms upon return can be construed as each learner's own response to these dilemmas and their struggles in indexing their social identities through the speech styles.

主題