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Rude or polite in foreign languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6384 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 17 of 28 01 November 2013 at 11:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6384 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 18 of 28 02 November 2013 at 12:23am | IP Logged | |||||
So I kinda feel like I'm saying "thanks for pointing out I'm not a normal person for not wanting this" :D Although in general it's not as bad as my post made it sound, not even if I'm at a rock festival and I can hardly hear what the salesperson even tells me and they are just offering to ruin my perfect meal. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4559 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 19 of 28 02 November 2013 at 8:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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Call me "un-Russian" or whatever, but if I were greeted with a "Что вы хотите?" (let alone "Чего хотите?" or "Чо хош?") upon entering a hotel I'd perceive it as typically poor Soviet customer service and not as a peculiarity of the Russian language and its expression of politeness. Having spent most of my life in Saint Petersburg and outside of Russia might have spoiled me, but I do expect a variation of "Good [time of day]! How can I help you?". Although I guess it's usually the tone and facial expression of the receptionist that is more important in making you feel welcomed rather than their choice of phrases. Besides, less than polite greetings are usually the least of your problems. I recall having stayed at a motel in Rostov-on-Don where I tried to tell the receptionist that the WiFi wasn't working in my room. Her responses were basically "The server is on, so it should be working. No, I'm not gonna open my own laptop to see if it works. No, I'm not gonna go up to your room to see if the signal is weaker there. If you don't like it, might as well f*** off to another motel".
I think a much better example of a mismatch between polite expressions in different languages was given by Марк in another thread.
As I pointed out in a later comment, the phrase wouldn't sound nearly as rude if it were translated word for word into Japanese instead of English, since both Russian and Japanese use the negative and the verb's conjugation (-masu form in Japanese, V-form in Russian) to make a question more polite. On the other hand English has lost the T-V distinction, while making the question negative (at least in this form) actually makes it sound rude instead of polite, as if you're questioning the person's intelligence. Add to that the fact that девушка ("girl", "young woman") is a perfectly acceptable way to address an unfamiliar female in post-Soviet Russia and in fact preferable to such quaint terms as барышня (miss), госпожа (lady), сударыня (ma'am) or товарищ (comrade). Edited by vonPeterhof on 02 November 2013 at 8:41am 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5121 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 20 of 28 02 November 2013 at 12:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In Kyiv, I was staying in a big international hotel, 3 years ago, the hotel Ukraine, and could not but marvel that
the description of the service from my guide book was so accurate. " The service of the reception staff, previously hostile, is now merely indifferent. " Sooo true. But I enjoy being called "girl". It makes me feel so much younger than when someone calls me Madame or mam. Those both make me feel a hundred years old :-) 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4040 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 21 of 28 02 November 2013 at 12:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
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When I was working at the hospital reception desk I figured out a way to not have to use the plural (polite) you form for old people as I was instructed to, because Finnish has many many ways to hide the pronoun. I used constructions like;
"Olisiko kela-korttia (esittää/näyttää)?" ("~would social healthcare card be [to show]?" which is a perfectly fine sentence in Finnish) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Stassri Newbie Korea, South Joined 3885 days ago 23 posts - 29 votes Speaks: Korean* | Message 22 of 28 02 November 2013 at 1:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think saying 'Give me that.' or 'I want that.' doesn't sound rude at all in Korean. Because we usually rely on agglutinative elements to express politeness.
If you were to tell some stranger to pass you something, 'Keu-guh joo-uh.' or 'Keu-guh joo-uh-yo.' could be considered rude, ('keu-guh' = that / 'joo' = give / the other syllables 'uh' & 'yo' are elements to finish a sentence.) but if you insert the agglutinative element 'shi' between 'joo' and 'uh', the outcome would be 'Keu-guh joo-shi-uh-yo' -> 'Keu-guh joo-se-yo', which sounds okay in terems of politeness. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6384 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 23 of 28 02 November 2013 at 1:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Heh I do something similar in the Russian part of the internet. I feel funny using the official (and plural too!) form if I'm discussing for example feminine hygiene.
(olisiko or actually more like olisko/oisko btw? I think I mostly hear olisko) Edited by Serpent on 02 November 2013 at 1:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5121 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 24 of 28 02 November 2013 at 3:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
I never stop to marvel over the breadth of your knowledge. I had never even heard of that :-) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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