Japanophile friends: Is there a name for the feature of Japanese language that different words are used to describe what high ranking people do and what lower ranking people do?
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Replying to @codinghorror @kemitchell
Depending on whether I’m guessing right you’re thinking of either keigo or the subgenre sonkeigo I think. Googling either should get an explanation.
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Is anything expected of an American collaborator, say in a scientific or business context, who is not familiar with keigo? Is it better to just find a fluent native speaker (who is also bilingual) to lead any collaboration? Asking for a friend. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorific_speech_in_Japanese …
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Many Japanese researchers / professionals collaborate with people who do not speak Japanese. Relatively few Japanese people would consider it a severe knock against a foreigner that they couldn’t speak keigo; it’s broadly considered “A thing which obviously you can’t do.”
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(That is, unfortunately, not an easy impression to change no matter how much one does it.)
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