PASSAGE 11

Too polite for Words

　?A Japanese colleague the other day was talking about a meeting with a man whom she abruptly¹ described using the English word "jerk". I thought she was toning down her Japanese for my benefit, so I asked her how to say "jerk" in Japanese.
　　"There's no such word." she answered helplessly. "we have to use 'jerk' ". Heaven knows it's not as if there are no jerks in Japan. But the Japanese language is just not made for sniping at people. At first, I thought maybe my Japanese teachers had been too polite to teach me the real lingo², so watched to see what Japanese drivers would say to each other after a accident. It turned out that they say: "I'm sorry." Gradually I came to realize that there is perhaps no language so ill suited to invective³ as Japanese. Linguistically⁵, these guys are wimps⁶.
　　Take the vicious Japanese insult "kisama," which is deeply offensive. It means "your honorable self." That's right. Instead of using all kinds of dirty words, the Japanese insult each other by frowning and growing: "Your honorable self."
　　Likewise, a nasty expression for a woman is "ana," another term not to try with the nice woman at the sushi restaurant. But literally⁷ it means "nun⁸" Sure, sarcasm⁹ may be intended, but still most women would probably prefer to be characterized as a nun than as a female dog.
　　Since people are least inhibited¹⁰ when they are shaking their fists at each other, insults offer a window into a culture. I've been interested in such terms ever since I arrived in Cairo a dozen years ago to study Arabic and discovered that my name was a curse. "Nick" sounds very much like the imperative¹¹ of an extremely vulgar for sex. I would introduce myself in Arabic, and my new acquaintance would flee in horror.
　　There's no such danger in Japanese. There are explicit¹² terms for sex and for body parts, crude as well as clinical, but they are descriptive rather than insulting.
　　There is one exception. One of the meanest things one Japanese child can say to another is: "Omaeno kaachan debeso." That means: " Your mom's belly¹³ button sticks out." This has no deep Freudian meaning; it simply means that your mother is rude and ugly.
1. The Japanese woman used the English word "jerk" so as to make it easier for me to understand her
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned
2. The Japanese people cannot fully¹⁴ demonstrate their anger because their language is not suitable for sniping at people.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned

3. From the linguistic⁴ perspective, Japanese drivers are cowards,
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned

4. The Japanese insult each other by showing their respect in an ironic¹⁵ way.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned

5. People in other languages may insult a woman with an expression meaning, literally, "a female dog".
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned

6. The word "Nick" in the Arabic language is a curse.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned

7. "Omaeno kaachan debeso " is different from other nasty expressions in Japanese in that it is insulting both in its literal meaning and in its practical use.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned

Key: BCACABA

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