Quote:
Originally Posted by andre2907
OK, so my friend, who lives in Japan for 4 years, explained me a social phenomenon in Japan called "honne" and "tatamae".
Let me quote Wikipedia on that
What does that mean? Japanese are ALWAYS using tatemae. My friend told me that japanese people know exactly when it is tatemae but it's very hard for a gaijin to know it for sure and even after 5 years living in Japan, she sometimes isn't sure if it's tatemae. One she asked her japanese colleague how was the college-work she was doing and the colleague told she was still at the start and she wasn't sure of theme of her paper yet. When she told that to her good japanese friend, her friend said "duh! That's obviously tatemae. The girl is probably working on the paper for months and is already at the end".
Sometimes isn't sure if some things are tatemae and she has to ask to her japanese friend but she said it was OBVIOUS the Akanishi Jin excuse (studying abroad) and the Yukari excuse (health problems) are just tatemae and she said those cases are like when some MoMosu member went on "hiatus" to study fashion and the truth was that she actually was three-month pregnant.
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it's not really a Japanese-only phenomenon, it's an Asian habit. Modesty and politeness, if only on the surface.