To Praise the Members of Your Family

You are not expected to praise the members of your family when speaking or writing in Japanese. However, this seems to be a little difficult to understand for some American people. (I don’t know about people from other countries.)

One of my American friends had begun studying Japanese. He wrote me something in Japanese, and he kept calling his wife beautiful. This sounded very strange to me.

In Japanese, we speak about our own family in a modest way. If you praise them, you sound sort of rude.

When I warned him not to praise his wife, he insisted that was his choice and writing style.

He didn’t understand that he should use the Japanese style when speaking in Japanese, as learning any foreign language is connected to learning the foreign culture. He eventually gave up studying the Japanese language.

Nevertheless, many young people read Japanese manga and know much about Japanese culture from them. I believe this is a great thing. Studying Japanese may be easier for them.

Thank you.

Nagoyankee, thanks for the first sentence.
Koir, thanks for the great revision.
Snbzk, thank you for telling the grammar.