Poster short abstract:

This study aims to find and analyse the use of polite expressions in e-mails by German Japanese Learners. The results showed that learners actively used polite expressions in most of the e-mail tasks. Learners did not learn the polite expressions explicitly but acquired them naturally.

Poster long abstract:

This study aims to find and analyse the use of polite expressions in e-mails by German Japanese Learners. In Europe, the Japanese language is taught from the "multilingualism" standpoint. Therefore, the question is, how much should we teach learners about polite expressions?

Noda (2014) has noted "Polite expressions" are the expressions that are used so that people do not upset to listeners and readers. Noda has provided several examples of polite expressions. This study uses introductory expressions to analyse the usage of polite expressions.

The study collected 600 e-mails from 30 Japanese learners in Germany and 30 native speakers of Japanese, which comprised 10 e-mail tasks. The tasks included making simple contact, an enquiry, refusals, and requests, among others. Thus, this study analysed how the participants use polite expressions when writing to the recipients.

The results showed that the German Japanese learners and native Japanese speakers actively used polite expressions in most of the e-mail tasks. There were more types and numbers of native speakers than learners, but learners also used them. The expressions used were "osewani natteimasu", "gomeiwakuo okakesuru", "oisogashiitokoro", "mooshiwakenai nodesuga", "zannennagara", etc.

On the other hand, there were few polite expressions used while asking for an item to be delivered, recent reports, a plan of summer vacation, and an opinion on a question. It could be possible that usually, people do not use a polite expression in these tasks, as they are talking about themselves or having a less formal exchange of messages.

Learners in this study did not learn the polite expressions explicitly but acquired them naturally during their study and used them for e-mail. It was observed that they use methods to avoid discomfort even if learners cannot use Japanese vocabulary and grammar well.

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