Itadakimasu!
Languages are interesting because each one has its own unique features.
For example, double negatives like “I didn’t see nothing” are considered incorrect in English, although they’re perfectly permissible in Spanish. If you’ve watched some anime in Japanese or had dinner with a Japanese family, you may have noticed the word that’s spoken before eating, itadakimasu. Essentially meaning “I humbly receive the gift of this food” or less obsessively “let’s eat,” it’s a polite way to thank the person who made the food for you, and the word is interesting because it illustrates some of the “back end” of Japanese grammar.
There are two verbs for “to receive” in Japanese, morau and itadaku; the former is a neutral word, which you’d use when telling your wife about the movie tickets you got from a co-worker, but the latter is a polite word that basically means to receive something from someone socially higher than you, like your boss or a guest.
Since subjects are often left off of Japanese sentences, it’s conceivable that you might find yourself in a linguistic situation that called for you to understand the overall context of a sentence based on what verb someone chose to use.
For example, my mother-in-law might say to me, Itadakimashita yo, which essentially means “[we] received [something from someone].” It would be up to me to figure out the larger context, namely that we’d received some gift from someone that my mother-in-law wants to be polite to who’s standing nearby, and I should come and say thank you to that person for the gift.
Japanese can be a confusing language, but with practice, some of these situations start to make sense.
This might be more Japanese than you wanted to know. And if so, I apologize ^_^
Poor Mari….she’s my favorite. If I ever become a j-pop singer and part of the...
I hate to sound like the linguist nerd but I think the oversimplification of English negation rules – prescriptively, we have learned that double negation is a “no-no” (see what I did there?) but, descriptively, there are examples of its ‘correct’ use: “Her voice is not unlike that of a pro’s”, “It’s not that I don’t believe you.”, etc. Even traditional forms of double negation (“I ain’t got no money”) have to, at least, be considered language variation. For example, I would teach my students that this form is not grammatically correct but that it does have linguistic value to native speakers and that they can expect to (and probably have already, through movies) hear it.
Thus, in regards to variation and other linguistic features, English and Japanese are indeed not unlike each other.
August 28th, 2008 at 2:24 amThanks for the linguistic post, Peter. I often find myself puzzled by the oft-expressed idea that the various levels of politeness, verb/adjective conjugations, forms of address, etc. cause Japanese to be a “confusing” language. For me, I’ve always found these kinds of things to be so helpful, because they help to define the context and narrow things down so I can figure out what’s going on.
For example, I remember an experience during my first visit to Japan the summer after my first semester of Nihongo at my local junior college. Everyone in the class had been complaining about how “confusing” it was that we had to learn so many different suffixes (counters) just to be able to count things. But there I was in a souvenir shop in Tokyo with some other friends from the States, and we were all feeling pretty clueless. I commented that one woman at the counter was buying some postcards, and the guy was buying chopsticks. They all wondered how I knew what they were buying, since the customers’ backs were to us… and I realized that I had heard the woman ask for something using a number plus the counter “~mai”, and the man using “-hon/bon/pon”. Given the context of the display racks in near proximity, it was immediately clear what they were asking for. Had it been just numbers alone, as in English, it could have been anything!
It seems to me that these characteristics of Japanese usually serve to establish and clarify the context, rather than to cloud things up… particularly with regard to understanding relationships between various people. I find that this built-in linguistic GPS feature of Japanese help immensely with cultural and relational navigation!
August 28th, 2008 at 9:55 amThere are some Japanese words being used daily which are difficult to translate into English. And ” Itadakimasu ” is one of them. I think it’s the same as ” Amen ” as some Christians pray and say before meal. ” Gochiso sama ” is kind of ” It was good meal ” or ” I’m full “.
” Itte kimasu / Itte rasshai ” is hard to translate. They literally mean ” I go to work ( or something) / Please go to work “. In English you would just say ” bye ” or ” I love you “.
” Ojama shimasu ” is another one. It can be ” Thank you for having me today ” in case you are invited to someone’s home.
I find ” Yoroshiku Onegai shimasu ” and ” Otsukare sama desu ” are particularly Japanese way. The direct translation of ” Yoroshiku Onegai shimasu ” is ” I’m looking forward to your support “. Normally you would say ” I appreciate your support ” or ” Thank you for your helping me “. Often ” Yoroshiku Onegai shimasu ” is used as ” Nice to know you ” or ” Hello “.
And the direct translation of ” Otsukare sama desu ” is ” You worked so hard. You must be tire.” In English you would say ” Good job “. Often ” Otsukare sama desu / Otsukare sama deshita ” is used as ” Take care (Good bye) ” or ” Have a nice evening “.
August 28th, 2008 at 1:15 pmQuestion, wouldn’t “itte kimasu” directly translate to something like “go, come” word for word? The all too important concept of context strikes again!
Side note: My host family thought I said “itadakimasu” when I was leaving instead of “ittekimasu”, resulting in an embarrassing correction. I swear I thought I said “ittekimasu” but I guess my gaijin accent garbled it…
August 28th, 2008 at 3:16 pmAccording to my wife, another meaning for the word “itadakimasu” is that you are “receiving” the life contained in that plate of food you are about to eat. For example, if you are about to eat sushi, you say “itadakimasu” as a way of showing respect for “taking” the life (or the spirit) of those fish. I think it is a very “shinto” way of explaining the word, but one I also really like.
August 28th, 2008 at 3:20 pmOf course single ” kimasu ” means ” come “.
But in the case of ” Ittekimasu ” it’s different. ” Ittekimasu ” is the polite form of ” Ittekuru “. Generally -kimasu (or -kuru) expresses the intention of the speaker. So if you say ” Kanojo to hanasite kimasu “, it means ” I will talk with her “.
” Otsukare sama desu ” can be said just ” Otsukare sama “. It has the nuance that ” (You worked so hard. You must be tired.) Take care. ”
August 28th, 2008 at 6:01 pmOnce the Yakult lady came to work and asked if we needed any yogurt drinks today. 今日はよろしいですか？ she asked. I replied, よろしい、which made me sound like some samurai lord in a castle. That was so dumb…
August 28th, 2008 at 6:38 pmAh, thanks TofuUnion for the clarification.
August 29th, 2008 at 2:07 am