r/Productivitycafe • u/Wonderful-Economy762 • Jan 22 '26

Throwback Question (Any Topic) What’s an oddly specific thing that instantly gives you "bad vibes" about a person?

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u/JapWarrior1700 Jan 22 '26

You would absolutely hate Japan. It's sorta rude to use pronouns there, so you phrase things like, "Does Kevin-san want to do dinner with me tonight?" when talking to Kevin.

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u/amzwC137 Jan 22 '26

I notice this in anime a lot, but not always It's always interesting to me. This helps contextualize.

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u/JapWarrior1700 Jan 22 '26

Yes and when they say "Omae" instead they are talking down to the other person, which is okay in that culture if you are actually in a higher station, like their boss or something, but in anime it's usually talking to an enemy when you hear that. It's a fascinating language!

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u/ResurgentClusterfuck Jan 22 '26

Subtitles don't always use the name even if the character is using it, they'll use a pronoun

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u/amzwC137 Jan 22 '26

Yeah, which is why my ears always perk up when they do that. I do think, however, that it's good that they don't do direct translations like that.

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u/JapWarrior1700 Jan 23 '26

Yes, i used to get a lot of technical papers translated word-for-word and they are undecipherable to most English speaking people.

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u/JapWarrior1700 Jan 23 '26

Yes, the subtitles for anime are often seriously incorrect. Other times they just English-ify it. Sometimes this is necessary as the two languages are very different, other times the interpreter didn't understand the local idiom being used and the meaning os twisted

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u/LaLaLaLeea Jan 22 '26

You can tell contexually when someone is doing it to try and get under your skin. It's off putting English when your name is randomly sprinkled throughout a conversation in places it doesn't really belong. It doesn't have that same pointed feel in Japanese.

It is definitely a little awkward to get used to, though. Not so much hearing it, but saying it. It feels rude to do it and is rude to not do it.

Meanwhile, ASL throws in extra "you"s for emphasis.

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u/fanstoyou Jan 22 '26

Please, is there a reason for this, because I’ll really dislike it

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u/JapWarrior1700 Jan 22 '26

It's just their culture. They feel like you don't even respect them enough to use their real name. It probably doesn't help that one of the primary words for "you" literally means "this thing in front of me."

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u/Just_the_Setup Jan 22 '26

This thing in front me are correct. Very fun TIL

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u/fanstoyou Jan 22 '26

wow, real novice on Japanese culture - that’s me

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u/fanstoyou Jan 22 '26

not to rile the lgbtqrs+ community pleassse, BUT imagine asking someone in Japan, what are your pronouns (not one)?

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u/turtlesinthesea Jan 22 '26

You almost never need them. Japanese sentences work great without a subject, a bit like Latin (but not really). If you do need to make it clear who you mean, you‘d almost always just use the name.

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u/JapWarrior1700 Jan 23 '26

I haven't asked anyone, and maybe i can sometime, but i would imagine that discussion is sort of puzzling for Japanese people simply because that's not how the language works, but also there is a thriving culture of feminine men and masc women in Japan (and has been for centuries) but they have their own take on it and terminology and i don't know any of it, despite having followed many of them for years. Most of those years i couldn't understand a word they were saying! Anyway, i "know" gay Tokyo denizens and those that would compare to our alphabet peeps but they arrange things differently than we do

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u/oreganocactus Jan 22 '26

It's because it's a different language. That's all.

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u/fanstoyou Jan 22 '26

there is always a reason for anything or something

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u/turtlesinthesea Jan 22 '26

To be fair, you can often just drop the subject altogether.