クレスト日本語コーナ 

Crest Nihongo Corner

The Japanese language and culture have ‘respect’ at its centre. There are three levels of politeness in the Japanese language. In junior school, we learn the middle level of politeness, what we call ‘desu/masu’, which is how polite simple sentences end. 

The casual language that is used between friends is introduced in middle school. Keigo, the most polite level of language is not introduced until university here in Australia. 

For example, the verb ‘Eat’ in casual is 食べる(taberu), middle level politeness is　食べます (tabemasu) and in keigo, it is 召し上がります(meshiagarimasu). Notice that even the kanji is different when using keigo.