Exercise 6: Refusing Polite Offers

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        One strategy is being aware of the cultural norm of making “ritual refusals” before accepting an offer in Japanese culture.  Fine-tuning your interpretation of such typical routines at a Japanese dinner table would also be important.  In other words, when someone offers you food or drink over and over again, don’t take it personally – s/he is not being persistent in order to convince you to have more, but is merely being polite by making sure that you don’t eat or drink too little on account of shyness on your part!

        Another strategy is knowing typical expressions for refusing offers (in dining situations in particular).  Note that a phrase 結構です  Kekkou desu  ‘No, thank you’ is polite and appropriate for an older person or someone of higher status than you, but would sound too formal for friends (Ikoma & Shimura, 1993).  Expressions of refusal appropriate for use with a friend would be:

うん、もういい。おなかいっぱいなの。  Un, mou ii.  Onaka ippainano.  ‘No, thanks. I’m full.’

すごくおいしかったけどもうおなかいっぱいだから・・・  Sugoku oishikatta kedo mou onaka ippai dakara... ‘It was really good but I’m full...’

いや、もう十分食べたよ。  Iya, mou juubun tabetayo.  ‘No, I’ve eaten enough.’

Go on to Exercise 7

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