Gengo Girls #95: Status Quo Is Supreme

Gengo Girls #95: Status Quo Is Supreme

A lot of polite rituals are phrases that get used again and again over hundreds of years until they don’t really mean anything specific any more.

Like in English we respond to “Thank You” with “You’re Welcome”. But do we really mean “You’re welcome to my help whenever you want” or is it just something we got used to saying and don’t think about too closely anymore?

Or what about saying “gesundheit” to people who sneeze? Almost nobody knows what it actually means, it’s just something we say. (I had to look it up. Turns out it’s German for “Health”).

Vocabulary

元気 = げんき = energetic / healthy

おかげさまで = Thanks to you (polite phrase)

Transcript

言語ガールズ #95

Status Quo Is Supreme

Blue: The opposite of 病気 is 元気.

Yellow: Let’s see… It means “energetic, healthy and cheerful”.

Blue: When you meet someone you haven’t met in a while it’s polite to ask お元気ですか

Yellow: And that phrase means… “Are you doing well?”

Blue: The polite response is はい おかげ さま で

Yellow: Which means… “Yes, thanks to you”.

Yellow: Doesn’t always make sense to give other people credit for your health but that’s what you say.

Blue: By the way, you were pretty sick last time I saw you. How did you get better so fast?

Yellow: Turns out it was a punchline related illness so it cleared right up as soon as the joke stopped being funny.