Japanese People Constantly Tell Me No One Uses These Words

Ok… I’m slightly annoyed that you corrected me about this without explaining what you meant. Because they are, of course, still extremely similar and can often be used interchangeably. I understand that relationship is more neutral, whereas rapport has a more positive connotation. Is that what you meant?

Yeah, I was a little perplexed by that too. Obviously you can’t insert rapport in any time you would use relationship, but you certainly can do it sometimes.

The boss has a good relationship with his employees.
The boss has a good rapport with his employees.

Rapport is basically a subcategory of relationship, so it has to be interchangeable at least sometimes.

2 Likes

That wasn’t quite what I was getting at. A rapport is something less than a relationship. It’s just having a (good) way of talking with someone - not necessarily that you know each other well, or even get along!

But you’re intelligent, so I didn’t want to just drop dictionary definitions down (and come off as condescending).

Mostly, just wanted to make sure that people here for whom English isn’t their native language (especially those newer to it) understand that they’re not the same or interchangeable.

@Leebo Sure you can insert it there, but it has a different connotation.

2 Likes

(condescension incoming)

rapport
noun

a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other’s feelings or ideas and communicate well.

A good rapport and a good relationship are nearly identical in my sentence before.

We all know that you can’t put rapport in relationship’s place all the time.

2 Likes

Omg Leebo, you’re like my English defender! Be still my beating heart! <3

1 Like

Geez. A debate about English on a Japanese-learning website.

I think what @AnimeCanuck is trying to say is basically “those two are not exactly the same” and @Leebo also said that “it has to be interchangable at least sometimes”. So…it’s the same view?

I guess katakana eigo can be likened to words of French origins in English: some will make you sound smart/old-fashioned/something like ‘raison d’être’, ‘attaché’, exchequer etc. But some are also definitely used normally and are already thought of as English words: ‘money’, ‘pastry’, ‘parachute’.

3 Likes

Actually, these are all textbook Japanese. A real Japanese way to ask for coffee sounds something like this:

皆さん、何を飲まれますか。

:stuck_out_tongue:

Is that right? Using を + passive seems very counterintuitive to me.

So what would you use instead of the を?

が, but I might be wrong.

Hmm… I didn’t really think about what would be grammatically correct when I made the joke, but Google gives results for “何を飲まれますか” and doesn’t give results for “何が飲まれますか”, so I think the former might be more correct than the latter.

何を飲まれますか is accurate. It’s the polite passive, or whatever it’s actually called. The grammar does not change, just the verb conjugation. Passive is less direct, thus more polite.

Note that the sentence translates to “What would you like to drink?” which @Starker gets.

@Heiopei

1 Like

Also, note that this is not only the correct Japanese way to ask for coffee, but also tea, juice or anything else that you would like to drink.

I would use か instead of を.

That certainly works, but I would change my translation to “Would you like something to drink?” in that case.

You can’t use 何を飲まれますか to ask for something to drink. You use it when asking what someone else wants to drink - and being polite about it.

Indeed! :smiley:

Er, that was the gist of the joke. You drink what everybody else is drinking. :slight_smile:

1 Like

I think WK is supposed to teach us how to read, not how to speak. Informal conversations will always be different from what you read in books/magazines/newspapers.
Don’t give up, learning a new language can be really hard but it’s rewarding :smile:

3 Likes

This! Sometimes I find the hardest part about learning a language is learning how the natives use it, because it’s stuff which is often overlooked. I guess it’s mainly something you just have to learn through communication with a native

2 Likes