[Vocabulary] Japanese show respect ...

[Kazuo]

Hello!

A. During the festival of Obon, Japanese show respect to their dead ancestors.
B. The Japanese regard Mount Fuji as a sacred mountain.

In what way are Japanese in A and the Japanese in B different?

A. Japanese means all those alive, all those already dead, and all those to be born.
B. The Japanese means all those alive only.

Thanks in advance

 

[Raymott]

Hello!

A. During the festival of Obon, Japanese show respect to their dead ancestors.
B. The Japanese regard Mount Fuji as a sacred mountain.

In what way are Japanese in A and the Japanese in B different?

A. Japanese means all those alive, all those already dead, and all those to be born.
B. The Japanese means all those alive only.

Thanks in advance

C. They are two ways of saying the same thing.

 

[euncu]

A. During the festival of Obon, Japanese show respect to their dead ancestors.

A small irrelevant question by me (as usual ;-)) ;
Shouldn't it be pay instead of show? If it is not, doesn't the sentence read that Japanese don't respect to their dead ancestor except the festival period. (It's about semantics, I'm not insinuating anything, please don't misunderstand me)

 

[konungursvia]

No, pay is more common than show in this context. To pay implies that the recipient receives something of value, whereas to show would mean you're doing it to satisfy a (living) audience.

 

[euncu]

I always thought that paying respect was an action to show one's respect (or to show that one is respectful), and showing respect is an attitude.

 

[bertietheblue]

A small irrelevant question by me (as usual ;-)) ;
Shouldn't it be pay instead of show? If it is not, doesn't the sentence read that Japanese don't respect to their dead ancestor except the festival period. (It's about semantics, I'm not insinuating anything, please don't misunderstand me)

I pretty much agree: it is traditional for the Japanese to pay respect to their ancestors during Obon by returning to their family homes, and visiting and cleaning their ancestors' graves. However, it is also true that, in doing so, they are showing respect for their ancestors.

 

[Kazuo]

Hello!

A small irrelevant question by me (as usual ;-)) ;
Shouldn't it be pay instead of show? If it is not, doesn't the sentence read that Japanese don't respect to their dead ancestor except the festival period. (It's about semantics, I'm not insinuating anything, please don't misunderstand me)

First, I should say that these sentences are not mine, but ones borrowed from Longman Language Activator.
In the case of this collocation, that is, pay respect (singular), I found only one example sentence as below.

From all over the country, people came by the thousands to pay respect to their dead leader. (from the same source)

Pay doesn’t seem to make a big difference, I think.

Thank you very much

 

[euncu]

I pretty much agree: it is traditional for the Japanese to pay respect to their ancestors during Obon by returning to their family homes, and visiting and cleaning their ancestors' graves. However, it is also true that, in doing so, they are showing respect for their ancestors.

Thank you. That was definitely what I got in my mind. (yours is better stated, though)

 

[Tdol]

Pay doesn’t seem to make a big difference, I think.

Thank you very much

Not a huge difference, but I would go along with the idea that paying respect is heartfelt, while showing respect could be more of a social duty.

 

[bertietheblue]

Not a huge difference, but I would go along with the idea that paying respect is heartfelt, while showing respect could be more of a social duty.

I'm not so sure about the 'heartfelt'. When I was teaching in Japan, I met many Japanese people who found the whole ancestor worship thing a lot of hogwash but went through with the Obon ritual of paying respect to their ancestors because it's a tradition and also because not to do would be to show disrespect to their parents (and not so much their ancestors).

 

[Kazuo]

Hello, bertietheblue!

I'm not so sure about the 'heartfelt'. When I was teaching in Japan, I met many Japanese people who found the whole ancestor worship thing a lot of hogwash but went through with the Obon ritual of paying respect to their ancestors because it's a tradition and also because not to do would be to show disrespect to their parents (and not so much their ancestors).

I suppose that what Tdol said is about the general meaning of the expressions, not necessarily relating it to cases of the Obon ritual being performed nowadays in Japan.

Thank you very much

 

[rx-f]

I may be on my own here; but to me, "Japanese" is an adjective, not a noun.

A. During the festival of Obon, Japanese people show respect to their dead ancestors.
B. The Japanese regard Mount Fuji as a sacred mountain.

Here, there is no difference in meaning between "Japanese people" and "the Japanese". The meanings of these phrases have nothing to do with whether someone is alive or dead.

When I lived in Japan, I heard a lot of Japanese people say things like "Japanese are shy". I think it's because most Japanese people who learn some English have an extremely unclear understanding of fundamental English grammar. One result is that many Japanese learners of English often don't distinguish between different grammatical categories when producing English.

You can't say "French drink lots of wine", "American like baseball" or "Japanese show respect" because those sentences all begin with an adjective that's not modifying any noun.

 

[Tdol]

Hello, bertietheblue!



I suppose that what Tdol said is about the general meaning of the expressions, not necessarily relating it to cases of the Obon ritual being performed nowadays in Japan.

Thank you very much

Yup :up: