Japanese Learning: How to answer to a suggestion to “V+masenka.”; Iidesune or Sore wa chotto….

We learned yesterday sentences that make a suggestion to do something together.

1. Isshoni [Verb phrase] masenka.

Example; Isshoni Koube e Ikimasenka. (Shall we go to Kobe together?)

When someone said a suggestion like this, how do you answer to it?

<1> Yes, let’s do that.

2. Iidesune, sou shimashou. (That sounds good. Let’s do that.)

<2> I don’t want to do that right now”

3. Sore wa chotto･･･. (It is a little….)

First of all, you need to be thankful to the person who invited you for doing something together. Even if you are busy, reluctant, or having any negative thought about the invitation, it is better not to say “I won’t do that”. The answer “Sore wa chotto･･･” is an incomplete sentence in grammar because the ending of the sentence is untold and hidden. Actually, the most important part of a Japanese sentence is its ending; positive or negative, tense, feelings of the speaker, and so on, all these things are concentrated on the ending of a sentence. Such an important part is untold when Japanese decline a suggestion from others. Probably this is a funny Japanese psyche. Not saying a negative thing directly, but expecting the listener could understand what that missing words could be, the person tries to reject the suggestion without making the suggesting person’s feeling worse. If two persons are both Japanese, this style of communication would not cause a trouble. But if one of two is not Japanese, this could be problematic.

<この投稿は“スリーエーネットワーク、みんなの日本語 初級I 第2版, 第6課A4とA5”の内容を参照しています。>