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Tatemae In Japanese Society

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What do uchi and soto, tatemae and honne mean? Analyse how these value operate in Japanese society today.

In Japanese society today, you will probably hear people talking about uchi and soto or they may even say I talk in tatemae to this person and honne to another person… but what do they mean by all this? And how does this impact the Japanese society? Well, Uchi and Soto translate roughly as (うち kanji: 内also pronounced nai) “inside” and (そとkanji: 外also pronounced gai) “outside” respectively. (Hendry, pg 42) But they can be also mean “in, internal, private, hidden” and soto “out, external, public, exposed”. Japanese Communication: Language and Thought in Context by By Senko K. Maynard.
First of all, they are associated with the cleanness …show more content…

This difference in behaviour corresponds to the difference between tatemae which is public behaviour and hone which is one’s real feelings. But what is exactly tatemae? And what is Honne? Honne (本音 ) is what you really think and should only say it to close friends and family members while Tatemae (建前) is what you think you should say in a given situation, it’s what you say in front of other people that you are not particularly close with or with strangers. For example, close friends that usually go out together talk in “honne” but during work or talking to older people, Japanese mostly talk “tatemae”. They talk in tatemae usually with people that they are not close with because they would worry what they would think of them and a fake smile is also part of tatemae. Even though you and your family made be close but when you invite an “outsider” into the house the family will behave like they are in public “tatemae”. To be honest, everyone speaks in Tatemae and Honne in every country and everywhere, but in Japan, they just have this strong concept of it. Personally, if someone asked me “Does this dress look nice on me?” if she’s not a close friend I wouldn’t say “It looks ugly on you” I would have probably put it in a nice way but if she was a close friend I would have straight up say it’s ugly. That’s the difference between Tatemae and Honne. While Tatemae you would put things into a more respectable manner and made sure you wouldn’t hurt the other person by being straightforward, unlike honne. I would say the concept of Tatemae and Honne can be referred as

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