Adam Komisarof : (2) Indeed . I think that can be accomplished by (3)paying attention to how things are (4)phrased. For example , when making a request , you could ask it in a nice way by saying, “Please do ‘naninani,’” or, “(5)Kindly do ‘naninani,’” “ Would you mind doing ‘naninani?” But one very important thing to remember is, when you’re trying to ask someone in a kind way, is tone of voice is also really important, and (6) facial expression . So , if you have a small smile on your face and say, “ Would you mind doing this?” people will know that you’re really making a polite request .

Kopp : On the other hand , if you need to (7) point out a mistake that somebody’s made, rather than saying, “Why did you do that?” and getting upset, you can say, “I’m disappointed .” It gets the message across that you are not happy but in a calmer way.

Chiyoda Madoka : That’s much better than behaving like a so -called “devil manager” who (8)yells at people. That kind of behavior won’t be accepted in other cultures.

Komisarof : I think that it’s often said that in the U.S., we have no keigo, but I would disagree with that. One example is just the types of words that you use , the length of the words you use . For example , if I were in a formal situation and I wanted to be very polite, I’m meeting someone for the first time, I might say something like, “(2)I’m delighted to meet you,” or, “It’s such a pleasure to meet you,” if I were meeting someone in a very formal situation . But if I were meeting somebody who’s my age and we’re at a party or something like that, I might say, “Good to meet you.” So we tend to kind of use shorter expressions when we’re being casual and also the word choice itself. When we’re trying to be a little more polite, we might use longer words, more complex words, more (3)abstract words sometimes.

Kopp : So , if someone has already talked to you about their family, then it’s OK to ask about the family later. But if they’ve never talked about their family, and you don’t even know if they’re married (2)a lot, or not, or if you don’t know if they have children, it’s probably best that you don’t (3) bring that up. So , it’s best to not bring up a topic first yourself. It’s better to wait to see what topics they have brought up and to (4) stick with topics that you, they already have talked about before.
(5)Let’s say, Madoka went and had coffee with that (6) executive . You need to (7) come up with some topic, right ? And so , “Have you seen any good movies lately?” Or, “Have you read any good books lately?” Those would be really safe topics.

Komisarof : I think also , you know, same kind of thing about television. “Can you recommend any good television shows for me to watch? I really like comedy.” Television shows are also obviously very popular.