jonny-mt
無限馬鹿
- 23 Jun 2004
- 69
- 3
- 18
Quick keigo-ish question.
So most of us are familiar with おる, the humble version of いる. I was going through the Asahi Shinbun's site today when I found an article with a strange sentence in it:
曽我さんがかわいそうだということは大統領もわかっており、同情している
This is a quote from a Mr. Green of the National Security Council's Asian Bureau. Unless I am highly mistaken, this sentence translates roughly into "The President understands how hard this is for Soga-san, and he sympathizes." I asked a friend sitting nearby who speaks Japanese at about my level why Green would use 'おる' to refer to the President if it was for humble use, and he responded after some hesitation that it can also be used as an honorific. This brings me to two questions:
1) Is this true? Can おる be used for both humbling oneself and honoring another? When do I choose it over いらっしゃる?
2) Since this quote is, of course, a translation, why would one use ~おる in the first part of the sentence and ~いる in the second?
Thanks in advance for the help
So most of us are familiar with おる, the humble version of いる. I was going through the Asahi Shinbun's site today when I found an article with a strange sentence in it:
曽我さんがかわいそうだということは大統領もわかっており、同情している
This is a quote from a Mr. Green of the National Security Council's Asian Bureau. Unless I am highly mistaken, this sentence translates roughly into "The President understands how hard this is for Soga-san, and he sympathizes." I asked a friend sitting nearby who speaks Japanese at about my level why Green would use 'おる' to refer to the President if it was for humble use, and he responded after some hesitation that it can also be used as an honorific. This brings me to two questions:
1) Is this true? Can おる be used for both humbling oneself and honoring another? When do I choose it over いらっしゃる?
2) Since this quote is, of course, a translation, why would one use ~おる in the first part of the sentence and ~いる in the second?
Thanks in advance for the help