JSL~Japanese as a Second Language~

The Whitman College students were really amazing because their Japanese was good. They can speak and understand what the teacher said in Japanese. They know kanji's meanings and can write Japanese! I have talked with a few students who are studying Japanese but I have never talked with such good Japanese speakers. They have learned Japanese for just 2 years. I have been studying English for more than 10 years, but I still can't speak English. Their learning speed surprised me.

To my surprise, their Japanese was more polite than our Japanese. When the Whitman student and I talked about my topic in English, he suddenly changed English to Japanese and his Japanese was very polite. I felt strange and it was funny for me, because he is American, but he spoke Japanese more politely than us. I know polite sayings in English but I can't feel it's polite. For me the polite way and casual way are the same in English. But I can feel Japanese politness so I felt it was strange and funny. The most surprising thing was what students said to their teacher when they left the classroom,"I'll leave here before your leaving" in very polite Japanese, which is "Osakini shitureisimasu." Even Japanese don't say that to their teachers. I think it is very good to know, because if the students don't know the polite way and say it to their teachers, it will be a big problem. I don't want to say something rude to my teachers in English, so I want to learn more about the polite phrases.