Manual keigo (マニュアル敬語?), is a controversial form of honorifics (keigo) in the Japanese language. Employers such as fast-food and convenience-store chains publish training manuals for employees, especially young part-timers who have little experience with honorifics. These manuals incorporate nonstandard formulas for servers and cashiers to use when addressing customers, most often by using alternate expression which are longer and vaguer than the standard expression. Manual keigo is opposed by language purists on the grounds that keigo has fixed, unchangeable grammatical constructions.
Other terms for the same phenomenon include "part-timer's (baito) keigo," "convenience-store keigo," and "family-restaurant keigo."
Famous quotes containing the word manual:
“In spite of our worries to the contrary, children are still being born with the innate ability to learn spontaneously, and neither they nor their parents need the sixteen-page instructional manual that came with a rattle ordered for our baby boy!”
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)