The Education of Japanese Honorifics and Cultivating Intercultural Communication Competence

Abstract

Japanese honorifics which symbolizes the social culture of Japan are linguistic forms that are indispensable in the Japanese language education. Hence, the Japanese language education requires an improvement of previously solidified teaching methods with the cultivation of students’ intercultural communication competence, in order for students to understand Japanese honorifics in-depth and apply them in practice. This paper analyzes the necessity of cultivating students’ intercultural communication competence, the difficulties in Japanese honorifics education, and proposes specific training methods to help students improve their competence.