Exercise 7: More Refusal Strategies

According to a questionnaire study, when native speakers of Japanese get a response, 考えておく  Kangaete oku  ‘I’ll think about it,’ approximately 50-60% of them would expect to get a positive response if the interlocutor is close, but only 30% would expect this with more distant relationships. However, this strategy is hardly ever used with an interlocutor who is older or of higher status than the speaker.  This is because the expression implies that the decision will be made based on the speaker’s preference or convenience, rather than that of the hearer (Moriyama, 1990).

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