Japan throughout the world is known as a culture powerhouse. When I think of culture, respect, tradition, honor etc i think of Japan. Such a deep culture where everything has meaning and depth, even the smallest things … But for the life of me i cannot fathom how come in Japan is unusual to say ” have a good day”?
I’ve been searching for translations and there is some, but almost all boards say it is unusual to say that. A country built on respect don’t have a ” have a good day”?
What, is it too personal to address someone like that?
I don’t get it, please eggsplain.
3 comments
Is it weird? I have a friend who says it to me pretty constantly, and there’s a few stickers on LINE that have that type of notion too, so I don’t think it can be that unusual. It’s usually something along the lines of いい日にして(ね) or いい日になるように(ね) from my experience.
It might be used a bit less casually than it is in English though, like you wouldn’t say it as often to people you don’t know.
Have a good day is an expression largely devoid of meaning. It’s basically a thumbs up and a wave goodbye.
You get the same effect with certain Japanese phrases, such as otsukaresama deshita, or Mata ne.
Certain very common phrases in language are about context more than content.
For example if someone asks “how are you today” and you start telling them, they might run away from you 🙂
Just something to consider, especially in Japanese where there are a lot of frustratingly ubiquitous situational phrases that’s meaning is actually a little disconnected.
the word you may be looking for is ごきげんよう. It was/is used but sparsely these days.