Good morning everyone.
I would like to kindly ask for advice regarding a matter😟😮💨
first of all, let me introduce myself.
My name is Giulia, and I’m a young Italian girl.
I have a Japanese friend that I really care about.
he is a very important person for me.
I usually call him Onii-chan.
we often say affectionate phrases like “i love you” (not in a romantic way)
but the other day, instead of the usual “i love you” or the usual sweet stuff (yeah, i know, embarrassing but i’m a very loving person)
he told me “愛 し て る よ”.
I didn’t think too much about it at the moment and I also replied with 愛してるよ. because at the time I remembered that it meant something like “deep affection”.
out of curiosity I went to find out on internet, but… it seems that this is said in romantic terms.
And After my message, my friend sent me a heart without saying anything else.
the question is: how serious is “愛してるよ”? because reading in the internet it seems very serious.
is it okay to tell friends?
What Is the mean of 愛してるよ?
( I really doubt he meant it romantically.
but on the internet I read that this, Is not a thing among friends and that is very serious.
I’m a bit anxious and paranoid so maybe, i’m thinking too much though….😂😅)
in any case, thank you all for the replies ❤️🙇
4 comments
I’ve read this before…
Because you’re a foreigner who is learning Japanese, I doubt he’d take the phrase poorly but I wouldn’t say that in future unless meant romantically and even then, it’s heavy.
It seems like others, including a native speaker, have answered your question. But in my experience, many people from East Asian don’t express affection in word as direct as “I love you.” According to some saying “I love you” too often makes it sound cheap or juvenile (think of kids saying they love you for every little thing). It’s better to save the word for special occasions when you mean it.
There’s a famous story, not sure of how true it is, that Natsume Soseki once told a student that where an English speaker would say “I love you,” a Japanese speaker would say “the moon tonight is beautiful.”
That’s obviously not something they’d really say as a phrase to express love, but Japanese culture enjoys its subtly. What the speaker is implying would be something like “I enjoy spending time with you and I’m glad we can share this moment together.”
You might have heard of the phrase “空気読めない” – “can’t read the atmosphere.” This is said about someone who can’t pick up on subtle clues. It’s been said that many East Asian cultures, including Japanese, express love in other ways.
Fussing and picking (“You’ve gained weight. You look terrible! What are you eating? Don’t you exercise? Look at that coat…”) is one way.
Doing things for the other person – cooking, making a drink…
Spending time with them…
How old are you guys? If you’re both teens, I probably wouldn’t care. If he’s older than you, I’d say he’s being a bit weird haha