What I love being praised for
Well, not me personally, but what Japanese themselves like to hear other people comment on, both for women and men. As usual, this was goo Ranking looking at this subject.
Demographics
Between the 23rd and 25th of June 2008 1,014 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 50.1% of the sample were male, 6.5% in their teens, 14.5% in their twenties, 31.0% in their thirties, 28.1% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 8.8% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.
For me, it has to be intelligence and for loving my home life more than work, although I’ve never heard anyone in Japan praise me for that…
Ranking results
Q: What are you happy to be praised about? (Sample size=506, women)
Rank Score 1 Good cook 100 2 Lovely skin 86.4 3 Smart, thoughtful, sensitive 80.3 4 Fresh, clean 68.1 5 Cute smile 67.5 6 Good handwriting 65.4 7 Looks young 63.1 8 Nice hair 61.0 9 Nice body 60.3 10 Gentle 58.6 11 Good diction, use of words 56.9 12 Frank 55.9 13 Thorough at cleaning 54.9 14 Good posture 53.2 15 Fashion sense 52.5 16 Intellectual 49.8 17 Nice hands 48.1 18 Good listener 46.8 19= Sweet mannerisms 42.7 19= Good worker 42.7 21 Smells nice 42.0 22 Good talker 40.0 23 Table manners 36.6 24 Good at making tea, coffee 36.6 25 Good with money 34.2 26 Beautiful eyes 33.6 27 Good at shopping 31.2 28= Nice voice 28.5 28= Make-up 28.5 30 Transparent 28.1 Q: What are you happy to be praised about? (Sample size=508, men)
Rank Score 1 Good worker 100 2 Strong sense of responsibility 68.9 3 Reliable 57.6 4 Intellectual 50.3 5 Gentle 48.7 6 Power of observation, reading people 44.4 7 Smart, thoughtful, sensitive 41.1 8 Looks young 39.4 9 Fresh, clean 38.1 10 Good talker 31.8 11 Sporting prowess 26.2 12 Fashion sense 23.2 13 Good at compartmentalising 21.5 14 Physique 18.5 15 Look of enjoying eating 18.2 16= Good cook 17.5 16= Cute smile 17.5 18 Good voice 16.6 19 Nice body 16.2 20 Lively 15.2 21 Thrives on adversity 14.2 22= Tall 13.9 22= Table manners 13.9 24 Can hold his drink 12.6 25 Sturdy 12.3 26 Lots of friends 11.6 27 Strong 10.6 28 Own car 10.3 29 Wide circle of business associates 9.6 30 Knows nice restaurants 8.3
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feitclub said,
August 4, 2008 @ 06:53
The number one answers shouldn’t be surprising given how Japanese society clings to those “traditional” values of “man works while woman minds the home,” but I’m still surprised to see it laid out so obviously before me. The fact that each gender’s number one answer is ranked so lowly by the opposite gender…wow. Now I know why my wife gets so excited when I tell her how much I enjoyed dinner.
Mike said,
August 5, 2008 @ 12:16
Hi again! Nice work as always. This is an interesting survey we have here. I do have some translation pointers, if you’ll indulge me
First the biggies, no.9
スタイルがよい (sutairu ga yoi) suprisingly has little to do with style per se, but rather means, ‘to have a nice body’ or sexy body (for women only and usually means a lady who is thin, but well endowed)
and conversely no 14
姿勢が美しい (shisei ga utsukushii) doesn’t mean have a nice figure, but rather means, has good posture, or carriage.
no. 30
透明感 (toumeikan) while it literaly means ‘transparent’, in the context of a woman, i believe it refers to a pure clean quality (both in terms of personality and looks)
on to the men,
no.13
仕切りがうまい (shikiri ga umai) is a tough one. I’m not sure if ‘compartmentalizing’ is the right idea. Perhaps, it refers someone who is good at delegation (like a leader) and who acts appropriate to the situation, for example, being fun at a party, but serious at work, etc…
and for no.24
for consistency, i would avoid the first person and go with, ‘can hold his liquor’.
Sorry for all the kibitzing （笑）
Mike
Ken Y-N said,
August 5, 2008 @ 22:33
Hi Mike,
Thanks as always for the feedback! Yes, I was in a hurry and knew I was mixing tenses!
I also noticed I screwed up the table after 16= for men…
Kristo said,
August 7, 2008 @ 05:50
These are very interesting results. Definetly worth for blogging. Thanks!