"You look tired!" In which countries is this a compliment? [closed]
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In which countries/cultures is "You look tired" a compliment?
A travel for work and I often hear the phrase "You look tired" delivered as a compliment. The underlying message seems to be "You are working very hard".
In the US people might very well get mad at you (although they might not show it) if you tell them something like that.
Best Answer
In Japan it is a standard greeting, for example when you meet someone in the evening and have a drink, when you finished work for the day, when congratulating someone for having finished some project:
???????otsukaresama desu
which means something like "you are tired", but is better translated to something like "Good work!"/"You're working hard!"
This greeting is polite and can be used both to people close and not-so-close, as well as your superiors.
On a similar note, in Japan it is actually okay to sleep during meetings, to some extent. There is a specific phrase,
????inemuri
which literally means "present sleep", i.e., the person is sleeping but still present in the sense that if his name is called he will promptly wake up and reply to whatever question he is asked. This is a sign of working very hard, and is therefore not necessarily (depending on circumstances) seen as a bad thing.
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More answers regarding "You look tired!" In which countries is this a compliment? [closed]
Answer 2
A Google search didn’t throw up anywhere where this is a compliment except for Nigeria https://www.quora.com/Is-it-rude-to-tell-people-they-look-tired
Answer 3
I don't think Americans would be any more sensitive to this than anyone else.
If you've been working hard and look it, it's more a sign of empathy than a compliment. I wouldn't be offended by this in the least if I actually was tired.
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