Polite in Chinese / Japanese...

禮貌 is a Chinese and old Korean word that means courtesy or politeness.

Courtesy is being polite and having good manners. When you speak and act courteously, you give others a feeling of being valued and respected. Greet people pleasantly. Bring courtesy home. Your family needs it most of all. Courtesy helps life to go smoothly.

If you put the words "fēi cháng bù" in front of this, it is like adding "very much not." it’s a great insult in China, as nobody wants to be called "extremely discourteous" or "very much impolite."

See Also:  Kindness | Respect

This is a Japanese name that can romanize as Reizan, Reisan, Rezan, Resan, or Reiyama.

It means “polite mountain” or “respectful mountain.”

賢弟 is an honorific title for a little brother.

This can be translated as a worthy little brother or wise younger brother. This can also be a polite reference to another person's younger brother, your junior, or your subordinate.

美麗的女人 is the best and most polite way to express “beautiful woman” in Chinese.

Note: Some people may like the simple 2-character 美女 way to express this, but there are some bad connotations with that, so better to stay with this longer and more respectful title.

See Also:  Beautiful Girl | Beauty

世事難料 is a polite Chinese version of “shit happens.” This phrase suggests that things happen (for no reason, and for which we have no control).

The first two characters mean the affairs of life, things of the world, worldly affairs, or ways of the world.

The third character means disaster, distress, problem, difficulty, difficult, hardships, troubles, or defect.

The last character in this context means: to expect, to anticipate, or to guess.

If you put this back together, you have something like, “In life, troubles [should be] expected.”

師傅 is “sifu” as in the “master” in the context of martial arts.

But two sifu titles are floating around. This one can simply mean “skilled worker.”

Historically, this term has been used for many things, such as “The tutor of a king or emperor.” But now it's more commonly used to mean master worker or qualified worker.

Currently, within the field of skilled labor, a master (Shifu) is higher than a journeyman and is considered to be one worthy of teaching others.

Note: In the 1970s and 1980s, this term was used as a common form of polite address between people. You might say, “master, do you know where Tian'anmen Square is?” to a person on the street at that time. This usage has almost passed; however, for some reason, people still often refer to taxi cab drivers as “master” in China (though I think/hope this is fading).

In Mandarin Chinese, this is pronounced like “Sure Foo,” and in Cantonese, like “See Foo.”

The second character is the difference between this sifu and the other. In this case, the second character by itself means tutor, instructor, or teacher.