I love English and was once good enough to become an English teacher at a Japanese junior high school. But that was in the past, and since then my English skills have been declining rapidly. So, as part of my language learning, I decided to post some simple questions and comments about the English language that are not easy for me (and that I should ask on HiNative or Quora) on Newgrounds. I am not an expert in English and may make elementary mistakes, but thank you for your patience.

Is "very good" offensive? | English Is Not So Easy 22

There is a hot topic in Japan right now about the English language. This question started with a video from the group Kevin's English Room.

This is a video in Japanese, so I will try to translate as many content as possible.

Narrator: "'Very good' actually sounds like this to native speakers."

[From a Japanese point of view]

Female voice: "Hey, how was my pasta?"

Male voice: "Oh, very good."

[From an American point of view]

Female voice: "Hey, how was my pasta?"

Male voice: "Oh, not bad, considering YOU cooked it." 

At the end of the video, they suggested using “so good” instead of “very good”.

The problem is that another native English speaker responded to this video shortly after it was posted:

Interviewer: "Is 'very good' offensive to native English speakers?"

Respondent: "No, not offensive at all. No way!"

Interviewer: "Someone said that 'very good' sounds offensive, so you should use 'so good.'"

Respondent: "That's not true."

Interviewer: "Doesn't 'so good' sound more polite?"

Respondent: "No. They are the same. I always say 'very good.'"

Interviewer: "Is there any situation where it sounds offensive?"

Respondent: "No. There's no such situation."

Interviewer: "No one finds it offensive?"

Respondent: "No one! Whoever said that doesn't understand English. I cannot even imagine one American being offended by this."

Interviewer: "So a Japanese can use 'very good' in the U.S.?"

Respondent: "No problem." 

But I am confused. The first person who said that "very good" sounded offensive is certainly a native English speaker, Kevin, from California, and the second person who objected to it is also a native English speaker from the US (I couldn't find out exactly where he was from). I wonder why there is such disagreement between the two native English speakers.

So let me ask you: Does "very good" sound offensive?

Please feel free to share your thoughts.

[Edit & Conclusion] 

I am grateful to the native speakers for their warm and precious comments on the question in this article. Regarding this question, I have a certain hypothesis from your comments, so I would like to write about it.

Based on your comments, I concluded that "very good" is rarely considered rude, but it is a phrase that I should be careful about using in practice. Because it may not be appropriate to use it against people who have long been culturally familiar with it as a phrase used by adults to praise children, for example on British children's television.

As an example to illustrate what I am trying to say, there is a conversation between a parent and a child that has recently become a hot topic in Japan:

Mother: “How was my pasta?”

Child: “9 out of 10!”

The child probably used the same phrase that is used to rate food on YouTube. There is no doubt that the child said her cooking was great, but the mother found this comment unpleasant. This may be because the child felt that the mother was cooking to get a better rating from her child. That cannot be her intention.

My hypothesis is that there are probably people who have a similar impression of "very good" as "X out of 10," and that is what Kevin was trying to say.

On the other hand, why did Kevin say that "so good" did not sound rude? I have my own hypothesis on this. But of course, if you have your own thoughts on this, feel free to share them with me.

According to the English I learned for the college entrance exam, "so" has the effect of emphasizing the fact that the speaker is mentioning something that is right in front of the speaker's eyes or something that the speaker has experienced. If we use the fact here, "so good" emphasizes the speaker's "experience" and means that the speaker enjoyed the experience, so the receiver probably doesn't feel "evaluated" by the speaker. This is my hypothesis.

Philosophically speaking, I think that first of all, "praising someone" is basically the same as "evaluating someone", and "the feeling of wanting to be praised" is the same as "the feeling of wanting to be evaluated". If this is true, even a non-native speaker like me can fully understand that "very good" can be a rude expression.

On the other hand, I feel that this discussion contains a thorny issue: How can we praise others without being rude in our daily communication? I am not sure, but I believe that people who do not consider "very good" to be a rude expression can live a more comfortable and fulfilling life. However, as a foreigner from Far East Asia, when I visit the United States, I would like to try to use "so good" to properly convey my respect for others.