I've been learning Japanese for three years, and I've noticed that my politeness level in English has actually dropped since I started. The language forces you to rank people constantly—senpai, kouhai, customers, strangers—and that habit spills over into how I treat colleagues now. Some friends say it's just code-switching, but I think the grammar itself is rewiring my social instincts. Could it be that languages with rigid honorifics make speakers more hierarchy-obsessed in daily life, even when they're not speaking that language?