Talking to Yourself

One of the many things I like about learning a new language is the unexpected social and cultural insights. Japanese for example has different levels of politeness: verbs and even nouns change their form depending on whether you're speaking to, say, your friend, a stranger or your boss.

A conversation from my intermediate Japanese class:

Japanese teacher:	If you're talking to yourself, it's better to use the polite form.
Fellow student:	What! Why??
Japanese teacher:	Because a senior person may overhear.