Learning to speak Japanese doesn’t get any easier. Right when you think honorifics make sense (which will never happen), you suddenly realize you’re not speaking like your own gender, which is usually a big surprise because nobody tells you about this for a really long time. So here I am, telling you that you need to think about your gender when you are speaking Japanese. It’s really not that tough at all, and yet, since 90% of Japanese teachers in America are women, 90% of students end up learning women’s Japanese. By clicking through you’ll be able to see a video, some of the history behind this, and a chart that plainly lays out women’s/men’s language for you. Here’s to making things easy (clink!).
Women’s language didn’t actually truly come into being until the start of the Meiji era. With modernization came more schooling. With more schooling came more girls going to school. All sorts of classes mixed, and even the previously lower class merchant daughters went to school. It was pretty crazy, let me tell you. These students began shortening honorifics (i.e. でございます –> です), adding funny things to the ends of their sentences (i.e. 行く–> 行くわよ), and plain old talking weird. Japanese male intellects of the time cringed in pain whenever they heard this evil, culture defiling language. Think Valley Girl of Meiji Era Japan.
Eventually, this language became accepted. These girls eventually became the norm, and advertisements started catering to this single group of people. Rural girls who came to Tokyo thought this was how the “city girl” talked, and they copied it. Soon male intellects were justifying the language, saying it had a rich Japanese history and tradition, which never really existed. This form of speech became “Japanese.”
Today in Japan, there is a lot of worry that women are losing this “traditional” (not) women’s language. Women are speaking more like men (which was pretty much always the case before this phenomenon started) and there are “rougher” speaking women. Still, even this is the minority. Japanese men and women still speak differently. That is why it’s important for you to know the difference.
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That right there is another 30 reasons why you should be studying harder. For your enjoyment only, here’s a video of me acting like an idiot (while still talking about this subject). Enjoy!
Please note that I totally miss on the Meiji Era date. It is mid-1800s, not early. Oops.
*update* On a final note, it’s always important to note that there is some crossover. It’s not a bad, bad, naughty thing to use the opposite gendered speak patterns – most of the time it will be brushed over and ignored. It is only when people (often those taught by female teachers) use opposite gendered speech patterns all the time. Feel free to “cross over” once in a while. Feel free to pinch hit for the other team. People do it all the time. Still, you should try to avoid going over there on a consistent basis…only then do people notice how strangely you speak.