Japanese is Hard

Japanese is hard

To the English speaker, there are a variety of challenges in learning the Japanese language, starting from the basic ones, including mastering the writing system and learning the 2,000+ kanji (Chinese characters) necessary to read the newspaper, through the complicated grammar, and then up to the regional and societal subtleties that will truly show whether you’re a foreigner or a true Japanese.

For example, the pronoun “I.” (That also includes “me”—they’re the same in Japanese.) There are so many different words that have the same literal meaning, but whose connotations communicate a great deal about perceived status differences between the speakers. Let’s run through them:

Gender-neutral
私 Watashi – the most general form, and doesn’t really communicate anything. Women use this one the most frequently.
私 Watakushi – similar to watashi, but shows more deference to the listener.
我 Ware – actually I’m not really clear about ware’s meaning, although I believe it is more formal. (I think this one has the coolest kanji.)

Female
あたし Atashi – like watashi, but more feminine.
家 Uchi – usually used by older women, especially around Osaka.

Male
僕 Boku – mainly used by boys and young men, though older men can still use it. I think it shows a degree of innocence.
俺 Ore – mainly used by adult men, and shows authority. (Sometimes I hear little boys use ore with each other.)
儂 Washi – sometimes used by elderly men.

I’m pretty sure that there are a lot more words that I don’t know about, but these are the ones I’ve come across the most. The most complicated ones are for men, since one individual might jump between several of them in the same day, depending on the circumstances of each conversation. Good thing I’m not a boy. Notably, Japanese people also talk in the third person, especially in casual conversation, a lot more than English speakers do, and also often omit the subject of a sentence altogether when speaking about themselves.

Anyway, I hope that was interesting and enlightening for you, unless you already speak Japanese, in which case you probably already knew everything I said here, and hopefully you did not catch too many misinterpretations. What am I doing writing this at 1 in the morning? I need to get back to papers. (Tomorrow/today is the deadline for everything! Aah)