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Use of 僕 (ぼく) and 君 (きみ) | ||
Tags: Polite/Informal Forms | Japanese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6778 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 9 of 12 27 March 2008 at 9:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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僕 can be used with plain and -masu forms. Ideally, a native Japanese speaker should explain the relationship between a student and teacher. My hunch is that 僕 is usually a little too informal.
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| Gon-no-suke Triglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6444 days ago 156 posts - 191 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Japanese, EnglishC2 Studies: Korean, Malay, Swahili | Message 10 of 12 29 March 2008 at 7:53am | IP Logged | ||
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My ultra-small-scale survey says that 僕 is the common way to call yourself if you are a boy in elementary and high school. My hunch is that it is used at university as well. I think that pronouns are decoupled from keigo - polite/plain form. You could use ore with the masu form (ex. a guy to his sempai at the bukatsu), or watashi with plain form (if you are a woman). Maybe you could say that you choose the pronoun according to the image you are trying to project - if that description makes any sense. Masu/plain is used according to your social relationship and you can't relly change that easily.
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| Alec Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6409 days ago 36 posts - 41 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Japanese | Message 11 of 12 05 April 2008 at 2:27am | IP Logged | ||
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First a bit of context - I'm a 19 year-old guy working at a Japanese restaurant in Japan. My colleagues are mostly 19-26 with a couple in their 40s.
I also use 僕, 俺 and 私 depending on whom I'm speaking to. With my co-workers, I use 俺 if they're close to my age. I'll use 僕 with coworkers who are over, say, mid 20s. I'll use 僕 with my restaurant bosses but if a big boss came from the head office whom I'd not really met before, I would probably use 私. With customers, I use 僕 but part of this is me subconsciously trying to be a bit friendly and endear myself to them in a cute way. I know I should probably be using 私 but I haven't heard other guys' speaking to customers yet so I'm not 100% sure. Outside of work, I use 俺 with friends, 俺 with relatives close to my age (within maybe 5 years either side), 僕 with relatives a lot younger than me and 僕 with relatives much older than me. 私 would be way too formal but 僕 is friendly. It's not intimidating when you're speaking to 8 year-olds and it's kind of cute and "I know I'm younger than you!" when you're speaking to seniors. If I was speaking to strangers, it would depend on the stranger's age and status. In terms of how I refer to people I'm speaking to, almost always in the third-person by their name or job title (eg: 店長, 先生). I've used 君 and お前 only a few times with close friends when I'm joking around and teasing them. I've not dated any Japanese guys long enough to feel comfortable calling them by either. That's how I use the three. I'm not a native speaker so I might have my usage mistaken. Here's how other people use the terms around me. I'll try and recall incidences. My assistant-manager (male, about mid 20s) uses 僕 in a work setting and 俺 at in more casual settings (drinking sessions etc.). I think my manager (male, about 40) mainly uses 僕 when talking to the staff but uses 私 if he's talking to his bosses. I can't remember him saying 俺. Guys I work with around my age usually use 俺 with me but sometimes use 僕 if, for example, they're teaching me something and we're momentarily in student-teacher mode. Male relatives around my age use 俺, younger relatives use 僕, much older relatives also use 僕. My assistant-manager and manager almost always call me by my name but occasionally they've used 君 or あなた. Customers will usually me お兄さん or ocassionally 僕. (Because 僕 is used almost exclusively by young males, it is sometimes used by usually middle-aged women, to refer to a certain boy. Because she's obviously not referring to herself, it's understood she's referring in the second/third person to the only young male they might be talking about.) Relatives call me by name but, as I mentioned before, I've occasionally been called 僕 by aunts. An example of this might be "僕はどこ行きたいの？" ("Where do you want to go?"). Well, this was long. I hope it helped. A few years ago I read a similarly long post somewhere and it helped with my understanding of the terms. My writing this huge essay is my giving back to the internet which helped me, lol. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Monox D. I-Fly Senior Member Indonesia monoxdifly.iopc.us Joined 5145 days ago 762 posts - 664 votes Speaks: Indonesian* | Message 12 of 12 02 October 2016 at 7:12pm | IP Logged | ||
Huh? I have a crush on a girl who is taking Japanese literature department in college. Once I said to her "Kimi ni au no tame ni..." and when I asked whether my sentence was correct, she said it was, although maybe she was just being understanding at the time. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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