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Q&A: “So using “jibun” can work as a personal pronoun?”
anonymous said: hey i saw your post about how to say you’re NB in japanese and that’s super cool but i have a question. So using “jibun” can work as a personal pronoun? because i’ve seen it as such but i also thought it was closer to use it for the word “oneself” rather than a simpler “i” or “me”. Also it might mean “yourself” in kansai dialect or something? Could you expand on that if it’s not too much trouble? please and thanks ( re: this post ) 自分 (”jibun”) is a reflective pronoun that generally refers back to the person using it. how it translates into English is simply a matter of grammar (ie. what grammatical role it’s serving within a sentence). 例 / example: ※ 自分は別に納豆が嫌いなわけじゃないけどさ… JP： jibun wa betsu ni nattou ga kirai wake janai kedo sa… EN：it’s not like i particularly hate natto or anything, but… ※自分の誕生日さえも忘れちゃって、超恥ずかしい。…
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Q&A: “Could a fairly feminine looking person get away with boku?”
anonymous said: actually I’ve been wondering for awhile what “I” word you use in Japanese, I’ve been learning Japanese and just wondering as far as queer communities in Japan if they ever step out of the (w)atashi is for girls/neutral and boku/ore is for boys thing. Could a fairly feminine looking person get away with boku? just wondering about what the situation actually is surrounding those words usage. i don’t use any particular set of first person pronouns ( i / me / my / mine) because i’m not comfortable using any of them. rather, i use various different pronouns or no pronoun at all depending on the register i’m speaking in, the situation i’m in, who i’m speaking to, how i’m feeling that particular day at that particular time, etc etc. thankfully Japanese is a very flexible language when it comes to pronouns in general and doesn’t even require usage of…
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Q&A: “Are there any (commonly used?) gender neutral pronouns in Japanese like there are in English?”
anonymous said: Are there any (commonly used?) gender neutral pronouns in Japanese like there are in English? I love your blog btw, your posts about Japanese are fascinating 🙂 (see also: this post) ah, thank you! although at this point i feel the need to throw out a huge disclaimer. [image reads: i’m totally a non-fluent, non-native speaker of Japanese and as such, i might not even know wtf i’m talking about! :’D but thank you for asking anyway! – Vesper] anyway, i’m inclined to say no, there are no gender neutral pronouns in Japanese like there are in English. in English, “gender neutral pronouns” generally refers to third-person pronouns used by one person to refer to another person. in Japanese, third-person pronouns aren’t used anywhere near as frequently as in English and it’s relatively easy to avoid gendering a person without using actual third-person pronouns at all, making gender neutral third-person…
