linguistics Archives | Queer As Cat

[A]sexuality, Japan[ese], Queer[ness], YouTube[r]

QAC 73 – 【Asexuality In JAPAN】An Interview ♠【アセクシャルって？】日本ｘ英語圏 || #AAW2018

October 26, 2018 / 1 Comment

Happy Asexual Awareness Week! I hope you, reader, are doing well. Last month, I had the pleasure of sitting down with two activists in Japan to shoot this interview about a topic that is pretty dear to me; that is, about the current state of the asexual community in Japan. It goes without saying that everything that’s said in the video is nothing but the experiences and opinions of three people and should NOT be mistaken as being representative of the experiences or opinions of everyone, but at the same time, who better to ask than two of the most active and dedicated people that I know in what is essentially the current hub for ace activity in Japan (Tokyo)? In this 23-minute and 10-question long (bear with me) interview, I sit down with 21 year old YouTuber, ace activist and friend, Nakaken of Seisei Doudou / 性性堂堂, as well…

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Vesper H.

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Ash Hardell’s “The ABC’s of LGBT+” in Japanese!

November 25, 2017 / No Comments

…..annnd look what i randomly* stumbled across at the bookstore tonight. Ash Hardell’s “The ABC’s of LGBT+” in Japanese! even Amazon Japan doesn’t seem to have it yet, but somehow Kinokuniya has it? which makes absolutely no sense, but hey! not complaining. it’s a complete translation of Ash Hardell’s book, including a lot of ace and non-binary terminology such as aceflex, quoiromantic, genderfluid and maverique transliterated phonetically into Japanese approximates.** even the [English] pronouns section is translated into Japanese, which i kinda have feelings about as to how helpful that and / or phonetic translations will be for Japanese people who will be approaching this book from a cultural and linguistic context that is not the same as that of a native English / germanic or romance language speaker. that said, at a glance, there does seem to be added explaination of English grammar to help non-English speakers better understand gender…

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Vesper H.

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Q&A: “So using “jibun” can work as a personal pronoun?”

September 1, 2017 / No Comments

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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Vesper H.

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Q&A: “Have you figured anything out about “folx” since then?”

February 2, 2017 / No Comments

anonymous said: I already follow you on tumblr and when I googled why people use folx instead of folks I was redirected to you! that’s cool…but in that ask you answered in 2015 you weren’t completely sure why folx was needed when “folks” is already gender neutral – that’s where I am as well. Have you figured anything out about “folx” since then? i’m guessing that [ this ] is the post that Google directed you to, but i wonder if you also saw [ the post ] that followed that one? since those posts in 2015, i can quite literally count on one hand the number of times i’ve come across usage of “folx” outside of Twitter, where it’s used quite commonly. i’ve personally come to the conclusion that while there may be people who use it for gender-related reasons, more often than not “folx” seems to be used exclusively on the internet…

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Vesper H.

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National Geographic: “Gender Revolution” (Japanese Edition)

January 11, 2017 / No Comments

just got the Japan edition of National Geographic’s special issue “Gender Revolution”. bearing in mind that i haven’t actually sat down and read through it yet, here are a few snaps along with my initial impression. prior to getting my hands on this magazine (and in fact, before it had even been released), i already had a general idea of what to expect based on snippets of featured articles that i’d come across online. plus, you know, the fact that it’s NatGeo. as such, i feel like there was never any chance of me being pleasantly surprised in any way, even though i’d set my expectations low to begin with. well, i’m glad i did, because i’m nitpicky as all hell. but we all already knew that. at a glance, there are some great things going on in this magazine, such as the increase in awareness of trans, intersex and non-binary…

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Vesper H.

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Q&A: “I was wondering if you’re ok with people calling you “doll”, “darling” or “sweetheart”?”

October 21, 2016 /

anonymous said: Hii, I really love your videos(: I’m so glad I found your channel, it really helped me come to terms with my romantic orientation(aromantic) & I was wondering if you’re ok with people calling you “doll”, “darling” or “sweetheart”? Some people think it’s gender specific, like for females. I personally don’t think so, but I wanna know what you think(: hi, anon. thanks for watching my videos and for the kind message. i really appreciate it. 🙂 generally speaking, i think that there’s a lot that goes into how any person feels about being referred to by any given “pet name” (term of endearment). as you’ve noted, a term can feel gender neutral to you while at the same time feeling gendered to someone else. neither person is necessarily right or wrong, of course. as i said, a lot– everything from culture to dialect, past experiences to historical…

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Vesper H.

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Q&A: “Is [singular they] used like “they are” or “they is”?”

September 22, 2016 / No Comments

mybooklover19 said: Hi Vesper! I have a doubt and I don’t have anyone to ask… As a non english speaker, no one ever told me how to use the singular “they”. Is this used like “they are” or “they is”? And what about other new pronouns? Anyway thank you for everything! hi there! singular ‘they’ is used in more or less the same way as plural ‘they’, so “they are” would be correct. for more information on how to use singular ‘they’, this post and my #singular they tag might be of help. as for other gender neutral third person pronouns, usage depends on the pronoun. many, but not all, can be used similar to how you’d use ‘he’ or ‘she’, ie. “xe is at home” or “ze loves cats.” if you’d like to see usage examples for these and / or other pronouns, check out the interactive app/site Xe or the Pronoun Dressing Room. 🙂

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Vesper H.

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Re: Re: “Why do you think some nb genders are becoming more well known than other nb genders?”

September 14, 2016 / No Comments

nextstepcake: queerascat: nextstepcake: queerascat: anonymous said: Hey Vesper! I have a question. I’ve noticed that within the nonbinary and larger trans and queer and so forth communities, some nonbinary genders seem to get more recognition than others. Some- especially maverique as I’ve noticed- are hardly known of by many other nonbinary and/or trans people, while others such are gaining recognition in trans, nb, and other circles much more quickly in comparison. Why do you think some nb genders are becoming more well known than other nb genders? hi anon, this is a really tough question. not just because of how subjective it is (i mean, what even counts as ‘recognition’, let alone what counts as ‘more’ or ‘more quickly’), but also because there are an infinite number of factors involved in why any non-binary gender gets any amount of recognition at all. imho, some non-binary genders are more commonly recognized…

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Vesper H.

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Q&A: “Are there any (commonly used?) gender neutral pronouns in Japanese like there are in English?”

September 7, 2016 / No Comments

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…

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Vesper H.

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Q&A: “do they pronouns work like plural or singular?”

September 3, 2016 / No Comments

anonymous said: Hi sorry to bother you, english is not my first language and i always get confused, do they pronouns work like plural or singular? I mean talking about a nb person u say “they is very pretty” or “they are very pretty”? not a problem, anon. 🙂 even when ‘they’ is used to talk about a single person, it is still used in almost the exact same way as it would be used to talk about multiple people. in other words, it is grammatically plural. subjective: they are very pretty. objective: i hugged them. possessive determiner: their smile makes me happy. possessive pronoun: the choice is theirs. reflexive: they are proud of themself.* * the only difference is that the reflexive form of plural ‘they’ is ‘themselves’ (eg. ‘they are proud of themselves’). some people use ‘themselves’ even for singular ‘they’ when talking about a single person, but i prefer ‘themself’. hope this helps.

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Vesper H.

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