Quote:
Originally Posted by AnneH
Thank you so much for this. I was expecting there would be so much more to the informality as I have seen a few books on colloquial Japanese but was unsure if these were really for me. I'll have a go at dropping the ます form and see what happens  Thanks again
Anne |
Dropping ます form is sufficient to cease sounding like their boss. There's plenty of other Japanese colloquialisms you could learn.
However, consider this: I say "I believe you are mistaken" to you. You think it sounds like I'm treating you like my boss. You ask me to speak less formally. Now I say "You're wrong." That's acceptable; it sounds like we're friends. I don't need to know the colloquialism "bitch, please" to not make it sound like you're my boss.
Japanese is similar. Drop the ます stuff and it's fine. You don't need to know stuff like てはー＞ちゃ or ければー＞きゃ nor おもしろくねぇよ to sound fine to your friends.
Books on colloquial Japanese tend to be worthless because they teach you words and phrases but not the context in which it's acceptable to use them.