Quote:
Originally Posted by DewarHolmes
:P Perhaps 'verified' was a strong word to use. Anyway, from what I've been reading, it seems that referring to one's self is more common among females. ...But you say that it's just as common among guys? I guess it just depends on the people....But now I'm curious as to why people say it's feminine. Would it be something like when girls try to talk in a 'cute' voice? Saying "Hewwo", etc.?
I Didn't mean to upset anybody or sound like "We've got the final say! Aha-Proof is in the puddin'!"
Just one more thing...Might this be relevant at all concerning your geography and friends?
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It just seems to me like you`re trying to draw very final conclusions from an extremely small data set, or from something you have misunderstood.
Referring to yourself
by name is more common among females in general. THIS is what MMM was referring to - calling yourself by your name instead of using some other pronoun or form of reference. He was stating that there didn`t seem to as big of a gap between the types of references used when in Kansai.
There is no gap whatsoever in the amount that men and women refer to themselves in some form, and no one has said there is. It was all about using your own name to refer to yourself.
You seem to have interpreted this as meaning that using any reference other than a straight pronoun is a feminine thing. It`s not at all, and living directly between Tokyo and Osaka - I`d say that there is really only a small difference in the usage between the areas. Say, a difference of 10 or 15% - not enough to mark something as "feminine". Just like 10% more children than adults using ぼく doesn`t mark it as being "childish".
I`d say that when you
do refer to yourself, using an indirect reference, like 自分, is probably the most common among men and women everywhere I have ever been in Japan. I`ve been translating a literal mountain of business related correspondence recently - it`s 90% between men and personal references use names just as commonly as any other reference.
I would be very wary of jumping to conclusions. Where did you hear that ぼく was childish or that referring to yourself was feminine?