Jibun (romaji) - Meaning? Use?

[Jaydelart]

Hi,

I've recently stumbled upon the word/phrase 'Jibun'.
I've provided it in it's Romaji form... I hope that is alright.

Anyway ~ I have done some looking around on my own, and have a blurry understanding of what it means and how it is used. However, I figured I'd post here to see if anyone could help me better understand...

I'd appreciate any kind of help.
Thank you.

[Harold]

Originally Posted by Jaydelart

Hi,

I've recently stumbled upon the word/phrase 'Jibun'.
I've provided it in it's Romaji form... I hope that is alright.

Anyway ~ I have done some looking around on my own, and have a blurry understanding of what it means and how it is used. However, I figured I'd post here to see if anyone could help me better understand...

I'd appreciate any kind of help.
Thank you.

I translate it as "self" or "one's."
自分の車 - jibun no kuruma: my own car (This isn't always first person. It can be his own car, her own car, your own car, etc...).

Here are some more examples: Find sentences - Denshi Jisho

[Nagoyankee]

It's great to see the MANY examples that Harold has provided!

I recommend that people use 自分 often instead of using too many pronouns. If you keep using 私、あなた、彼、彼女、彼ら、etc, your Japanese will sound foreign for good no matter what other big words you know to impress us. We kind of automatically avoid the use of pronouns. It's all cultural so it will stay this way. Therefore, we have no choice but to use 自分 to clarify who we are talking about.

[Nagoyankee]

Sorry, I forgot to include an example to illustrate my point.

I wish I had a car of my own. = 自分の車があったらなあ。

Show this English sentence to a monolingual Japanese person and explain what each word means, and he will mostly likely say, "Oh my Buddha, what a selfish language! Every other word is 'me'!!" That's exactly how I felt in the early stage of my English study. 'Me' thrice in a short sentence is an impossibility in Japanese.

This is the kind of a 'culture shock' that you must go through in order to learn a second language well. I used to feel very uncomfortable when I had to say something like 'I have some money in my pocket.' in English. I'd go, "I know that the listener knows who and whose pocket I'm talking about. So why 'I' and 'my' both?". That's 「ポケットに少しお金がある。」in Japanese, with no 'I'
nor 'my'.

So there's no end to a foreign-language mastery!

[Jaydelart]

Originally Posted by Nagoyankee

We kind of automatically avoid the use of pronouns. It's all cultural so it will stay this way.

That's very interesting. I happened to have noticed that.


Thank you very much Harold and Nagoyankee!
You two were very helpful -- I appreciate it!