Politeness is something that still throws me off lot. What I do not understand is the amount of familiarity required to switch to タメ口. Or is it not only familiarity but also time you know each other?
I am also not sure when even age plays a role and when not.
If someone has good recommendations for resources to read about this topic I would be grateful.
Also if you know a series which feature a natural change of speech while the characters get to know each other that would be nice!
Lastly, I have some situations about which I am not sure what would be the best guess 丁寧語 vs タメ口 (obviously it could still be different depending on the person).
I would be happy if you would comment on what you think is appropriate. I will put my guess in brackets [] – but as I said I do not really know.
– meeting friends of a university friend for the first time to do an activity together [タメ口 because you have the intention of doing a casual activity with people you do not have a professional connection with]
– you play an online game with a voicechat [タメ口 because internet culture]
– talking with a random kid who asks for directions or the like [タメ口, idk just feels right]
– first date with someone (you did not know beforehand) [starting with 丁寧語 and switching to タメ口 if it flows]
by JewelerAggressive