Back in high school, when I was a senior, my school led a multi-lingual introduction to our education system. In short, the purpose was to increase parents’ trust in our school’s education program, and, to convey that as best as possible, the principle decided that it’d be best to give the introduction in multiple languages in the hopes that it’d leave a stronger impact on parents who came from different countries. I conveyed the introduction in Japanese.
Now, although I can speak Japanese fairly fluently, I’ve never really studied outside of anime, so my vocabulary is heavily reflected through the dialogue mostly seen in anime. In other words, I’m very ignorant when it comes to formal vs. informal vocabulary. Thus, I referred to “us” (as in, us the student body) as “ore-tachi”. Later on, someone who used to be my upperclassman came up to me and told me that, although I did a good job, referring to oneself (or a body of people) as “ore-tachi” can be seen as being rude and/or crude and that it’d have been better if I said the speech with “watashi-tachi” or “boku-tachi”.
I’ve noticed that the word “ore” may come off as rude, as it’s informal, but is there anything beyond that? What other words are considered “rude” or “inappropriate” (e.g. red flags) under certain circumstances (i.e. talking to a stranger, someone you’ve just met, someone you don’t really consider too close to you, to a person of authority, etc)?
I’m apologize if this is isn’t appropriate for this sub.
6 comments
I have a book for common anime words and phrases and it says that ore is used by men who are too “cool” for the word boku. It is used when someone has a lot of self confidence. Like if you think about anime: Gangsters, Bandits, and so on.
I may be wrong, but I believe how it sounds have an influence on why it is considered rude. Watashi has a softer pronounciation; boku sounds deep (hence mainly used by men); ore is very deep.
In short, pronouns with strong and deep sounds = more scary.
When talking to a stranger you need to change forms of verbs. For example if you want to introduce yourself you should say と申します instead of と言います . And this is the only beginning. There are numerous forms like those.
All three pronouns are used (by the same person) depending on the situation i.e. the conversation he is in (it’s usually a “he”) and the conversation partner.
It’s only appropriate to use with friends and family. In any situation that’s remotely formal you shouldn’t use it, it’s way too macho and disrespectful. ‘Watashi’ is obviously the safest option. ‘Omae/omaetachi’ is the equivalent of ‘ore’ when talking about ‘you’ or ‘they’. Use ‘anata/anatatachi’ instead.
I would really recommend watching something that isn’t anime if you don’t want to sound like a cartoon character when you speak. When I was at university we had a huge anime guy in our class and he referred to himself as ‘oresama’… Just ridiculous.
There are too many words of differing level of politeness, so it is hard for me to write down a list. I do have a rule of thumb that I follow when speaking Japanese though. That is the shorter the word is, the less polite it is. This does not work with everything, but it is mostly applicable.
For example:
I understand (and will do it)
→ wakatta (informal)
→ wakarimashita (normal)
→ kashikomarimashita (very formal)
Another example: Thank you
→ arigatou (informal)
→ arigatou gozaimasu (normal)
→ doumo arigatou gozaimasu (formal)
→ kokoro kara orei wo moushiagemasu (very formal)
Hope this helps!