I’m a woman, but I noticed that, when I speak, my vocabulary tends to go a lot more towards the masculine inflections （ぞう、よう、めちゃ、ヤベ) and I’ve had a few comments about how I sound like a dude when I speak. My question is, how would a native speaker interpret that, what impression would that give about me?
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Depends on the people you’re talking to, but there is something uncanny about it. Since feminine/masculine speech is so ingrained, it might sound a bit “rough” or make you seem perhaps dangerous or untrustworthy, and females who deliberately speak in a masculine way are seen as potentially gang affiliated. The image of Hip-Hop girls or even old school Bosozoku comes to mind. Voice tone and pitch has something to do with it too.
I’ve had numerous conversations with Japanese people about [this girl](https://youtu.be/lmRX6zqgm-Q?si=kTqptaabMyW33zkX) on YouTube, who teaches English and some other stuff. She has kind of masculine tendencies in both language and presentation, a lower tone, and kind of a “fuck you” attitude in some ways. I’ve heard all kinds of speculation about why she speaks the way she does. I’ve heard every hypothesis, from gang, to hip hop/western influence to abuse victim.
You probably should describe this as 男っぽい rather than 男らしい if you’re not a man. The らしい version means someone/something acting in a way you’d expect of the group that they belong to. The っぽい version doesn’t include the idea that the person/thing being described belongs to the group that their description would stereotypically be associated with.
But to your question about “what will people think of me using more typically masculine speech patterns?” – depending on how skilled you are in Japanese, it will either come across as “this person only speaks with young men” or “this person is modeling their speech on anime” or “this person is trying to sound like a masc lesbian”
Depends on your manners, attitude and speech itself.
Some girls tend to speak in a masculine way if they have a lot of brothers, for example. Other examples are スポーツ女子、ヤンキー女子、僕っ子 etc. Some may consider it サバサバ, like a girl who doesn’t pretend to be something just to look cute in front of the boys.
One interesting real life example: Check the dancer and choreographer Rino Nakasone. She speaks on a very masculine way on purpose and use 俺. If I remember correctly, it’s because boys used to make fun and bullied her because she was a ぶりっ子 in school.
Since you’re not Japanese, people will just assume you say things you heard from your friends. I don’t think people will make any assumptions. Women’s speach is more neutral and polite and foreigners (men or women) are expected to sound neutral and polite. This is why foreign men speaking Japanese are expected to use watashi for the first person, to say oishii for delicious, etc. So you not doing that would make you sound less proficient, I assume.
I’m not native nor fluent, but I think you mean ぞ and よ (and technically めっちゃ and やべえ, although it should be fine to shorten those). Of those, I believe that ぞ is the most masculine and めっちゃ is not particularly masculine. You said in another comment that you are a masculine lesbian, and I think your speaking style would give that impression if that’s what you’re going for. However, remember that rather than being masculine, there can also be a risk of rudeness if you speak roughly in the wrong situations. For example, even a man speaking to his boss, though not using feminine language, still would generally speak politely, thus no ぞ, but rather using です/ます, etc. especially if the person you are speaking to is not someone you know well. I mean, even in English, at most job interviews for common jobs, if they ask you what you think about a position, you probably wouldn’t say to the interviewer, “Dude, I’m fuckin’ fired up!”, even if you are a male or a masculine lesbian. So just understand that there is a difference between “masculine” and “rude” and that Japanese society, if anything, is generally more polite than Western society. But speaking with friends like that and giving off a masculine impression is fine if that fits your actual personality.
Some people may see you as rude or rough and some as weird.
You wouldn’t be using that language when speaking politely to strangers, and the friends and family you WOULD use it with, already know who you are. So I don’t think it’s much of an issue.
I learned Japanese in a place with a masculine dialect. I then married someone who has a masculine dialect and am mostly around women speaking this way.
I go to tokyo and friends I haven’t seen in a while get annoyed that I “sound like a guy” or am not being feminine and cute. I don’t have. Aproblme talking to my in-laws or my best friend, who also has my husband’s dialect.
My 丁寧語 is fine (minus some accent/intonation problems from the dialect) and the dialect I have isn’t “anime” japanese… It’s just “not the way women are supposed to talk”.
The phrases you listed aren’t particularly masculine by themselves. It depends on your intonation and vibe. Almost all Japanese women I know use those words
Im not native I think it’s better to learn standard Japanese before branching into slang to avoid confusing people
Not gonna lie i think a lot of ppl would be judgey of it or feel uncomfortable. Ive heard of a lot of jp guys tell their foreign girlfriends its not appropriate to speak like that. I mean i guess its kind of like a woman who swears too much. That “too much” can depend on the individual person’s perspective but it will be easier to get along with the average native speaker if you didn’t actively try to speak in a more manly way.
Anyway it’s fine to speak more masculinely, just giving some info so you can achieve your goals as a Japanese speaker.
A lot of my uni classmates were gals from girls only high schools, and a lot of them spoke like that. Idk, this thread just reminded me of them haha
Weird, no more than that.