Part 10.The Shifting Sands of Japanese Linguistic Gender Difference

The Shifting Sands of Japanese Linguistic Gender Difference
Japanese people often find it difficult to learn a language that has grammatical genders because the concept of an object being male or female is totally alien to them.
Taking an example from French, why is a glass(verre) “male” and a cup (tasse) “female”? On the other hand,one of the difficulties of speakers of mastering Japanese, as is frequently lamented by non-native speakers, is the different particles at the end of a sentence that are traditionally used only by men(such as “ze”) or only by woman (such as “wa”).
In addition, what amazes many of those who study Japanese is the multiple ways of saying “I” for both men and women – for example, “boku” and “ore” for men, and “watashi” and “atashi” for woman.
They quickly realize that gender in the Japanese language is not just an abstract grammatical concept- it is a real-life distinction that needs to be tended ti in actual speech.
So they struggle to avoid using wrong word endings or inappropriate expressions, such as “suteki(pretty)!” – reserved for woman – or “sugee(wow)!” – reserved for men.
What confuses these learners more is that nowadays such distinctions are becoming blurred.
It is not hard to find young men who routinely use “watashi” or “..yone”, and woman who refer to themselves as “boku” and say “sugee!” Maybe women are adopting more male language as a way of defying male / female stereotypes; or perhaps the gradual blurring of gender in speech reflects the greater equality women have acquired in various areas of everyday life including the business world.
Women voice their opinions more often in meetings instead of quietly waiting ti be asked, as was traditionally expected.
And there are now more female bosses than ever before.
Consequently,female bosses are finding it difficult to find the right speech style for giving commands to their male subordinates.
For instance, while a male boss may address a subordinate as “kimi,” this in not a word that women would traditionally use.
Furthermore, while a male boss might feel perfectly comfortable saying, “Kore yattoite(Get this done for me),” a female boss might feel compelled to phrase it as , “Korewo yatteoite kudasai (Please be sure to do this for me),” because women are expected to talk more politely than men.
Unfortunately, such a speech style can sound as if she is imploring instead of commanding the subordinate to do the job.
Alternatively, a direct imperative such as “Korewo yarinasai(Just do this),” sounds like she is mothering. Neither is appropriate as an instruction coming from a superior.
This dilemma suggests that gender differentiation in Japanese is affecting Japanese working woman in unexpected ways.
But now that female bosses are becoming increasingly common in Japan, Japanese male coworkers should learn to take “….kudasai” as a command , not a request.
At the same time, Japanese female bosses might have to get used to saying, ” Kore yattoite,” without feeling they are being impolite or mannish.