Furu Anime Panikku

Purchasing a JR Pass was much easier than I had expected.

At first, I thought that you needed to present your passport and flight details after filling up a brief application form in order to make your ticket purchase. As this was my first time making such a purchase, it was pleasant to know that I could just finish the entire purchasing procedure within 10 minutes. That’s so much shorter than the time I spent waiting in the queue for my turn.

While waiting, one of the service counters caught my attention. There, an elderly man, together with his family, were purchasing JR Passes. The JTB staff serving him was a Japanese, but being in Singapore, she started off with English. It was only a few sentences before the man revealed that he could converse in Japanese, and she soon switched languages.

The switch reminded me how difficult I find it to speak in either polite or casual Japanese, without occasionally crossing the border between them. On the other hand, English is just English, without any polite or casual forms. As I’ve been using it ever since I could speak, it’s probably why I often find myself entangled with the various forms of Japanese. Still, that’s one of the reasons why I’m fascinated with Japanese.

During the recent exchange program, I had a brief conversation with one of the Japanese students regarding this. He said it was really easy to make the switch, but it will probably be if you’ve been using only Japanese for the past 19 years. Also, I asked him about the usage of 私 (watashi)、僕 (boku) and 俺 (ore), as well as あなた (anata)、君 (kimi) and おまえ(omae). I learned from him that people seldom use 君 unless you are a boss speaking to your subordinate. Also, even among close friends, people seldom use おまえ. Rather, あんた is used. As for referring to one’s self, 私, and 僕, if you’re a male, are pretty much alright in all cases. I’ve never tried using 俺 in speech or writing, since I don’t know how rude it is, even in casual Japanese. The student then told me that 俺 is fine for casual talk among friends. Maybe I’ll try using it in conversation the next time I meet any of the Japanese exchange students whom I’m closer with.

That was an educational 5 minutes that you’ll probably never learn in a normal Japanese lesson. So much for the simple I and You.