Talking Like a Boy: A Lesson in Manspeak

Has anyone ever told you that you should talk like a girl? Here in Tokyo, this has become a phrase I have become all too acquainted with. For, in Japan, men and women not only have separate train cars, they have separate language codes as well.

Before I moved to Japan, my Japanese friends were mostly men, so I learned the language of the Japanese male. Instead of saying "watashi" (I), I would blurt out "ore" which means the exact same thing, but in what I like to call manspeak.

Before I knew that there were different types of "speak", I was often unsure as to why I was getting strange looks on the trains or in local restaurants. I was pretty confident that what I was saying was correct, so I chalked up all the stares to the typical "Oh my, a foreigner is speaking our language" curiosity.

Then, one day, my boss heard me say "ganbare" to another coworker. Ganbare is manspeak for ganbatte, which means "good luck" or "you can do it" in Japanese. He literally sat me down and told me not to speak that way. When I asked him why, he simply replied, "It just sounds too weird. You should speak like a girl!"

Since then, my female coworkers have been trying to show me how to speak properly, cutesy and in high tones, like a proper Japanese girl should. I don't think it's working. I like the trills that occur in Japanese manspeak, and the harshness of the words. It sound more real. At least more so than the over-the-top squeaking that occurs in the ideal speech of a Japanese woman.

I know a girl here who has a Japanese father and an American mother. She speaks in Japanese manspeak, and makes no apologies for it. When I asked her why she speaks that way, she simply replied, "I'm not going to try to change the way I talk based on silly gender rules."

Maybe I should take a cue from her.

Have any of you ever lived in a place where men speak differently from women? If so, did you change your speech patterns or did you just go with the flow?

Share your thoughts!

What is Fluency?

The first question someone usually asks me after learning that my bachelor's degree is in German is: "So you're fluent?" My answer is usually, "No." But I had a very interesting conversation some months ago with man from Scotland, who challenged my idea of what it means to be fluent in a language. I do not consider myself to be fluent. I understand a good deal, I can write in German, but I am not an eloquent speaker by any means. I can, however, think in German - that is, understand something said or written in German without having to translate it into English in my head. And this, he said, was being fluent in a language. Would you agree?

At the time I had this conversation, I was only in the beginning month of my Spanish instruction. I am now in my second semester. When the professor speaks in Spanish, I have moments of being able to know what is being said without doing any translating into English in my head. Am I on the road to fluency so early in the game? I am not so convinced. But because I want to teach abroad in a Spanish speaking country eventually, I am hopeful.

Dictionary.com defines fluent as, "spoken or written with ease" and "able to speak or write smoothly, easily, or readily." I feel that this is close to what I believe fluency to be, though this dictionary definition lacks one very important component of fluency – comprehension. While fluency does not mean understanding every single word that is spoken or written, it does mean being able to understand the vast majority of what is conveyed, as well as being able to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words based on context. What do you think fluency in a language is?

I found this page called "How to judge your foreign language fluency" which breaks down fluency into four parts: the understanding and expression of information presented orally and in written form. You can then rate your own foreign language fluency based on four questions, one for each aforementioned parts (also: are four questions enough to judge fluency?). When judging my German skills, I found my score to be relatively accurate. It is interesting to note that the way fluency is rated it is impossible to be 100% fluent. If you know a foreign language, trying rating your knowledge. Do you think your score accurately represents your level of fluency?

Also! Don't forget to take our current poll located to your left: How many words does it take to read a newspaper or magazine in English fluently? Stay tuned for the results! They will be posted on Saturday.