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 Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 1:18 pm
heart I can't decide...One way I've been teaching myself Japanese is to watch anime and see if I can figure out what some words are (especially if they repeat them).
I've been watching Meine Liebe as of late, and one thing that confuses me is that Naoji, the Japanese character, refers to himself as 'Jibun wa'.
I've never heard this form of 'I' used before, who uses it usually and for what reasons? ... Whether you should live or die... heart (I Can't Decide by The Scissor Sisters)
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Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 4:03 pm
Usage is kinda weird...basically don't use it xd
Like I was corrected in my speech class for saying it because, like the kanji imply 自分, it more so means 'oneself' than 'myself', so using it for 'myself' sounds detached. And given the context it can be confusing as to who you are applying it to...it naturally has a propensity to imply everyone you are talking to...
Like if your giving a speech and you say 自分の家に, it sounds like your saying "In your (respective) house(s)", but then if you follow that with 犬二匹がいる, you're obviously talking about the dogs in your house...
So yeah its probably best not to use it for 私 and just use it to mean 'oneself'.
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Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 11:14 am
There's a lot of connotation and baggage with the various words for "I" in Japanese. Depending on what word you use, you project a certain image of yourself, however subtle. "Jibun" is sometimes used as a way to get out of the confines of the usual words like boku, ore, watashi, etc. (Another way people do this is by using their own name to refer to themselves, not that this nor jibun don't have connotations of their own)
In particular, you apparently find it within the lesbian community among women who don't want to sound masculine, but don't want the baggage associated with the feminine words either. There's a tradition of gender role-taking within the lesbian community in Japan, and they don't want to have to commit themselves to either role necessarily it seems.
There are probably other groups in particular that use it as well, but I couldn't say who they are.
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Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 12:24 am
im not disagreeing with the other two posts, but i also noticed that "jibun wa", when referring to someone else, usually means "them, on their own",
though i made that assumption after about 2.5 years of anime-watching, so i could be wrong still. ^___^;;;;;
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Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 2:15 am
Tbh, when he uses 自分は it kinda carries the feeling of "As for myself,"
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Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:25 pm
it means "oneself" though it can be used in first, second , or third person. it can also be used to say "itself" if i'm not mistaken.
so you can use it as "myself" "yourself" "yourselves" "themself" "themselves" depending on the context. it's pretty nifty。
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