Welcome to Gaia! ::

I will assume you did not know that the Language Questions and FAQ served this purpose, and thus will let this slide(next time it's an instant lock). And that actually brings up an interesting point in learning the language. Traditionally Japanese has many different gender based pronouns(Watashi and Watakushi being gender neutral, Atashi being feminine, Boku and Ore being masculine) but nowadays lots of people use pronouns completely different from their gender, so you'll see girls being Boku and guys using Atashi. As you can imagine, it has the same effect as a girl speaking in masculine tones, and vice versa. So when it comes down to it, it's all in how you roll

It all depends on how you want to be perceived. Also affected is how formally you choose to speak, and the formality of the people you're speaking with. If in doubt always ask yourself "Kuuki o yomeru ka?(can I read the air?)" If you find you can't, sit and listen until you can. Improperly reading the context can lead to bad things, especially increasing the chance of someone calling out "K.Y.!(the abbreviated romanized form of Kuuki Yomenai, which means can't read the air, or in this case context)" in your general direction.