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Writing Japanese (1) Personal/Impersonal
I’d like to write about different Japanese writing styles. Let me show you an excerpt from an entry written by my friend, クロマ, as an example of a casually written journal.
注文した電子ピアノが届いた！イエーイ！ヽ(^-^)ノ
何か楽器が弾けたらいいなぁ、とずっと思っていたが、今まで楽器をやったことがない。
今、それを後悔している。「やってみたいなら、やってみればいいじゃない」って・・・。
「Synthesia」というソフトをダウンロードした。
I wouldn’t say that クロマ’s entry sounds perfectly natural (sorry, クロマ), but it’s very well written and sounds quite natural. A typical Japanese learner who tries to write casually would write like this:
俺が注文した電子ピアノが届いた！
何か楽器が弾けたら良いと長い間思っていたが、今までに楽器を演奏したことはない。
今、俺はそれを後悔している。「やってみたいのであれば、やってみればいい」
「Synthesia」というソフトをダウンロードした。
Not only is this example written clumsily, it sounds impersonal and stiff. It sounds as if the writer is talking to himself rather than talking to his readers. He doesn’t sound friendly.
Do you know that formal documents and academic papers are written with sentences ending in た・だ・る? Do you know that those sentences sound impersonal rather than friendly?
For explanation’s sake, let me divide Japanese into two categories. One is personal, the other is impersonal.
The personal writing style means writing as if you’re talking to somebody. I thought about naming this style “conversational style,” but “conversational” can be misleading since I’m talking about writing styles here.
E-mails, letters, some novels, essays, columns, and blogs are written in the personal style. Business letters also belong to this category.
The impersonal writing style is used for formal documents, academic papers, newspapers, many novels, essays, columns, and blogs. When writing in the impersonal style, you put some distance between you and your readers. This style is neither polite nor impolite.
The issue of politeness arises when you write in the personal style. There are polite (formal) and impolite (casual) personal styles. By writing in a less polite (more casual) style, you can give your readers the impression that you’re being friendly. Of course, there is a risk of being considered rude or immature when you write casually.
However, what I often find on lang-8 is that Japanese learners write in an odd mixture of the personal and impersonal styles as the above example. In trying to be casual, many Japanese learners opt for sentences ending in た・だ・る, and by doing so, make their sentences sound impersonal and stiff rather than personal and friendly.
This entry is getting too long. I’ll continue writing about this subject.
Below are links to web sites written in either style:
Columns written in the impersonal style (Some of them are written in the です・ますpersonal style):
http://agora-web.jp/archives/cat_42816.html
Columns written in the personal style:
http://www.1101.com/home.html
Special thanks to クロマ. You are fearless. ;-)
クロマ’s entry:
http://lang-8.com/269095/journals/1024534/%25E3%2583%2594%25E3%2582%25A2%25E3%2583%258E%25EF%25BC%2581
注文した電子ピアノが届いた！イエーイ！ヽ(^-^)ノ
何か楽器が弾けたらいいなぁ、とずっと思っていたが、今まで楽器をやったことがない。
今、それを後悔している。「やってみたいなら、やってみればいいじゃない」って・・・。
「Synthesia」というソフトをダウンロードした。
I wouldn’t say that クロマ’s entry sounds perfectly natural (sorry, クロマ), but it’s very well written and sounds quite natural. A typical Japanese learner who tries to write casually would write like this:
俺が注文した電子ピアノが届いた！
何か楽器が弾けたら良いと長い間思っていたが、今までに楽器を演奏したことはない。
今、俺はそれを後悔している。「やってみたいのであれば、やってみればいい」
「Synthesia」というソフトをダウンロードした。
Not only is this example written clumsily, it sounds impersonal and stiff. It sounds as if the writer is talking to himself rather than talking to his readers. He doesn’t sound friendly.
Do you know that formal documents and academic papers are written with sentences ending in た・だ・る? Do you know that those sentences sound impersonal rather than friendly?
For explanation’s sake, let me divide Japanese into two categories. One is personal, the other is impersonal.
The personal writing style means writing as if you’re talking to somebody. I thought about naming this style “conversational style,” but “conversational” can be misleading since I’m talking about writing styles here.
E-mails, letters, some novels, essays, columns, and blogs are written in the personal style. Business letters also belong to this category.
The impersonal writing style is used for formal documents, academic papers, newspapers, many novels, essays, columns, and blogs. When writing in the impersonal style, you put some distance between you and your readers. This style is neither polite nor impolite.
The issue of politeness arises when you write in the personal style. There are polite (formal) and impolite (casual) personal styles. By writing in a less polite (more casual) style, you can give your readers the impression that you’re being friendly. Of course, there is a risk of being considered rude or immature when you write casually.
However, what I often find on lang-8 is that Japanese learners write in an odd mixture of the personal and impersonal styles as the above example. In trying to be casual, many Japanese learners opt for sentences ending in た・だ・る, and by doing so, make their sentences sound impersonal and stiff rather than personal and friendly.
This entry is getting too long. I’ll continue writing about this subject.
Below are links to web sites written in either style:
Columns written in the impersonal style (Some of them are written in the です・ますpersonal style):
http://agora-web.jp/archives/cat_42816.html
Columns written in the personal style:
http://www.1101.com/home.html
Special thanks to クロマ. You are fearless. ;-)
クロマ’s entry:
http://lang-8.com/269095/journals/1024534/%25E3%2583%2594%25E3%2582%25A2%25E3%2583%258E%25EF%25BC%2581
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Kuroma & X must be good Lang-8ians to let you write about them.
I might write about you too, XD.
Do you know that X is called ペケ in Japanese? It's エックス when we talk about the alphabet, but we call it ペケ as the opposite of ○ (マル).
Peke and I have been using "XD" as the code name for Peke Penguin as well as an emoticon. :)
イエーイ！ヽ(^-^)ノ
この絵文字～～本当に声が聞こえてくるような気がします～～～！！！！！
すごいぃぃ～～～！！！！
イエーイ～！
真面目なエントリにこんな話すみません。＾＾＊
真剣モードに戻っていきます～～～。＾＾＊
まじめなエントリーばっかり書いてると、うんざりしてくるんです。ホントに。
I love it when you write this kind of post.
恋しかったです。＾。＾
恋しかったsounds as if you missed me! :D
Because I loved reading the posts about how to use kanji in Japanese...
Thanks for an interesting post. I followed the link on a personal style. It seems that there is a mixture of simple and polite forms, and now it's a bit difficult for me to figure out when I should use them. So I prefer to write in a polite style, in order to be on the safe side and to sound friendly^^
>It seems that there is a mixture of simple and polite forms.
Yes, that's why it seems to be difficult for Japanese learners to get the hang of writing Japanese casually.
I think you're wise in sticking to the safe side. :)
こういうエントリーならいくら長くなっても良いんじゃないでしょうか？続きが楽しみです。日本語におけるフレンドリーさと粗暴さの境界線、これが一番気になります。それを英語で説明できるというのは、世界を少し明るくしますよね。是非！
乱暴な言葉遣いを、親しみが持てる言葉遣いだと勘違いしている人が多いような気がします。でも言葉を選ぶのは最終的には使う本人だと思うので、なるべく私情を交えずに説明したいと思っています。
でも、むずかしいっ！ はーっ、sigh*
Very interesting and informative entry, may382さん!
So a piece of writing can be either in the personal or impersonal style. In impersonal writing, the politeness level tends to remain fixed (formal). If it's in the personal style, then the level of politeness can vary between formal and casual.
Whether something is in the personal or impersonal style depends on the level of distance that the writer puts between themselves and their reader -- for example, referring to themselves using pronouns will make the text more personal.
いい勉強になりました！（＾O＾）
It's hard to explain the difference between the personal and impersonal style. I'll try my best to explain it by showing example sentences in my follow-up entries.
By writing in less polite (more casual) style, you can give your readers the impression that you’re being friendly.
Of course, there is a risk of being considered rude or immature when you write casually.
イエーイ！
イエーイ！ヽ(^-^)ノ
In trying to be casual, many Japanese learners opt for sentences ending in た・だ・る, and by doing so, making their sentences sound impersonal and stiff rather than personal and friendly.(But... I'm guessing you just accidentally forgot to include "than" here ^^)
I love how you presented the difference between personal and impersonal writing styles in a way that's so easy to understand. I don't recall ever being conscious of the small things that make something personal or impersonal, but now that I compare the two writings, I can definitely sense it. Thanks so much for teaching us this! Off I go to read your next entry!
Let me show you an excerpt from an entry written by my friend, クロマ, as an example of a casually written journal.
By writing in a less polite (more casual) style, you can give your readers the impression that you’re being friendly.
However, what I often find on lang-8 is that the Japanese learners write in an odd mixture of the personal and impersonal styles as the above example.
In trying to be casual, many Japanese learners opt for sentences ending in た・だ・る, and by doing so, make their sentences sound impersonal and stiff rather than personal and friendly.
Below are the links to the web sites written in either style:
I've been looking forward to reading this journal since I saw it when I was away. The wait was worth it :)
Me and my articles...sigh...