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In this section, I learned that although the ending of a sentence may give away the level of politeness we're using, it is also important for us to pay attention to the wording of we use. When speaking in different speech levels, there are certain words that can be simplified or modified to follow the level of speech we use. Also, due to the fact that speech levels are one of the hardest things for Japanese language learners to grapple with, it is suggested that we interact with native speaker in various situations as well as media settings, like watching movies.

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This section discusses the various levels of politeness that range from extremely casual to extremely polite. The text offers some examples of different words to say the same thing at different speech levels, for example あの人　あいつ　あの方 all refer to "that person" with varying levels of politeness. We must pay close attention to diction and use of particles such as の when trying to assess language levels. The book suggests watching native media and observing the different conversations between characters in varying situations to gain familiarity with this tricky portion of the Japanese language.

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This section discusses the differences between men and women's speech in informal conversation. One of the main differences is men using 僕 and おれ instead of 私. Women also use わ and わよ as a 文末 similar to ね and よ. The paragraph mentions the difference with women's speech has become smaller over the years. In the more informal speech levels it looks like articles can be dropped for pauses such as これ、見て。

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文末の省略と言葉の短縮形

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文末の省略と言葉の短縮形

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This section discusses the omission of the ending to a sentence, for example 読み方がわからないんですけど・・・. The sentence leaves the second half out and implies that the speaker would like to learn the way to read. In addition, the shortening of phrases is mentioned, for example てしまうー＞ちゃた。Casual speech often shortens longer phrases to shorter ones for convenience the same way English does. This section mentions how it is difficult for non English speaking foreigners to get accustomed to this practice.

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Japanese usually lists the cause or reason before the effect, but the syntax can also be flipped. This section lists this as just another trait of Japanese conversation. One example is the sentence 「傘持ってないんだ。雨、降ってきたけど」The sentence would normally begin with "It rained, however" then conclude with "I did not have an umbrella" but they are flipped in this example. This flipping of traditional syntax is also observed in English.

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日本語の丁寧さの使い分け

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日本語の丁寧さの使い分け

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As we've briefly touched on here and there when discussing keigo and kenjougo, speech style and formality is incredibly important within the Japanese language and this section especially emphasizes that. Though the next section dives further into the differences between men and women's speech styles it's mentioned in the examples section. The major takeaway I got was how understanding these differences in speech level and what words to use there will allow you to understand more situations, be able to understand more Japanese media, and generally be able to integrate more effectively into Japanese society.

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This section explored the differences between the ways men and women speak in Japanese. Which is much clearer to see in casual speech as they give an example of that. The use of pronouns like 俺 or 私 can communicate who exactly is speaking through understanding of their gender alone. Though even if those expressions aren't used, certain sentence enders like わよ and ぜ tend to be clear-ish giveaways. Other expressions like いやよ also communicate what gender is saying it through the implication, as the book notes that if a man said that people would be surprised to put it nicely.

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This section talks more about the endings of sentences and how that can indicate formality or meaning. Namely in how certain unclear endings can clearly convey intent or deliberately leave things vague. Other endings that we've learned throughout the Genki books like てしまう→ちゃった are also noted as ways that sentence endings change speech style and formality.

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Though we were initially taught that cause must come before reason when explaining why something is the case, that's not always how things need to be done in Japanese. They can be flipped and the context can still be very easily understood, it's just one of Japanese's features. Examples of this can also be seen in the Second parts sentences in how men and women interact

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There are some distinct differences in what expressions to use when one is speaking versus when one is writing a paper or a message. A notable example is using 面白いover 興味深い in writing to convey the meaning that something is interesting. We've also learned in class a while ago that sometimes へ is used instead of に when conveying directionality in sentences. Who exactly is writing also varies how the writing is conducted to. In whether or not ます体 or だ体 is used.

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スピーチレベルの使い分け

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スピーチレベルの使い分け

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I learned that it is incredibly important to recognize and understand the different levels of politeness when using Japanese, and also that it is one of the hardest aspects to learn. The reading recommended to interact with people in different scenarios that require different speech styles, or watch different kinds of movies for the same purpose.

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This section elaborated on how a sentence is ended can indicate the level of familiarity or formality. It also touched a bit upon contractions, and how its similar to the way some English speakers speak.

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This section informed me that the order in which cause and effect is presented in a sentence is rather flexible and can be understood irregardless of whether the cause or effect comes first.

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1. スピーチレベルの使い分け

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1. スピーチレベルの使い分け

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This section went over the differences between masculine and feminine styles of speaking. Men typically use the pronouns ぼく and おれ while women sometimes use 私. The passage makes mention that it is considered surprising to hear speech styles from a person that doesn't match their gender presentation.

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This part of the reading gave information on the difference in written speech versus spoken language, as well as things like writting a letter and texting. There's a difference in the casualness and formality depending on the medium, as well as just generally preferred particles.

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This first section talks about the existence of multiple levels of speech. Now I have previously known about this because of 敬語 and 謙譲語 but I was not aware of the many different levels that there are in reality, and how slight changes in wording or nouns can make a sentence more polite than just changing the verb and conjugation. I knew certain grammar patterns also had alternative phrasing in order to be more polite or casual but this makes me wonder if there even is any parts of a sentence that do not impact the politeness of it.

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I already knew of these pronouns as I have heard them used in media I watched before but we have never specifically talked about them but to know that they are respectively used for men or women makes it easier to understand why I am hearing them. Although the different endings of words was new, I have heard it and read it before but I always just translated it as the normal verb, I did not know it connected to the gender of the speaker.

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We have previously used ちょっと。。in speech in order to turn down invitations politely and as of these recent lessons we have also discussed grammar patterns which work as contractions like って in place of a subject marker. It makes sense why they exist but I wish there was some sort of pattern to them, I feel as though the contractions are generally pretty different from their longer counterparts.

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It makes sense that sentence inversion is present in Japanese, when speaking in English using because or cause can be used before or after the impacted situation, either way they mean the same thing. And with the many different ways that we can explain or provide reasons in Japanese, like with reason から/ので situation; or with a situation sentence followed by the explanation with から at the end; or using し、し、ect. I am just surprised that switching the order of information is specifically limited to more informal speech, as I feel like the order should be interchangeable.

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In this section I learned that the different ways of speaking aren’t just for different formality levels, but that they can also make your speech sound more or less natural. I think I’ll take their suggestion of consuming Japanese media for practice. This also highlighted to me how many different ways of saying things there are. The example that really showed me how small changes can make things sound more natural was 「どこに住んでるの？」compared with「どこ住んでるの？」. Even though only one particle was removed, the tone sounds much more relaxed.

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This section talks about the differences between the ways men and women speak Japanese. I knew about the different words they used to refer to themselves, like how men use ぼくand おれ, but I didn’t know the level of cheeriness (?) or excitement changed between the two. I was a bit confused ぜ and ぞ, because I’m unsure of the context.

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This section talks about dropping the end of sentences and being less direct. It uses an example with ちょっと。。。that I recognize from Genki. I feel like this section was mostly recap, but I did learn that this is used more for speech than in written language, and it was interesting to see an English comparison.

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This section explains that you can reverse the order of clauses in sentences. This was such a relief to learn because I feel like I always flip them around on accident! it refers to examples in section 2, so I wonder if this changes with men and women’s speech too. It basically explains that the order doesn’t matter for some situations if you’re still able to get your point across.

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This section shows us how to use proper writing style. It talks about how for texts and other writing, you should use です/ます but for speaking you can use だ instead. It explains that you should pay attention to the audience of your writing, because your writing style should change based on who reads it. It says to pay attention to phrases, too, as some are not meant to be written!

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スピーチレベルの使い分け

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スピーチレベルの使い分け

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This section goes in depth about the significance of speech levels. Depending on who you talk to can determine the level of politeness you talk to them with. This section offers 4 main levels of speech styles ranging from super informal to very polite. I found it interesting how that men tend to use the most informal way of speaking (とても砕けた）often, while women use the level above （砕けた）more when it comes to informal speaking.

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This section discussed the differences in speaking across genders in Japanese. As in the first section, there is a correlation with polite speech to more feminine speaking, and impolite to masculine speaking. Pronouns are also different. Something I learned from this section was the usages of わ、わよ、ぜ、and ぞ to end sentences. Even though it seems these are becoming less gendered, it is more common for women to use the first two above, with men using the last two.

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This section touches on contractions, which are emphasized using English. The あげる-> たげる contraction was something new to learn. Additionally, this section also talks about how the endings of sentences can intentionally be omitted to be left vague ("...").

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This section quickly explains that sentences are able to be formatted as "effect -> cause" rather than the "cause -> effect" that is typically seen and taught in 1st and 2nd year Japanese. Although I imagine the latter should be used, it is nice to know that the former is also allowed depending on who I am speaking to.

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This final section outlines the 3 different types of writing styles that exists in Japanese. The first of these forms is だ form, which seems to be used generally (if someone is writing not with either of the following conditions in play). In addition to this form, である is used for emphatic purposes (think literary writing) and です・ます is the polite form of writing.