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My friend and I are learning Japanese. For a time, all we knew was 私, but after we learned more words, she started to use あたし when referring to herself, and I began using 僕. What I'm wondering is, how commonly are these used?

Related: Is it ok for non-japanese to refer to themselves as [僕]{ぼく} and if not why?

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voithos
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  • I just spent the weekend volunteering for cleanup in the tsunami area and I heard "boku" a lot between the Japanese volunteers, which surprised me after what I'd read under various questions on this site. (I'm pretty sure I even heard it used by a female at least once) – hippietrail Jun 12 '11 at 13:05
  • Notice that あたし and わたし are different. The former has stronger female and casual connotations, and is less frequent. –  Jul 06 '11 at 00:59

4 Answers4

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あたし is quite common for females, but 僕 is not that much. In my feeling, 僕 has some romantic sense, so using 僕 when you talk to girls should be no problem at all. (Note that I use romatic sense here is for non-family members, and non-closed friends)

Japanese use 俺 a lot recently, and here is a report about usage about 僕 and 俺

第１期　- 1895~1935, 第２期　- 1966-1991, 第３期　- 1991~1998

enter image description here

And this is the another report about 僕 vs 私 at business/work taken at 2011, results in around 20%~20% people using 僕.

enter image description here

ref:

YOU
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  • I believe the report you linked only concerns itself with the proportion of ぼく and おれ in informal situations and cases where the speaker is above the listener, so it should be taken with a grain of salt. – Derek Schaab Jun 10 '11 at 17:34
  • @Derek, Oh yeah, I just forgot to mention that 僕　and 俺　are mainly use for informal one. – YOU Jun 10 '11 at 17:40
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    "僕 has some romantic sense, so using 僕 when you talk to girls should be okay." Really? I've never heard this. (On a tangent, when did the poster say they were heterosexual, or male for that matter?) – Amanda S Jun 10 '11 at 18:32
  • @Amanda: My apologies- I am indeed both male and heterosexual. – voithos Jun 10 '11 at 21:12
  • @voithos: Oh--you have nothing to apologize for. While women and men use 僕 in different ways, I think the most useful answer to your question would be one that covered all those usages--not just the way it's used by heterosexual men, as I tried to gently point out to YOU. :) – Amanda S Jun 10 '11 at 21:28
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    Statistics can also be really confusing. You should check situations (as Derek said), and age is also of a great importance to this question. There's no denying 僕 gets more common the younger the speaker gets, and AFAIK that also applies for girls, especially in early ages. Later, society sets in, but IIRC I've seen a research showing that in very early ages many girls use 僕 and maybe even some 俺, alongside 私, あたし, and their own names (so-called "talking in third person", which is really common in Japanese, since it makes no distinction between 3rd and 1st persons). – Boaz Yaniv Jun 10 '11 at 21:33
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    @Amanda, that's not just heterosexual men. 僕 might have a slight romantic nuance, but it doesn't mean that a heterosexual man cannot use it when talking to other heterosexual men, for instance. In other words, this romantic nuance is only a small part of what 僕 is, and it's probably complex even without gender and orientation. – Boaz Yaniv Jun 10 '11 at 21:36
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    Oh, here's the research. It was surprisingly easy to find on Google, and fortunately access is free: http://www.inst.at/trans/16Nr/01_4/ito16.htm – Boaz Yaniv Jun 10 '11 at 21:39
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    @Boaz: I doubt that any statistical conclusion can be drawn from 3.5 hours of conversation with 6 children. Am I missing something? – Tsuyoshi Ito Jun 10 '11 at 23:59
  • @Tsuyoshi: No. It's not representative or anything - in my opinion it just goes to show that children are using different ways to refer to themselves, and that it's definitely not rare for a young girl to use 僕. – Boaz Yaniv Jun 11 '11 at 11:12
  • Wait, since when does 僕 have romantic connotations?? I thought it was just less jock than 俺. As a guy (despite my name) I use 僕, and only because I was taught to use it as a baby, and because I could never find the right time to switch to 俺 without my family or friends making note of it. – Rei Miyasaka Jul 05 '11 at 04:54
  • @Rei, I didn't mean for family members and close friends which you everyday use. But anyway, that's how I feel it, it will depend on the person who use it. – YOU Jul 05 '11 at 09:51
  • @YOU I think even for strangers and superiors, 僕 is more professional than anything. I can't think of anyone who would consider it romantic for any reason, to be honest. It's the same 僕 as 下僕; it's intended to be humble. – Rei Miyasaka Jul 05 '11 at 20:37
  • @Rei, ah, I am not arguing about politeness/humbleness between 僕 and 俺 on this post, and I agree that 僕 is more polite than 俺. But I supposed to be saying here is commonness of 僕 is kinda lower than 俺 nowadays. Don't you think so? And If you don't agree it, go ahead and downvote this (hope you already done). I already noted/revised on this post about that's my feeling. Nothing more I can do If you disagree with my feeling. – YOU Jul 05 '11 at 23:40
  • @YOU When did I ever disagree that it's less common? What I'm saying is that it's not romantic as you find it to be for whatever reason, and as subjective as language can be, I *highly* doubt that this particular case is a matter of "feeling". It'd be like saying that "trash bin" suggests recycling more than "garbage bin" does -- it just doesn't. – Rei Miyasaka Jul 06 '11 at 00:23
  • I have no idea about "trash bin" vs "garbage bin", I don't believe it is related with mine and not interested to know either. And I don't want to argue about this anymore, don't expect I will reply here anymore. – YOU Jul 06 '11 at 00:33
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It depends on who uses it. あたし is very common with women. Gay men also use it (sometimes for a joke, like Tanoshingo). If you watch Japanese TV, you'll hear it everyday!

僕 on the other hand isn't that popular within young guys. They tend to use 俺 in informal speech. However, instead of using the too formal 私, they might use 僕.

(Young) people (or kids) using 僕 might also be called 僕ちゃん, because it has some kind of a cute meaning.

僕 tends to have a more polite feeling, a more "educated" feeling.

Amanda S
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Rolf
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    The comment which I left on your [other answer](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/961/is-there-a-dialect-where-older-men-refer-to-themselves-as/962#962) applies here, too. I am afraid that you are confusing gay men (homosexual men) with effeminate men. – Tsuyoshi Ito Jun 11 '11 at 14:31
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This is a very difficult question to conclusively answer. "Common" depends on where you are, who you're with, and what the context is. The word you choose to refer to yourself often changes depending on these factors. If "common" means, "Does a significant percentage of Japanese use these words regularly?" then yes, everyone will tell you they are common. But does that mean you can use them all the time? Of course not. You have to adjust to whatever situation and context you're in.

Derek Schaab
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In Tokyo, among the people I speak with, this is mostly a matter of age.

あたし is simple. In Tokyo, younger (er) women, say 30 and below, use this all the time in casual situations.

僕 is commonly used by my friends in their 30s, whereas friends in their 20s tend to use 俺.

I use both depending on which group I am speaking to.

Also very common is to refer to yourself using your own name. This feels weird for English speakers at first but is normal in Japanese.

Ross
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