How to choose ぼくは or わたしは in Japanese
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Here's the basics:
基本はこうです。
Use わたしは first. Then, learn when to use ぼくは if you are a male.
まずは「わたしは」を使う。次に、もしあなたが男性なら、いつ「ぼくは」を使うのかを学ぶ。
So, how do I choose, you ask?
じゃあ、どうやって選ぶのかって？
Acutally, this is a seriously difficult question. It depends on:
これは実は非常に難しい質問です。場合によるのですが、
1 your generation
2 your age
3 where you were born and raised (Say, 僕は is far less common in Osaka)
4 who you are talking to
5 how formal the conversation should be (If you are in a business talk, you use 私は)
6 how you want others to see you
I myself sometimes wonder I should reduce the use of 僕は since I have a feeling that I am biased in favor of 僕は for some reason.
ぼく自身、どうも「僕は」というのがなぜか好きだというバイアスを持ってる気がして、「僕は」を使うのを減らしたほうがいいんじゃないかと時々思ったりもする。
At age 41, I should not say 僕は in the workplace.
41歳というトシで、僕は「僕は」と職場で言わないほうがいい。
However, I tend to use this and even my boss, who's 38, use it all the time.
でも、僕の38才の上司も、いつも「僕は」を使ってるしなぁ。
People in sales team would never use this. They use either 私は, わたくしは, or オレは.
営業チームの人たちは、「僕は」は使わない。彼らは「私は」「わたくしは」、「オレは」のどれかを使う。
As a foreigner, you might want to stick with 私は since it's the safest in any situation. At the same time, just use ぼく when you talk to your friends, or especially, when you hit on a girl or something. Very intentionally, I switched from オレ to ぼく at age 20 when I left Osaka and started to live in Tokyo. I noticed that young male in Tokyo use ぼく a whole lot more and I liked that. It sounded very soft and polite to an Osaka native. In my observation, the use of ぼく among mature man is growing, which probably wasn't the case two generations ago. The use of ぼく started like 100 years ago?
The first person pronouns like こなた, せっしゃ, わし, あたし, じぶん, おのれ, ぼく, わたし and second person pronouns like あなた, きさま, おまえ, きみ are always changing their positions and nuance over time. There are general rules as to how the use of a particular pronoun changes. To fully describe the rules, it takes a slew of linguists. But then again, it's more about social interaction and you get to choose based on your observation.
------------
I wrote the above as a reply to Phong:
http://lang-8.com/328216/journals/1446448/
Here's an extensive and good summary on this topic:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%80%E4%BA%BA%E7%A7%B0%E4%BB%A3%E5%90%8D%E8%A9%9E#.E5.83.95.EF.BC.88.E3.81.BC.E3.81.8F.EF.BC.89
基本はこうです。
Use わたしは first. Then, learn when to use ぼくは if you are a male.
まずは「わたしは」を使う。次に、もしあなたが男性なら、いつ「ぼくは」を使うのかを学ぶ。
So, how do I choose, you ask?
じゃあ、どうやって選ぶのかって？
Acutally, this is a seriously difficult question. It depends on:
これは実は非常に難しい質問です。場合によるのですが、
1 your generation
2 your age
3 where you were born and raised (Say, 僕は is far less common in Osaka)
4 who you are talking to
5 how formal the conversation should be (If you are in a business talk, you use 私は)
6 how you want others to see you
I myself sometimes wonder I should reduce the use of 僕は since I have a feeling that I am biased in favor of 僕は for some reason.
ぼく自身、どうも「僕は」というのがなぜか好きだというバイアスを持ってる気がして、「僕は」を使うのを減らしたほうがいいんじゃないかと時々思ったりもする。
At age 41, I should not say 僕は in the workplace.
41歳というトシで、僕は「僕は」と職場で言わないほうがいい。
However, I tend to use this and even my boss, who's 38, use it all the time.
でも、僕の38才の上司も、いつも「僕は」を使ってるしなぁ。
People in sales team would never use this. They use either 私は, わたくしは, or オレは.
営業チームの人たちは、「僕は」は使わない。彼らは「私は」「わたくしは」、「オレは」のどれかを使う。
As a foreigner, you might want to stick with 私は since it's the safest in any situation. At the same time, just use ぼく when you talk to your friends, or especially, when you hit on a girl or something. Very intentionally, I switched from オレ to ぼく at age 20 when I left Osaka and started to live in Tokyo. I noticed that young male in Tokyo use ぼく a whole lot more and I liked that. It sounded very soft and polite to an Osaka native. In my observation, the use of ぼく among mature man is growing, which probably wasn't the case two generations ago. The use of ぼく started like 100 years ago?
The first person pronouns like こなた, せっしゃ, わし, あたし, じぶん, おのれ, ぼく, わたし and second person pronouns like あなた, きさま, おまえ, きみ are always changing their positions and nuance over time. There are general rules as to how the use of a particular pronoun changes. To fully describe the rules, it takes a slew of linguists. But then again, it's more about social interaction and you get to choose based on your observation.
------------
I wrote the above as a reply to Phong:
http://lang-8.com/328216/journals/1446448/
Here's an extensive and good summary on this topic:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%80%E4%BA%BA%E7%A7%B0%E4%BB%A3%E5%90%8D%E8%A9%9E#.E5.83.95.EF.BC.88.E3.81.BC.E3.81.8F.EF.BC.89
Here are the basics:
Sometimes I wonder if I should reduce my use of 僕は since I have a feeling that I am biased in favor of 僕は for some reason.
However, I tend to use this and even my boss, who's 38, uses it all the time.
People on the sales team would never use this.
At the same time, just use ぼく when you talk to your friends, or especially when you hit on a girl or something.
Very intentionally, I switched from オレ to ぼく at age 20 when I left Osaka and started living in Tokyo.
I noticed that young men in Tokyo use ぼく a whole lot more and I liked that.
The first person pronouns like こなた, せっしゃ, わし, あたし, じぶん, おのれ, ぼく, わたし and second person pronouns like あなた, きさま, おまえ, きみ are always changing their positions and nuances over time.
But then again, it's more about social interaction and choosing based on your observations.
1) Here's the basics.
2) There's a set of rules.
3) There's no shortcuts.
4) There's a bunch of cars in the street.
Are these all wrong?
The use of there's in sentences like 3 and 4 has been getting popular in conversation, right? Even though most people know that you should use 'there are', they just use there's. I thought it's the same with 1. Yeah, of course I should choose "the grammatically correct word", but I just wanted to know.
Here are the basics.
There is a set of rules.
There are no shortcuts.
There are a bunch of cars in the street.
Pronouns can be a little ambiguous. In this case, the verb needs to agree with the number of objects.
'There is a set of rules.' A set is singular, so we use is.
Basics, shortcuts, and cars are plural, so we use are.
You're right, though. In casual conversation, I don't think a lot of people would make the distinction.
I'm sorry for my careless corrections.