Sep 18th 2009 06:14 Exis Night
Not a native Japanese speaker, buuuuuuut...

Pretty much every native Japanese speaker I've spoken with on the subject has told me the same thing: politeness is good, yes, but you can't go around speaking teineigo (丁寧語) 24/7 and in *all* situations unless you want to sound like a super nice robot. The general rule is this: use polite speech when speaking with **strangers** and in **less-than-casual** situations. All other times, casual speech, or even a mix of casual and polite speech, is the best approach. Think about it: the way you speak to your boss at work or your teacher at school is not and **should not** be your default mode of speech. You don't talk to your siblings or friends that way, do you? Probably not. So why would you speak that way in Japanese when the Japanese themselves don't even do that?

This problem stems from the abysmal, ass-backwards direction in which Japanese learners are often told to study the language: rigid politeness first, natural everyday speech second (if at all). Real life unfortunately doesn't work that way, because most normal people learn their language the other way around.

It also comes from the mistaken belief that Japanese people are hyper-critical sticklers for politeness that will take anything less than ～です or ～ます as a slap to the face. Again, reality doesn't work like that. You aren't dishonoring your friend or his ancestors with that ～だ at the end of your statement, so stop stressing over it.

Study the language in *ALL* of its forms. Polite, impolite, casual, slang, etc. If you're serious about becoming fluent in Japanese (and English), you're going to have to become comfortable with all of it.

Sep 18th 2009 10:08 baumkuchen
Hallo!

わたしは雨がきれいだと思（おも）います。（polite)

わたしは（od. ぼくは）雨がきれいだと思う。(normal)

Vielleicht waere das besser;

わたしは、雨は美（うつく）しいと思います。（polite)

わたしは（od. ぼくは）、雨は美（うつく）しいと思う。(normal)


「です・ます調（ちょう）」...polite
・・・です、・・・します、・・・でしょうか、・・・して（されて）いません.

「である調」....normal
・・・だ、・・・だった、・・・と思う、・・・だろう、・・・にちがいない・・・だろうか、・・・でない

また書いてね！

Sep 18th 2009 14:01 Brian
>Exis Night
Hey! Thanks a lot for your comment!
All in all you're right ^^ So I'll try to study all forms now.
And yeah you're right, my english is bad too ;-)
I'm more the mathematics type, I don't have a "language-flare" xD

Thanks a lot!

>baumkuchen

I see, ありがとう！

わたしは（od. ぼくは）、雨は美>>（うつく）<<と思う
was meinst du mit der Klammer hier?

美しい = beautiful / schön ??

Thx for your help! please try to make explanations in german / english, it's difficult to understand your japanese explanations :S.

Sep 19th 2009 18:28 baumkuchen
Hallo Brian!

Normalerweise schreibt man nur 雨は美しいと思う。natuerlich ohne Klammer. Ich meinte, dass du nur Kanji d.h. ohne ふりがな schwer liest.

>美しい = beautiful / schön ??

Ja, genau!

Man benutzt きれい fuer Frauen oder Blumen. Natuerlich sagt man auch きれいな女の人 oder きれいな花.

きれい　bedeutet auch "sauber". きれいな雨　klingt mir "sauberer Regen".

Schreibe mir noch mal, was du 私は雨がきれいだと思う　auf deutsch, bitte!

Sep 19th 2009 18:45 Brian
私は　雨　が　美しい　と　思う。 Ist also korrekt unt klingt gut ... DANKE VIELMALS !!^^
Auf Deutsch :

Ich denke, dass der Regen schön ist.

denke = 思う
Regen = 雨
Ich = 私

Liebe Grüsse ~ :) danke für die Hilfe !