Quote:
Originally Posted by FlorenceArt
I lived in Japan for three years, and I don't think I ever heard anyone in the real world use watashi or anata. Gender and situation specific variants of watashi may be more often heard (boku, ore, atashi) but I don't remember hearing them often except on TV. But my experience was mostly with office life, I never had a Japanese boyfriend, maybe that would have changed my outlook on language 
I believe these words are mostly associated with intimate situations among very close friends, lovers or husbands and wives, which may explain why they are more used in the manga world (and on TV also), which is often a dramatized version of an aspect of life that you don't get to see very often in casual/business relationships, as real-life Japanese keep it very private. |
Florence, have you perhaps seen the film
Stupeur et tremblements? (Or maybe read the book it was based on?) It's about a belgian woman going to work in a japanese company. The film ranges from gentle comedy to quite shocking, and I was wondering how realistic it is, and how common such experiences may be for foreigners going to work there.