By Yui Takeda
In the world, a lot of people think that men and women speak differently. Also, features of gender differences in language is different between Japan and other country. Then, this essay compares three expert’s essays. First essay is written about comparing Japanese and English, second is about Japanese and Chinese, the last one is about Japanese and Korean.
Kumadaki (2006) compared proverbs in Japanese and English. She said that proverbs express historical views on men and women that have been passed down from ancient times, and we can get a glimpse of what kind of stereotypes a society holds regarding gender differences. Also, the number of proverbs which is written about women is more than one’s about men. For example, they are written about women’s appearance, attitude, and so on. Besides, there are many Japanese proverbs that “evaluate or criticize women negatively,” and that there are also many that “talk about appearance and makeup.” On the other hand, there are proverbs that relate to men’s attitudes and behavior, the division of roles, and say that men are superior. However, there are extremely few proverbs in English that relate to men, and like in Japanese, many of them are targeted at women. From the above results, she said that “views of men and women” have been constructed through words since ancient times, and these ideas implicitly reflect the division of roles and values between men and women, and these ideas become fixed ideas. There is still a tendency to view things from the perspective of men and women from the past, and this can be said to have created gender differences that continue without being recognized much to this day.
Then, next one is the compering Japanese and Korean. Kim the degree of gender differences varies depending on the language, with some languages having large gender differences and others having small gender differences. Japanese is a representative language with large gender differences, and there are expressions unique to women that differ from those used by men, such as final particles, personal pronouns, beautifying words, and interjections, and there is clearly a language variant called feminine language, and the same goes for masculine words. On the other hand, Korean is said to be a language with very small linguistic gender differences. If you listen to actual utterances, you can easily distinguish between men and women because the pitch and quality of their voice are different, but if you transcribe that into text, the differences between men and women almost disappear.
The last one is the comparing Japanese and Chinese. Kawasaki (2011) said that in modern Chinese, there are no gender differences between the words in Japanese, as they are clearly visible to everyone, such as personal pronouns and final particles. However, previous research has revealed that there are still differences between men and women and age in terms of phonology, vocabulary, expressions, and oral habits. A survey of habitual phrases shows that young women tend to mumble buzzwords, the use of low-level insults that can be taken as insults, the use of English, and the frequent use of words of words surprise and admiration.
In this way, there are differences between Japanese and other languages. Especially, Japanese have more gender differences than Korean and Chinese. According to The Agency for Cultural Affairs, many languages have differences in word usage based on gender. Even in Japanese, there are vocabulary and linguistic practices that are used characteristically by each gender, we should not insist on fixed gender differences in language. However, no matter which gender they belong to, each person should use language and topics that are acceptable as self-expression and that are appropriate to the person and the situation. It is desirable to make choices and engage in rich communication.
