Gendered language in Japanese language education

An examination of female utterance mada meshi kutte nai and beyond.

Abstract

　Nakamura (2001) states that ‘‘female language” is an ideology widely shared and referred to, but not necessarily practiced. This paper, starting from an examination of ‘‘mada meshi kutte nai,” investigates gendered language in Japanese from the perspectives of essentialism and constructionism, and considers ways to ideally address gendered language in Japanese language education.

　Recent research findings show that gendered language is not practiced to simply mark femininity or masculinity, but plays an integral part in nurturing relationships and developing identities. However, Japanese language reference books, dictionaries and textbooks still refer to the “female language” and do not discuss these findings. On the other hand, results of a survey indicate that learners of Japanese would like to learn gendered language in Japanese. The paper argues that in order for learners of Japanese to learn to express themselves fully in Japanese using gendered language, teachers need to provide a variety of models, and at the same time they need to provide venues of support for the learners to equip themselves with the skills to critically examine gendered language.