How does transition work when speaking a language that changes depending on the speaker's gender? For example, French and Japanese are two that I know of. In French there are different endings to words and slightly different pronunciations. From what I know of Japanese, pronouns differ depending on formality and gender. Just reading this Wikipedia page on Japanese pronouns makes everything more complex. This page too So, has anyone experienced transitioning language? What difficulties have you faced in writing and speaking differently? What should someone do when learning a new language while transitioning, not out, or non binary? Is there anyone here who is a native speaker one of these gendered languages and is non binary? What other languages are there like this? This is an interesting read from Emptyclosets
I don't know if that's exactly what you mean, but in German there are three different grammatical genders (male, female and neutral). So you have to use the right articles and adjectives, depending on which grammatical gender the person/thing/etc. you're talking about has. But I've never heard that this could be a problem for trans* people. If you see someone as a woman and use female pronouns, you will naturally also use the other grammatical forms correctly. It's nothing you have to think about. Same for male forms. The only difficult thing is that some people use the neutral forms for transgender or nonbinary people or when they don't know if someone is male of female, but this is really disrespectful. There may be some people who want others to use neutral forms for them, but most people will be offended because you usually use the neutral forms only for things (but on the other hand there are plenty of things whose grammatical gender is male or female - yes, German can be quite confusing). ---------- Post added 29th Mar 2016 at 12:02 AM ---------- A bit off topic: Gender-neutral language is quite an issue in German. For most nouns that descripe a person there are different endings for the male and the female form. Just as actor/actress, but it's much more common in German than in English. Most times the male form is used when you speak about something in general even when you mean people of all genders. There are many people who don't like that because they think it's discriminating. Some people also find it discriminating that there's no form for people who are neither male nor female, so they come up with all different kinds of creative new words. For example, the German word for friend is Freund (male) or Freundin (female). Often FreundIn or Freund/in is used to stressed that both genders are meant. But some people also write Freund_in, Freund*in or things like that to show that there is also something in between. Of course there are also people who are against all this because they find it ridiculous and think it's just confunsing. Sometimes I wish it would be as easy in German as in English. ---------- Post added 29th Mar 2016 at 12:03 AM ---------- *describe ---------- Post added 29th Mar 2016 at 12:07 AM ---------- *stress (I should probably go to bed. xD)
I think the most important thing is understanding the language and how "gendered" some words are first. End of this year I'm going to Japan, and have a friend from there who I speak to regularly, in English and Japanese. I try to transfer a similar sort of use of language. For example, there are expressions more commonly used in English by guys, but it isn't that unusual if a female says them and someone uses pretty neutral language. It's pretty similar in Japanese too. You might sound a bit boyish if you're afab, but no one really cares that much. Unless you use ultra-masculine language, but this can sound weird for not so masculine guys in Japanese, too. ...I think asking someone who's a native speaker of the language you're learning is really the best thing that you can do. About the actual Japanese language (from what I know)... Pronouns aren't actually really so much an issue, as Japanese is heavily name based (which at first was sort of weird to get used to). So if you're using a name you're comfortable with, it's pretty fine. It's easy to refer to yourself neutral too. It's only really if you're younger you get more gendered language a lot in conversation. When you're an adult it's usually -san (neutral) which can be attached to first or last name, then that's even dropped once you know someone well enough. Actually, my friend gets typically "male" and "female" attachments to his name depending on the person too. It doesn't always mean "male"/"female" but also like... If you find someones personality cute/idol like/young at heart... If it's what you called them when they were younger (like a cute nickname) and continued to... It can have a whole heap of different meaning When referring to other people, you just usually use their name like I said before. I never say "he" when talking about my friend, I just say "(name)". The translated equivalent of "you" is usually just "(name)" too. If you say "you" it's usually like, in a pretty formal context or if you're really close/married. If I used it for my friend, it would probably feel closer to the latter which is just weird to him :lol: There are times when I've asked my friend, what's alright to say, what's not alright to say. He pretty much said, it depends on someone's personality more than gender. If you're a really feminine woman and say things masculine people would perceive it as weird/an improper use of language. Same for the opposite. But if you're like... personality reflects language people don't really pick up on it or care? Generally, I switch between using neutral language or male-ish depending on context. It's just equivalent to how I use English. There haven't really been many problems, but asking a native speaker realllllllyyyyy helps.
Polish is heavily gendered - adjectives, nouns and verbs except simple present tense expressions. Basically it means changing the way you speak. And think - living in such language means that whenever I think verbally, I misgender myself. It's annoying at best. Let me try an example or two. I am going to the cinema = gender neutral sentence. I went(female/male) the cinema = verb changes depending on speaker I would like(female/male) to go to the cinema = "I would like" is gendered. So, it's something that you need to learn and rewire your brain. So, when English speakers need only others to get used to pronouns... we need to get both ourselves and our friends familiar with new speech patterns. It simply leads to the same slips of the tongue as others do to trans people unintentionally - like, when I think, I need to be very conscious to refer to myself as female; otherwise habit wins and I think with male grammar. It also means that if you want to remain in the closet but think in your real gender... you can get weird looks for speaking in ways reserved for opposite sex. As for non binary... there is no way to speak without either female or male grammar. Every attempt to make at least pronouns work sounds fake. Like, the closest we can get is "a person" or some descriptory ways... nonetheless, you just have to speak with binary grammar. Gendered languages are not really non binary friendly in this way.
