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In the context of chatting with someone whom you have never met before,
Japanese always give you the courtesy of complimenting your language skills.
In a non-business context, my response is sometimes
「いやいや、不束者{ふつつかもの}です、私。」That almost always gets a smile out of the person that
I am addressing.

I'd always assumed that using the word 「不束者」 demonstrated that, while my
grammar is extremely poor, I have made the effort to memorize strange
vocabulary. It is a backhanded self-compliment (if your Japanese were poor,
then you would not know such a word), and that causes the smile. But, now I am
thinking that my usage of 「不束者」 is so wildly out of context, it just sounds
ridiculous.

So, is saying 「いやいや、不束者です、私。」 a clever sounding way to decline a compliment?
Or, does it just sound comical?
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2014-08-20T22:38:19.177
18319
2014-08-20T23:21:46.157
4835
question
words
what nuance does calling oneself "ふつつかもの" have?
Lovin' the question!

That is a very funny reply that only Japanese-learners could use. Trust me,
you will get an instant laughter everytime you say that to a Japanese-speaker
in your life from now on. You are lucky!

「不束者」 is a humble expression pretty much reserved for marriage-related
greetings by and about a girl. That is what you, as a bride, call yourself or
what your parents call you when greeting your broom's family.

Its nuance, believe it or not, is something like "I am (Our daughter is) such
an big, fat, uneducated and unrefined country girl."

Keep using it and bringing a smile to our faces!
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-08-20T23:21:46.157
18320
2014-08-20T23:21:46.157
18319
answer