I am an early 30s male with upper intermediate – advanced Japanese and I had
some questions about the masculine voice. I do not use the common feminine
words (かしら、statement〜なの、using my name in third person, etc.) and have been
told I have very good standard/flat Japanese, which is good for both business
meetings and casual conversation. I recently got told by a close bilingual
friend (Japanese native) that my English way of talking sounds very masculine/
dominant (in a good way) but my Japanese voice sounds ‘too normal’. It’s not
bad, but it doesn’t sound as masculine as it does in English.  
I have searched for advice on this on the site but all of the results are
saying things like :

verb stem+てえ (e.g バスケやりてー）

Which is very young or crude in my experience.

Or things like:

〜〜かい / 〜〜だい （e.g. そうかい？）

Which are very old and also weird for me to use (unless using it
sarcastically).  
There are many examples like this on the site but they aren't that common for
30s men to say, in my opinion. Maybe I am wrong.

I am trying to figure what a middle-aged Japanese man would do to sound
masculine in everyday conversation.

My friend didn’t understand what makes someone sound masculine in Japanese, so
she couldn’t give advice, but she could notice the difference. Do you have any
advice for sounding more masculine/ dominant in Japanese? Are there any tips
that you have noticed around word choice or speaking cadence?
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2022-07-14T07:22:17.457
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2022-07-17T06:58:52.777
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question
phrases colloquial-language
Masculine/ Dominant voice in Japanese:
For men it's a bit more acceptable to sound rude, and in some context it's
expected. (In a circle of close friends consisting of only men of similar age,
for example.) When middle-aged men talk "normally", they can be taken as well-
mannered.

There are many various small things involved in the "rude" male talk. There
are no simple rules. Examples that come to my mind:

  * end questions using -するか？ instead of -する？ (and of course not -しますか？)
  * say requests with してくれ instead of して, してほしい etc

Perhaps watching a few yakuza movies might give you an idea. (But they can
overdo in terms of rudeness.)

That said, languages change and I think this "men can talk more rudely than
women" thing in Japanese is less present in younger generations than people in
their 50s or older. It's safer to be too polite than too rude. In that sense,
I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Also, do you use a higher vocal range when speaking in Japanese? (I know I
sometimes do this unconsciously when speaking in my second language.) If so,
that can contribute to the impression of sounding less masculine.
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answer
There are a lot of ways to make yourself sound more masculine but the key is
to do so in subtle ways that match your personality. You don't want to
suddenly transform into a Yankee or Yakuza overnight. So here are some more
subtle approaches that can match a neutral personality:

  1. 1st-person pronoun: Use 僕 for most everyday speech (excluding formal situations) and if comfortable, 俺 around close friends and family
  2. More assertive sentence endings: Add 〜んだ to the ends of assertive sentences, か to the ends of direct questions, and feel free to remove の from the ends of sentences to make it sound less soft

> 彼は来ない(の)
>
> 彼は来ないんだ - _sounds more assertive and masculine_

> これを使う？
>
> これを使うか？ - _sounds more direct and masculine_

> 昨日はどうしたの？
>
> 昨日はどうした？ - _sounds less soft, more masculine_

  3. Try substituting ね with な more often:

> それはすごいね
>
> それはすごいな - _sounds more gruff and masculine_
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2022-07-18T20:01:54.987
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answer