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Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Listen to My Song! What version should be used?

Listen to My Song! What version should be used?In Macross 7, before breaking out into a set, Fire Bomber lead singer Basara Nekki screams to the ecstatic crowd: "Ore no Uta Kike!". In Macross Frontier, the intergalactic songstress, Sheryl Nome pays homage to Basara Nekki by screaming "Atashi no Uta Kike!" before singing. So what's the difference?

Not much really, they all mean the same thing, an impolite and informal way of saying to somebody: "Listen to My Song." The difference is in the use of the gender form of the pronoun "My."

"Ore" is a masculine version of the pronoun "My" used by males while "Atashi" is a shortened version of "watashi" used by females.

So is it Ok to use either version? Not really, because although they are both correct and mean the same thing, if you are a guy and use the "atashi" version you might be mistaken for an "okama", which means "gay" in Japanese. Subsequently, if you are female and use the "ore" version, you might be teased for being a lesbian.