Mina-san, what time is it where you are now?
Ima nan-ji desu ka?

今、午前二時十九分です. I should be asleep.

今、４時３９分です。

What Age Do Little Kids Start Speaking Masu Form?

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Mina-san, How interesting that some people use semidiurnal hours and the others use 24 hour clock! Where are you all from?? In Japan, we use both, but we are very familiar with 24 hour clock.

ジェイミーsan> Depends on what kind of family a child grows up in, but I think I learned to use masu in a preschool.

Hi all, from what I have heard kids switch over to the -masu and -desu form around when they enter Junior High School. So probably the earliest age might be 10-11 and most probably around 12-13. So, in Junior High School teachers would require the polite -masu form but in Elementary school they would not.

I think that Japanese kids don’t need to formally learn the polite forms because they will have spent their whole lives hearing(and understanding) them on tv, the radio, movies, people on the street, their parents talking to other adults, etc. Switching to the -masu, -desu form is just one step on a child’s road to adulthood in Japan.