Correct verb for in a wheelchair.

[WonkoTheSane]

My mother and brother have been visiting and my mother uses a wheelchair, so I've been asking for a slope for the trains a lot and using other language based around asking about wheelchair access.

I've been using 乗る (私のお母さんは車椅子に乗っていますからスロープをお願いします for example) to express her being in a wheelchair. It's understood, but I just guessed at it and I'm wondering both whether I'm asking with the correct verb and whether my above sentence is right or just a weird construction which gets the job done. It's just what kind of popped out when I was faced with the first need to say something.

Thanks!

P.S. Anyone visiting Hiroshima with a wheelchair should consider using the busses instead of the streetcars, far more accessible.

 

[Mike Cash]

You could also use 使う or even avoid it completely by using です. (母は車椅子ですから________)

 

[mdchachi]

I'd go with 使う because all the signs about wheelchair users use ご利用.

 

[WonkoTheSane]

Thank you both very much!

Is it appropriate for a 40＋ year old male to refer to his mother as はは?

I got a strange look once from an old shopowner who seemed to disapprove so I switched to 私のお母さん just in case.

 

[Mike Cash]

I think it's appropriate. Maybe he had a gas pain.

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

Maybe I don't understand the in-group/out-group thing well enough, but wouldn't 私のお母さん be an unacceptable raising of your in-group?

I would have expected はは to be fine. Maybe 母さん without the お would also be all right? I'm not sure if ははうえ is actually used outside of fiction... I've never heard it anywhere else but then again most of my Japanese exposure is various forms of fiction!

 

[WonkoTheSane]

I think it's appropriate. Maybe he had a gas pain.

Gotcha, from now on 母 it is. Thanks!

 

[mdchachi]

I know that's what we're all taught but I don't recall my friends referring to their mothers as just 母 typically. I have a feeling that お母さん or 母親 is more prevalent these days. But you guys in Japan should have a better feel for this than me.

I know for sure I almost never heard anybody refer to their grandmother as 祖母. Typically they'll say something like うちのばあちゃん.

 

[Toritoribe]

Because it's a conversation between friends. 母 is used in the situation Wonko-san mentioned.

 

[mdchachi]

Because it's a conversation between friends. 母 is used in the situation Wonko-san mentioned.

He wasn't talking about a conversation between friends, he was talking about speaking to a shop owner and train station attendants.

 

[Toritoribe]

I'm talking to you.

I know that's what we're all taught but I don't recall my friends referring to their mothers as just 母 typically. I have a feeling that お母さん or 母親 is more prevalent these days