Is saying "私は社会人です" self-deprecating when you meet someone? Is it too vague?


In an informal setting, imagine doing a 自己{じこ}紹介{しょうかい} and you want to
deflect the conversation away from yourself. What about saying:

> 私は社会人だけです。毎日、頑張っています。

Does that leave you with the feeling of:

> I am nothing special. I am just a simple member of society, and trying to
> make my way through life as best I can.

The listener would still have no idea what you do (but that is the point). If
you did do something cool and interesting (something to have pride in), that
can come-out later. Trying to establish intellectual / financial dominance at
"hello" just is not cool. Just say " _I'm a regular Joe._ " / "私は社会人です", then
in a later intimate discussion you can learn more about each other.

Does that make sense? Basically, in an informal 自己紹介 could one just say:

> 私は社会人です。

Or, is that just _way_ too vague?

ps: I really do _not_ do anything interesting! I am just trying to get a feel
for Japanese and how to do 自己紹介。




If you want to hide your profession, you could say that and then go on to
explain things that you like to do, your age etc. instead. It is not self-
deprecating but it is vague and most people will wonder what you do.

If you're learning Japanese, a good sentence for your 自己紹介 would be how many
years you have been studying Japanese and then go into why you started etc.
Note that the 自己紹介 is **_a way to get other people to know you_** , probably a
phenomenon spawned from a generally shy culture (my guess).

> 社会人です。3年間日本語を勉強しています。勉強し始めたきっかけは「漢字」でした。よろしくお願いします。




Unsurprisingly, introducing yourself only as 社会人です is _way_ too vague; it's
almost no different from saying "I am a human being".

If you want to hide the details of your job, safer and common ways are:

  * 会社員です。 (lit. "company member", if you work at a private company)
  * サラリーマンです。 (lit. "[salaryman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salaryman)", full-time salaried worker in general, including a government worker)
  * 自営業です。 (self-employed worker in general, includes a farmer, a musician, a journalist, a freelance programmer)

If you say one of these, people will probably understand you don't want to
disclose your job, and refrain from asking you "where do you work?"

* * *

By the way, 私は社会人だけです does not make sense because だけ doesn't work as you
expect. This sentence is not about whether you do something other than 社会人, is
it? Instead, you can say:

>   * 私は単なる会社員です。 (単なる ≒ simple; mere)
>   * 私はどこにでもいる会社員です。 (どこにでもいる ≒ (lit.) ～ that exists everywhere; just another
> ～)
>   * 私は平凡な会社員です。 (平凡な ≒ ordinary; mundane)
>

Of course these sound more or less self-deprecating, so please use with care.

