Context of かい

[JeanOfmArc]

I have read in Learning Japanese through Comics that a soft way to say か, as in the question particle at the end of a sentence, is to say かい.
I'm curious what the context and cultural usage of this word is, though. Would it be polite for me to use it, or odd?

Thanks!

Jean Of mArc

[Psy]

Though my experience is limited, the only time I've really heard this is from older people.

[Javizy]

It's limited in the sense that it can only mark yes-no questions. I think it depends on the tone of the speaker as to whether it's soft. You hear people who speak まきじた-style use it all the time, like わかるかい, but I've also heard it used towards somebody who seems upset, like だいじょうぶなのかい. Two completely different ends of the spectrum.

Strictly speaking it is an informal question marker used in male speech, but it's still used by women occasionally. By the way, the non-yes-no equivalent is だい, but I've only seen that used in Doraemon, so I can't really comment.