|
|
|
In
recent years, the Japanese that is spoken by the younger
generation is not what you will learn in the Japanese
language school. In fact, the language you will hear,
say in Shibuya or
Harajuku, is hard to learn formally unless you spend
enough time with the people who speak it. It is a highly
corrupt form of Japanese with a few words of English and
other foreign languages thrown in (of course, these words
will be so distorted that they lose their identity and
become Japanese words). It is also very common to
write this speech in a mix of katakana and hiragana with an
occasional kanji thrown in. This offends the
traditional Japanese who not only have hard time
understanding what the kids are talking about but are also
afraid that this is resulting in erosion of the Japanese
language. |
 Surprisingly,
it is not just the younger people who are using more foreign
words. Even among the Japanese
business people, use of foreign
words has picked up primarily because equivalent Japanese
words are just too difficult or do not fully capture the
thought. For instance, sekuhara for sexual
harassment, a term that is new to the Japanese culture.
Some other are sofutouea (software), tesuto
(test), kemikaru (chemical), komputa (computer),
nyusu (news), and several others.
Among
the more popular words are mausu (mouse), kuriku
(click), saafu (surf), intanetto (internet), san-saizu
(a combination of Japanese word san meaning three
and size, denoting women's vital stats or BWH), and moga
(modern girl).
"Chekaraccho",
a form of casual greeting, a bit like "How are you?"
"Denjarasu", used to describe to friends the
slim chances of passing a test.
"Wonchu" and "Gechu", cool
terms used to attract the opposite gender. "Wonchu"
means "I want you" and "Gechu"
means "I get you".
"Roozu sokusu", loose socks worn by
high-school girls.
"Cho beri ba", "cho" =
"super", "beri" = very, "ba"
= bad. So, "cho beri ba" means
"ultra-bad".
"Deniru", means to go to a Denny's
Restaurant.
"Hageru", means to go to a Haagen Daaz
ice-cream outlet.
The
funniest words are those that are used in context that make no
sense to speakers of the native language from which the word
was derived. For instance the word manshon
(mansion) is essentially an expensive apartment in Japan.
A depato is a department store and an apato is
an apartment. Shotsu are actually panties and sekushi
or sexy is such a commonly used word that you can safely use it to
praise a woman in front of others and she will be pleased to
hear it.
Maurice
Hood informs that three words that he has heard are Makudonaldo
or Makudo
(McDonalds), noto (notepad), and aisu or aisukurimu (icecream).
A
lot of time we are asked if there any "terms of endearment" in
Japanese. For example, how would one say, "[Name], my
dear," "[Name], my love," "[Name],
darling," or the like? Is
there something that is used in place of or in addition to
"san," or is it something completely different? There
are two ways of doing this. But first a little bit of
background. Japanese couples do not normally call each other
by name and the most common term used is "anata"
(literally translated as "you" - actually a very impolite way
of saying you in common speech but a term of endearment among
couples). The English terms are also almost never used, though
some young couples use them occasionally. But if
you want to call someone who is now beyond "san," you can
actually use "chan." For example, a woman Kyoko can be called
"Kyoko-chan" by someone who loves her dearly (including
friends and family members). Though if you want to show your
love, it would be just fine to use "darling," "dearest," etc.
Japanese people understand and have embraced these words too.
Will
proper English be finally embraced in the Japanese society?
We'll have to wait and see.
Recommended links: Slangs in Japanese language
Japanese
culture in Asia Test
of Japanese language
Heather Schmidt speaks Urdu
Transition of Japanese society and business |
