Hearing native Japanese people casually using English slang is a special kind of awesome. All too often, Japanese are taught straight-laced, borderline archaic phrases that, while grammatically sound, remove all trace of the speaker’s personality to the point that they end up sounding like stuffy university professors rather than they people they actually are. So when we spotted this video, which shows one English teacher’s students working their way through the recently released book F*ck no Tadashii Tsukaikata, or “How to Use ‘F**k’“, it brought huge smiles to our faces.
So, if you’d like to hear perfectly nice and respectable Japanese people saying things like “I’m trusting you with the drugs; don’t f**k me over” and “He’s going to sh*t a brick”, make sure there are no impressionable youngsters in the room and join us after the jump.
Released at the end of May, the alternative phrasebook has been a big hit on Amazon JP and received mentions on a number of news sites. English teacher and YouTuber Abroadin Japan procured a few copies to hand out to his friends and students, and the results are both cute and hilarious.
Before we dive into the video proper, let’s take a look at some of what’s on offer.
▼ This one ought to be filed under “daily use English”
▼ We’ve all been there, don’t worry about it.
▼ This one won’t win any awards for charm, but it certainly gets the message across.
▼ Can’t say I’ve ever broken out “deli-f*cking-licious” but what the hey…
▼ Yup. That’ll work.
But it’s not all F-bombs! The book also covers a number of other useful terms!
OK, ready for some comedy? Let’s take a look at the video!
While a couple of the speakers are clearly only intermediate level at best, I have to admire their pronunciation of the English “F”, which is surprisingly tricky for most Japanese, and they’re clearly enjoying being exposed to a few swears in unusual contexts. I’m sure some English teachers out there would worry that encouraging language learners to swear isn’t the best idea, and of course this book is meant entirely for grown-ups, but I’m sure even they would admit that if you’re going to swear, you might as well do it right. After all, no one wants to sound like a silly arsebiscuit when they break out a curse word or two, do they?
Source/screenshots: YouTube
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