linguistics (Page 14)
It’s often said that freedom isn’t free. In Japan, Free Tea isn’t either.
Survey suggests that east Japan and west Japan interpret the common invitation response in almost entirely opposite ways.
Our Japanese-language writer used to give himself a pass, until he encountered a woman who changed his mind.
Nicknamed the “Devil’s Tongue” by Jesuit missionaries, Japanese is one of the most difficult languages to learn. So, how many Westerners in Japan can really speak it fluently?
Pikachu and Nintendo find themselves in the middle of a cultural controversy in Hong Kong.
Is there a better way to start your day than with a nice plate of Italian wind saladt and “near the broil with salt?”
We’re back and ready to take on the third, and most puzzling, type of Japanese text: katakana.
Sure, Pizza Hut, but do you English?
Illustrated English teacher suddenly has legions of fans and even an unofficial theme song, but her visual creator is hoping the good-time ruckus won’t lead to a backlash by parents and educators.
For roughly the past two decades, I’ve woken up every morning and asked myself the question “How can I use more Japanese vocabulary today?” That desire was the major reason I decided to study abroad in college, plus move back to Japan after graduation, and I’ve actually reached the point where I’ve got a pretty sizeable stockpile of Japanese words I wish I could import into my native language.
And yet, often when I hear someone use the Japanese honorific “-san” when speaking English, it feels awkward and superfluous to me. But it turns out there’re actually a few compelling reasons behind English-speakers peppering their speech with “-san,” as it solves a couple of linguistic limitations of the English language.
So what are the pros and cons of importing the word into English? Let’s take a look.
Sometimes, the Japanese language is a pain in the butt. Seriously, how is it that in the millennia over which it evolved, no one ever said, “Hey, guys, why don’t we come up separate words for ‘leg’ and ‘foot’?”, which are both ashi in Japanese?
But speaking Japanese isn’t all frustrating head-scratchers. As we’ve talked about before, it also has some handy, expressive terms and phrases that don’t have direct English equivalents. So today we’re dipping back into our Japanese dictionaries for another batch of words we’d love to import into English.
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