April II
25th April – Heart of Darkness
Got my Golden Week Sightseeing off to an early start with a hastily planned trip to Disneyland with Kyoko on Saturday. After Josh’s wedding photos, I thought it only fair to give Disney a second chance, but remained sceptical as this is after all, the Mount Doom of Japan’s fascination with “cute”. It didn’t disappoint in this respect, though I don’t have quite the stamina or willpower to begin documenting the fashion sense of some of the more dedicated Disney fanatics. I’ve now also achieved a dubious double, having visited Tokyo DisneySea in 2002.
It’s funny how one’s perceptions change over time. As a child, Disneyland seemed like some sort fantastical Utopia that only the luckiest got to visit, and only then by act of god or pact with the Devil. Finally I got my chance when I was about 12. Our family stayed for 3 days in Davy Crocket’s cabins just outside EuroDisney, having taken 2 ferrys, and driven the length of Britain on monotonous motorways. Crazy that now, a one hour train ride and £25 hands me my childhood dreams on a plate – only now I’m not so sure I want them anymore. In my mind, Disneyland stretched on forever like a real country; I’d never expected that I could exhaust it in one day, nor were the main attractions as I remembered them, ever so tame.
Having said that, it was a pretty beautiful and serene place, though dogged with the suspicion that even the trees might have been carved out of plastic! Still, the attention to detail everywhere is mind-boggling, and having stayed for the electrical parade and fireworks at the end, it was with a heavy heart that we departed for the real world (which in Tokyo, is perhaps one of the least palatable “real worlds” available!).
30th April - Most detested Jinglish
A list compiling my most hated borrowings of English (and other foreign words) for use in the Japanese language. One of the most bizarre aspects of living in Japan is hearing words from your own language (or closely approximating at least) incorporated into Japanese. English has a certain “cool” currency, and is often adopted to sell, in particular, clothing with crazy, mispelt English words, often within Japanese syntax. If you haven’t gone there before, I suggest Engrish.com for a good bellylaugh! I’m not just talking about words that have been adopted in their entirety n.b. apaato (apartment), supaa (supermarket), shiatsu (shirt) etc (a good page for this kind of thing is is here. I’m talking about “false friends”, words you think you know and then discover to have had their meaning corrupted before being incorporated. At least if you want to borrow our words, try not to bastardise them entirely!! Not in any particular order (except the order I typed them in), nor exhaustive…a dissertation could be written on the plethora of uses various foreign words have been put to.
“Godiva” – pronounced “gaw-dee-ba” – oh, but this riles me up the wrong way. Famous brand of Japanese (?) chocolate, who’s emblem features a naked woman riding on a horse. But apparently it’s definitely not “go-dive-a”.
“Tarento” (talent) – like an “it-girl” or a celebrity famous for the sake of being a celebrity, it’s a contradiction in terms to call these people talented! Closely related to “aidoru” (idol), someone more famous for their looks rather than their talent. I can’t really criticise that one, as “aidoru” is one word used like this in Japan before Britain/America (nb Pop Idol/ World Idol).
“Rabu-Rabu” (love-love) - as in “they are a very rabu-rabu couple” (they are hopelessly in love with each other); “are you rabu-rabu?” incl. cheesy smile (do you have a girlfriend?). Other more successful transitions within this broad field of interest include garufurendo/boifurendo (girlfriend/boyfriend), shirigiyaru (“sillygirl”/tart) and sekuhara (sexual harassment – the shortening of English words such as this, or McDonalds to Makku, is an essay in its own right!).
“Get’s!” – The English word “get” has become a verb in its own right (Gets o suru), and though I may not be understanding it precisely, seems to be used to describe a favourable situation (“Asahi beer, only half price, GETS!”). Also used as key catch-phrase of pathetic “comedian” Dandy Sakano, who got the entire country making gun shapes with their hands whilst saying “Gets!”. He later released a music CD, where he said “gets!” a lot. Groaaaaaaaannnnnnnn. English teaching in Japan reached a new low when one of my teachers asked, with all sincerity, “How do you say “gets” in Japanese?”. The borrowing of English words, then changing them into verbs by adding “suru” is a particular predilection of the Japanese, even though they often have perfectly good words of their own! (n.b. doraibu suru – driving, though often in the context of a young couple using a car as a mobile motel; kissu suru; paniku suru etcetc).
“Arubaito” – granted, this word is not English in origin (seems to come from the German “Arbeiten”) and used to describe a part-time, or minimum wage job. I think it may also be a verb now (Arubaito suru). Similarly “Torabuai” – Travailler, has been stolen from French, and its meaning changed to mean “between jobs/looking for a job”.
“Supa Pinchi!” (Super Pinch) – I’ve heard my English teacher say this on a number of occasions, and seems to be roughly equivalent to “Feeling the Pinch” or “I’m under stress”. Not sure how localised this phrase is though – may be a personal thing.
“Hai Tenshion” (High Tension) – Often has a positive meaning, along the lines of “exciting atmosphere”.
“Fuaito!” (Fight!) – teachers in Japan actually encourage their students to “fuaito!”, which they consider a reasonable translation of “persevere”. “Gambatte Andoriyuu, Japanese study fuaito!”
“Reveru apu/Pawaa apu/Buashion apu” (Level Up/Power Up/Version Up) – my own pet theory is that this may have originated from Computer Games. Horrific statements are concocted, for example, “Let’s English level up!” meaning something approximating to “Let’s try to improve our English!”; or even more inexplicably “It’s version up time” (as in “Let’s test our new knowledge”)!.
“Let’s enjoy_____together with me” – this kind of statement is used far too much, and seems to be a direct translation from Japanese. “Let’s enjoy English together with Andrew” was the low point at the smokey school when I seriously considered ripping out the tongue of my ex-team teacher and burning it in front of her as an example against her heresy.
“Fuurigan” – I encountered this a while back in my Eikiwa class. Seems that just before the last World Cup, the Japanese were really worried about Football “Fuurigans” blighting their safe little country! (nb the “hoo” sound is not represented in the Japanese syllabary, like “L”, “V”, and “C” pronounced “shi”). Other major problems of pronunciation are saying “DbuiD” (DVD), HMbui (HMV), terebui (television), ShiD (CD) and the list goes on!
“Manshyon” (mansion) – Despite the English meaning of the word, whoever incorporated it into the Japanese language reversed its meaning, and now it refers to apartment blocks, where people live a cramped existence in a dwelling more akin to a hamster’s cage; perhaps the only similarity is the price!!
“Kyamupein” (campaign) – used far too often, now bearing little similarity to the English word. It means a seasonal or short-term push by a shop or company to sell some new product nb McDonalds trying to shift their new egg and seaweed burger soaked in lashings of mayonnaise under the headline “niyuu kyamupein, gets!”.
“Dandei” (Dandy) – hilarious incorporation of dated English term with a positive meaning such as “cool” or “nice guy”…something like that, though aimed more towards the middle-aged. Its use also seems to be adjectival rather than as a noun. An advert on TV poses the question “Are you dandy?”, though it’s difficult to understand just which product or company they’re trying to flog with this clever marketing ploy!
The most disturbing aspect of all this cross-pollenisation, is that I’ve caught myself using these phrases occasionally, sometimes in jest, sometimes because I can’t help myself…it just starts to feel, well, natural after a while. With my English vocabulary plummeting and my grammar disappearing out the window, it may not be too long before I cease to speak any recognisable language at all!!
Well then. This’ll be the last update for a while, as my dad’s coming to visit, which has involved me working very hard to clean my apartment to convince him that I don’t live like a complete slob! I made a rather surprising discovery…its actually quite nice to live in a clean apartment!
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