日本語会話: The Japanese Conversation Thread

[GoktimusPrime]

Japanese Star Wars VII trailer
Interesting seeing some of the translations that they've come up with and comparing them with the original English dialogue.

e.g.
* "There are stories about what happened." → 「多くの噂を聞いたわ」 ("I've heard many rumours.")
* "It's true. All of it." → 「真実だ。すべては真実だ」("It's true. All of it is true.")
* "This Christmas" → 「目覚めよ」 ("Awaken!")

[GoktimusPrime]

SMAP are going to break up!

Strangely enough, I found out about this through a post by the voice actor for the original Lynn Minmay (Macross), and my daughter was watching Macross on TV at the time... during a scene where she's singing 「私の彼はパイロット」 ("My Boyfriend's A Pilot"). And if that's too 80s for you, here's the Macross Frontier (Ranka Lee) version.

[Skript]

how did i just find this thread now??

[GoktimusPrime]

how did i just find this thread now??

<shrugs> I did mention it on your intro thread.

[Skript]

yeah I must say I saw it all and went OOOh, I got this.. i got.. I...
I'm outta my league

Really should have studied while I was over there instead of getting hammered.

Could have got a better job instead of coming back to IT =(

[GoktimusPrime]

Happy Hinamatsuri today for anyone with daughters.

[GoktimusPrime]

It amuses me whenever I hear or read about people accusing Japanese of "ripping off" words from Chinese and how the Sino-Japanese pronunciations are "corrupted" compared to Chinese, and people start comparing Sino-Japanese words with Chinese words.

It amuses me because people seem to fail to realise that Chinese words entered Japanese when Chinese people spoke Middle Chinese, which is very different and mutually unintelligible with Modern Chinese. So in fact, a lot of the way that Japanese pronounce some Chinese characters is closer to the way that Chinese people pronounced them during the Tang and Song Dynasties - i.e. when people spoke Middle Chinese! Others are different because of course, these Chinese words entered into Middle Japanese which is of course different from Modern Japanese. As with every language, words changed and evolved over time.

The same goes for Korean. Many of these words entered Korean via Middle Chinese and have since changed as the language evolved into Modern Korean. Also, Middle Chinese was never a unified language, so there was massive variation in the language so the way that the same word may be pronounced in Japanes, Korean or Sino-Vietnamese may vary depending not just on which period those words entered those languages, but also from which part of China. And this was the same in English too, English was also not a unified language until the reign of King James.
e.g. These late Middle English words all mean the same thing...
kirk
kyrk
kyrke
kirke
kerk
kerc
kerke
schyrche
chyrche
chyrch
cherge
cherche
cherch
chirche
churche
Modern English: church

Trying to argue that "Ki" (気) is a less 'pure' pronunciation of Chinese "Qi" is akin to saying that the Italian word "camino" is less accurate than English's "chimney," even though both words are descendant from the Latin word caminus (or "camino" in its dative and ablative singular tense).

[TAAUBlaster]

I ran into a bit of a hurdle this weekend trying to explain the word "cheesy" to a Japanese friend who couldn't understand the meaning of it.
Like many English words, there isn't a direct translation to Japanese (I don't think?) but I'm having a hard time trying to explain it. Originally I thought "ダサい" would be close, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that "uncool" doesn't really capture the meaning of "cheesy" and that its really not that close of a translation. And my Japanese level isn't good enough to try and describe a "cheesy" situation in Japanese for them to understand.

And I thought if anyone might be able to help, it would be Gok.

[Bato]

It amuses me whenever I hear or read about people accusing Japanese of "ripping off" words from Chinese and how the Sino-Japanese pronunciations are "corrupted" compared to Chinese, and people start comparing Sino-Japanese words with Chinese words.

It amuses me because people seem to fail to realise that Chinese words entered Japanese when Chinese people spoke Middle Chinese, which is very different and mutually unintelligible with Modern Chinese. So in fact, a lot of the way that Japanese pronounce some Chinese characters is closer to the way that Chinese people pronounced them during the Tang and Song Dynasties - i.e. when people spoke Middle Chinese! Others are different because of course, these Chinese words entered into Middle Japanese which is of course different from Modern Japanese. As with every language, words changed and evolved over time.

The same goes for Korean. Many of these words entered Korean via Middle Chinese and have since changed as the language evolved into Modern Korean. Also, Middle Chinese was never a unified language, so there was massive variation in the language so the way that the same word may be pronounced in Japanes, Korean or Sino-Vietnamese may vary depending not just on which period those words entered those languages, but also from which part of China. And this was the same in English too, English was also not a unified language until the reign of King James.
e.g. These late Middle English words all mean the same thing...
kirk
kyrk
kyrke
kirke
kerk
kerc
kerke
schyrche
chyrche
chyrch
cherge
cherche
cherch
chirche
churche
Modern English: church

Trying to argue that "Ki" (気) is a less 'pure' pronunciation of Chinese "Qi" is akin to saying that the Italian word "camino" is less accurate than English's "chimney," even though both words are descendant from the Latin word caminus (or "camino" in its dative and ablative singular tense).

Quite possible some of them are based off the dutch word for church (kerk) or even the German one (Kirche)

[GoktimusPrime]

I ran into a bit of a hurdle this weekend trying to explain the word "cheesy" to a Japanese friend who couldn't understand the meaning of it.
Like many English words, there isn't a direct translation to Japanese (I don't think?) but I'm having a hard time trying to explain it. Originally I thought "ダサい" would be close, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that "uncool" doesn't really capture the meaning of "cheesy" and that its really not that close of a translation. And my Japanese level isn't good enough to try and describe a "cheesy" situation in Japanese for them to understand.

And I thought if anyone might be able to help, it would be Gok.

ダサい is actually a pretty good translation, although it really depends on the context in which you're using the word "cheesy." Another translation might be わざとらしい, describing something that feels unnatural or forced (e.g. forced laughter). Another one is さむい which is often used to describe a comment so daggy that it makes you shudder; often used in response to 親父ギャグ ("dad jokes").

Quite possible some of them are based off the dutch word for church (kerk) or even the German one (Kirche)

More likely, kerk, kirche and church are all descendant from a common West Germanic ancestral source. Google's telling me that they all come from the Proto-Germanic word kirikǭ, which itself is derived from the Ancient Greek word kuriakón (κυριακόν).