日本語会話: The Japanese Conversation Thread

[GoktimusPrime]

In certain context "cheesy" can be synonymous with "daggy" (in the sense of lameness).
e.g. "You know what would look good on you? Me! I love daggy/cheesy pick up lines like these."
So in that sense, you could also translate cheesy or daggy as カッコ悪い.　さむい is used to describe jokes that are so bad that you just want that person to "STAHP!"

This is often the tricky thing with translating, you're not just directly converting what words mean in one language to another, but rather what the intended meaning is. You don't translate words, you translate concepts, because purely translating words can mistranslate concepts, and that's how things get lost in translation. This is why machine translators like Google Translate just don't work (beyond very basic words and phrases).

For example, I cannot directly translate "Adventure Time" to Latin, because there is no Latin word for "adventure" (the Romans had no concept of this), so I think the nearest approximation might be audacem temporalis ("Daring Time"). It's not a direct translation but attempts to convey the intended meaning of the original English title. I checked Wikipedia and they don't even have a page for Adventure Time in Latin! I was curious to see how they translated the title. And yes, there are Wikipedia pages in Latin. Here's the Latin Wikipedia page on Japanese.

[TAAUBlaster]

Ah, gottcha! That actually helps my understanding a lot. Thanks man

And here I was thinking my Japanese was improving. I would love to do a night or TAFE course because I really want to pick up my Japanese skill, but there's just nothing on offer here in my town unfortunately

[Megatran]

Destoroyah

How does one pronounce this?

[GoktimusPrime]

Follow this link and click on the "Listen" icon (looks like a speaker) to hear the pronunciation.

[DELTAprime]

Why are Japanese devs at games conferences referred to as last name followed by San, which as I understand is like saying Mr Spencer or Mr House. Kojima San or Inafune San for example. Do they think they are above the rest of the industry and should be refereed to like someone special or what?

[GoktimusPrime]

In Japanese culture it's generally considered rude to refer to people by their given names, thus in most typical contexts, it is considered more respectful and polite to refer to people by their surnames. In Australia we tend to reserve this level of deference for people in certain positions, such as clients, politicians, teachers, doctors etc., but in Japan this level of respect is affording to virtually everyone except for family members and close friends.

Japanese society is a vertical hierarchy and it is extremely important to show the correct level of respect, not only in the way that you address someone, but also in the way that you speak to someone. In English we have different registers that we use to increase or decrease our level of linguistic formality, but Japanese goes to a whole different level with different honorific forms of speech.
e.g.: Here are different ways of saying, "I eat sushi" in Japanese with varying levels of politeness.
* 寿司くう (sushi kuu) ←crude
* 寿司を食べる (sushi o taberu) ←casual
* 御寿司を食べる (osushi o taberu) ←honorific casual
* 御寿司を頂く (osushi o itadaku) ←casual humble
* 御寿司を召し上がる (osushi o meshiagaru) ←casual respectful
* 寿司を食べます (sushi o tabemasu) ←polite
* 御寿司を食べます (osushi o tabemasu) ←honorific polite
* 御寿司を食べられます (osushi o taberaremasu) ←formal
* 御寿司を頂きます (osushi o itadakimasu) ←formal humble
* 御寿司をお食べになります(osushi o otabeninarimasu) ←formal polite
* 御寿司を召し上がります (osushi o meshiagarimasu) ←polite respectful
* 御寿司を御召し上がりになります (osushi o omeshininarimasu) ←honorific polite respectful
* 御寿司を御召しになって頂きます (osushi o omeshininatte itadakimasu) ←honorific humble respectful

Placing "san" after someone's name can be used in both casual and polite forms, so it's actually not that honorific as some other name suffixes. Other honorific titles include:
+ ちゃん (chan) = used to address someone as a term of endearment. This is a variant of "san" only with the "s" replaced with "ch" to mimic Japanese baby talk. e.g. 赤ちゃん (akachan) = baby
+ 君 (kun) = used to address subordinates or to boys or to male friends. Colloquially used to address close female friends (it's less diminutive than "chan"). e.g. in Dragonball, Gokuu is often called 孫君 (Son-kun) by his friends.
+ 様 (sama) = Lord/lady. e.g. お客様 (okyaku-sama) = Lord/lady customer, 神様 (kami-sama) = Lord God etc.
+ 先輩 (senpai) = used to refer to or address a senior colleague or student (if you're a school student). Notice me.
+ 先生 (sensei) = master. Used to refer to or address authority figures such as teachers, doctors, lawyers, politicians, head chefs etc., as well as anyone who is accomplished in their field such as acclaimed writers, musicians, artists etc.
+ 博士 (hakase) = doctor, as in a professor and/or person who's been awarded a PhD. e.g. ホーキング博士 (hookingu-hakase) = Dr. Hawking
+ 氏 (shi) = used in very formal speech or when writing to someone you don't know very well, like when addressing people on the internet. e.g. Δプライム氏 (Δpuraimu-shi) = DELTAprime
+ 殿 (tono) = same meaning as "sama," although not quite as honorific. Similar to saying, "Milord" or "Milady." e.g. 薫殿 (Kaoru-dono) = "Milady Kaoru"
+ 閣下 (kakka) = Your Excellency (yes, I know that every Italian speaker is now rofling at this )
etc. etc. etc.

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P.S.: It took me a couple of minutes to work out what the hell you meant by "devs."

[Bato]

(French people are rofling pretty hard at the last one too)

[DELTAprime]

In Japanese culture it's generally considered rude to refer to people by their given names, thus in most typical contexts, it is considered more respectful and polite to refer to people by their surnames. In Australia we tend to reserve this level of deference for people in certain positions, such as clients, politicians, teachers, doctors etc., but in Japan this level of respect is affording to virtually everyone except for family members and close friends.

Japanese society is a vertical hierarchy and it is extremely important to show the correct level of respect, not only in the way that you address someone, but also in the way that you speak to someone. In English we have different registers that we use to increase or decrease our level of linguistic formality, but Japanese goes to a whole different level with different honorific forms of speech.
e.g.: Here are different ways of saying, "I eat sushi" in Japanese with varying levels of politeness.
* 寿司くう (sushi kuu) ←crude
* 寿司を食べる (sushi o taberu) ←casual
* 御寿司を食べる (osushi o taberu) ←honorific casual
* 御寿司を頂く (osushi o itadaku) ←casual humble
* 御寿司を召し上がる (osushi o meshiagaru) ←casual respectful
* 寿司を食べます (sushi o tabemasu) ←polite
* 御寿司を食べます (osushi o tabemasu) ←honorific polite
* 御寿司を食べられます (osushi o taberaremasu) ←formal
* 御寿司を頂きます (osushi o itadakimasu) ←formal humble
* 御寿司をお食べになります(osushi o otabeninarimasu) ←formal polite
* 御寿司を召し上がります (osushi o meshiagarimasu) ←polite respectful
* 御寿司を御召し上がりになります (osushi o omeshininarimasu) ←honorific polite respectful
* 御寿司を御召しになって頂きます (osushi o omeshininatte itadakimasu) ←honorific humble respectful

Placing "san" after someone's name can be used in both casual and polite forms, so it's actually not that honorific as some other name suffixes. Other honorific titles include:
+ ちゃん (chan) = used to address someone as a term of endearment. This is a variant of "san" only with the "s" replaced with "ch" to mimic Japanese baby talk. e.g. 赤ちゃん (akachan) = baby
+ 君 (kun) = used to address subordinates or to boys or to male friends. Colloquially used to address close female friends (it's less diminutive than "chan"). e.g. in Dragonball, Gokuu is often called 孫君 (Son-kun) by his friends.
+ 様 (sama) = Lord/lady. e.g. お客様 (okyaku-sama) = Lord/lady customer, 神様 (kami-sama) = Lord God etc.
+ 先輩 (senpai) = used to refer to or address a senior colleague or student (if you're a school student). Notice me.
+ 先生 (sensei) = master. Used to refer to or address authority figures such as teachers, doctors, lawyers, politicians, head chefs etc., as well as anyone who is accomplished in their field such as acclaimed writers, musicians, artists etc.
+ 博士 (hakase) = doctor, as in a professor and/or person who's been awarded a PhD. e.g. ホーキング博士 (hookingu-hakase) = Dr. Hawking
+ 氏 (shi) = used in very formal speech or when writing to someone you don't know very well, like when addressing people on the internet. e.g. Δプライム氏 (Δpuraimu-shi) = DELTAprime
+ 殿 (tono) = same meaning as "sama," although not quite as honorific. Similar to saying, "Milord" or "Milady." e.g. 薫殿 (Kaoru-dono) = "Milady Kaoru"
+ 閣下 (kakka) = Your Excellency (yes, I know that every Italian speaker is now rofling at this )
etc. etc. etc.

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P.S.: It took me a couple of minutes to work out what the hell you meant by "devs."

Thanks Gok. Maybe I should avoid taking a trip to Japan ever, I hate being called Mr Kearney and Kearney-san sounds even more formal to me.