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u/Strange_Ad_9658 5h ago
I remember a youtuber telling a story of ordering a milk tea in japan by translating both words, only to have the server correct them by going “oh, miruku tea”
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u/Oniichan38 5h ago
Another streamer told of his Japan trip and how he tried to order sprite at a restaurant, sadly the waiter didn't understand so he had to hit him with "sprite-ru" just for the waiter to reply in the same way "aahhh, sprite-ru"
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u/justagenericname213 5h ago
Ive seen alot of Americans who moved to Japan for various reasons say that if you want to fit in at all you have to get really comfortable sounding borderline racist.
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u/ATAGChozo 4h ago
I am reminded of the PS2 game Lifeline, which is controlled by voice commands. Being developed in Japan, it naturally recognizes spoken English best if you say it in a very heavy Japanese accent that borders on racism
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u/th3BeastLord 4h ago
You mean Riferine?
I can't believe how they botched the English commands that much. Its kinda hilarious.
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u/JayGold 4h ago
I am suddenly reminded of Hey You, Pikachu having terrible voice recognition, and I wonder if that played a part in it.
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u/berlinbaer 3h ago
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u/StrawberryWide3983 2h ago
Oh gosh, is that where the "praystation great" meme comes from? It sounds very familiar but different at the same time
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u/Zzamumo 4h ago
Same with chinese. If you don't sound like a racist caricature you won't get your tones right
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u/_FrillCrush 4h ago
Exactly, once you realize “correct” pronunciation depends on who you’re talking to, the whole language confidence game gets way funnier 😂
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u/ClockworkDinosaurs 3h ago
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u/Pretend-Marsupial258 3h ago
And the Chinese guy turns out to be a white guy.
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u/MoistNugget9130 2h ago
I haven't watched South Park in a hot minute, is he really lol
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u/tygabeast 2h ago
Yeah, it's a few seasons old by now, but there's a whole episode centered around Mr. Kim.
At the climax of the episode, it's revealed that Mr. Kim doesn't actually exist, and is an alter ego of South Park's therapist, William Janus, who himself has multiple personality disorder. No one really cares, because he's the one who runs the town's only chinese restaurant.
If I remember right, the Janus personality actually dies, leaving Mr. Kim in permanent control of the body.
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u/FactoryPl 22m ago
A plot was that butters parents started to think he had multiple personality disorder, the joke being they mistook a child playing make believe as MPD. They take him to see the therapist Dr Janice.
B Plot was that a new Japanese restaurant opened near the chinese one so the Chinese restaurant owner (Lu Kim) goes on a tirade to get rid of him.
Episode climax is that Dr Janice was the one with multiple personality disorder and his strongest personality was Lu Kim. Once the town founds out they just let him stay as Lu Kim because "does the world really need another therapist, City Wok is now the only Chinese restaurant left in town".
Season 15, episode 6.
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u/Pretend-Marsupial258 2h ago
Yeah, he's a therapist in the town and the Chinese guy is his alter ego that he didn't know about.
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u/EFTucker 3h ago
And get comfortable saying “I love you”
It’s a super weird greeting/acknowledgement of being a foreigner while also being polite and welcoming. I won’t pretend to totally understand it but it’s a weird cultural thing that developed.
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u/StopReadingMyUser 2h ago
I found it interesting that to want or to like something are viewed not as verbs like they are in english, but adjectives... it's weird because they're like super common words but it's like the only two words this is true for lol.
You don't want/like a sandwich. A sandwich is wantable/likeable to you. Interesting to get used to.
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u/strawberry_anarchy 1h ago
Reminds me of when i tried to teach my US friends how to say something in german. Nobody got the pronouncation right so i suggested talking angry. Everybody was like "noo thats sutch a steriotype! I cant do that!" But it actually helps 😅
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u/yourstruly912 1h ago edited 1h ago
But that's for speaking in chinese. The thing here is that if you want to be understood in english by the japanese you basically have to mimick a heavy japanese accent for it.
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u/th3BeastLord 4h ago
I am reminded of a substory in the newer Like a Dragon games where Ichiban encounters a guy who wants him to do some pictures or videos or something(been a while, dont remember exactly) but he keeps getting him to dress or act as a racist caricature. The best ending is funnily enough to play along so he's happy.
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4h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/justagenericname213 4h ago
I mean, the above example is litterally a case of needing to hit a classic racist stereotype to actually communicate.
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u/GigaVanguard 3h ago
Account made immediately before this comment, ChatGPT cadence- that’s a bot.
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u/LazyBid3572 2h ago
It's like this in thailand too.
I was talking university classes here andmy gave asked me to help with the computer. She had a blue screen of death and I told her she had a computer error. She looked at me compiler dumbfounded.
Then another Thai student came in and said "OHH com Pew TUH Air WUH" even the teacher said it the same way.
I then realized the English borrowed words have a very heavy almost racist accent that they will not understand if you use it.
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u/ZzoZzo 2h ago
lol that reminds me of going to the Philippines. If I speak English normally they didn’t understand me, but if I spoke English with an exaggerated Filipino accent it was no problem
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u/shinigamichan 5h ago
Thats because the Japanese word for Sprite is sprite. Pronounced "su-pa-rai-to"
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u/Pretend-Marsupial258 3h ago
Whoa! It's like it's a brand name or something! I wonder what they call McDonald's?
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u/oxemenino 4h ago
This happened to me in Brazil. I was trying to get a taxi driver to take me to the mall where the only Outback Steakhouse in the area was located and he couldn't understand me. I kept repeating "Outback Steakhouse " slowly over and over, but he had no idea what I was saying. Finally I remembered that Brazilians add vowels in between consonants on a lot of loan words so I said "ouchy-backy" and the driver responded "Oh ouchy-backy! Why didn't you say so earlier?" Lol
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u/Manufactured-Aggro 4h ago
The sheer concept of even traveling to Brazil and then still choosing to go to an outback steakhouse anyway is sending me
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u/oxemenino 3h ago
I was actually meeting a friend at the mall (malls are still huge in Brazil) and he told me to make sure and go to the one with an the Outback Steakhouse so I didn't end up at the wrong mall.
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u/I_blockkarmafarmers 2h ago
They have Outback here in Korea. It's considered elevated fine dining; people literally dress up to eat Outback food, which is pretty much the same wherever there is an Outback steakhouse.
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u/Slinkyy-Vibes 5h ago
That’s the funniest kind of correction, when the “proper” version just circles back to the loanword anyway
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u/Fluffyy-Crave 5h ago
frrr. the correction is basically “no no, say it wrong in the accepted way”
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u/Karekter_Nem 4h ago
I’ve seen people say, “just speak English, but in Katakana and they’ll figure out what you mean.”
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u/Coylyy-Sweet 4h ago
This advice honestly makes sense, half the battle is just making the English sound like Japanese expects it to sound
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u/eggyrulz 4h ago
I have no experience with Japan outside of anime subs and anime itself (but I watch dub, so even that is limitef), but i suspect if I just spoke English slowly with a japanese accent most japanese peoppe would probably get the gist...
At least I have been led to believe this, and it has become a foundational part of my worldview, so if you correct me I will cry and blame you for everything in my life being a lie
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u/juicy0227 3h ago
I live in Japan and have for a while. They'd understand very basic stuff lol. Anything more advanced than some bar chit chat or mutual hobbies and most people are gonna be lost lolm think year 2 Spanish level. Please don't cry.
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u/SuperCleverPunName 2h ago
My personal rule is that if it's something that's been invented after 1900, it's probably a loan word.
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u/Ultenth 3h ago
Most people in Japan/Korea especially aren't even aware that the words originate in English. Like the amount of times they will ask westerners what they call -Insert clearly western originating term/brand here- is pretty hilarious.
It'd be like if someone from America asked a Japanese person what their term for singing together in public on a machine that shows you the lyrics, plays the instrumental version of the song, and has a microphone is called.
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u/kw13 2h ago
Some are pretty obvious, but it took me learning the Japanese for picture and for character before realising that emoji was a Japanese word, I always thought it was English in origin.
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u/Legitimate_Twist 1h ago
Another obscure one is tycoon, which comes from Taikun (大君), meaning "great prince/lord."
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u/Xrein1 1h ago
There's also Honcho, who come from the word hanchō (班長), that mean squad leader or group leader.
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u/Kelly598 3h ago
That's because Japan does not consume milk tea as part of their food culture. It's a foreign product brought to them so they use english words in katakana to promote them.
For example, they got fried chicken that they call "kaarage" but, when they talk about "furaido chikkin" (fried chicken), they mean the fried chicken from KFC which is a popular christmas food.
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u/NewRootsLol 4h ago
LOL it was the same with me when I came to the country, wanted to practice my Japanese, and was asked if I wanted milk and sugar in my coffee but I didn't know how to say "Black coffee" in Japanese and said:
"Umm, no sugar and milk, please"
"ああ、ブラックコーヒー" (burakku koohii)
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u/Dizzzzza 3h ago
Japanese word for "work" goes like "arubaito". When I learned it I was wondering, when did they borrowed words from German? Nvm...
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u/emachel 2h ago
Isn't it "shigoto"?
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u/slvl 2h ago
Shigoto is a full-time job, arubaito or baito is a temporary or part-time job.
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u/DisplacedLondoner 2h ago
It is, but アルバイト arubaito is more like a part time job specifically. Pretty sure it does come from German!
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u/Flaydowsk 2h ago
Came from the Dutch when they were trading with the Japanese during the isolation period.
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u/shadowslasher11X 4h ago
About 20% of the Japanese everyday language is English + Loan Words. So make sure to put that on your resume when applying for your next job. 😏
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u/dboti9k 5h ago
It's the same with German. I had a German friend and every time I wanted to learn and use a cool new German word with him, it was the same word in English.
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u/novae_ampholyt 5h ago
Well we also have plenty of german only anglicisms. Like "handy" for phone
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u/makochi 5h ago
german trying to get a new phone, unaware he's about to be charged with sexual harassment of the best buy employee: "yeah how much does a handy cost"
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u/UltimatePickpocket 5h ago
And then the Best Buy employee surprises everyone when they respond
"For you, it's free."
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u/AstuteSalamander 5h ago
Starting a new job, "so do you provide handies here or do I need to that care of that myself"
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u/GodofsomeWorld 4h ago
I would like to get your finest handy for my child here who has just come of age
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u/GalaxyPowderedCat 5h ago
Bro, I love German for that. I was learning a bit of it for college and German is sometimes like that.
It's not an abomination, even if there are hard compound words. It's a nightmare to pronounce but I live for Handy.
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u/Dredgeon 5h ago
Please tell me there is some phrasing for calling someone that directly translates to "give them a handy"
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u/Bakedalaska1 5h ago
My favorite is "antibabypillen"
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u/moku46 5h ago
I had to look it up and holy shit it's real.
Funnier yet, people and doctors just call it "die pille."
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u/Boobsmcfuckup 4h ago
Ik it looks the same but in German die is pronounced dee, not dye. Most words with ie use e, and ei use i.
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u/Specky013 55m ago
I only now realized why that's funny to english speakers. It just reads normal to german speakers but I guess for english speakers it would be something like "Kill Pill"
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u/Commercial-Royal-988 3h ago
mine is "Handschuh" because you know which article of clothing they named first.
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u/black-winter- 5h ago
“That thing you just said? Us Germans have a word for that, it’s called Thatthingyoujustsaiden”
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u/what-are-you-a-cop 4h ago
My hack for when I couldn't remember a verb, was to just stick "-ieren" on the end of an English verb and then conjugate that as normal. It worked like... 75% of the time.
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u/mooinginpublic 3h ago
Same for french. Here in Quebec we made up a lot of words to use instead but in French they don't have a word for weekend or parking or shopping, they just say "weekend" and "parking" and "shopping" lol...
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u/TemporaryElk5202 3h ago
Listening to turkish as someone who doesnt speak turkish, there's either english, german, or french every 6th word
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u/BextoMooseYT 3h ago
Well to be fair at least english is a germanic language lol. Tbf I don't know if it really makes a difference, cuz I feel like there's a pretty good chance they're just straight loanwords, rather than evolving alongside each other or stemming from the same base or anything
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u/ifuckedyourmilkshake 3h ago
Started learning German because I was watching Dark and I was like "I swear I can almost understand this" and it turns out a lot of German is just Spicy English.
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u/Paradoxmoose 3h ago
One fun thing I learned when I went to Gamescom was Germans say "That's what she said" in English rather than German. Translating it to German was deemed "weird"
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u/Reddity65 5h ago
My life hack when I was in Japan and trying to speak to someone that didn't understand my shoddy Japanese was to just legitimately say the English word but in the thickest Japanese accent I could pull off. Worked like 80% of the time.
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u/drewman301 5h ago
Harro eburiwan. Hau aru yu? I ammu faino, sankyuu.
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u/CrashCalamity 4h ago
OH MY GAH
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u/UnhealthyCheesecake 4h ago
Er, I wish I were a bird
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u/Unlikely-Lawyer-5683 3h ago
For anyone who doesn't know what these nutjobs are doing. They are reciting lines from a legendary SOL manga/anime called Azumanga Daioh.
https://giphy.com/gifs/dBbUMySpD649rQiTKx
you might atleast seen some rendition of this meme called capirinya capirinya (might be the wrong spelling, its been a long time) The anime/manga is very famous for the various memes that it has given to the internet
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u/Ultenth 3h ago edited 2h ago
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YDdtW_c-CfM
The show is so unhinged, and just like other insane similar inspired anime, you can tell the voice actors are having an absolute blast with how insane everything is.
Asobi Asobase is my personal favorite for extremely unhinged goofy SoL comedy featuring female characters. Speaking of English/Japanese language shenanigans, it also includes a girl who is clearly European, and pretends to be a worldly English speaker, but clearly cannot. And there is another girl who isn't a main character, but looks like she jumped right out of an ancient Japanese painting. Of course she speaks great English but everyone keeps asking her to help her with their classical Japanese literature etc.
Olivia's (the non-English speaking westerner) brother is even better, and basically a Redditor level western anime nerd who looks like a Otaku and speaks like a Japanese Samurai.
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u/bentbabe 3h ago
the really fucked up this is that based on when I studied in Japan, I've seen this shit work so many times.
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u/Fluffyy-Crave 5h ago
Honestly that’s encouraging, sometimes confidence and a brave accent carry more than perfect grammar
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u/Exilicauda 3h ago
I used to teach some kids that didn't speak much English and I partnered them with a kid that just would not stop talking but spoke no Spanish. Learned from that experience that they do actually understand English better if it's said in a Hispanic/chicano accent. Which makes sense because that's how they hear it when they're practicing English
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u/Only_Fudge5299 5h ago
me learning spanish
like what do you mean steak is "beef steak" (bistec)
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u/Slinkyy-Vibes 5h ago
Spanish does this constantly, you think you’re about to learn a whole new word and it’s just English wearing a mustache
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u/yournumberis6 5h ago
Lmao as a native spanish speaker you are right. Another example is car, which in some places is called "carro".
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u/what-are-you-a-cop 4h ago
My husband is still kind of salty, 20 years later, that his high school Spanish teacher kept marking people incorrect for using "carro" and insisting they use "coche", even though this all took place in a geographical area with a lot of Spanish speakers, where it was very very evident that absolutely no one in real life (in this region) said "coche". He reacts with visible vindication every time he sees someone say "carro" lol.
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u/SimplyYulia 4h ago
Regional differences is one of the most annoying parts of it. I'm an immigrant to Spain and here it is coche, and carro is just a shopping cart
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u/neganight 3h ago
I have no idea what type of Spanish I was taught in high school but a number of common words are nothing like Spanish as spoken in Spain or Mexico. I kind of get it because slang changes pretty quickly over time but it's still frustrating. But at the same time it's pretty hilarious to see how english is taught in other countries because they have similar weird grammar rules and lingo that no one uses in any english-speaking country.
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u/_BubblyWink 4h ago
Spanish keeps reminding you that the “right” word can change the second you cross a border
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u/ManOf1000Usernames 4h ago
There is a lot of anglecismo in spanish but this aint one of them.
Both "car" and "carro" are a shortening of "carriage" and "carruaje" respectively, of which both descend from the latin "carrus" which itself comes from the gaelic "karros", a word for carts and/or wagons.
So it was carro all along!
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u/Fluffyy-Crave 5h ago
Spanish really does hit you with the “new vocabulary” reveal and it’s just the same word with better pronunciation
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u/NoForm5443 4h ago
For modern words, yes; others it's because English is the bastard child of German and French
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u/Affectionate-Fee1395 5h ago
That really depends on what type of spanish, some dialects really dont use any english words at all.
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u/Lowlight01 4h ago
Im partial to cornfleis(corn flakes or any cereal in my inlaws family) too lol
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u/Beneficial_Layer_458 5h ago
come on man
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u/greeneggiwegs 4h ago
wait til you hear what it is in Japanese
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u/johnnymarsbar 2h ago
Weirdly Chinese has its own completely different translation for electronic devices: Phone dian hua , computer Dian nao , TV dian shi, tablet pingban dian nao etc
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u/VGADreams 2h ago
It is often "pasocon". For "personal computer".
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u/Levi-san 1h ago
which is also constructed from pasonaru konpyuutaa aka personal computer aka its still all english but with an extra twist
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u/Lewa358 4h ago
When I heard that the Japanese name for the NES was "Famicom" I thought, "yeah, that makes sense. Family Computer."
"...wait a minute."
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u/Alarming-Cow299 3h ago
Ok but like it makes sense for modern technology to use loan words, English uses loan words from other languages to describe things that did not exist on the British Isles. But contrary to popular belief, the British did not invent the colour pink.
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u/P1zzaman 4h ago
パソコン if you want (which is still shortened “personal computer” but hey at least it ain’t コンピューター)
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u/2gaywitches 2h ago edited 2h ago
It's komputer in both Russian and Indonesian, lol.
I also translated "ice cream" into Indonesian the other day and imagine my surprise when I found out it's "es krim".
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u/TugboatThomas 2h ago
Baby stroller in japanese is ベビーカー which is basically pronouced "baby car" hahahaha when my teacher told me that I laughed for a good five minutes. Her greatest joy in our classes is when she gets to introduce an absurd katakana loan word.
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u/Jesta23 4h ago
Band aid.
blank stare
Band aid.
crickets
Band aid-o.
Oooo yeah. Here you go.
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u/Nomeg_Stylus 2h ago
The best advice about living in Japan I got is that, whenever you need something but don't know the Japanese for it, just ask for it in English in a really thick Japanese accent. You feel like a racist doing it, but when it keeps fucking working, you just gotta shrug and go with it.
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u/StopMeFromPosting 4h ago
I've had a long running "joke" where I would encounter something that sounded similar in Japanese and I would turn to my friend and say something like, "I'll get the milk. Or as they say in Japanese, miriku."
His wife is half-japanese and her mom is full Japanese and lives with them. One night, their Mom was around and we were getting ice cream, so I said, "Ice Cream. Or as they say in Japanese, Aisu kurimu." He gives me this death stare and hisses that his mother-in-law is right there.
I blink in confusion, then say, "No, really, that's how it's said in Japanese" to which his wife then confirmed.
Turns out he thought for years that I was just being super racist and pulling a spanglish type thing by adding random syllables to the end of words to make fun of the Japanese. Apparently the only reason he never said anything about it was because he thought it was an inside joke between me and his wife and she never seemed offended, but doing it in front of his full Japanese mother-in-law seemed super disrespectful.
Now it's more hilarious, though I feel bad that for years he thought I was just being offhandedly racist.
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u/lionofash 3h ago
That's hilarious
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u/shewy92 2h ago
You'd think after however many years of being married that the guy would have heard his MIL speak Japanese and pick up on that though.
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u/StopMeFromPosting 2h ago
I'll have to ask if he just thought she had a heavy accent with some words. She speaks perfect English, though, so he's likely only heard snippets of Japanese in passing.
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u/Analog_Account 1h ago
Now is your chance to actually fuck with him now that he believes what youre saying.
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u/Lloyd_lyle 5h ago
Colors are gonna be that way since they're a social construct that varies between cultures. Pink is just viewed as "light red" in a lot of languages so yeah you're gonna get a loanword.
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u/Bretreck 5h ago
Actually the etymology of color words is super interesting. Usually each language starts with specific colors in a specific order (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, White, Black) then they evolve from there. I've read a couple articles on it and it was entertaining.
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u/HansTeeWurst 4h ago
Japanese word for green is also a loanword
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u/emachel 2h ago
Midori?
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u/HansTeeWurst 2h ago
Sorry should have explained that better. Old japanese used ao for both blue and green. Refering to green specifically during the heian period they used the word "ryokushoku" 緑色 (which retroactively became midoriiro later)
The word midori used to mean something like sprout or bud and only became the word for the color green later.
What i wanted to say is that the color green was "imported" from Chinese and most people said blue instead (people still say "blue traffic light", "blue leaves", "blue apple" etc)
Midori is a Japanese word. My bad
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u/Fluffyy-Crave 5h ago
Yeah, color words are exactly where loanwords make sense because the meaning shifts so much between cultures
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u/Wise-Key-3442 5h ago
Can be applied to Brazilian Portuguese if you are looking for a more vibrant/hot pink.
We will literally say "Rosa pink", which is like saying Pink Pink, or straight up go Pink.
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u/DistributionEasy5233 5h ago
Isn't there momo iro or something?
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u/GohTheGreat 5h ago edited 5h ago
That’s literally “peach (the fruit) colored” and has the nuance of being used in writing. You can use ___iro for most colors but Japanese people 9/10 just use a loan word.
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u/Nervous_Brain8918 5h ago
Thanks for this! I googled the traditional word and wondered the same thing
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u/izyshoroo 4h ago
This probably has about as much nuance in English as it does in Japanese
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u/FixFun1959 4h ago
Wife is Japanese. Too often I try to use a Japanese word she’ll correct me and tell me to use the borrowed English word.
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u/LMGDiVa 4h ago edited 4h ago
A lot of people don't seem to realize that the USA and Japan were forever interlinked like big brother little brother since Mathew Perry forced his way in and then Pearl Harbor really sealed the deal.
We have been a quitincential part of Japanese culture for literally since the civil war.
Which means about 10% of Japanese words are American English downsampled into Katakana, because Japanese only has 5 pure vowels, A as in Talk/Taco, E as in Enemy, O as in Oh!/Taco, U as in KungFu/ Truth, and ii(long E), as in Suzuki/Kawasaki/Fuji/Nami(yes the joke is that these are japanese words that we use in english).
About 40% of Japanese is basically old Chinese converted in to Japanese sounds, so this is nothing new for Japanese.
Also Japanese education follows American English standard when it comes to English standards and words and pronouncations.
So they have expressly had a really strong reason for this for so long.
If you're american who loves anime honestly learning japanese is kinda really awesome because it really puts in a lot of fun knowledge into shows.
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u/Key_Resist2938 4h ago
2 seconds isnt long, but it still took way too long to realize you were NOT talking about Chandler Bing.
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u/tachycardicIVu 4h ago
Chandler’s actual job that no one could ever remember on the show
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u/bentbabe 3h ago
Same. My first thought there was "what does Ms Chanandler Bong have to do with this"
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u/daemykins 4h ago
My absolute favorite story of Japanese shenanigans was saying "hotto dogu" and "hanbaagaa" to my wife at any opportunity because they're fun to say. 10 years later and she screams at me "wait that's ACTUALLY THE WORD FOR IT?" seeing the translation on tv. All this time she thought I was just making it up.
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u/Spodermanphil 4h ago
You could probably hold a comprehensible conversation in Japanese by speaking English in a the most stereotypical Japanese accent.
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u/Unplaceable_Accent 4h ago
Me: (Tries desperately to explain the concept of "wrapping paper" to the store staff)
Staff: Ohhh, rappingu pe-pa?
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u/Sweaty_Strain9392 3h ago
i had this chinese friend who tutored others in mandarin, and she told me that one of the most common issues westerners have when it comes to annunciation is that we try too hard to avoid a stereotypical accent, when in reality you need to give it likes a "15-20% racist lilt" to get it right
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u/HotUKTakes 4h ago
What did Japanese say before they met English speakers and adopted "Sexaru" into Japanese? Is this why the birthrates are so bad?
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u/Nervous_Brain8918 5h ago
Do they not use 桃色 (momoiro) very often? This bothered/intrigued me about Korean so I also learned the native word separately.
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u/gelatinousTurtle 4h ago
Momoiro is sometimes used for situations where emphasizing traditional/Japanese is important.
For example, in one of the ninja-themed Super Sentai (for those of you that don't know, this is the franchise that became Power Rangers in the west) they had a "momo ranger" instead of a pink ranger to keep the "feel" of the ninja theme.
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u/deoxyribonucleic123 5h ago
Apparently that's more so a written thing than a spoken one.
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u/TheDVant 1h ago
I was talking to a Japanese friend and didn't know how to say ice pack. I offhandedly said, "God dammit, it better not be Aisu-Pakku" 3 seconds of googling later.
God... fucking dammit.
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u/Friendly_Respecter 4h ago
This really is how it is. Trying to learn my mother tongue since I neglected all the classes that taught it to me growing up only to find out that like 70% of the time people will just say English words with some affixes attached
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u/Anarchist_Monarch 2h ago
Not exactly the same, but in Japan they often say 'Momoiro' (means peach color)
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u/AkaruLyte Harry Potter 5h ago
Happens sometimes to me in Spanish. “Geométricamente” just doesn’t seem real but it’s how you say “geometrically”
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u/iamgoingtooffmyself 4h ago
That's different, it's just the result of ancient greeks being a bunch of nerds and loaning their words to all of europe
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u/less_unique_username 3h ago edited 3h ago
When we got back on the plane, they pointed out another man who did speak Portuguese, so I sat next to him. He had been studying neurosurgery in Maryland, so it was very easy to talk with him as long as it was about cirugia neural, o cerebreu, and other such "complicated" things. The long words are actually quite easy to translate into Portuguese because the only difference is their endings: "-tion" in English is "-cao" in Portuguese; "-ly" is "-mente," and so on. But when he looked out the window and said something simple, I was lost: I couldn't decipher "the sky is blue."
I got off the plane in Recife (the Brazilian government was going to pay the part from Recife to Rio) and was met by the father-in-law of Cesar Lattes, who was the director of the Center for Physical Research in Rio, his wife, and another man. As the men were off getting my luggage, the lady started talking to me in Portuguese: "You speak Portuguese? How nice! How was it that you learned Portuguese?"
I replied slowly, with great effort. "First, I started to learn Spanish... then I discovered I was going to Brazil..." Now I wanted to say, "So, I learned Portuguese," but I couldn't think of the word for "so." I knew how to make BIG words, though, so I finished the sentence like this: "CONSEQUENTEMENTE, apprendi Portugues!"
When the two men came back with the baggage, she said, "Oh, he speaks Portuguese! And with such wonderful words: CONSEQUENTEMENTE!"
—Richard Feynman, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"
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u/KnightRunner-6564 3h ago
I mean for pink you can kinda say 桜色 (Sakura-iro) meaning sakura color.
But really in general it’s just ピンク.
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u/Nomeg_Stylus 2h ago
桃色 if you wanna be technical about it. It's not like they couldn't describe the color before English speakers came along.
Orange is だいだい色, but fuck if I know the kanji for that.
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u/side_lel 2h ago
I'm looking for a bento box, it cant be pinku (that's Japanese for pink) or any girl color. It has to be of 2 or more kotoba (that's Japanese for 2 compartments) and has be be chibi (small) sized. And has to be really kawaii (cute). Also It has to be about 10-20 bux. And you have to post pics of it first (i want to make shure it's kawaii [cute]). And it would be nice if it came with matching chopstick holder (WITH chopsticks). OH! and it CANNOT have any cartoon pictures, or be made out of plastic. It has to be made of ceramic, or something like that. Also it would be nice if it was made in japan. and not in china or corea (Korea) or whatever. I have found a bento box similar to the one im describing in e-bay, but it was 1 kotoba, and i don't want my gohan (rice) to touch my other things (it can get wet and i would not like that, plus 2 compartments looks more kawaii)
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u/eatingpopcorn_lol 54m ago edited 50m ago
There was a street interview video in Japanese where people tried to talk as long as they can without using loanwords, I can't find it but it was funny
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u/MonsieurLinc 4h ago
Korean is the same way. Like a solid quarter to a third of the words I've learned so far are just English loan words and it kinda pisses me off.
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u/12monthsinlondon 4h ago
Come to Hong Kong, all the English words you hear within the Cantonese are official.
You can ask hey what's the actual Cantonese word for like "happy hour" that and Hong Kong people will just grimace and struggle
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u/MrTagnan 4h ago edited 3h ago
This happens with me constantly, I ask what an English word in Japanese is while thinking I’m about to learn a cool new word and the associated kanji except OOPS it’s actually just English
Somewhat similarly, my HS Japanese teacher told me about how he was studying for an exam or something, and one of the words he needed to know was “cash register”, he ended up memorizing a behemoth of a word - 金銭登録機 (Kinsentourokuki) most likely - and when he got the test back the actual word was レジ (Regi - register but with “ster” cut off)
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u/mercuriokazooie 3h ago
This actually affects Japanese people learning English too. I teach English in Japan and so many students will take Japanese words that we use in English too and try to translate them which just makes them way harder to say when they can literally just say the Japanese word.
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u/usedburgermeat 3h ago
I've felt that feeling of talking English in what would be considered a offensive accent to a Japanese person so they understand what I mean because weirdly enough the Japanese usually learn English from someone who is Japanese. I felt like an asshole but ending every sentence with a vowel helped
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u/qualityvote2 5h ago
Heya u/BaldHourGlass667! And welcome to r/NonPoliticalTwitter!
For everyone else, do you think OP's post fits this community? Let us know by upvoting this comment!
If it doesn't fit the sub, let us know by downvoting this comment and then replying to it with context for the reviewing moderator.