r/NonPoliticalTwitter 6h ago

Funny Learning Japanese

Upvotes

497 comments sorted by

View all comments

u/LMGDiVa 5h 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.

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.

u/LMGDiVa 4h ago

Right, I forgot the friends actor was also named Mathew Perry.

u/shewy92 2h ago

Well Matthew Perry

u/tachycardicIVu 4h ago

Chandler’s actual job that no one could ever remember on the show

u/_thro_awa_ 2h ago

"Oooohh ooh, he's ... he's a transponster! A TRANSPONSTER!"

u/Atralis 4h ago

A lot of actors have to do odd jobs in between auditions like waitressing or opening Japan.

u/bentbabe 3h ago

Same. My first thought there was "what does Ms Chanandler Bong have to do with this"

u/thetoastmonster 4m ago

There's another one?

u/tristanthorn_ 3h ago

TIL how American English pronounces talk and it’s blowing my mind that I’ve never noticed it pronounced like that before…

u/HansTeeWurst 4h ago

pink has been used long before ww2 and is probably from British english

u/LMGDiVa 2h ago

Mathew Perry Predates the use of the word in Japanese.
I am not talking about the actor.

u/HansTeeWurst 2h ago

So he took a dictionary with him and japanese people just put random english words in their language for no reason or what? Do you think I believe no american has ever been in Japan prior to 1945?

u/Far_Ladder_2836 47m ago

Do you think I believe no american has ever been in Japan prior to 1945?

Yes, I do.  Only someone so obtuse would type something as dumb as this.

So he took a dictionary with him and japanese people just put random english words in their language for no reason or what?  

Matthew Perry opened Japan for trade with America at gunpoint when they were closed to all others (except a handful of Portugese missionaries who were subjected to essentially a generous house arrest).  Of fucking course some cognates moved over from trade with Americans.  Learn to Google basic 7th grade history.

u/Alzion 3h ago

Possibly, but Japan has had close contact with the Americans long before WWII as well. The first ironclad warship of the IJN was a ship purchased by the Confederatcy, but delivered after the American Civil war ended which then was resold to Japan in 1867.

u/HansTeeWurst 2h ago

This is true, and they did "import" a lot of american specialists (mainly for train and postal knowledge), but still most pre ww2 English words are from British english.

u/Far_Ladder_2836 46m ago

No, they are not.  Britain never had strong trade with Japan who famously closed it's borders to all trade until an AMERICAN Matthiew Perry opened Japan to trade with AMERICA

u/Mista_Fuzz 3h ago

downsampled is a good way of putting it haha

u/UberNZ 3h ago

On the other hand, their auto industry was largely influenced by the British, so most of their car terms are from British English.

u/Nomeg_Stylus 2h ago

Pick up a newspaper and tell me ten percent of Japanese is English loan words.

u/Shneancy 57m ago

are you thinking higher or lower? because depending on the topic of a newspaper column those will vary. if tech it'll be WAY higher, if rural life then lower

u/dr_goodvibes 1h ago

Quitincential

u/Bunnytob 42m ago

Do both the Es in AmEn "enemy" really make the same sound?

Do both the Us in AmEn "Kung Fu" really make the same sound?