Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Speak English, Doris Day
...Likewise for risutora kaiko (layoff or dismissal due to corporate restructuring). Then there's sexual harassment or sekuhara. In official documents, the native term (seiteki iyagarase) is generally used; but in the mass media and common speech, the abbreviated English term has taken firm root.
Still, Japanese seem to favor English these days for new types of crimes, both sex-related and the everyday garden variety.
Take stalking. I doubt if even five out of 100 Japanese can come up with their native term for this, which is defined in the statute of May 24, 2000, which finally made it illegal, as tsukimatoi nado, meaning to follow in a persistent manner. (I would tend agree that, given such a mouthful, stalking was the more practical way to go.)
Putting in a bad word for Japanese
Are loan words doing Japanese's dirty work?
The Japan Times
***
I'm personally dead set against bastardized loan words which pop up in Japanese all the time, requiring us to butcher our pronunciation in order to communicate. The one exception to this is that they do give me a couple of easy marks in Japanese tests.
However, if this is the direction that Japanese is going in I guess it's time to jump on the bandwagon. I hereby invite all readers of this page to submit any words which they feel should be assimilated.
Let's get the ball rolling: dandruff.
Still, Japanese seem to favor English these days for new types of crimes, both sex-related and the everyday garden variety.
Take stalking. I doubt if even five out of 100 Japanese can come up with their native term for this, which is defined in the statute of May 24, 2000, which finally made it illegal, as tsukimatoi nado, meaning to follow in a persistent manner. (I would tend agree that, given such a mouthful, stalking was the more practical way to go.)
Putting in a bad word for Japanese
Are loan words doing Japanese's dirty work?
The Japan Times
***
I'm personally dead set against bastardized loan words which pop up in Japanese all the time, requiring us to butcher our pronunciation in order to communicate. The one exception to this is that they do give me a couple of easy marks in Japanese tests.
However, if this is the direction that Japanese is going in I guess it's time to jump on the bandwagon. I hereby invite all readers of this page to submit any words which they feel should be assimilated.
Let's get the ball rolling: dandruff.
Labels: AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION, BUNKA, WORDS
