Interesting Janglish words (和製英語 wasei-eigo)

Posted on 01/06/2014 by dicethekamikaze / 3 Comments

Japanese has an interesting way to describe western terms which can not be directly translated into Japanese. Japanese uses “カタカナKatakana” for them, especially proper nouns such as “Grand Canyon” = グランドキャニオン which many American students had a hard time to write it correctly. There are linguistic aspects on this translation which I am not going to explain in here.

Moreover, there are words and terms in Katakana only exists in Japan. These are called “Janglish” or “和製英語 wasei eigo” which are the Japanese words consist of one or more English words. Often Japanese people misunderstands Janglish as English words. I believe that some words are from not only from English, but also from other languages; for example, “カステラ Castella” is derived from Portuguese meaning “sponge cake”. The words in the list below might be these borrowing words “外来語 gairaigo” from other languages.

Here is the list of Janglish words I though interesting.

Word	combined English words	English meaning
シーチキン sichikin	sea chicken	canned tuna
テレビゲーム terebi gaimu	TV Game	Video Game
ノートPC noto pi si	Note PC	laptop
サラリーマン sarari man	salary men	company employee
アパート apato	apart	apartment
ガソリンスタンド gasorin sutando	gasoline stand	gas station
トイレ toire	toilet	bathroom
トランプ toranpu	trump	playing cards
リップクリーム lipu criimu	lip cream	chapstick
ライブハウス raibu hausu	live house	venue of live music

I will go into the details of Katakana usage in Japanese, and will expand the list of Janglish soon.

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Japanese culture/Japanese language

流行語大賞 (Ryukougo Taisho): Japanese Vogue words of 2013

Posted on 01/05/2014 by dicethekamikaze / 0 Comment

Japanese vogue words of 2013.

Happy New Year 2014.

In Japan, there are many unique traditions practiced during the end of year and new year time such as “Hatumode(first shrine visiting)”, “Osechi (traditional dishes for the new year)”, and so on. One of the interesting end of year events is an award of new words and vogue words of the year by U-CAN(a Japanese education support company). Every year, there are buzzing words that everyone is using them in common during the year especially often used among comedians on TV shows. These words are the highlight of the year in Japan. It is not always positive words and selected from not only the entertainment field, but also economics, politics, and so on; however, these words are usually not stable for very long time. Many nominations tend to be from entertainments such as TV drama and shows.

The award started in 1984 selecting Top 10 words and grand prizes. The last year 2013, there were 4 grand prizes which was unusual comparing to previous years.

Grand Prizes:

今でしょ imadesho (It’s now, Now rignt?)

A private prep school teacher Osamu Hayashi spread this word on TV commercial of his school. The catch phrase is “When you do? Now right”.

お・も・て・な・し omotenashi (hospitality)

omotenashi

Christel Takigawa, a Japanese news announcer, used this word “Omotenashi” during her presentation in the IOC(International Olympic Committee) for Olympics 2020 in Tokyo at Buenos Aires. Fortunately, Tokyo won the competition for the Olympics 2020 against Istanbul, Turkey and Madrid, Spain. She described “Japanese hospitality to welcome poeple” using this word. Personality this word represents Japanese personality well. If you have been to Japan, you find this “Omotenashi” right after you stepped out the airplane.

じぇじぇじぇ jejeje

jejeje

“Jejeje ” is used in a very popular TV drama “Amachan” as a dialect of “Sanriku(northern part of Honshu) region” equivalent to “eeee” (surprising expression). In English, this word or sound is likely to be translated as “Whaaaaat”, “Really?”, and “Are you serious”. Japanese has an interesting expression of surprising. It is not exactly a word, but just a sound; ‘eeeeeee’. I believe the TV drama was the most popular in 2013.

倍返し baigaeshi (double the payback)

baigaeshi

This word is also from a popular TV drama called “半沢直樹” Naoki Hanzawa. It is about a man who works at traditional Japanese bank.

Other Top 10 awarded words:

アベノミクス abenomic
ご当地キャラ gotouchi-kyara
特定機密保護法 tokuteikimitsu-hogo-ho
P.M2.5
ブラック企業 black-kigyo
ヘイトスピーチ hate-speech

Japanese products

Jins PC glasses

Posted on 12/26/2013 by dicethekamikaze / 0 Comment

Japanese eye care, Jins PC glasses for computers review

Jins PC and Jins PC for hackers

Jins PC is widely known as “blue right filtering glasses”. I have never seen or heard such a product in the U.S. It cut 50% of blues lights from computer screen and penetrate 98% of visible rays. It hits 3 million sales since it is released in 2011. There are varieties of shapes and colours you can choose, clear lens and high contrast lens.

Jins PC homepage

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Not only the technology of Jin-PC, but I think the best part is their marketing. On TV commercial, they use “Sho Sakurai” from “Arashi” (one of the most famous Japanese idol group) as a poster boy, collaborating with Amine, such as OnePiece and Ghost in the Shell.

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I sit in front of computer pretty much all the time at work and less but a lot at home. I got bad eye strain when I work till 2-3 in the morning. However, after I bought Jins-PC, I have been feeling less eye strain. It is very comfortable wearing long time because it is very light weight.

They have released a new PC glasses, called “Jins-PC for hackers”, and yes I bought it. This glasses were promoted as a collaboration with a new Ghost in the Shell movie.

http://ascii.jp/elem/000/000/827/827030/

I bought the second edition called “Pentagon”. It looks like this.

It is designed as “cyber world” in the future. It looks like a sun glasses for sports or road bikes, and my colleagues say it looks strange wearing these glasses inside the building. Well, I do not really care how I look, I care more functionality of the product. This glasses does not disturb you in the view comparing to regular framed Jins-PC, so I can concentrate on my code much more.

Even if you are not a hacker, this would reduce your eye strain for sure, and I would recommend to people who sit in front of computer very long time. I hope I had this when I was working on my thesis. You can get this in Amazon.com.

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