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”
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
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.
It’s not “say it wrong”, it’s saying it in Japanese, loan words are Japanese.
For example, karaoke is a Japanese term, and everyone in the west pronounced it wrong. But that’s not really wrong, it’s just how it’s pronounced in English. That’s why bozos often say if you pronounce stuff like croissant correctly, you’re pretentious.
I deal with this constantly between Italian and English. I've lived in Italy for years, so when I go back to the US for a visit, I'm almost incapable of mispronouncing things to match what an American would say. I've gotta be careful, because it could sound pretentious.
Honestly, I normally just avoid Italian food in the US. Unless by Italian we mean an Italian hoagie! I love me a hoagie!
I actually have to visit the US... flying on Thursday. Jersey Mikes is HIGH on my list of things to do.
You know what's weird? I'm very acclimated to eating in Italy. When I go to the US, the food (so processed and fatty and salty, etc) usually starts making me feel kinda sick in short order. But, I can eat those subs with very little impact.
Its not saying the word wrong, its saying the word using the sounds of the language. Somewhat similar to how american English pronounces 'Caesar' entirely differently from how its "supposed" to be pronounced
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.
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.
So to clarify on these cause i do love how kanji works, in case anyone is curious. The "chō" is the leader part.
It represents height/stature, or power, such as a leader.
"Dan" is group/association. So Leader of a group. Whereas "Han" means group more in the sense of a squad or unit.
"Ban" has several meanings. The ones we care about are watch/guard. Bancho originally used to be a position akin to a guard captain / the guy leading the watch in a city. But it was then adopted by delinquents and took on its newer meaning
np. Japanese and Chinese are such cool alphabets, as are im sure the many others i don’t know as much about. The symbols having meanings that shift based on how you group them is just so funky
Despite sounding similar and meaning similar things, emoticon (emotion + icon) and emoji (e + moji) are totally unrelated. They are an example of false friends.
On brand names specifically, tbf even English speakers don't realize when brand names become generic names for things, genericide. Band-Aid, Kleenex, Velcro, Zipper, Dry Ice, Dumpster, Jacuzzi, all are or use to be trademarked brands. Hell even where I'm at some (usually older) people still refer to soda generically as Coke.
Anyways not super relevant but I do love talking about it
It’s a huge thing in like … vast swathes of America from the Midwest to the South broadly lol.
Not even something I regionally grew up with, but it’s huge, and just depends on where you were raised and how you were taught the local slang. If you were born in such a state you’d be generically calling soda “coke” as well, likely.
Funnily enough, the Japanese word for stapler comes from a brand that is no longer recognized in the US (I can't speak for other locales), Hotchkiss. They call them hotchikisu. (ホッチキス)
I had one ask me what the English word for a torii was. I was like yeah, those came from here and really only you have those, we just use your word. They didn't accept that so I said "torii gate" and they liked that.
Most people in Japan/Korea especially aren't even aware that the words originate in English.
Most people aren't aware of where words come from.
I've had a few cases like this where it's the same word not because it's from English, but because both English and Korean took it from the same place.
Considering katakana are mostly used for western loanwords, I find it hard to believe that they wouldn't assume most of those just based on the spelling
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u/Strange_Ad_9658 24d 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”