Highly Tense Viking Mansion
- GG
- Feb 28
- 2 min read
Updated: May 7
Post 2:
There is an interesting feature of the Japanese language which is sprinkled with many words of foreign origin (外来語 gairai-go). At face value this is not necessarily a particularly unique quality – given the position of English as the global lingua franca, it is not uncommon for other languages to have English words or phrases dotted throughout them. What makes Japanese interesting in this regard is the presence of words from a variety of different languages beyond just English – Portuguese, German, French, Russian, Chinese and many more are all present in some form. This is a curious byproduct of Japan’s history of contact with the outside world down through the centuries.
Nevertheless, it is probably safe to say that of all the wide range of gairai-go that exist in Japanese, those of English origin are the most common. In many situations this can be helpful as some words will work in both languages, but surprisingly often it can actually just end up being a source of confusion as sometimes the same word from English when used in Japanese can have a different meaning (or just sound plain odd).
An English-speaking woman who starts dating a Japanese man might be very excited when he tells her that he lives in a mansion. “Cha-ching!” “Jackpot!” It’ll be a big disappointment then when he invites her home and she sees his humble apartment. In Japanese “mansion” refers to an apartment.
What if you got invited to go eat at a Viking restaurant? You might imagine devouring giant hunks of meat off the bone and quaffing mead straight out of a giant horn, but actually you would be going to an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Or if a situation in Japanese is described as having “high tension”, it would be quite different from what you would imagine. “High tension” as used in Japanese means that everyone is excited and having a good time, rather than being on the verge of fisticuffs breaking out.
A few other interesting differences just for good measure:
In a car the steering wheel is called the “handle”;
If someone is described as “smart” it means “slim” or “thin” rather than clever;
As an article of clothing “trainer” means a jumper in Japanese, rather than a sports shoe (in British English sports shoes are called “trainers”);
A personal favourite of mine – if you are buying a rice-ball, tuna is called “sea chicken”;
Lastly, sometimes Japanese gairai-go words can be educational too, as in the case of the stapler, which in Japanese is called a “Hotchkiss” which comes from the name of the company which made an older model of stapler imported to Japan in the early 20th century. (The older model apparently took a lot of force to use and it wasn’t uncommon to use a hammer or mallet on the Hotchkiss to bind your paper together).
The key takeaway from these curiosities when dealing directly between English and Japanese is that care is always needed to ensure that the correct meaning is conveyed, and it could be hazardous to be complacent and assume if it sounds the same then the meaning must also be so.
Now I’m off back to my mansion for a spot of sea chicken!
by GG
