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Saturday, November 17, 2007

Stop It With the Fools Already (うんぽんたん)

He Says:
unpontan (うんぽんたん)=fool
Fool usually means aho or baka in Japanese,but unpontan too.This word unpontan is kind of soft word to say fool,we use it when we are not so angry with the people,or especially to kids,women who would be so hurt if we say aho or baka.
And this word is so old,they say it's made more than 300 years ago,which was Edo era in Japan.
Japanese use aho or baka many times in daily life,don't use unpontan even though it's the same meaning.
So they would think cool if you can use this old word instead of aho or baka!

She Says:
Good Lord, do we really need another word for fool? It amazes me how almost all insults in Japanese get translated as "fool", when it's just not so common in America. Stronger words in Japanese tend to sound ridiculous when you actually translate them (See hetare.).
Anyway, He says that because of the obscurity, you'll end up looking cool. I'm not so convinced of this. I mean, I think that many English speakers have at times encountered a foreigner who uses out-of-date slang. It doesn't make them cool. We're more likely to laugh AT them. Maybe Japanese people are different though...

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Hey Baldy!(はげ)

He Says:
hage (はげ)=bald

So many japanese men use this word casually. and they also use this word to the people who isn't bald,like a just short-cropped hair people.
And when jp men are angry, they sometimes just insult "hage" to everyone who isn't bald too.
So this word hage is used to insult people.
And bald hair guy tend to be called hage as his nickname..

Variation:
hage atama-bald head
hage oyaji-bald daddy
hage jyousi-bald boss
hage chabin-bald guy like a teapot

She Says:
"Bald" doesn't tend to be too much of an insult in English. I mean, it's not exactly a good thing to be bald...but it's not exactly the worst thing in the world either. It seems to be a much bigger insult in Japanese. He runs a similar blog in Japanese (called Dirty English) and was recently pressing me about the word bald. It was hard to explain that it wasn't a huge insult here.
One thing this word does illustrate though...is how mean Japanese guys can be in their teasing of each other. I mean, here you have a word that's a pretty big insult, yet it's also a common nickname?!?! You wouldn't even believe me if I told you some of the things you'd see guys do to each other on TV. It's just wrong.
Hage chabin is kind of funny though. I wonder if that means "short and stout" also...

The next word is...うんぽんたん。

Monday, November 12, 2007

Happy Trails to You....(ギャランドゥ)

He Says:
gallandoo (ギャランドゥ)=happytrail
There is no word for happytrail in Japanese. But among young japanese, sometimes they like to use gallandoo as happytrail.
Originally,the word gallando was the title of a song,"Gallando". When the composer made the song,he just muttered the word to make the melody.
Then the meaningless word gallando became the song title.
But we could see the japanese singer had so much happytrail when he was singing.
Since then many people have used the word just as a happytrail.
So this word is a slang, we can't see it in a japanese dictionary.
If you use the word to those who have happy trail, japanese people will laugh so much.

She Says:
This is so weird I don't even have any comments.

The next word is...はげ。

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Lost in Translation (へたれ)

He Says:
Hetare (へたれ)=coward
Hetare originaly means a farter("he" is a fart,"tare" is ~er.)
But usually Japanese use hetare when the person can't do or hesitates to do such an easy thing.
Espacially young people love to use the word.
It's from Osaka, but now so many people in Japan use the word casually.
This word hetare is comparatively a powerful word, because japanese language doesn't have many dirty words. So if you say it to someone,they would be hurt easier.
For example in a test of your courage in a haunted house with japanese friends, if you are scared so much,you would be said hetare.
But I might be a hetare, because I was so scared my wife's big fart in the silence...

She Says:
Strong words indeed...but can you keep a straight face knowing that you're calling someone a "farter"? I didn't think so...

The next word is...ギャランドゥ。