30
Mar
Butchering the Language
Topic: Japan 2007
I’ve already gone ahead and checked with Penn’s Japanese department. They don’t have a class in the summer, but they do have an introductory Japanese class I can take in the Fall. My goal is to not have to completely depend on Maria or pantomime for the entire time we’re living in Tokyo.
A while back Maria got me an instructional Japanese book, but until now I wasn’t motivated enough to dig into it. I skimmed through it last night, and learned that the Japanese never use more than one consonant in a row. And on my previous trips to Japan I learned that Japanese words always end in a vowel sound, with the exception of “N” (e.g. udon). The tricky thing with English words that have been assimilated into Japanese is figuring out what vowel the Japanese will stick at the end of them. The funniest one is “cheese,” which the Japanese say when having their picture taken, just like we do. But a silent vowel at the end isn’t good enough for them, so they say “cheese-u,” which means they often end up with a funny look on their face in pictures :-o.
As you probably know, the Japanese can’t say “L”, so if you put that together with the above rules, when a Japanese person tries to say an English word like “drill,” it comes out at “diriro.” It also explains why, while living with my mother-in-law in California, every time she offered me a “salad” with dinner, I thought she was asking me if I wanted some “sourdough.”
But I’m sure the Japanese I encounter next year will have even more fun as they bear witness to me butchering their language.
Print
