Kyoto Newspaper

And I'm famous. Well not really, but I wrote an article for the Kyoto Newspaper recently and it ran today. People I have never met were coming up to me and saying "I saw your article in the paper. It was really good. Did you write it yourself?"

Aside from the unfortunate photo of me (I did not know I was going to be having my photo taken that day) I am really quite proud of the article.

And here it is...


I figure I should include an English translation for you all. I am doing this quickly so if it sounds strange, I apologize. I tried to insert any information that a person who doesn't know any Japanese would need in order to understand the article.

"That group of guys over there seem really high tension."

When my Japanese friend told me this, I turned and glanced at the men across the restaurant from us. I replied "Huh? They look like they are having a great time." My friend gave me a very confused look. I was confused too. It was the first time I had ever heard the phrase "tenshon ga agatteiru" but I knew that "agatteiru" means increased or high and since "tenshon" is just the Japanese pronunciation of "tension" I figured as a native speaker of English I pretty much understood what she meant. But in English, "tension" means stress or nervousness. The Japanese use of "tenshon" is much different and the phrase comes out to mean something like "having a really good time" and is often used about drunk people who have low inhibitions.

Once I began studying Japanese, I soon learned that Japanese uses a lot of words borrowed from English. It is almost as if in order to really understand Japanese you must have at least some background in English. But then again, being a native English speaker does not mean that I always understand the Japanese adopted English. Actually I find those borrowed words to be the most difficult to use properly.

First of all, the pronunciation is completely different. When I first read a word that was originally in English (denoted by the style of writing, called katakana), I often have to look at it for a long time and try to pronounce it in different ways until I get it. Suddenly a light goes on and I realize that "uirusu" (oo-i-ruu-su) is actually "virus." Also, a large amount of these borrowed words, like the aforementioned "tenshon" is actually Japanese-English, or English created by the Japanese. It sounds like English but it if I think of it as English it is just nonsense. For example, the Japanese often say "Rebberu appu" (Level Up) or "Pawaa appu" (Power Up) when talking about improvement. These phrases probably came from video games but we never say that in English. They also say things like "Mai baggu" (My bag) about a shopping bag they carry with them to the store in an effort to be Eco.

They also use many English words differently. For example, the word "Kanningu" (cunning) means "to cheat (on a test)" in Japanese and is a verb. But in English cunning means "sly" or "sneaky" or "smart, but with negative connotations." So "kanningu" is actually Japanese.

Although most native speakers of English would think of these Japanese-English phrases as nonsense, that doesn't make them bad. In fact I think it is great. Language is a living thing. I mean, English is not pure English. It is a mish mash of Latin, French, German, etc.

There are even words in English that came from Japanese. When we say "just a skosh," that word "skosh" is from the Japanse word "少し sukoshi" which means "just a little." But I think most Americans don't know that.

I think that the creative use of English within Japanese shows that it is a colorful, lively language. They take words that have been borrowed but give them a Japanese spin, making very interesting phrases. I think it shows the linguistic creativity of the Japanese. Japanese is not static, but dynamic and every day I enjoy learning new phrases.

But I think it is very important for Japanese people and students of English to keep in mind that this Japanese-English is not actually English, but is Japanese. Oftentimes this becomes a barrier for people studying English. If you use Japanese-English to a native speaker, they probably won't understand what you are saying. So when speaking English or writing in English it is important to use natural sounding English.

Foreigners take great enjoyment in finding really weird English written on Japanese T-shirts and making fun of it. We even have a word for it: "Engrish." It's funny for foreigners but isn't it a bit embarrassing for the Japanese?