Comments on: カメラマン ≠ cameraman

By: Katie

Katie — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:40:35 +0000

So many pitfalls – I’ll have to note this one specifically. When I was explaining how katakana is used to my husband, he said “oh well at least you already know how to spell those words!” I gently explained that no, I will have to relearn most of those as well and how the Japanese use them.

His conclusion: how many decades will it take you to learn this language then?

By: Sandra

Sandra — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:33:20 +0000

Good point!
I did a little presentation for some women’s club international exchange event back in the day, talking about the pitfalls of katakana words (an air-conditioner cannot heat a room, etc, etc, and so on). 11 years later, someone who had been there brought it up, laughing, and reminded me of examples I’d given that I’d totally forgotten. Weird what makes an impression on people.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:23:23 +0000

Durf – That reminds me of people who still use 汽車.

Brian – I have no real problem using カメラマン for cameraman, especially if the context is clear. I think Google makes it pretty clear that it’s more flexible than cameraman. My main qualm is using cameraman for カメラマン when the person happens to be a 写真家. Photographer is a much more natural word to choose.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 03:29:49 +0000

Yahoo also seems to show the definition of the English “cameraman” as also meaning a newspaper photographer. This is just a little semantic widening of the word in Japanese or narrowing in English. I really don’t think you’d run into much trouble just substituting カメラマン for “cameraman”. Context should clear away any confusion. 撮影技師 seems very rigid and too specific for most situations and like the sort of word you’d only see in credits. Of course, formal words are sometimes the better fit.

By: Durf

Durf — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 02:35:31 +0000

Every once in a while you’ll meet an older Japanese person who still talks about his or her 写真機, to tie things in with the Portuguese connection there.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:11:13 +0000

Whoa, I never realized that about English “cameraman” before.