Category Archives: vocab

クリーム ≠ cream

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Well, at least not always:

クリーム = cream2

cream      = cream1

The Japanese クリーム often refers specifically to the whipped variety that goes on top of cakes or inside tasty treats, most notably the シュークリーム. I often see this romanized on packages as “chou cream” for whatever reason. For those of you who can’t read Japanese, it actually sounds like “shoe cream,” which is a funny thought.

The Japanese and English Wikipedia entries are subtly different. In English, whipped cream is only listed below under “Other cream products,” whereas in Japanese whipped cream gets its own section and the photo at the top of the entry is a photo of a bowl of whipped cream.

I rest my case.

しばらく (Updated)

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One of the recent themes of this blog has been alternate versions of basic phrases. In the past I’ve given nuanced versions, but today it’s just a straight up replacement. 久し振り (ひさしぶり, most often as 久しぶり) is the phrase that everyone knows, and it can quickly be replaced with しばらく, which literally means “a little while.” A couple of notes:

– Thinking about しばらく made me realize that leaving the です off of 久しぶり probably sounds really weird and unnatural to Japanese people. For whatever reason, 久しぶり feels like it can stand on it’s own (possibly because of that adjective-like り・い sound on the end?), whereas しばらく, to me, does not. Nice reminder not to drop your copulas.

– I think this is an old people phrase. Useful if you like to add to your 渋い aura.

– しばらく is also often used as an adverb. “Do something for a little while.” しばらく何かをする。しばらく休みましょう being a nice one. 久しぶり can also do this, but needs a にon its end. I believe both of them can act as adjectives with the assistance of の.

Update: – Matt’s comment made it clear to me that there is a slight difference between the adverbs. When used alone in the “long time no see” sense, 久しぶり implies a positive verb (久しぶりに会う。) whereas しばらく implies a negative verb (しばらく会っていない。). Very cool.

Cool Fireworks – 線香花火 (Updated)

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線香花火 (せんこうはなび, literally “incense fireworks”) is a type of Japanese fireworks that usually gets translated into English as “Japanese sparklers.” They are slightly different from the usual American variety of sparklers in that you hold them facing down toward the ground rather than up toward the sky. Once lit, a small ball of what can only be described as “magical molten fire stuff” creeps up the thin thread of the sparkler, sending out random flashes of fractal-like sparkles. They are incredibly hypnotic to watch. (See photo at the Japanese Wikipedia site or in this video with music from Amano Shigeru.)

Once the ball gets to a certain point, it fizzles out quickly, which gives it the idiomatic meaning “flash in the pan” or “to fizzle out quickly.” You often see 線香花火のよう(に・な) and sometimes 線香花火的.

Belated Happy 4th of July!

Update: Commenter robert found this great video showing exactly how they sparkle. Looks like there are more videos searching under “senkou hanabi” than “線香花火”.

Cool Compound – 回想

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kaiso

回想 (かいそう) literally means “spin thoughts around,” or something like that. 想い (おもい) is, I believe, the direct object of 回す (まわす). Why are they not in the Japanese order (DOをVする)? I think it’s because the compound is Chinese in origin and therefore uses the same grammatical order as English (Subject Verb Object).

A less literal translation gives you “recall, recollect.” The other possibility is “flashback,” which is how I saw it used the other day. Pretty cool stuff.

Green Goddess For Cheap (Update)

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Anyone who’s looking for a good dictionary should check out Amazon Japan. There are super cheap copies of old editions of Kenkyusha’s New Japanese-English Dictionary, aka the Green Goddess. It’s famous for loads of usage examples. The old edition is also good for beginners since entries are listed in alphabetical order. It’s a steal at 786 yen.

I would be remiss if I didn’t provide this link (via Wikipedia) to Tom Gally’s writings. He worked on the fifth edition of the dictionary. You can read specifically about the dictionary here, here, here and here.

Cool Kanji – 閂

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kannuki

How badass is that kanji?! It looks crazy, like some weird malfunction. Like some other radical should resolve itself below the 門, but for whatever reason the computer can’t handle it and just inserts a dash. Reminds me of the time when I saw 囮.

The pronunciation is かんぬき, and it means – are you ready for this?! – bolt, latch, bar (on a gate/door). How great is that?!

Still working my way through 1Q84, so most posts will be short until I get finished with that. Almost there! At this point in time I’ve read 740/1055 pages. Not too shabby for 12 days of reading.

バイク ≠ bike

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バイク    =  bike1

bike        = bike2

This one confuses a lot of people, and it frustrates the hell out of me when translators are unable to take a step back and realize that the villain/whoever is not pulling up on his/her ママチャリ and giving the bell a ring. It’s tempting to translate バイク the way it sounds, but it is not in fact bike or bicycle – it’s motorcycle. A quick Google Images search confirms that there are no hits for anything even slightly resembling a 自転車 in the top hits. Remember, when in doubt, plugging a term into Google Images is a useful way to see what is associated with the term.

Game Lingo – 倒す

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During the early-90s Nintendo of America was infamous for adjusting games to fit their strict content guidelines. They changed graphics, dialogue, anything that didn’t fit within their standards.  Thanks to younger American video game developers, raw language and content in games isn’t much of a problem anymore; companies can basically get away with whatever they want as long as they’re willing to suffer the rating. The change shows – Nintendo recently published the first Grand Theft Auto on a Nintendo platform.

Still, Japanese developers have probably been careful with their language choices, which means so should you. 倒す (たおす) frequently appears in games designed for younger children, and it’s a code word for “kill.” The verb literally means “knock down,” but it is most often translated as “defeat.” If you’re translating 龍が如く, of course you should probably be using “kill,” but otherwise (Yugioh, Dragonball, Pokemon, Mario etc.) it should be avoided at all costs, or at least commented on when delivering the translation. “Defeat” is a nice middle ground, and can even be used for 殺す sometimes.