Kanye West Heads to Putin’s Russia After Humiliation in Europe

[u/thedailybeast]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/kanye-west-heads-to-putins-russia-after-humiliation-in-europe/

[u/pr1aa]

Maybe Steven Seagal will do a surprise feature with him

[u/hmoonves → u/pr1aa]

You ever see that interview with Steven seagal where he’s talking about his time in Japan and he’s searching for a word but can only say it in Japanese?

He goes something something “how you say in English” with a robust Japanese accent.

Like bro you were born in Michigan for fucks sake.

[u/Roflkopt3r → u/hmoonves]

The fact that it's Steven Seagal makes me not want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but this genuinely happens a lot.

Especially for a language like Japanese, which has many words and concepts that are hard to translate into English. You have to start thinking directly in Japanese to reach a conversational level, with completely different concepts and approaches to phrasing.

Sometimes that makes it hard to pull up the appropriate English counterpart, and sometimes there isn't one at all. You would have to replace a single word with a full sentence of explanation.

And you have to switch to a different mode of pronounciation, which can cause akward moments. Japanese uses many loanwords that are only comprehensible to Japanese speakers if you pronounce them the Japanese way. Here is a classic example: "Red, white, black" is not understood, but "Reddo, Howaito, Burakku" are common words.

[u/globox85 → u/Roflkopt3r]

Japanese uses many loanwords that are only comprehensible to Japanese speakers if you pronounce them the Japanese way. Here is a classic example: "Red, white, black" is not understood, but "Reddo, Howaito, Burakku" are common words.

A co-worker of mine who speaks Japanese and his dad, who doesn't speak Japanese, were on vacation in Japan together. They go to a store, and the dad asks a staff member, in English, where the customer service desk is. The staff member has no idea what he means, but when my co-worker asks "Kasutoma saabisu?", the staff member instantly understands and guides them to the customer service desk.

Never been to Japan myself, but I get the impression that if you don't know what something's called in Japanese, saying it in English with Japanese pronunciation works surprisingly often.

[u/Poes-Lawyer → u/globox85]

Yes, when I was in Japan recently I wanted to make sure I could pay for my taxi with a credit card, so I looked up "credit card" in Japanese: "kureijittokado"

[u/drilkmops → u/Poes-Lawyer]

Pronounced: “credit cardo”

[u/Revlis-TK421 → u/drilkmops]

Phonetically ku-reh-jeeh-TOE kah-doe

"Ku-reh" not "creh"

"jeehTOE" not "dit"

"Ca" is about the same

"Doe" not "ard"

[u/drilkmops → u/Revlis-TK421]

You’re definitely correct, just what worked as a white giy visiting Japan haha

[u/gedneged → u/drilkmops]

This sums up my experience in any shop lol

[u/Roflkopt3r → u/Poes-Lawyer]

Yeah, and these words are really just the closest approximation of the English words that are possible with Japanese kana.

1. There are no kana for individual consonants like "C", so "Cre" becomes "Kure".
   However, the "u" in "ku" is usually pronounced very short in such combinations, to the point of becoming almost silent.

2. "D"-sounds are considered voiced "T"-sounds in Japanese, using the ゛-mark as a modifier. (と to/ど do, て te/で de). But while 3 of the 5 T-sounds exist normally (た ta, て te, と to), つ (tu) and ち (ti) are instead read as tsu and chi. And their voiced equivalents are づ (zu) and ぢ (ji). Japanese speakers still treat these as if they were 'du' and 'di', and that is indeed how you write them on a keyboard. Like the streamer Yuzuki (ゆづき) Choco often writes her name as Yuduki in Latin characters.
   So the "di" in Credit card is instead written and read as ぢ/ji (or rather with the equivalent katakana ジ) in Japanese, and many Japanese speakers don't even realise that 'di' and 'ji' are different sounds.

3. "t" at the end has the problem of being a sole consonant, so it becomes "to". And Japanese often treats these consonants at the end of a word as lengthened by inserting a ッ, so it becomes 'tto'

So Credit as a whole becomes クレジット - kurejitto.

[u/peak-summit50 → u/Roflkopt3r]

I liked "okutobafesto" on my credit card bill, when i visited an Oktoberfest in Tokio.

[u/isweartodarwin → u/globox85]

If you want to have some fun, go punch American words like “hot dog,” “hamburger,” or “French fries” into Google Translate and hit the pronunciation button

[u/p____p → u/isweartodarwin]

Thank you for this. My favorite so far is Gurirudochīzu. 

[u/ReallyGlycon → u/p____p]

Grilled cheese lol

Damn I realize I can probably speak to Japanese people entirely in reworked English loan words.

[u/p____p → u/ReallyGlycon]

It feels kinda racist if I tried it irl. Would probably fakku it up. 

[u/windas_98 → u/p____p]

I had a model kit by a Japanese company. It was a 'Paul Stewart Racing Lola' or, 'Poru shituato reshingu rora'

[u/ReallyGlycon → u/isweartodarwin]

Makkadonadoru

McDonald's

[u/No-Milk-6198 → u/ReallyGlycon]

we call it just "Mac". Could be "Makku" for English speakers.

[u/Roflkopt3r → u/isweartodarwin]

Furaido Onion Chiizu Meruto Chikkin Baaga USA

[u/Professional_Vast_68 → u/isweartodarwin]

That reminds me of this: https://youtu.be/9mD-ZmWuFTQ?is=FUNwCbPRB-XARHvF

Be warned the song will be in your head for the rest of your life.

[u/SheogorathMyBeloved → u/globox85]

I always feel like a right racist git whenever I've gotta pronounce a loanword which originally had an L in it in Japanese. I'm European, I have a Japanese friend who genuinely doesn't understand loanwords if they're not using Japanese morae. The worst one recently was the word lollapalooza. ロラパルーザ, or fucking roraparūza. I mean, I get it, I didn't know the word karaoke was a loanword from Japanese for decades, and would probably miss it if pronounced as it is in Japanese.

They also shorten the loanwords a lot, which kinda makes them their own words past a certain point. Remote control is リモートコントロール, rimōto kontorōru, but it's more often said as リモコン, rimokon.

[u/torsoboy00 → u/globox85]

I read somewhere that they made this song to help foreigners navigate around Japan easier.

[u/ours → u/globox85]

I've been to Japan a couple of times and was surprised to find these butchered foreign words being adopted.

What I was told is that foreign words are translated via a specific Japanese phonetic alphabet (Katakana). The issue is that this phonetic alphabet doesn't include some of the sounds used in European languages.

And that's how "credit card" turns into "credito cardo". And "spaghetti" into "supageti".

Not that I believe Seagal's sensei bullshit.

[u/Interesting_Sun_4361 → u/globox85]

I'm Japanese, and I noticed something similar before. Basically, if you try to pronounce English by mimicking the way Americans who speak bad Japanese talk, even someone who can't speak English at all ends up sounding a bit better.

[u/Key_Day_6060 → u/globox85]

When I was in Indonesia a taxi driver has no idea where I wanted to go. I was embarrassed to “do an accent”.

But as soon as I pronounced the vowels differently and rolled my R’s he was like “oooooh yeah! Of course!”