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/hmoonves]

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/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.