Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Is that your MY CAR?

Sometimes a word Japanese took from English is hard to recognize because of the weird pronunciation, but sometimes you recognize the word but it has a slightly different meaning then expected...

Japanese: マイカー
Reading: maikaa
Meaning: privately owned car
Literally: from English - my car.

So yeah, I imagine that at some point in time, this conversation in English took place between some English speaking foreigner and a Japanese.

Japanese dude: ee?! sweet ride! Is that your parents car?
English dude: Nope, all mine.
Japanese dude: 'mine'? 何? your company car?
English dude: No man, it's MY CAR, I own it, I bought it.
Japanese dude: Aっ! なるほど!It's your maikaa, ne.

That's why in Japanese now you can say stuff like "my father's my car is cool".


Japanese dude: "I don't have my car and I don't live in my home"
English dude: "Eh? who DOES have your car and where the hell DO you live if not in your home?"

Yeah... it goes for home as well.

Japanese: マイホーム
Reading: maiho-mu
Meaning: privately owned house/home
Literally: from English - my home

A while ago I walked down some street in Tokyo and some person who does marketing for some Internet company asked me: "Do you have my internet?". Nope, I don't use other peoples' internet. I have my own.




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