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.

V Neck, T Intersection and the number Ten

You know how in English we sometime use a letter only for the shape of it?
Like, U magnet, V neck, T shirt and even "one Oh one" instead of "one zero one"...
So check out this word in Japanese.

Japanese: 十字
Reading: juuji
Meaning: cross
Literally: the letter (kanji) 十

The meaning of the letter is the number ten, but that's not the point. Clearly it is used here only for it's shape and would have probably been used even if the meaning was fried melon.

In English, we could have called a cross a "straight X" (or "tilted X", depending how you look at it) or maybe a "jumbo plus" :D.

A look into the Horizon

Let's look into the Horizon...
Wait, but which one?
What do you mean which one? There's only one, ne?

Ah Ha! Wrong! In Japanese there are two kinds of horizons and two different words for them.

Japanese: 水平線
Reading: suiheisen
Meaning: horizon, when talking about water
Kanji: water flat line

Japanese: 地平線
Reading: chiheisen
Meaning: horizon, when talking about land
Kanji: ground flat line

Now let's relax and sip some tee while looking at any horizon you can get your eyes on.

NOT!

A while ago, I wrote this post right here that you can click and watch with your eyes:

When I was looking at the dictionary I found back then two "tebura"s. One which had the "bura" part in katakana (meaning it probably came from English or some other non Japanese language) and the other which had the "bura" part in hiragana (meaning it originated in a Japanese word). At the time I foolishly dismissed this as a dictionary duplication thingy. Foolishly.

But now thanks to a nice reader, I know better!
So let's break it down, shall we?

Japanese: 手ブラ
Reading: te-bura
Meaning: bra-less, using only one's hands to cover breasts.
Literally: hand bra.

Japanese: 手ぶら
Reading: te-bura
Meaning: empty-handed
Literally: hand empty

And now I'll quote the email I got to prevent any further confusion from me...

「I noticed an inaccuracy in your explanation of 手ぶら.
It comes from 手ぶらっと (teburatto) which means "with your hands hanging limply (empty)." it has a social connotation of not bringing a gift or souvenir (like when you've gone on a trip).

The phrase predates the brassiere in japan, for one, and is used by men and women. it has nothing to do with "being stripped bare" and less to do with having nothing but the shirt on your back than you would think. it means literally "empty-handed" - carrying nothing, but the connotation is not one of poverty but of circumstance or even lacking social graces.

手ぶら is doubly complicated by the fact that the gravure and AV industries have co-opted the homophone 手ブラ to literally mean "hand bra," like when a model poses with only her hands covering her breasts. however, these are different words with different meanings and distinct etymologies. 」

OK! So we got two words in the price of one pronunciation,!
Now everything is clear!

Thank you, mystery reader! :P

Bell Peppers and Fashion Models

There is a word I know for quite some time now.

Japanese: ピーマン
Reading: piiman
Meaning: bell pepper, green pepper

Now, I like this word because I have some Japanese/English jokes about it (since in English is sound like a pee man), and now I just got another reason to like it!

It turns out that there is a slang meaning of the word in Japanese. It is used to refer to people who look good on the outside but have no real content or personality...I would generalize here and say it could describe for instance a fashion model or a not that talented actress or actor.

You can imagine the relation to a bell pepper :P
Me like!

Wheels, Lightbulbs and Poo

OK, so here is a nice one that took me several months to collect...

You know the expression in English, a third wheel? or is it a fifth wheel? well, any unnecessary wheel. So I learned a few month ago that in Chinese the same person is called a "light-bulb", and that is because when you want some privacy with someone, some intimate privacy with that special someone, than a light emitting glass device is not exactly what you want on your side...
That was cool, but it was not Japanese. Yesterday I learnt the same expression but this time, the Japanese version of it.

Japanese: 金魚の糞
Reading: kingyo no fun
Meaning: sort of the same as a third/fifth wheel in English.
Literally: goldfish droppings

Say what?!
Well, apparently when a goldfish poos, his poo is dangling around behind him for quite some time. So this expression means a person who tags along; hanger-on; a person who follows someone around like a shadow; clingy person.

So there, that's an image for you!

Conductor, Literally.

I learned the word for conductor today and the Kanji use was quite amusing to me.

Japanese:  指揮者
Reading: shikisha
Meaning: conductor (musical)
Literally: finger-swinging-person

It can't get more to the point than that :)
I love Kanji!

Rickshaw Pulling Chinaman...

... or an umbrella holding car riding Englishman?

We all know that in Japanese there are a lot of words that sound the same but have a different meaning. Usually also they are written differently.
But usually, in my short experience, those words are compound words which are written using several Kanji letters, and so when other letters are used it sounds the same but has a different meaning.

Recently I stumbled upon two words that use only one Kanji letter and have different meanings using different Kanji letters. But the different meaning in this case is not extremely different, you can see how it is related to the other meaning and in the car case, can also see by the Kanji how the meaning changes.

Japanese: 傘
Reading: kasa
Meaning: umbrella

Japanese: 笠
Reading: kasa
Meaning: a conical hat (east-asian style)

Now, considering an umbrella is pretty much a conical hat that you hold with a stick instead of actually putting on your head, I can see how those got to be the same word.

Here is the other one:

Japanese: 車
Reading: kuruma
Meaning: car

Japanese: 俥
Reading: kuruma
Meaning: rickshaw


Now here it's also pretty understandable how the same sounding word would be used for a car and a rickshaw as rickshaw is kind of an old style "human propelled" car. And that is also why I liked the Kanji for this which is exactly the kanji for a car preceded by the Kanji for a man.

人＋車＝俥

Me like Kanji Math!

Running Bodyparts...

Once again, an amusing Kanji usage, can't get enough of those!
This time, a verb.

Japanese: 口走る
Reading: kuchibashiru
Meaning: to speak; to tell; to blurt out
Literally: mouth + running

In English, our noses can run as well!

Barbeque Fun!

This is one of the more amusing Kanjis I've learnt.
As opposed to most Kanji, this one looks pretty much what it means!

Kanji: 串 
Meaning: skewer

Do you see the skewer in the Kanji?

Now another interesting one is this Kanji, which has the skewer Kanji as the top part of it.

Kanji: 患
Meaning: afflicted, disease, suffer from, be ill
Construction: skewer (串)＋heart (心)

"Doctor, I am suffering..."
"What's wrong?"
"Barbeque accident..."

:P