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Translating foreign words/names into Japanese
As I learned more and more Japanese words(let’s talk about foreign words translated into Japanese), I noticed that…
AV俳優たちに対する文化的な認識が気になります
日本って主流の大衆文化とAVなどの下位文化の間の線を厳しくしていると思っていましたが、しみけんがしくじり先生に出た映像を見て驚きましたね。地上波の有名な番組ですし、コメントの視聴者の反応も友好的なので。 しみけんの場合、ここ数年韓国でCMモデルまでするほど芸能人のように思われていましたが、この時「日本人はAV俳優を軽視し排斥する雰囲気があるため、AV俳優たちは日本でユーチューブ活動ができない」と言われていました。 そうなのにこのように日本でも主流の芸能人と一緒に放送をするくらいなら、他のAV俳優たちもいわゆる「陽地化」になる、境界が崩れたのではないですか？これはユーチューブ・ティックトックなどの勢いによる最近だけの現象だと思いますか？ by TraditionalDepth6924
Looking for something to practice verb forms
Hello everyone, while studying verbs I realized how difficult is for me to identify a verb in てorた…
6 comments
Japanese is so easy to do this, it’s ridiculous, the most famous is probably 庭には、鶏がいる。(niwa niwa niwa tori ga iru, there is a chicken in the garden) . Interestingly, a lot of people who study Japanese may not be aware that while there are a lot of homophones, few Japanese words are actually pronounced exactly the same, for example we may think クモ (spider) and 雲 (cloud) are pronounced the same due to having the same hiragana reading, but they will be pronounced differently with different accent on the last syllable.
Is that why their rapping goes so hard
One note is that because it is easy to make puns, puns are not really impressive as compared to other languages. Same with rhyme; because Japanese only has 5 vowels, it is very easy to form rhymes, so it is not as impressive as in other languages if a song rhymes, and it is why many Japanese songs don’t rhyme.
The following is a *classical* classical Japanese waka example:
>立ち別れ **いなば**の山の 峰に生ふる **まつ**とし聞かば 今帰り来む
いなば: 因幡 (place name) and 往なば (往ぬ+ば: 去ったならば (if I leave))
*Note that the verb 往ぬ no longer exists in modern Japanese.*
まつ: 松 (pine) and 待つ (to wait)
*Also note that to make these puns, the words are deliberately written in hiragana.*
>Modern Japanese translation: 出立しお別れして、**去って行ったならば**、そこはもう**因幡(いなば)**の国です。その因幡山の峰に生えている**松**ではないけれど、「私を**待っている**」と聞いたならば、今すぐにも帰ってまいりましょう。
>English translation by Clay MacCauley: Though we are parted, if on Mount Inaba’s peak I should hear the sound of the pine trees growing there, I’ll come back again to you.
yes
that’s why japanese humor is mostly centered around word play and puns (understandable only if you understand japanese)
corollary: there is always a danger for anyone with a different cultural background when they try to be funny with a japanese person because
1) the other party may not find it funny (literally);
2) the other party may take seriously what was obviously not supposed to be
Do you speak Chinese?
Beyond joke telling, this idea is also an important element of [Japanese poetry](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakekotoba)