Am I the only one that finds the word マイペース annoying?

The word マイペース (my pace) is a Japanese made English word that pretty much just means “at one’s own pace”. However, I realize some local people tend to use it to justify their selfish behavior. There’s not much difference between マイペース and自己中(self-centered) in my opinion. What do you think?

27 comments
  1. I’m gonna mypace the hell out of this tension with my shovel car and my mybag and with my mynumber card. Loanwords often don’t stay the same in the target language, their use changes, or they get made up all together. Think of Elsa. Let it go;)

  2. Agree with you.
    It’s true “my pace” is just the same as “in one’s way,” but it implicitly means “do something without being influenced by others’ opinions.”
    I think this phrase is necessary for Japanese people because sometimes they have to follow demanding and/or unreasonable orders from their customers or superiors.

  3. Well in the situation you’re probably talking about, yes, they can mean the same thing. But its use is varied. For example, when someone asks you to do something they may sometimes say マイペースでいいよ, which is saying that there isn’t a rush on the task. Or if you’re going to relax and do something slowly you may use it. For example, 今週末、マイペースで家の掃除します。

  4. I’m there with you. I had a friend who would often disrespect people’s time (ex: be 30 min late at a promised time) and would use the word マイペース as a way to justify it. What upsets me more though is that the people around him, like his wife, would usually excuse or not call out on his behavior by saying “マイペースな人だから (he’s a mypace person)”. Heck no. No way to excuse such shitty behavior. I’m so glad I cut off ties with him, even though some friends are still suggesting I should give him a chance.

  5. I see this written a lot of dating profiles and I am still not quite sure what it means.

  6. I think it’s a matter of being annoyed by someone’s overall behavior rather than a use of the word itself.

  7. A lot of these are grinding my gears really. Like you said, マイペース is one but the worst I ve heard is ワンチャン and I’m not talking about the dog. Sigh. I feel you brother.

  8. I find the use of the katakana *word* a bit annoying. Not so much the concept that it’s used to represent, though; that’s a pretty useful one and honestly not always selfish.

  9. マイペース on dating app bios feels like Japanese for “I’m not like the other girls” while still being a basic bitch lol.

  10. Many Japanese, especially girls, use this as a catch-all to excuse selfish behavior, yes.

    I’ve had to cut off more than one friend for falling back on this when they were constantly late or flaky, and a decent chunk of my current friends still use the term in their dating profiles so they don’t feel guilty for ghosting or standing someone up.

    I personally loathe the term and anyone who identifies with it.

  11. Am I the only one that finds スパルタン makes more sense than the English “spartan” does? As I’ve heard it used in English, spartan describes something rather frugal or no-frills, whereas スパルタン usually describes a grueling training regime, which seems a lot more accurate as a metaphor—something associated with the extreme training the Spartans underwent.

  12. My least favorite loan word is ガス
    When I first a came across this word I was reading a climbing report and they kept mention how much “gasu” there was. I thought they were talking about to volcanic gases so I thought damn you shouldn’t be hiking in those conditions but then I’m thinking there are no volcanoes near there then realized they are talking about the tfog/clouds on the mountain.

    I went climbing this weekend in the Minami alps and kept hearing that word so much and all I thought was the holocaust 😅

  13. Typical Japan, 20 years behind. No one uses Mypace anymore, everyone switched over to Facebook ages ago.

  14. マイペース、エール、ライス、why can’t I think of more right now. There are so many…

  15. As a high school teacher, I encourage the term, as Japanese kids generally don’t realize that they’re allowed to be their own person and not naturally perform at the highest level at max speed all the time.

  16. It has many meanings, but it is often used in profiles, etc., to mean わがまま. The type of girl who used to call themselves わがまま years ago now tend to refer to themselves as マイペース.

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