J-WOTD: お土産外交Red on Dec 01 2007 | Filed under: WOTD - Japanese
おみやげがいこう (omiyage gaiko) * “J-WOTD” = “Japanese Word of the Day” The beauty of the term Omiyage Gaiko is in its simplicity. Rather than being a complicated “4 character word” (四字熟語) it’s a neat little phrase that I saw for the first time being used on the television earlier this week. Yukio Hatoyama (鳩山 由紀夫) [...]
J-WOTD: 自転車操業Red on Oct 30 2007 | Filed under: WOTD - Japanese
I’m surprised that there hasn’t been more focus by the media on what the English language school Nova really was. Nothing more than a long lived Ponzi Scheme.
J-WOTD: 若い燕Beige on Apr 30 2007 | Filed under: WOTD - Japanese
わかいつばめ (wakai tsubame) * “J-WOTD” = “Japanese Word of the Day” Since antiquity the sparrow has always been seen as a bird of love in the west. It was associated in classical mythology with Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, and Catullus, the Roman poet, famously used the sparrow as a symbol of true love [...]
J-WOTD: 二枚目 （にまいめ）Ao on Apr 20 2007 | Filed under: WOTD - Japanese
二枚目 or nimaime is the handsome guy here ↑ にまいめ (nimaime) * “J-WOTD” = “Japanese Word of the Day” For some reason, the Japanese language has many words to describe good looking men. かっこいい, ハンサム, イケメン, 美少年, and Kansai-ben’s 男前 are quite a selection, proving that Japanese can be more expressive that English when it [...]
J-WOTD: 居合 (いあい)Red on Mar 20 2007 | Filed under: WOTD - Japanese
Rinko Kikuchi as a JyoshiKosei in the Movie “Babel” いあい (iai) * “J-WOTD” = “Japanese Word of the Day” If you enjoyed the movie Babel / バベルの塔 (official English language site) as much as I did then I’m sure the first thing you did when you got home was to do a Google Search to [...]
Red on Feb 09 2007 | Filed under: Japan: Language
Back in the day, when Firefox didn’t have yakushi-mouse (a translation function built in to the cursor) and Babelfish referred to something in a Douglas Adams novel, not a search function on Altavista, translators had very little choice for efficient computer based dictionaries. I was an active translator back in the 90s and swore by [...]
J-WOTD: ヤメ検 (やめけん)Red on Feb 03 2007 | Filed under: WOTD - Japanese
やめけん (yameken) * “J-WOTD” = “Japanese Word of the Day” The phrase “yameken” is an abbreviation of the words 検事 (kenji, member of the public prosecutor’s office (検察庁, kensatsucho)) and やめた (yameta, to quit). Quite literally it refers to someone who has quit their role as a public prosecutor. More specifically, it almost always refers [...]
J-WOTD: 左団扇 (ひだりうちわ)Beige on Feb 01 2007 | Filed under: WOTD - Japanese
ひだりうちわ (hidariuchiwa) * “J-WOTD” = “Japanese Word of the Day” The uchiwa is a type of fan, which these days is generally made of plastic and handed out at festivals or in front of train stations for advertising during the heat of summer. Here it is combined with hidari, the word for left, to literally [...]
J-WOTD: 逆玉Beige on Jan 22 2007 | Filed under: WOTD - Japanese
逆玉（ぎゃくたま, gyakutama） * “J-WOTD” = “Japanese Word of the Day” Literally gyaku means opposite and, generally, tama means ball. However, despite it becoming a common enough term over the last decade or so, it is not easy to see just how gyakutama took on its meaning of “to marry a wealthy woman.” Tama is short [...]
J-WOTD: へべれけBeige on Dec 21 2006 | Filed under: WOTD - Japanese
へべれけ (hebereke) * “J-WOTD” = “Japanese Word of the Day” It is December and on the social calendar that means bounenkai 忘年会. These end of year parties are often held for work groups, sports clubs or any gathering of friends who need another lame excuse for a few drinks. With so many of them it [...]