Introverted Girl

Since she felt the urge to smile, she followed the primary rule of her existence and did not do it.
--Princess Melanthe, For My Lady's Heart by Laura Kinsale.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Japanese!! Arigato, InuYasha.

My knowledge of Japanese words and phrases is growing substantially now that I'm watching *cough-addicted-cough* InuYasha. Previously, the anime I've watched has been dubbed in English, but InuYasha isn't and I'm delighted!!

Here is a list of Japanese words and phrases I don't have to think twice about, thanks in part to my Japanese martial arts instructor from a million years ago (mainly for the counting), and also in part to my old friend from the Navy (she married a sailor and lived right next door), and also in part to another old friend (unfortunately, I've lost touch with both of these friends), and ALSO, most recently thanks to InuYasha!

Er...I have no idea if I'm spelling these right, and am relying on Google as I have lost touch with my Japanese acquaintances. Any corrections and additions are welcome.

Tokidoki- Sometimes (When Kagome says it, I hear, "Taki-taki."
Arigato- Thank you
Do itashi mashite- You're welcome (My Navy-friend used to tell me to remember "don't touchy mustache" and although I always did remember it, I can never remember how to spell it properly and I'm trying to break the habit of this mispronunciation!)
Sayonara- Goodbye
Gomen-nasai- I'm sorry. (Kagome says this so quickly, I feel like I'm hearing "Gomenai"...hm.)
Daijoubu? -Are you okay?
Ne- A tricky one. Between the old acquaintance and InuYasha, this feels like a useful expression that's kind of hard to translate. I think I know how to use it but I can't think of how to translate it. "Well/Hmm" maybe? I dunno.
Nani- What? (I love when InuYasha says it, "NANIIII?!!!" Hee!)
Hai- yes/agreed
Tasukete- Help! (In watching Inuyasha, it kinda-almost sounds like, "Tashkitai!")
Kon'nichiwa- Hello (Until I googled the spelling, I always thought this was spelled with the letter "C")
Moshi moshi- How to say hi when you answer the phone. Though my navy friend would say it, "Mosh-moshi?" in a sing-song way I liked.
Sensai- teacher?
Kiai!- I have no idea what this means but I used to scream it in martial arts and it feels pretty awesome to think as I fight in World of Warcraft when I'm on my Death Knight. I googled it, and apparently it's like a battle cry.

Random- I noticed, when Kagome addresses Sango, she calls her something that sounds like Sango-jen... I wonder if it's Sango-chan. Maybe. Hrmm. I dunno.

Counting:

When I was little I used to count out loud (scream out loud) in martial arts and I would think this is what the numbers were:

Each
Knee
San
She
Go
Rocko
Seechee-Hatchi
Screw-You!

There was a rhythm to it and thanks to all of that screaming, I've never forgotten the numbers, one through ten, in Japanese, all these million years later!

Here are the real spellings, as far as google advises me:

Ichi- One
Ni- Two
San- Three
Shi- Four
Go- Five
Roku- Six
Shichi- Seven
Hachi- Eight
Kyuu- Nine
Juu- Ten

I think that's all that comes to mind right now. I might put this list on my side bar. Yay for learning new languages! I love learning Japanese much more so than other languages I've tried because I feel like this language is completely undecipherable; compared with French or Italian or Latin, I can cheat and figure things out using Spanish... even German has so many words that sound similar to English. With Japanese I like feeling like I'm learning something completely apart from the languages and root words my mind tries to reach for-- it's like I'm outsmarting my brain!

2 comments:

  1. I love Japanese! If you've never you should check out this guy... http://yokosonews.com/ He does live webcasts about Japanese culture. I discovered him when he stayed up for an ungodly number of hours after the tsunami.

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  2. I haven't checked him out, thanks! :D

    ReplyDelete