Comments on: 15 English Words You Will Only Hear in Japan

By: Giorgos

Giorgos — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 21:35:19 +0000

There are many English words and as well as Portoguese words in Japanese language. I can ensure you that if you look deeper and deeper into the well, you will find an enormous wealth of Greek, Spanish, Chinese, Thai and other English complex words again that they have Japanese undercover sound. However the 50% of the Japanese language is pure Japanese.

By: Haruo

Haruo — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 21:05:59 +0000

I haven’t been in Japan since 1968. Most of these are news to me (and the ones I do know don’t date from Showa in my head). But I’m wondering if anyone still goes to the Winston Churchill. In Showa 42-43 some English-speaking Japanese (associated with Waseda University) used “Winston Churchill” as a euphemism for トイレ or 便所, from the initials WC (which to my 13-year-old American mind was foreign in itself). “Water closet” was soon explained to me… still felt foreign though.

By: Haruo

Haruo — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 20:57:36 +0000

I *loved* the spruce beer in Montréal, but that was in 1973. Haven’t been there since, and have hardly ever been able to find spruce beer (and none as good as I recall theirs being). I think it’s more like sweetened Aspen cologne than like Pine-Sol, actually. Do they still have spruce beer in Montréal? Can you order it online?

By: AnnaSan

AnnaSan — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 14:44:56 +0000

Reblogged this on Everything Anna and commented: How confusing! XD

By: owwls

owwls — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 08:41:58 +0000

Cat Tongue is a good one actually. :)

By: Jamuko

Jamuko — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 07:25:36 +0000

To add another to the list, one I’ve seen on people’s personal websites a lot: “link free”. “This site is link free!”

Like “gender-free”, it makes it sound like the site contains no links, when it actually means “you may link to this site freely”. As opposed to needing to ask permission to add a link to their site, I suppose.

There’s another on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t seem to think of it!

By: Toshi

Toshi — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 03:36:11 +0000

Guts Pose is not a Fist Bump..
This is Guts Pose:
http://image.search.yahoo.co.jp/search?rkf=2&ei=UTF-8&p=%E3%82%AC%E3%83%83%E3%83%84%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA

By: Bob Roberts

Bob Roberts — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 03:28:46 +0000

This must be a kids-only thing. With the exception of “pine”, I’ve never had an adult say any of these things to me.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 01:33:18 +0000

Other countries do that to the English language, too. Ever hear a German mention his “handy” he refers to the cellphone.

By: Daniel Hodgson (@xCordei)

Daniel Hodgson (@xCordei) — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 23:41:16 +0000

As for “my pace”, I’ve heard “my car” too. Although it’s not meant the same way as in English; you could say, “He drove his ‘my car’.” In that sense, “my” essentially means “personal” rather than actually “my”.
I’m not sure if this is entirely true, but I think it is.