Modern Japanese words

If you've ever considered learning Japanese then you may be surprised to discover that many Japanese 'import' words sound very similar to their English equivalents.

Orenji ju-su!
(Orange juice.)

To give you an example, a mate of mine once heard that the Japanese word for orange juice was 'orenji ju-su', and at first he thought it was just a joke.

However, in actual fact you'll find that many Japanese words sound very similar to their English equivalents. This isn't the technical explanation, but to give a light-hearted explanation, you basically add a Japanese accent and that's pretty much it.

I've collected a few of my favourites below, and if you're naturally distrusting then you may think I've made some of these up, but I promise you these are all actual real Japanese words...

1) orenji ju-su = orange juice
2) onri-wan = one of a kind (only one)
3) furaido poteto = French fries/chips
4) konpyu-ta = computer
5) furaingu suta-to = flying start
6) garasu = glass
7) appuru pai = apple pie
8) ranningu shatsu = sleeveless t-shirt (running shirt)
9) sandoicchi = sandwich
10) toraburu = trouble

"Ice cream for £1! What a bargain!"
"Yes, that's cheaper than the butter I bought off that website!"
"It's also cheaper than the pushchair..."

As you can see, you can work most of them out for yourself without knowing the translation.  To test how your Japanese skills are progressing, see if you can translate the following words without any help...

11) webbu saito
12) aisu kuri-mu
13) ba-gen
14) bebi-ka-
15) ba-ta

And as a final test, here are a few more which are a little more tricky, but they make sense once you know the answers...

16) emu saizu
17) ki-su ma-ku
18) uinka
19) risaikuru shoppu
20) e me-ru

In case you couldn't quite work out the answers, here are the translations of words 11 - 20...

Emu saizu.
(Medium size.)

11) webbu saito = website
12) aisu kuri-mu = ice cream
13) ba-gen = bargain
14) bebi-ka- = pushchair (baby car)
15) ba-ta = butter
16) emu saizu = medium size (M size)
17) ki-su ma-ku = love bite / hickey (kiss mark)
18) uinka- = indicator / turn signal (winker)
19) risaikuru shoppu = recycling shop
20) e me-ru = email

After reading the words above it may seem that Japanese is a very easy language to learn, but I should also point out that some aspects of Japanese are quite tricky. For example, the sentences are generally back to front compared to what we're used to in English. For example, if I wanted to say:

'My name is Charles Fudgemuffin.'

...in Japanese I would say:

'My name Charles Fudgemuffin is.'

This was probably the thing I found most tricky when I was in Japan several years ago, and I would often get to the end of a sentence and realise, 'Oops! I should have said that end bit at the start of the sentence!'

If Yoda ever tried to learn Japanese though, I would imagine he'd find it quite easy!

If you've ever thought to yourself, 'I really think that 'W' and 'Y' should be vowels, rather than consonants,' then check out one of the blog posts below:
10 interesting Japanese words and expressions
Languages around the world (Korean)
10 interesting Chinese words and expressions

Clue: It's the Korean blog post.