Modern Japanese words (part 2)

As I've mentioned before on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, many modern Japanese words sound very similar to their English equivalents. That's because Japanese 'loan' words (words which are imported from English) are translated using Japanese sounds to produce the nearest sounding equivalent to the original English word.

Mmm, ke-ki!

Here are some more cool modern Japanese words, and once again to someone who's never spoken any Japanese it may sound like I'm making these up, but I promise you these are actually real.

To start off with, here are a few random examples...

1) ke-ki = cake
2) miruku = milk
3) chokore-to = chocolate
4) resutoran = restaurant
5) su-pa-ma-ketto = supermarket
6) uirusu = virus
7) mo-ningu ko-ru = wake up call (morning call)
8) pe-pa- tesuto = written exam (paper test)
9) kurisumasu = Christmas
10) rabu reta- = Love letter

"I 'rabu' you!"
Not having a letter L or V can make it hard to express love!

To explain number 10, there is no L or V sound in Japanese, so R is used for L, and B is used for V. That's why 'love letter' comes out as 'rabu reta'!

Moving on, here are the Japanese loan words for a few sports...

11) tenisu = tennis
12) pinpon = ping pong (table tennis)
13) kuriketto = cricket
14) futto boru = football
15) ragubi = rugby
16) sunu-ka = snooker
17) sakka = soccer
18) gorufu = golf
19) bokushingu = boxing
20) badominton = badminton

Kinkakuji Temple in Kyoto.
Definitely worth checking out if you ever visit Kyoto.

Number 12 is also the sound used to describe a door bell ringing.

Finally, here are the Japanese words for a few countries...

21) Ingurando = England
22) Sukottorando = Scotland
23) Ue-ruzu = Wales
24) Airurando = Ireland
25) Amerika = America
26) Kanada = Canada
27) Furansu = France
28) Itaria = Italy (Italia)
29) Oranda = Holland
30) O-sutoraria = Australia

Strictly speaking, Japan has known of these countries for quite some time, so I'm using 'modern' in a very loose sense of the word!

Editor: "Charles, that a katana, not katakana."
Charles: "Close enough."

Basically, Japan has three 'alphabets' or writing systems; kanji the main 'alphabet', hiragana (for grammar) and katakana (used mainly for modern imported English words). All of the words above are written with katakana symbols, so katakana can be a useful alphabet to learn for anyone visiting Japan.

I learned katakana myself when I visited Japan, and I can still remember most of the katakana symbols. It came in useful years later when I was back in England and I met a girl with a tattoo written in katakana which read 'Chris' (or kuri-su). At first I was tempted to show off and ask her, "Who's Chris?" so that she would think, "Wow! Impressive! He can read Japanese!"

However, I then had a better idea and was tempted to ask her, "Who's Paul?" and nod at her tattoo to make her think, "Paul? Oh no! The tattoo artist has made a mistake! It's meant to say Chris!"

Anyway, if you ever go to Japan then I recommend learning katakana because it comes in quite useful if you want to play childish tricks on people with tattoos.

You can find more Japanese themed blog posts below:
Modern Japanese words
10 interesting Japanese words and expressions
10 cool Japanese words and expressions (part 2