Takashionary
@takashionary
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Takashionary introduces unique Japanese slang & idioms (Posted by Takashi, a native Japanese speaker and PhD in Natural Language Processing) 面白い日本語を英語で紹介しています！
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プロ驚き屋 ("a professional surprised man", New Slang)
= a person who excitedly shares state-of-the-art tools/technologies like ChatGPT on social media with hyperbole like 神/最強/ヤバすぎ, as well as with hallucination/overstatement at times based on a few cherry-picked examples
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よっ友(とも) [Slang]
= a “friend” of yours whom you occasionally bump into at a certain place (e.g. at school/work) and say よ (Hi), but don’t actually start a conversation with because you are not that close to each other and you know its gonna be awkward.
#nihongo
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Since Twitter is in the limelight, I'm sharing some Japanese Twitter slang words, for what it's worth (🧵)
1. エアリプ (ea ripu)
Short for the Japlish term エアーリプライ (“air reply”) and means “to implicitly reply to someone’s tweet without mentioning them”
#langtwt
#日本語
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The Japanese word 積ん読 (tsundoku), meaning “the act of buying books and keeping them in a pile without reading them”, was coined in Meiji Era (1868-1912), according to the Sanseido Japanese dictionary.
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Since I see the trend of sharing “untranslatable” Japanese phrases, I’m jumping on the bandwagon and sharing some that I selected from a Japanese perspective.
A thread:
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If you're in Japan and feeling a bit tired, you're not alone.
What 五月病 ("May Disease") means in Japanese.
#nihongo
#studyJapanes
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In Japanese, #相合傘 (aiai gasa) means ‘to share one umbrella among two persons (esp. a couple)’. This is something that most Japanese people yearn for in their childhood, and kids often draw 相合傘 on a notebook to make a wish to be together with their crush.
#日本語
#nihongo
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職業病 (しょくぎょうびょう, "occupational disease")
[Slang] "something you can't resist doing (whether you like it or not) because you do it all the time at work
e.g.
Translators: Assess the quality of subtitles while watching films
Dentists: Check people's teeth when they laugh
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A wonderful list of Japanese onomatopoeias (with ample examples of how to use them in context), compiled by 国語研 (こくごけん: The National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics)
#nihongo
#日本語
「日本語を楽しもう！擬音語って？擬態語って？」は2004年から2007年にかけて更新が行われたウェブサイトですが、今なお多くの方にご覧いただいているようです。スマートフォンからも閲覧できるように調整してありますので、どうぞご利用ください。
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つ is used as "Here you go" on the web as it looks like a hand that gives something to someone; e.g. (´・ω・)つ🍵
And here it coincidentally looks like handing a smile to you
#nihongo
#learnJapanese
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@englishfess_
For those who wonder what is this, here is (almost) everything you need to know about "The moon is beautiful, isn't it?" in Japanese.
More are details in my blog post, explaining why "i can die happy" or the like is totally irrelevant to this expression.
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Don't always translate 普通(ふつう)に as "normally", as it can mean "honestly/really/seriously/for real" in casual contexts.
E.g. if someone says 普通に興味ある, that means "I'm actually very interested (not just saying)" and 普通に嬉しい is "I'm honestly so happy".
#nihongo
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Don't translate ぼろい商売 as "poor business" as it actually means "business that makes easy money; gravy train"
While ぼろい usually means "poor/worn-out/old", it also means "make easy money" when used with 商売 (しょうばい, "business") and 儲け (もうけ, "earning")
#日本語 #翻訳
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五月病 (ごがつ びょう, "May Disease") in Japan is like:
- Enter a new school/company in April
- Disappointed at the gap between one's expectations and the reality
- Take several days off during Golden Week (GW) in early May
- Don't wanna go back to the stressful life
#日本語
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Japanese netizens call this viral Turkish silver-medal winning shooter “無課金(むかきん)おじさん”, meaning “a freemium-user old bloke” because his clothes/equipments are as simple as typical default avatar’s clothes
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Six Variants of よろしく
- 宜しく (kanji)
- 夜露死苦 (improper kanji; outdated, used to be popular among loutish youths, ヤンキー)
- 4649 (numbers)
- ヨロピク (playful, outdated)
- しくよろ (back slang; playful and outdated)
- よろ (shortened; casual)
#JLPT
#には役に立たない
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勉強代 (べんきょうだい, "study cost")
= a word used when you wasted your money on something (e.g. buy expensive stuff that you never use), but you (try to) think that you learnt a life lesson from that mistake and you paid the money for it
#日本語
#nihongo
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A translation error caused by the classic tokenisation mistake in
#nihongo
— misinterpreting 外国人参政権 as 外国 (“foreign”) + 人参 (🥕) + 政権 (“government/regime”), instead of 外国人 (“foreigner”) + 参政権 (“suffrage”)
* Usually fixed in modern-day translation systems
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How to Use 全然 (zenzen) in Japanese; there is so much more than you learn in a textbook!
#nihongo
#learnjapanese
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山々(やまやま): "mountains"
= I'm very keen (but); I wish I could
Often used as したいのは山々ですが when you're very keen to do something (i.e. you have a "mountain" of eagerness) but you can’t (e.g. you already have a plan). Also used to decline an invitation politely
#日本語
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Both 回答 and 解答 read "かいとう" and can be translated as "answer" in English. But the main difference is:
- 解答: to answer a question that has a correct (prepared) answer (e.g. quiz, exam)
- 回答: to *reply* to a question that doesn't (e.g. questionnaire, enquiry).
#Nihongo
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Now you can tell why I'm more active on Twitter than Instagram...
絵を描くスキルが喉から手が出るほど欲しい🙃
#nihongo
#learnJapanese
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@ScriptingJapan
Actually when I teach this expression, I usually say “If you say this to Japanese people, they will probably laugh”😂.
Probably because it’s so classic a phrase that they don’t expect non-Japanese ppl to use it (I mean, even young Japanese ppl don’t use it nowadays)
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"it is what it is" は「しょうがない」の訳として結構いいかも。"oh well" も近いけど
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Meaning of やけくそ (yakekuso), i.e. あーもうどうなってもいいや state of mind
If you eat something or drink alcohol a lot in a yakekuso way, that’s やけ食(ぐ)い and やけ酒(ざけ), resp.
#nihongo
#日本語
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するする詐欺(さぎ)
Lit. "do do fraud"
= repeatedly saying you will do something but never take action; be all talk and no action
日本語勉強するする詐欺をやめたい
I wanna stop just saying "I'm gonna study
#Japanese
" without taking action.
Other verbs can be also used; see below
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Now a Japanese NHK drama series titled #舟を編む is on the air, which is about lexicographers compiling a new dictionary!
It's based on a novel with the same title, which won 本屋大賞 (Japan Booksellers' Award) in 2012. Previously, the book was also made into a film and anime
#舟を編む 第2話
2月25(日)夜10時〜[BSP4K/BS]
#池田エライザ #野田洋次郎 #矢本悠馬 #美村里江 #鈴木伸之 #渡辺真起子 #前田旺志郎 #岩松了 #柴田恭兵 #三浦しをん #蛭田直美
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なるはや = "ASAP"
It's short for なるべく早(はや)く, "as soon as possible"
Usually used as "なるはやで" when you ask someone to do something ASAP
なるはやで (= なるべく早く) 終わらせてね
Please finish it ASAP
#nihongo
#日本語
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Now Japanese Twitterers are pleading with Prime Minister 岸田 to make tomorrow a national holiday (just like Saudi Arabia did)😂 (and hence "岸田さん" is trending now)
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An interesting thread (in Japanese) where several Japanese men explain how they use 僕, 俺, 自分, 私, etc. depending on the situation.
日本語ネイティブの男性に質問です。「僕」「自分」「私」などの一人称をどうやって使い分けていますか？状況に応じて変えてるみたいだけど、どういう基準で切り替えているのかわからず。自分では使わないし。日本語学習者の方にどうやって説明しようか思案中なので、リプで答えを教えて下さい！
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I've updated my Japanese glossary list a bit; now it contains 200+ intriguing
#nihongo
words/phrases with their definitions and example sentences.
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ごめんで済(す)んだら警察(けいさつ)はいらない
Literally "If saying gomen (sorry) is enough/resolves everything, we don't need the police"
= a classic phrase to use when someone says sorry to you, but you're still pissed off and want them to compensate for their bad act
#日本語
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萎(な)える (slang)
"to feel demotivated/down/turned off/annoyed"
E.g. That feel when your brand-new shoes get dirty; it rains during your vacation; your Word document is suddenly gone; you wash clothes with tissues.
Are there better EN words to describe those feelings?
#翻訳
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お手数(てすう)をおかけしますが、どうぞよろしくお願いします
“I apologise for causing you trouble; I truly appreciate your help”
A (very Japanese) phrase used at the end of a message when you ask someone something a bit laborious in a very polite way. Something like “Kind regards”
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When someone says “俺/私をなめるな”, it means “Don’t underestimate/mock/take the piss out of me”, not “Don’t lick me” (unless said in a situation where it makes sense)
This sense is said to originate from なめし in the old
#nihongo
, meaning “rude”, according to this quoted post
「なめるなよ」。人や物事を甘く見ることを「なめる」と言うのはなぜでしょう？ これは古語の形容詞で「無礼だ」といった意味の「なめし（無礼し）」から派生したという説が有力で、複数の国語辞典や語源辞典が紹介しています。甘いから舐（な）めるというわけではないのですね。（埋）
＃なめる
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Both 切(き)る and 尽(つ)くす are used with verbs (e.g. やり切る/尽くす) and add the sense of "completely", but there are some differences.
切る often emphasises the sense of "accomplish", while 尽くす puts more focus on the fact that things are exhausted/nothing is left. #日本語
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うんざり（+ だ/する）
= "be sick of ; be fed up with; have had enough"
(E.g.)
大谷と円安と外国人観光客のニュースは、もううんざりだ
I'm so sick of seeing/hearing the news about Ohtani, weakening yen, and foreign tourists in Japan
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(E.g.)
友達に見送られ、後ろ髪を引かれる思いで出国した
Some of my friends came to see me off, and I left the country with a bit of lingering attachment to it.
#nihongo
#日本語
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OK so つまらないものですが is not a common phrase nowadays and probs getting a bit outdated, but it's not a "dead" or "used-by-nobody" phrase, either; it's still used quite naturally, esp. when you give a gift in a very polite manner or when you act playfully on the web like here
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In the following phrases, 赤(あか, "red") means "complete/total".
赤の他人(あかのたにん):
"a complete stranger; someone whom you have zero relationship with"
真っ赤な嘘 (まっかなうそ):
"a complete lie"
This is said to originate from the bright colour of red
#Nihongo
#日本語
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If you're a cat person who is learning Japanese, you may like these Japanese 猫 (neko) idioms😸
#langtwt
#learnjapanese
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クリぼっち
Japanese slang word meaning “to spend Christmas alone”; short for クリスマスぼっち
cf.
ぼっち飯(めし): “to eat alone”
ぼっち: “be alone/without company”
#nihongo
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These "zombies" used to appear only in the replies to someone else's posts but now they also post their own tweets using trending words/hashtags or copying others' posts.
This became problematic when the big earthquake hit Japan this month and they posted lots of fake "SOS" posts
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十八番 (じゅうはちばん or おはこ)
Literally “number 18”
Meanings
1. “your song” — a song that you like and sing well (at karaoke)
2. your forte
E.g.
私の十八番はYOASOBIのアイドル！
The song that {I like to sing/I am good at singing} is “Idol” by YOASOBI!
#nihongo
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While 変態 ("hentai") generally means "a pervert" in Japanese, it's also used as a compliment, meaning "extraordinary/incredible", e.g. 変態ゴール, "an unbelievable goal"
英日で同時通訳できる人は変態だと思う
Imo, people who can do En-Ja simultaneous interpretation are all hentai
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見(み)るからに
“apparently; obviously; can tell at a glance”
Often used with “…そう” (look …)
この映画(えいが)、見るからにつまらなそうだ
I can tell at a glance that this movie is boring
見るからに辛(から)そうなラーメン
Ramen that is apparently spicy
#日本語勉強
#nihongo
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Similar figures of speech in #日本語/English
火に油(あぶら)を注(そそ)ぐ: add fuel to the fire
絵に描(か)いた餅(もち): pie in the sky
自分の首を絞(し)める: cut one’s own throat
...に首を突っ込む: poke one’s nose into ...
穴があったら入りたい: I wish the ground would swallow me up
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Cooling mist place occupied by deer in Nara 🦌
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[Slang] かわいいが渋滞している
= "be filled with kawaii; cuteness overload; too/so cute"
(渋滞(じゅうたい) = "traffic jam")
この動画、かわいいが渋滞している！
This video is cuteness overload!!!
#nihongo
#日本語
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鋼(はがね)のメンタル: (have) nerves of steel/strong mentality
豆腐(とうふ)メンタル: (have) nerves of tofu/very fragile mentality; highly sensitive
彼は豆腐メンタルだから、批判されるとすぐ落ち込む
Having nerves of tofu, he easily gets depressed when he is criticised by others
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借(か)りてきた猫(ねこ), "a borrowed cat"
= a Japanese idiom used when someone is very quiet in an unfamiliar environment and behaves very differently than usual
#nihongo
#learnjapanese
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There's a unique project in Japan that aims to make a new idol group called "PhD48", where every member holds a PhD
Potential criticism aside, this may bring more recognition to the word "PhD" and 博士号(doctorate), whose concepts are not well known/understood among Japanese ppl
「メンバー全員が博士のアイドルグループPhD48を作ってもいいですか？」とAKB48の公式に聞いてみたら「問題ありません。学問や研究に対する理解や興味が、1人でも多くの方に広まることを祈ってます」と返ってきて嬉しい狂気。
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パンの耳 (みみ)
Literally "ears of bread"
= "bread crust; the outer skin of shokupan (milk/plain bread)"
#nihongo
#にほんご
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The meaning can be either positive ("be not easily upset; immune to pressure/criticism") or negative ("shameless; impudent")
Near Antonyms:
- 繊細 (せんさい): sensitive
- 豆腐(とうふ)メンタル; nerves of tofu = "mentally weak" (Slang)
#Nihongo
#日本語
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A couple of Japanese players are now saying during the interview, "一喜一憂(いっきいちゆう)しないで", which means "do not feel overly delighted (or depressed) just by one result (and get ready for the next game)".
It's a very important mindset to be successful😄
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1. 遠慮のかたまり (enryo no katamari)
In the Kansai dialect, it literally means "piece of refrainment" and indicates the last piece of food on a shared plate by multiple people, i.e. the last portion on a plate that everyone feels hesitant to reach for.
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[Slang] ~は正義 (せいぎ) ("~ is justice")
= ~ is always/definitely/unquestionably great
かわいいは正義
Something/Someone cute is always/unquestionably great
唐揚げは正義
Karaage (Japanese fried chicken) is always/unquestionably/undoubtedly great
#にほんご #日本語
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#翻訳 How do you usually translate "一応"?
As in, 一応先輩だから, 一応サッカー部だった, 一応彼氏いる, and 一応、日本語喋れる.
I thought about it, 一応, and its core meaning is "not as good/much as it sounds, but"; I guess "kind of" or "a bit" may be the closest terms.
#日本語
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遠慮の塊 (enryo no katamari)
Kansai dialect slang word meaning “a last piece of food on a plate shared by multiple people”
= The last bit of food on a plate that nobody reaches for because of 遠慮 ("to hold back doing things out of consideration for others")
#kansaiben
#nihongo
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In Japanese, passive voice can be used with intransitive verbs at times to indicate the annoyance of the event/behaviour.
E.g.
雨に降られた (降る: fall)
= It rained; (I) got caught in a shower
子供に泣かれた (泣く: cry)
= The child cried (and I felt it a bit troublesome)
#Nihongo
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推(お)し
= "a person/character whom you stan/support as an avid fan"; it comes from the verb 推す, "to stan"
It used to be a jargon term among idol fans, but now it's often used among young people to describe an idol member or anime character they stan, as in 私の推し
#japanese
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言(い)わんこっちゃない
= "I knew this was coming; I told you so"
Used when something bad happens after you warned someone that it would happen or you well anticipated it would happen.
Often used with ほら/ほーら/ほらね (See?), like ほら、言わんこっちゃない
#nihongo
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不幸中の幸い (ふこうちゅう の さいわい)
= a phrase that describes when you have bad luck (不幸), but at the same time you feel lucky in a way because it could have been worse
(e.g.) getting hit by a car in front of a hospital
#日本語
#learnjapanese
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改悪 (かいあく)
To change something (e.g. service/system/rule) for the worse
An antonym of 改善 (かいぜん, improve). Often used ironically when a company or organisation makes its service/product worse, often in the name of リニューアル ("revamp/update/rebrand"; from "renewal")
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#kanji
/official yomi/unofficial yomi
店員/てんいん/ていいん
全員/ぜんいん/ぜいいん
体育/たいいく/たいく
雰囲気/ふんいき/ふいんき
Unofficial ones are often used in a convo (as it’s easier to pronounce). ふいんき is so common that you can type it to write 雰囲気 in some keyboards
「店員」「全員」を「ていいん」「ぜいいん」と発音する人が増えているそうです。「雰囲気」を「ふいんき」と発音するのと少し似ています。最近は文字でも「店員」を「定員」と書いているものがあります。試しにツイッターで「定員さん」を検索してみるとたくさん見つかりました。（埋）
＃定員さん
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うろ覚(おぼ)え
"to remember something only vaguely"
Often used as うろ覚え{だけど/ですけど} when you share some knowledge/information with someone but you're not quite certain whether they are accurate or not.
#日本語
#nihongo
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仮病 (けびょう)
= "to pretend to be sick"
Often used as 仮病を使(つか)う, "pretend to be sick (e.g. to skip school)"
仮病を使って (or 仮病で) 授業をサボった
I pretended to be sick to skip classes
サボる = “skip one’s classes, work, etc. (loaned from “sabotage”)
#日本語
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食っちゃ寝（くっちゃね）
= to do nothing but eating and sleeping; a sound change from 食っては寝
夏休みの間、食っちゃね生活をしてたら５キロ太った
During the summer break, I've been doing nothing but eating and sleeping and gained 5kg
#日本語
#Nihongo
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5. 大人買い (otona gai)
It literarily means "adult buying" and indicates the act of purchasing a large number of particular items (e.g. DVDs) at once — something that we used to long for in our childhood.
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Ohh this is similar to 黒歴史 (くろれきし, lit. "black/dark history"), which means "your embarrassing secret/past (that you want to forget and hide from others)".
昔、彼と付き合っていたのは私の黒歴史だ
The skeleton in my closet is that I used to be dating him.
#nihongo
#日本語
"Skeleton in the closet" is an embarrassing or shameful secret about something that happened in the past.
⠀
Example: My father was in jail for a day once. That's our family's skeleton in the closet.
⠀
Learn idioms in our app -
⠀
#idioms
#englishidioms
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記念受験 (きねんじゅけん)
Lit. "to take a memento exam"
= "to take an entrance/qualification exam knowing you're gonna fail"
For instance, it is going to be 記念受験 if you take the JLPT N1 test armed with in-depth knowledge about Japanese anime characters.
#nihongo
#日本語
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There are three types of tweets that you should always take with a grain of salt:
1. AI hype tweets
2. "I'm gonna quit Twitter"
3. Untranslatable Japanese words introduced by non-Japanese people
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馴れ初め (なれそめ)
= "how a couple started dating; an event or opportunity that ignited a romantic relationship between two persons"
Usually used to ask a (nosy) question of a married couple, like 二人の馴れ初めは? ("How did you two meet/start dating?")
#nihongo
#日本語
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3. 三日坊主 (mikka bouzu)
It literally means "a three-day monk" and figuratively describes people who quit something that they started a couple of days ago (usually to improve themselves, like going to a gym and studying a new language).
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I just saw リモートワーク ("remote work") abbreviated as "リモワ" and フルリモート ("fully remote work") as "フルリモ". Indeed, we Japanese people can't resist abbreviating English loanwords esp. when using スマホ for SNS.
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I've made a tool (mostly based on other people's work) that automatically generates furigana/romaji for Japanese words, splits sentences into words, and provides grammar info for each word. I hope to add more high-tech functions soon.
#Nihongo
#日本語
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これはこれで ...
= a phrase used when something is not typical/what you expected/what was planned, but you find it rather good
このチョコ思ったより苦かったけど、これはこれで美味しい
This chocolate tastes bitter than I thought, but still it's tasty
#nihongo
#studyJapanese
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2. ありがた迷惑 (arigata meiwaku)
It literally means "helpful nuisance" and describes someone’s favour that you find rather unpleasant and annoying. For instance, if someone gives you a mountain of snacks you don't really like, that'd be arigata meiwaku.
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TIL: in linguistics, a "false friend" means words/expressions in different languages that look similar and yet have very different meanings.
Probs 足を引っ張る and "pull someone's leg" are false friends, where the Ja phrase means "to drag someone down", not "to tease someone".
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I've been building a glossary of Japanese phrases (idioms/slang) with their definitions/example sents:
It consists of 160 entries atm, and I think the number will be > 500 if I include all words that I've ever explained!
#nihongo
#日本語
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まっぴらごめん, a big no thanks
サービス残業なんて、まっぴらごめんだ
A big no thanks to working overtime without getting paid
Just ごめんだ means the same (with ごめん pronounced in 尾高) while ごめん (sorry) is in 中高 (め is accented). まっぴら makes it sound more sarcastic
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Just posted this on my Instagram account for the first time in ages. Follow me if you're interested
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"because …" in Japanese dialects:
…(だ)から (Standard)
…(や)から (Kansai)
…(や)さかい (Kansai, almost outdated)
…(じゃ)けん/(や)けん (Hiroshima, Fukuoka, etc)
明日暇だから/やから/やさかい/じゃけん、飲もう
Coz I am free tomorrow, let's go for a drink
#nihongo
#日本語勉強
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