Japanese-English

[snow-spike]

I am a student in tokyo studying sociolinguistics.
Currently I am working on a thesis about Japanese vocabularies which became English such as kimono. Especially in Hawaii, I guess there are plenty of those.

I would like to know more lexical items that came from Japanese.

I've collected some samples: "we go hibachi" , 544 (means go to bathroom), "No make shibai", " you going get bachi" , etc.

If you know any, please tell me!

[Pomai]

"Ato-Bai"

In the early 80's, Suzuki introduced the GS1000 Katana to the US market. Not long later, Kawasaki introduced the now famous "Ninja" sportbikes.

Because of their forward-prone riding position (a new concept at the time), many local kids in my age group referred to them as a
KIKAIDA BIKE.

An indelible image that us Hawaii kids remember from the popular 70's show that featured Jinzo Ningen Kikaida and his famous "Side Machine" motorcycle.

"How's that Kikaida bike!" was a common description used back then.

Kawasaki then took over the local sportbike slang with:
NINJA BIKE

Then it evolved into:
SHOYU BURNER

Then completely westernized into:
RICE ROCKET

I'll always have fond memories of my Pearl White 1987 Honda VFR 700 Interceptor and Blue-block graphic 1988 Yamaha FZR1000.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Japanese-English

I've never heard of that term "Go Hibachi" meaning to go to the bathroom and I've lived in Hawaii all my life and am 100% Japanese!

I use the term: Go Bocha and a lot of locals use it meaning to go take a bath.

Another plantation term was Benjo as in bathroom instead of Obenjo. Some Nisei here in Hilo would say: Eh I go benjo make shi shi before nei nei (sleep).

One term I found interesting is the Japanese flute called the Shakuhachi. I've heard it used as a way of describing something sexually explicit. I guess you "blow" into a shakuhachi with your lips much the same way as one would give a "blow" job?

Then there's Skebe (skeh-beh) as in: Eh we go watch dakine skebe movies, meaning porno flicks.

But as an owner of a fine European automobile (BMW) we always refer to those Japanese tuner cars as Ricers as in: I just toasted a set up Honda with my Beamer or "cooking rice" as we like to say it.

When I used to hang out with the gang at Eurosport on Coral street (original bunch from the late 70's to early 80's), as some of the gang shifted to Honda's and Toyota's, I would say: Eh we go change da name from Eurosport to NihongoSport.

When Dee Dee Aiyo (God rest her sole) used to say: Hi I'm Dee Dee Aiyo and away we go! I used to chime in with: Hi I'm Dee Dee Aiyo and Ikimasho!

Here in Hawaii we use the term: Saimin as opposed to Ramen.

Here in Hawaii we use the term: Slippers as opposed to Zori.

Here in Hawaii we still use the term Batazushi to describe cone sushi.

And the older Japanese language is preserved here so we still say "no" the formal way: Ie.

[kupomog]

Re: "Ato-Bai"

I think the "go hibachi" just meant to go use the hibachi and wasn't meant for the go-shi-shi 544 one.

Oh oh, how about this website?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanes...ords_in_Hawaii

Like the linky says, it has lotsa (well, kind of) good Japanese loanwords including some that you said that I'm too lazy to copy and paste here for your convenience

[craigwatanabe]

Re: "Ato-Bai"

I think the "go hibachi" just meant to go use the hibachi and wasn't meant for the go-shi-shi 544 one.

Oh oh, how about this website?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanes...ords_in_Hawaii

Like the linky says, it has lotsa (well, kind of) good Japanese loanwords including some that you said that I'm too lazy to copy and paste here for your convenience

Interesting link...thanks! I actually wanted to put 544 as my license plate once. Another variation was "4T" meaning "ShiT"

What's interesting is that a lot of haole's still think Sushi is raw fish. And how in the world do you get Kariyoki out of Karaoke is beyond me.

I still like my idea of a bumper sticker: Divers do it deeper...but Japanese eat it raw!

[na alii]

Re: "Ato-Bai"

In the early 80's, Suzuki introduced the GS1000 Katana to the US market. Not long later, Kawasaki introduced the now famous "Ninja" sportbikes.

Because of their forward-prone riding position (a new concept at the time), many local kids in my age group referred to them as a
KIKAIDA BIKE.

An indelible image that us Hawaii kids remember from the popular 70's show that featured Jinzo Ningen Kikaida and his famous "Side Machine" motorcycle.

"How's that Kikaida bike!" was a common description used back then.

Kawasaki then took over the local sportbike slang with:
NINJA BIKE

Then it evolved into:
SHOYU BURNER

Then completely westernized into:
RICE ROCKET

I'll always have fond memories of my Pearl White 1987 Honda VFR 700 Interceptor and Blue-block graphic 1988 Yamaha FZR1000.

I'm still the original owner of a 1989 Kawasaki ZX-7.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: "Ato-Bai"

I'm still the original owner of a 1989 Kawasaki ZX-7.

Let the good times roll!

[na alii]

Re: Japanese-English

I've never heard of that term "Go Hibachi" meaning to go to the bathroom and I've lived in Hawaii all my life and am 100% Japanese!

I use the term: Go Bocha and a lot of locals use it meaning to go take a bath.

Another plantation term was Benjo as in bathroom instead of Obenjo. Some Nisei here in Hilo would say: Eh I go benjo make shi shi before nei nei (sleep).

One term I found interesting is the Japanese flute called the Shakuhachi. I've heard it used as a way of describing something sexually explicit. I guess you "blow" into a shakuhachi with your lips much the same way as one would give a "blow" job?

Then there's Skebe (skeh-beh) as in: Eh we go watch dakine skebe movies, meaning porno flicks.

But as an owner of a fine European automobile (BMW) we always refer to those Japanese tuner cars as Ricers as in: I just toasted a set up Honda with my Beamer or "cooking rice" as we like to say it.

When I used to hang out with the gang at Eurosport on Coral street (original bunch from the late 70's to early 80's), as some of the gang shifted to Honda's and Toyota's, I would say: Eh we go change da name from Eurosport to NihongoSport.

When Dee Dee Aiyo (God rest her sole) used to say: Hi I'm Dee Dee Aiyo and away we go! I used to chime in with: Hi I'm Dee Dee Aiyo and Ikimasho!

Here in Hawaii we use the term: Saimin as opposed to Ramen.

Here in Hawaii we use the term: Slippers as opposed to Zori.

Here in Hawaii we still use the term Batazushi to describe cone sushi.

And the older Japanese language is preserved here so we still say "no" the formal way: Ie.

We used to say "We go hibachi" meaning we go and cook out with a Hibachi BBQ. Even the word Benjo is not used in Japan today. The Japanese use the English word toilet. I'm used to the older Japanese words my mom taught me but 25% of the Japanese I use is obsolete and only used by older people. Eurosport on Coral St. was owned by Dexter Lum and Bob Nakamura. My cousin's ex-husband used to hang with Dexter.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Japanese-English

We used to say "We go hibachi" meaning we go and cook out with a Hibachi BBQ. Even the word Benjo is not used in Japan today. The Japanese use the English word toilet. I'm used to the older Japanese words my mom taught me but 25% of the Japanese I use is obsolete and only used by older people. Eurosport on Coral St. was owned by Dexter Lum and Bob Nakamura. My cousin's ex-husband used to hang with Dexter.

What's his name? I know Dexter, we go back to High School when Eurosport started in his garage on Poola Street as Dragon Automotive. We used to work on Dexter's yellow bug running the air compressor into the wee morning hours...

Bob bought out Dexter in the 90's but Dexter was the sole proprietor before Bob came into the picture.

As for the term Hibachi...yeah that's sounding familiar again. But the reality is Hibachi cooking and Barbecueing is two totally different cooking techniques. Hibachi is basically grilling over coals while barbecueing is cooking with indirect heat (slow cooking) with the coals off on the side or in another containment bin completely. Barbecueing takes a minimum of 4-hours of cooking while grilling is basically searing the meat or veggies.

Oh yeah and the term Choto as in chotomate kudasai or please wait a while. So Choto means: Try wait!

Which reminds me of: Boto My early 30-year old boss never knew what the hell I meant when I called him that: Eh Boto try come hea and sign my vacation papers!

[Pomai]

Obake in the Machine

OBAKE FILES by the late Glen Grant. A "ghostlore" book based on urban legends and tales of Hawaii's history in the world of the supernatural. It appears Mr. Grant chose that title to define the ethnic diversity of the subject. This, assuming his targeted demo' were locals who were familiar with the Japanese term, "Obake" for ghost.

Another item that comes to mind on this topic was Takashi Shimizu's THE GRUDGE, a remake joint-venture film of his original Japanese version, JU-ON. Contrary to critics and reviews, I actually thought THE GRUDGE was done quite well. From a production stand-point, it was quite an improvement over Ju-on. IMO. I'm not a horror film "regular", so THE GRUDGE had me at chair's-end spooked.

[alohabear]

Re: Japanese-English

How about how we in Hawaii call snot Hanabata.... is this word used in Japan?

[Paul]

Re: Japanese-English

How about how we in Hawaii call snot Hanabata.... is this word used in Japan?

No it isn't. "Hana" is Japanese for nose and bata is pidgeon for "butter" so you get where this comes from. When my grandmother from Japan came to visit us when I was a kid, she was perplexed by this word and my mom had to explain it to here. Just like the word, "musubi".

[na alii]

Re: Japanese-English

What's his name? I know Dexter, we go back to High School when Eurosport started in his garage on Poola Street as Dragon Automotive. We used to work on Dexter's yellow bug running the air compressor into the wee morning hours...

Bob bought out Dexter in the 90's but Dexter was the sole proprietor before Bob came into the picture.

As for the term Hibachi...yeah that's sounding familiar again. But the reality is Hibachi cooking and Barbecueing is two totally different cooking techniques. Hibachi is basically grilling over coals while barbecueing is cooking with indirect heat (slow cooking) with the coals off on the side or in another containment bin completely. Barbecueing takes a minimum of 4-hours of cooking while grilling is basically searing the meat or veggies.

Oh yeah and the term Choto as in chotomate kudasai or please wait a while. So Choto means: Try wait!

Which reminds me of: Boto My early 30-year old boss never knew what the hell I meant when I called him that: Eh Boto try come hea and sign my vacation papers!

My cousin's ex-husband is Darryl Murai. Didn't Dexter's dad own House of Dragon Chop Suey in Pearl City by Long's? Bob Nakamura worked at few places including Sportmotive on Hauoli St. and later TRE with Peter Chung on Artesian St..

[kupomog]

Re: Japanese-English

How about how we in Hawaii call snot Hanabata.... is this word used in Japan?

There's a "hanabata" in "hanabatake" for flower bed :P

But when considered as a foreign word, "bata", or more precisely, "bataa" would still mean butter. They would just use katakana to write it instead of hiragana since it'd be a foreign word. And likewise, "bataakuriimu" would be buttercream.

[Menehune Man]

Re: Japanese-English

We don't say soy sauce here in hawaii, we say shoyu. Definitely been incorporated into full use. Taking over the english verbage.