Japanese-English

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Japanese-English

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..

I figured you were Steph's cousin. Not too many divorces in that bunch although there were a couple. Is she stil at YB? She got married again to another Eurosport guy but I heard that marriage didn't do so well either. Too bad because Steph's a pretty level-headed woman.

Dexter's dad still owns House of Dragon and remarkably has one of the cleanest Chinese Kitchen's in the state.

He also at one point owned Silver Dragon restaurant in Pearl Ridge Mall a few decades ago.

After selling his share to Bob, Dexter opened up Speedtek on Queen street then sold that. Now he's into computer repair.

One of the spin offs of Eurosport is Sonic Motorsports in Kalihi.

Are you sure TRE was on Artesian street, because Dexter's first Eurosport commercial location was on Elsie street and he met Bob at an adjacent shop. I can't remember his name but he was into bugs, moved to Thailand and died there. I know from S. King street you had to drive up Artesian turn left onto Beretania then left again onto Elsie to get to the shop.

Bob owned a Porche shop on Coral street as well before buying into Dexter's biz.

Man this is getting way off topic, sorry about that.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Japanese-English

In my home, living with a Nikkeijin from Hawai`i, I've found myself incorporating a lot of Japanese/Hawaiian/pidgin words into daily conversation.
Bocha...shoyu...pau...kuleana...that sort of thing; hard for me to know what's in more common usage outside of my home now.

And I'm a LOT more sensitive to the mispronunciations than I used to be, like "carry-okee," "kuh-ROHT-ee" and "SHOW-guhn." 'Cause if I make a mistake with one, I get WHACK-WHACK!

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Japanese-English

In my home, living with a Nikkeijin from Hawai`i, I've found myself incorporating a lot of Japanese/Hawaiian/pidgin words into daily conversation.
Bocha...shoyu...pau...kuleana...that sort of thing; hard for me to know what's in more common usage outside of my home now.

And I'm a LOT more sensitive to the mispronunciations than I used to be, like "carry-okee," "kuh-ROHT-ee" and "SHOW-guhn." 'Cause if I make a mistake with one, I get WHACK-WHACK!

This is why I cringe everytime I hear Jawaiian. Oh man that is so bad. It's like Charlie Daniels trying to sing pidgin. It just don't sound right.

Actually the Japanese language is easy to pronounce , all vowels are short unless they're doubled up (aa) then it's long. So Karate is Kah-Rah (roll the R) Teh. And it's Sho-Goon (shogun).

There are a lot of English words that the Japanese have adopted like Banana and Restaurant.

[toeknee]

Re: Japanese-English

In response to your original questions, snow-spike, I can think of a couple of Japanese words used widely among English speakers, even on the mainland. One is harakiri (often mangled and pronounced like the old Chicago baseball anouncer's name, Harry Carry) and the other we've heard a lot lately: tsunami. Good luck with your research!

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Japanese-English

There are a lot of English words that the Japanese have adopted like Banana and Restaurant.

Another "visit to Japan" story: one evening in Ikebukuro, the Alpha Female was resting in the hotel, when I decided to visit a restaurant down the block, to check out their breakfast menu for the next morning. I figured that, between the little Japanese I spoke and the likelihood that they knew a lot more English, I'd be able to accomplish this task.

When greeted at the front of the restaurant, I said (in Japanese) "Excuse me, but I don't understand much Japanese." (The staff's facial expressions sort of said "well - duh; we figured as much.") I then asked (in very broken Japanese) if they had an English-language menu - realizing as I said this that the only Nihongo word I was lacking was the one for "menu," so I said that in English. The staff then showed me the English menu; I thanked them and said we would be back in the morning, and went back to the hotel.

I described the conversation to my sweetie, then asked her what the word for "menu" would be. She told me that the word most Japanese would use is pronounced:

"men-yuu."

[Mokihana]

Re: Japanese-English

I don't know if this is really Japanese; when I was growing up on O‘ahu, my dad always used to say "mate mate(mahte mahte)" for "try wait!"

I always was told it was Japanese. Is it?

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Japanese-English

I don't know if this is really Japanese; when I was growing up on O‘ahu, my dad always used to say "mate mate(mahte mahte)" for "try wait!"

I always was told it was Japanese. Is it?

Yup, that's Japanese all right. The regular polite form would be "matte kudasai". "Matte!" is a little more abrupt but fine for everyday speech.

[Mokihana]

Re: Japanese-English

Oh, mahalo brah! My dad was taking Japanese language classes, and he loved that phrase. I guess is okay to be abrupt wen da keeds stay saying ovah and ovah, "Eh, wen we going be deah?"

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Japanese-English

Yup, that's Japanese all right. The regular polite form would be "matte kudasai". "Matte!" is a little more abrupt but fine for everyday speech.

The correct and formal way is: Choto Mate Kurasai but the local way is "Choto" as in "we goin choto" meaning we are going in a little while.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Japanese-English

The correct and formal way is: Choto Mate Kurasai but the local way is "Choto" as in "we goin choto" meaning we are going in a little while.

And in case you didn't get it from Craig's context, "chotto" means "a little".

The Japanese language is all about how you conjugate your verbs. There are many ways to say "wait", from the most polite to the most rude:

Shōshō omachi kudasai
Chotto matte kudasai
Matte kudasai
Matte!
Matte kure!

And I've probably missed several.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Japanese-English

And in case you didn't get it from Craig's context, "chotto" means "a little".

The Japanese language is all about how you conjugate your verbs. There are many ways to say "wait", from the most polite to the most rude:

Shōshō omachi kudasai
Chotto matte kudasai
Matte kudasai
Matte!
Matte kure!

And I've probably missed several.

So how do you interpret: Skoshi?

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Japanese-English

So how do you interpret: Skoshi?

I'd spell it "sukoshi" (少し). It also means "a little", but in a different way. I'm no Japanese grammar expert so I can't really articulate the difference.

[Pomai]

Re: Japanese-English

Top of mind, a few more borrowed English words:
• Terebī - TV
• Kuruma - Car (not sure if this one is borrowed, but it sounds like it)

These are classics I've actually heard while working with Nihonjin tourists:
• Maku no Dōnadū'dō - McDonalds
• Baahga king'u - Burger King
• Ceru Fō - Cellular Phone
• Saafingu - Surfing
• Haanbagu - Hamburger

A friend from Japan lived with us a few months, and she had the most difficult time trying to pronounce or distinguish L's and R's. Mainly because in Japanese, L's are non-existent and R's are "rolled" to sound more like D. Example...
• crazy - she would say, "kū'lā'zee" or "kū'dā'zee"
• really? - she would say, "ree'ree?" or "ree'dee?" or "lee'dee?" (Nihongo is "hōntō nī?")
• lucky - "rucky" or "d'ucky"
... you get the idea.

"Kulazy"

[kupomog]

Re: Japanese-English

I'd spell it "sukoshi" (少し). It also means "a little", but in a different way. I'm no Japanese grammar expert so I can't really articulate the difference.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think sukoshi is meant for quantity/amount only, whereas chotto can be used for quantity, time, space, quality, etc.

• Haanbagu - Hamburger

Should be noted than hanbaagu refers to an actual hamburger steak type of meal. The word for the hamburger sandwich would be hanbaagaa. Small difference, but it's an important one in the case of food and getting what you want.

EDIT: Yar, missed this one earlier..

• Kuruma - Car (not sure if this one is borrowed, but it sounds like it)

That one's not a borrowed English word, it's the actual Japanese word. Otherwise they'd say "kaa," like with "basu" for bus, even though there's a word for bus in Japanese.

[na alii]

Re: Japanese-English

I figured you were Steph's cousin. Not too many divorces in that bunch although there were a couple. Is she stil at YB? She got married again to another Eurosport guy but I heard that marriage didn't do so well either. Too bad because Steph's a pretty level-headed woman.

Dexter's dad still owns House of Dragon and remarkably has one of the cleanest Chinese Kitchen's in the state.

He also at one point owned Silver Dragon restaurant in Pearl Ridge Mall a few decades ago.

After selling his share to Bob, Dexter opened up Speedtek on Queen street then sold that. Now he's into computer repair.

One of the spin offs of Eurosport is Sonic Motorsports in Kalihi.

Are you sure TRE was on Artesian street, because Dexter's first Eurosport commercial location was on Elsie street and he met Bob at an adjacent shop. I can't remember his name but he was into bugs, moved to Thailand and died there. I know from S. King street you had to drive up Artesian turn left onto Beretania then left again onto Elsie to get to the shop.

Bob owned a Porche shop on Coral street as well before buying into Dexter's biz.

Man this is getting way off topic, sorry about that.

Yup Steph is my cousin and she's still at YB. Every time I run into Darryl he's always complaining about her and mentioning how she's running him down but I found out about the whole thing from my friend Tim York. TRE started off in Manoa Market Place with Peter Chung renting out part of his friend's TV repair shop and then moved to Artesian St. The Artesian St. location is owned by my alignment instructor from LCC called Stan's Wheel Alignment and he rented out the other half to Peter. Last I heard Peter moved to LA or Hong Kong where he's originally from. This may have gone off topic but it's good to hear about old times.