Category: Vocabulary
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Stylish Gal – オシャンティー
オシャンティーとはおオシャレをスタイリッシュに言った若者言葉。意味自体はお洒落と同意である。 若者言葉の中で○○な人を指す時に「○○ティー」と付ける場合がある。例えば、地元民を「ジモティー」と呼んだりする。オシャンティーもこれを活用したものであると考えられる。
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Show What You’ve Got – 腕の見せ所
There’s something to do with arms here in Japan that relates to your performance. Beginning students of Japanese will undoubtedly think of 上手 – literally ‘upper hand’, meaning ‘skilled-in’ or ‘clever’. In this lesson however, we’ll be focusing on the expression 腕の見せ所 (うでのみせどころ). Whenever I hear this expression, I always think of the vintage US…
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Goldfish Droppings – 金魚の糞
金魚の糞（フン）をぶらぶらさせながら泳いでいるところを見たことはありませんか？日本語ではその様子を例えて「金魚の糞」と言って下記の例のように使います。
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Love Key!? 合鍵
Recently while watching a Japanese drama I came across the word 合鍵 (あいかぎ). Given the context in which it was used, I was quite surprised to find out later that my mental image of the Kanji had been quite different to the reality. The word as follows: 合鍵 あいかぎ Spare Key Equally, a ‘copy of…
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Fairytale Size – 昔話盛り
You’ll often come across varying portion sizes in Japan, especially when you eat out. 小盛り (こもり), 並盛り (なみもり) and 大盛り (おおもり) are regular expressions used to refer to ‘small’, ‘regular’ and ‘large’ helpings of rice and other goodies that can be heaped up. Further to that, as we looked as in The 6 Types of…
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Oops! Now I’ve Gone and Done It! – やってもうた
Here’s a cool little phrase that is worth remembering that can really liven up your Japanese – at least when speaking to yourself! やってもうた emphasises a state of shock and disappointment at mistake you’ve made. You’ll certainly catch people’s attention by using it!
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Winner Takes All – 勝てば官軍、負ければ賊軍
Are you familiar with the Abba song ‘Winner Takes It All’? One of the particular lyrics in this classic is very close in nuance to the Japanese proverb below. It’s often used in business contexts to describe the situation where the successful are seen as right, and in contrast the unsuccessful are seen as wrong.…
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Old Japanese / Formal Numbers – 大字
Have you ever noticed the Kanji character used on the 10,000 yen Japanese banknote? If you’ve got your basic Japanese numerals down, you know that the character for 10,000 is 万 (まん) – a standard unit in the Japanese counting system. But what about the strange character in front of it? Why does the banknote…
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Your Company Or Mine? 当社 – 弊社 – 貴社 – 御社
In business Japanese, you will often hear unique expressions and vocabulary that rarely appears in other situations. One such occasion is when talking about the company between businesses.