Gov't asked to replace 59 English terms with Japanese (They've Caught French Disease)

Japan Today ^ | April 27, 2003

[Timesink]

Gov't asked to replace 59 English terms with Japanese

Sunday, April 27, 2003 at 06:00 JST
TOKYO — The National Institute for Japanese Language proposed Friday that the government avoid using 59 English or English-like terms in their Japanese-language documents.

In its first completed report, the institute's panel listed the 59 terms which it had selected out of 62 samples it examined and offered Japanese-language expressions to replace them, except for "normalization," for which it failed to find a Japanese phrase.

The panel conducted a survey on public recognition of the sample terms and decided that only three — "impact," "care" and "day service" — were suitable for use in Japanese-language documents.

The 59 terms include "informed consent," "delivery," "second opinion," "barrier free" and "lifeline."

The panel compiled the final report after conducting the public recognition poll based on an interim report it issued in December on the 63 terms.

The panel, comprised of academics, translators and media representatives, plans to compile a second interim report in July on 58 more sample terms.

The institute is affiliated with the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry. (Kyodo News)

[gcruse]

"barrier free" and "lifeline."

Man, I don't blame them.  It's hard enough
for a Japanese to say 'riferine,' but I wouldn't
even want to tackle 'barrier free.'

[Larry Lucido]

The institute also reported that it has not found suitable Japanese substitutes for "Freeper" and "Freeping." They are also having trouble pronouncing both.

[KeyWest]

Doomed from the start. English is the universal language, mostly because of its flexibility. When you build in rigidity, like the French, the language is on its way to death.

[Arkinsaw]

[Vigilanteman]

There is no way the Japanese will ever catch the French disease. The language is full of American English loan words which are constantly evolving@and creeping into the vocabulary. The problem with the glut of English loan words is that the pronounciation is usually altered so much it is unrecognizeable to a native speaker.

Some are innocent enough-- terebi for television, sekuhara for sexual harassment-- but others, like the examples mentioned, are often so new or obscure that it is doing native speakers a favor to render them into Japanese with kanji characters, the meaning of which can at least be deduced by anyone with an intermediate fluency of the language.

[TheOtherOne]

My favorite day taking japanese was when the professor tried to teach the class how to say 'ukulele' in Japanese. I never even had a need to say that in english, but she felt the need to teach us. It was great to hear her tell me how to say ukulele.

[Arkinsaw]

[aruanan]

Gov't asked to replace 59 English terms with Japanese

Hmmm, why don't they go all the way and eschew all the Western technology, government, and education they've imported since the Meiji Restoration? They weren't too hesitant back then to adopt Western, especially American, ways of doing things.

[Tribune7]

"We play for your erection,"
--an apocryphal account of a sign held by Japanese in Toyko supporting Douglas MacArthur's candidacy for president in 1952.

[honeygrl]

www.engrish.com is hilarious.. lots of those photos to look at with engrish on them

[gcruse]

LOL My father had an employee with a speech impediment where he pronounced ells like double-u's. We were always trying to find ways to get him to say Honowuwu.

[gcruse]

ROFL!!! That's great!

[redheadtoo]

While in Japan I discovered that the Japanese language (Nippongo)had its own word for banana but they didn't use it. They prefered to say bah-na-na.

If they get rid of English words then what are the Japanese going to call Mac-a-do-na-nolds.

[thedugal]

"They've Caught French Disease" -

What in the hell does speaking ones own language have to do with becoming "French"??????????? How arogant do you have to be to expect another country to speak your language in THEIR COUNTRY? You need to take a walk outside the trailer park.

The problem is that modern Japanese borrow English words and phrases which already have words in Japanese. The other problem is that the meaning that they attribute to a borrowed word is either different or only a single meaning of a complex word. I would much rather the Japanese speak proper Japanese and learn English correctly as a second language than jumble both and not be able to converse well in either.

[Timesink]

*yawn* If the references are over your head, that's your problem, not ours.

[thedugal]

Mac-a-do-na-nolds.

actually they pronounce it mah-coo-doh-nah-roo-doh

[redheadtoo]

actually they pronounce it mah-coo-doh-nah-roo-doh

Tomato, tomahto.

[Squantos]

LOL.....Words like Rap , Crap and Lap drove em to this no doubt !

[Petronski]

The 'French disease' refers to the 'Commissariat General a la Langue Francaise,' which removes English words from French by government fiat and fines advertisers who use English (or, in the Canadian case, advertisers who use English in a font more than 66% of the correct French phrase, which is required).