November 19, 2008

"Top 60 popular Japanese words/phrases of 2008."

Including "sabupuraimu" -- get it? Another one like that is "Arafo."

Then there's "hime-den" -- which is this...



... can you even see what that is?

And there's "ea-gei" -- "air performance":
This refers to a recent twist on the Japanese art of monomane (impersonation). Unlike conventional monomane artists who do voice impressions, air performers lip sync their imitations to recordings while incorporating well-timed dance moves, gestures and facial expressions.

"Saiban Inko" -- combining saibanin (juror) and inko (parakeet) -- will help people understand the new citizen jury system:



Lots more -- obviously, there are 60 -- at the link.

(Via Metafilter, where they are especially amused by "morning banana.")

6 comments:

Balfegor said...

7. Rozen Aso (ローゼン麻生):

AKA Rozen-kakka/ローゼン閣下 (His Excellency, Rozen). I don't think he'll last more than a year, but who knows? Perhaps he will be the one to reform the political system set up by his grandfather, Yoshida Shigeru. Kind of hard in the teeth of an economic disaster, although it's not like Japan was in good economic health when Yoshida was Prime Minister.

Kitaaa! (キターー!!): Comedian Takahiro Yamamoto repopularized the expression “kitaaa!” (”relief!”) after imitating the way actor Yuji Oda used to scream it in eyedrop commercials years ago.

Is this really something that's that new? I mean, I have the feeling I've been seeing it used regularly for years. Mostly in 2ch and flash animations, but also in comics. Did it just return to the mainstream after bumping around in nerd subculture?

56. Age-age (あげあげ): Shibuya slang for “exciting” or “fun.”

Does anyone know whether this comes from the Age/Sage 上げ/下げ thing on message boards?

Palladian said...

The Japanese are a terrifying, fascinating people.

Ann Althouse said...

"Is this really something that's that new?"

Old stuff can be "popular."

Automatic_Wing said...

Is this really something that's that new?

I've only seen this particular Yuji Oda imitation for the last 6 months or so and it is spot-on. I never saw the eyedrop commercials but he has his mannerisms nailed. Word is that the original Oda is not real happy about it.

DaLawGiver said...

Recent statistics indicate that 47 percent of men and 32 percent of women in their early 30s are unmarried.

If this were the case in the United States would we create a government agency to promote marriage and procreation? How would it affect our immigration policies?

jayne_cobb said...

Come on, you can't have a post on the japanese language without linking to engrish.com