Monday, August 6, 2012

Kitchen Paper

Beware of Japanized-English-words. These are basically Japanese words or phrases that technically come straight from English but that don't correspond to any word or phrase we would normally use. For example, what we call air conditioning is what the Japanese call エアコン (eakon), or basically "aircon." When I'm talking with English-speaking friends, we use the Japanese version, saying something like "thank god my apartment has aircon." Can you imagine one of us saying that back in the states? We'd get stares. Here are a few other examples:

Paper towels-->キチンペーパー(kichin pe-pa-), "kitchen paper."
Gas Station-->ガソリンスタンド (gasorin sutando), "gasoline stand."
Stroller-->ベビーカー(bebi-ka-), "baby car."

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