The Japanese language is always changing!
July 29th, 2009
Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of Happy Hour Japan!
In this episode, Aaron and I discuss how the Japanese language is always changing. If you’re learning to speak Japanese and decide to travel to Japan, you’ll quickly realize there are lots of words and phrases that you’ve never seen or heard of before. That’s because the Japanese language isn’t set in stone, but rather evolving (just like English and every other language). Sounds pretty obvious, but we thought it was worth mentioning and discussing with all of you.
Also, in this episode we talk about…HHJ logo wear!
Kanpai!
Kevin
I can honestly say I think HHJ wear sounds brilliant.
Not only that, but when wearing it people would ask questions about it, and could then potentialy check you out.
Get on it guys,
Jim.
VERY interested. as long as someone makes a nice design i can see myself wearing it.
I think a design contest would be a great idea too.
great episode again guys.
The t-shirt/logo design contest is a great idea. I could see myself wearing on of those.
I think thats a good idea nice way to make money as well, I think I could wear one as well it would be intresting (I mean the designs people make.)
YES, we must have T-shirts!!! A design that included Kanji would be awesome!
T-shirts would be so cool, like a contest! One word I heard on this ongoing anime (Shugo Chara Doki) I watch was Kuuru instead of kakouii.
I WANT Z SHIRTZ
another awesome episode guys, and i have already made 2 designs for the t-shirts, i can send you a link if you want
kampai
Great episode guys! T-shirts? I’d want one… for sure!
Here an example for the shortened words:
Fakin… short for Family Kitchen. A local fast food resutoran…
For people unfamiliar with the japanese language, pronounced like… beeep!
Yes to the t-shirts, can they be sent to Australia???
Does anyone else know “Hard Gay” guy Wooooooo.
Funniest thing I have seen to come out of Japan.
How would you like “Happy Hour Japan” written? I am not sure enough of written japanese to be certain of a good translation.
I’d love to have a t-shirt! I’m not artistic, so I look forward to seeing other folk’s designs.
A design contest is a good idea. By the way, it’d be great if you could use a nicer thick cotton instead of the cheapy thin cotton that doesn’t last very long.
Liked the info on trendy words in Japan. Great stuff that would never make it into a textbook because it would be outdated before it hit the presses.
Thanks, guys!
I would love to design something. As I see other people noted, is there any way to get the exact kanji for “Happy Hour”. And if you can give some sort of theme to try and follow, otherwise I might send you a dozen or more entries. It would be fantastic to see a T-Shirt for sure.
I wouldn’t want a shirt personally because I dont wear those kinds of shirts anyways
OMG Fashion police >.<;
anyways
I’d take a button pin though [=
or a belt LOL
Great episode, T-shirts would be awesome! I would definetly buy one.
Represent HHJ in Montréal !
@Chad
You mean you wouldn’t want a shirt with a giant image of Kevin’s head on the front and mine on the back? Just kidding… that’s probably not the direction we’re going with this, but thanks for chiming in! Hopefully we can create something that won’t get us arrested by the fashion police
Wow! I’m excited to see the positive response to our t-shirt suggestion! I saw a few people mention writing HHJ in kanji. Off the top of my head I don’t know of a good way to do that…the most appropriate would be katakana (ie: ハッピーアワージャパン）. I suppose we could think of a slogan that we could write in kanji though…any suggestions?
Also, if you have a t-shirt design idea shoot me an email: kevin[at]ispeakjapanese.net! In the meantime, Aaron and I will start looking into places that we can get the shirts printed out.
Thanks everyone
@Thaniel
Sure, send over a link!
Great show, guys!
As for shortened words how about this:
Su - can be short for ‘desu’
Desu - is short for ‘de gozaimasu’
Hey im doing your 5 video course is there anyway you can say it any slower or break it into parts of the prononcation or spit up the word and put it at the bottom?
Im thinking “Happy Hour (color=red)Japan(/color)”
With the kanji for Kanpai written centered underneath with a small “japan sun” thing right next to it. (the typical red and white sun burst… you know what I mean right?!)
I’ll try to whip something up with photoshop today but I’m not that good at it
I recommend えるまーp font bold for writing t shirt japanese. Thanks guys for the show
Peter
What happened to lesson 2 and 3? Both did not work.
@al
Hi Al, are you talking about our quickstart course? I’ll look into it just to make sure…
@al
Just checked and everything seems to be working on my end. You might need to update your Flash player version, but other than that, the lessons should work.
First time tuning in, it’s pretty good! How about this word:
RIMOKON for “Remote Control”… yeah it’s old but good
If any of you have t-shirt designs to submit, send them me! The more I get, the better. I’ve already received one design but let’s keep ‘em coming!
Thanks for the enthusiasm everyone!
HHJ designed t-shirts is a great idea!
Shortening of Japanese words, eh? My Japanese students of English, especially the younger ones, often ask me what the shortened version of a particularly long English word or phrase that they`ve learned is.
Moving from text book English to the more casual: “What`s the matter!” to “What`s up?” to “`Sup?” They love it! Just not possible most cases in English, however. But it is very convenient to be able to do so in Japanese, that`s what makes modern Japanese so interesting.
Taro