Warui Nihongo
I've been learning a little bit of Japanese slang, and some of it could be useful...
yabai means "evil" or "bad." But with teenagers, it's also like "bad" or "wicked" in that it means "cool." Like, when the students went to Okinawa, Akiko said the view was "meccha yabai" or "really awesome."
zen zen means "not at all." It's a modifier that amplifies negative comments. For example, "zen zen wakaranai" means "I don't understand at all" or "I have no clue what you're talking about." But young people now use it with positives, so it's another version of "totemo" or "meccha" or "honto ni" = "totally" -- for example, "Daijyobu desuka?" = "Are you OK?" and the response "Zen zen daijyobu da yo" means "I'm totally ok, really."
yaru means "to do." I heard a little kid say "Yaritai" the other day -- "I want to do (that)." But just like "do," in English, there's a sexual connotation. So it pretty much means "fuck" as a verb. In fact, "tomodachi" means friend, and "yaritomo" means "fuckbuddy."
asobu means "to play." I was looking at Dean's AudioScrobbler and he's got some tunes by a band called "Asobi Sekkusu" which is "Sex Play" in English. They have a song called "Asobi Mashou." The verb ending "masshou" means "let's...," so the song is "Let's fuck," basically.
suki means "like." It can also mean "love," so you have to be careful when you say it, for example, to someone of the opposite sex, because to say "Kimi wo suki" or "Anato wo suki," literally "I like you," carries the connotation "I love you." If you have a "favorite" it's "suki na..." whatever you like. So to say "What is your favorite food?" is "Suki na tabemono nandesuka?" To talk about "favorites" is to talk about "suki NA mono" -- "stuff you like." But if (like I did the other day in class) you leave out that "NA," you have "sukimono," or "Lecher."
yabai means "evil" or "bad." But with teenagers, it's also like "bad" or "wicked" in that it means "cool." Like, when the students went to Okinawa, Akiko said the view was "meccha yabai" or "really awesome."
zen zen means "not at all." It's a modifier that amplifies negative comments. For example, "zen zen wakaranai" means "I don't understand at all" or "I have no clue what you're talking about." But young people now use it with positives, so it's another version of "totemo" or "meccha" or "honto ni" = "totally" -- for example, "Daijyobu desuka?" = "Are you OK?" and the response "Zen zen daijyobu da yo" means "I'm totally ok, really."
yaru means "to do." I heard a little kid say "Yaritai" the other day -- "I want to do (that)." But just like "do," in English, there's a sexual connotation. So it pretty much means "fuck" as a verb. In fact, "tomodachi" means friend, and "yaritomo" means "fuckbuddy."
asobu means "to play." I was looking at Dean's AudioScrobbler and he's got some tunes by a band called "Asobi Sekkusu" which is "Sex Play" in English. They have a song called "Asobi Mashou." The verb ending "masshou" means "let's...," so the song is "Let's fuck," basically.
suki means "like." It can also mean "love," so you have to be careful when you say it, for example, to someone of the opposite sex, because to say "Kimi wo suki" or "Anato wo suki," literally "I like you," carries the connotation "I love you." If you have a "favorite" it's "suki na..." whatever you like. So to say "What is your favorite food?" is "Suki na tabemono nandesuka?" To talk about "favorites" is to talk about "suki NA mono" -- "stuff you like." But if (like I did the other day in class) you leave out that "NA," you have "sukimono," or "Lecher."
