Japanese English

Anyone who has taught English in Japan will soon become familiar with the idea of 'Japanese English'. Japanese has many, many 'loan words' from English and some from other European languages.

In some cases, though the word has been rendered in the Japanese syllabary, the resemblance to its original is obvious, and it's possible to quickly recognise the meaning. Examples include 'ke-ki' (cake), 'ko-hi' (coffee), 'ba-ga-' (burger) and 'sarada' (salad).

In other cases, the loan word has taken on a form or use that makes it unintelligible, unnatural, or incorrect, to English ears.

Some examples I often hear:

'wear' instead of 'clothes'. 'I bought some new wear'.

'chou cream' (sounds like 'shoe cream'), instead of 'cream puff'.

'soft cream' instead of 'soft serve' (icecream).

'range' instead of 'stove'. In Japanese, 'stove' is a heater or fireplace. In Japanese, 'denshi range' means 'microwave' ('denshi' means 'electronic').

'high tension', which I think means 'excited'.

'one piece' instead of 'tunic top' or 'dress' (in English we don't really have a good equivalent word for a long top, so kudos to the Japanese for creating one)

'challenge' as a verb, as in - 'I will challenge this test'

'present' as a verb instead of 'give a present', as in - 'He presents me this cake'

noun + 'up' used as a verb, meaning 'improve my ___' eg, 'I want to level up' or 'I want to career up'.

'room' instead of 'apartment' (as in 'I cleaned my room', meaning 'I cleaned my apartment')

'mansion' instead of 'apartment'... an amusing change, an apartment is called a mansion in Japanese

'sand' instead of 'sandwich'. Japanese often shorten words, so it's not that unusual, but it sounds funny to me to eat a 'cookie sand'.

'goods' as an all-purpose word for products or merchandise, like 'I bought some Disney goods'

'hamburg' to mean 'hamburger patty'. In Japan, hamburger patties are often served as meat dishes in their own right, rather than in a hamburger bun.

'pierce' instead of 'earring'.

'claim' instead of 'complain' or 'complaint'.

'hormone' (actually horumon), which really means offal or entrails.