Why do Japanese people call KFC "Kentucky" ?

[ghettocities]

Does anyone know the reason behind

every Japanese person calling Kentucky Fried Chicken, or KFC just the word "Kentucky." Or does anyone know the reason why Japanese people call Baskin Robbins 31 flavors "Thirty one" , or why Japanese people call French Fries "Potato". And the list goes on! Now with the clues I've set out for myself it would seem that the Japanese people re-word words over the whole L's for R's madness or to shorten up a would be waste of time but there are things like Wendy's in Japan having "Super value meal" and they don't call that just "super" etc.etc. , What's the deal? What kind of logic is this?! I don't understand it when Japanese girls ask me if I "want to eat Kentucky" , Kentucky is a state and states aren't edible.

Josh

 

[Blututh]

Culture differences bro, they're just THERE.

 

[Tollen]

indeed lol wouldn't it just be sad without them?
but I understand your pointless frustration ^_^
maybe someone knows the actual reasons for things like these? ease of speech or some deep and meaningful reason? hehe who knows maybe they're just layzy?.... nah didnt think so ^_^
so yeah im intrigued now... maybe its something to do with the media? or westernism? or advertising lol ? *shrug*

 

[DoctorP]

I don't understand it when Japanese girls ask me if I "want to eat Kentucky" , Kentucky is a state and states aren't edible.
Josh

some people would say the same thing about KFC! It's just not edible!

 

[blade_bltz]

What's Thirty-one? I'm only familiar with "Saaty-one"

Truth be told it took me a while to put two and two together when I first heard that.

 

[Ewok85]

Kentucky Fried Chicken is a registered trademark, if I said to one of my Aussie friends, "hey, what do you want to eat? Fancy Kentucky?" they would know straight away what I mean.

 

[doinkies]

Well, I guess that ケンタッキー and サーティーワン are easier to remember and pronounce for Japanese people than the full names of said chains.

 

[KrazyKat]

katakana loan words tend to get really long. It makes sense to abbreviate them.

 

[Kyoko_desu]

short forms

Originally Posted by KrazyKat
Katakana loan words tend to get really long. It makes sense to abbreviate them.

That's right. Why we call it Kentucky but not Kentucky Fried Chicken is just it's easier and faster to say. Of course, no one here thinks Kentucky State is edible.

Actually, calling Kentucky Fried Chicken ﾆ単ﾆ停?愴耽ﾆ鍛ﾆ鱈ﾂーﾂ is thought kinda outdated and uncool here for the last several years. Recently, we've made it even shorter and now it's called ﾆ単ﾆ停?愴耽(kenta) by young people here.

By the way, McDonalds is called ﾆ筑ﾆ誰ﾆ檀(in Kansai area), or ﾆ筑ﾆ鍛ﾆ誰 (in Kanto area), and "going to McDonald's" is ﾆ筑ﾆ誰窶堙ｩ.ﾂ Going to Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream is ﾆ地ﾆ嘆窶堙ｩ.

That's all I can think of for now.

 

[Maciamo]

Because the real name as it appears on the signs is KFC ! I also call it KFC and so do most French speakers (probably speakers of other languages too).

 

[Glenn]

Now it is, but I believe before they wanted to not make the "fried" part so explicit due to a marketing move it was actually "Kentucky Fried Chicken." It's called KFC in the states, too, and it's referred to that way on the commercials.

 

[Kinsao]

I always think of KFC as 'Kentucky Fried Chicken' even though everyone in the UK calls it 'KFC'.
'Kentucky' is just another way of abbreviating the name, and thinking about it I can see that 'Kentucky' or 'Kenta' would probably be easier for Japanese people to pronounce than 'KFC'.

 

[RockLee]

AFAIK Chinese ppl say "KFC" too.

 

[Maciamo]

After reading the replies, I am coming to wonder : why do some Americans don't know that the real name is KFC and NOT Kentucky, which alone is just the name of a state ?

 

[MajideSaiaku]

All i have to say is with countries that's idea of modern popular culture is to speak so "ghetto" you've long since forgotten proper english, i think its a bit rich to complain about another country's slang.


Your frustration is understandable but bear with it man, its just Japanese slang.

 

[DoctorP]

After reading the replies, I am coming to wonder : why do some Americans don't know that the real name is KFC and NOT Kentucky, which alone is just the name of a state ?

Because the real name is indeed Kentucky Fried Chicken. It was shortened several years ago to be just KFC.

 

[Rich303]

I've heard English people refer to KFC as 'Kentucky' - and I used to know a girl who's nickname was 'Kentucky Bucket' (not very flattering, but her boyfriend sometimes called her that affectionately !)

In parts of the UK you can get Halal Fried Chicken too.

Or 'Dallas Chicken', 'Southern Fried Chicken', and every other take away place sells fried chicken now.

It is one of those foods that I sort of frown upon, but if it's late at night and I've had a good drink I find it hard to resist.

 

[Elizabeth]

That's right. Why we call it Kentucky but not Kentucky Fried Chicken is just it's easier and faster to say. Of course, no one here thinks Kentucky State is edible.
Actually, calling Kentucky Fried Chicken ﾆ単ﾆ停?愴耽ﾆ鍛ﾆ鱈ﾂーﾂ is thought kinda outdated and uncool here for the last several years. Recently, we've made it even shorter and now it's called ﾆ単ﾆ停?愴耽(kenta) by young people here.
By the way, McDonalds is called ﾆ筑ﾆ誰ﾆ檀(in Kansai area), or ﾆ筑ﾆ鍛ﾆ誰 (in Kanto area), and "going to McDonald's" is ﾆ筑ﾆ誰窶堙ｩ.ﾂ Going to Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream is ﾆ地ﾆ嘆窶堙ｩ.
That's all I can think of for now.

Does anyone else think of calling a fast food restaurant
ﾆ稚ﾆ叩ﾆ湛ﾆ暖ﾆ稚ﾂーﾆ檀窶堙娯?堋ｨ窶弭ﾂ（窶堙俄?堋ｵ窶堙懌?堋ｵ窶堙･窶堋､ﾂ） like my boyfriend ? He's just showing his age I'm sure, or maybe respect since he likes them so much
....but it's still so cute.

 

[Mikawa Ossan]

That's right. Why we call it Kentucky but not Kentucky Fried Chicken is just it's easier and faster to say. Of course, no one here thinks Kentucky State is edible.
Actually, calling Kentucky Fried Chicken ﾆ単ﾆ停?愴耽ﾆ鍛ﾆ鱈ﾂーﾂ is thought kinda outdated and uncool here for the last several years. Recently, we've made it even shorter and now it's called ﾆ単ﾆ停?愴耽(kenta) by young people here.
By the way, McDonalds is called ﾆ筑ﾆ誰ﾆ檀(in Kansai area), or ﾆ筑ﾆ鍛ﾆ誰 (in Kanto area), and "going to McDonald's" is ﾆ筑ﾆ誰窶堙ｩ.ﾂ Going to Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream is ﾆ地ﾆ嘆窶堙ｩ.
That's all I can think of for now.

This is how I know I'm starting to get old...

 

[Mars Man]

This is how I know I'm starting to get old...

Oh no...if you start to feeling old, Mikawa san, then I'm gonna have to start looking for my walking cane. . .hee, hee...I know just where you're coming from. . . and feel lucky to be working with these 18~22 year olds at the uni. It helps me keep up a little.

 

[leonmarino]

It's hard to keep up with new Japanese words or abbreviations when you don't have a lot of contact with Japan or Japanese people..

I went to Japan last year, for the first time in 11 (!!) years, and not only did I hear new popular words like 窶敕ｷ窶督ｭﾂ、ﾆ脱ﾆ旦窶堋｢ and abbreviations like ﾅｽﾃ竿陳? I also found out that some words I use are seriously outdated. This is because I didn't pay a lot of attention to my Japanese side, and didn't have a lot of contact with Japanese people except my mother, so I have been using the vocabulary I developed in the 80's as a kid. Examples are ﾆ歎ﾆ置ﾆ辰, ﾆ段ﾆ脱窶堋｢ or 窶堋?窶堙寂?堙ｦﾂ〜!

Anyways, back to the topic. Yeah, the Japanese do have a lot of abbreviations.. For years I didn't know the word ﾆ筑ﾆ湛ﾆ坦ﾆ蓄 which means mass media is actually an abbreviation of mass communication.. And I still don't know what the word ﾂ坂?｡ﾆ坦ﾆ停? stands for! Anyone?

 

[Hiroyuki Nagashima]

Incidentally,
Abbreviation word of "STARBUCKS COFFEE" is "ﾆ湛ﾆ耽ﾆ弛(Sutaba)",
It is "SUTABA-RU" going in "STARBUCKS COFFEE".
The others,
"ﾆ丹ﾆ丹窶堙ｩ(GuGu-ru)":The information on a network is retrieved using Google.

 

[ArmandV]

What amuses me about KFCs in Japan are the statues of Col. Sanders. I never see them in the U.S.

 

[Pachipro]

Kyoko Desu and others have stated the correct reason in that it is just short and simple. Nothing more.

To a foreigner it may sound odd, and may make no sense to us at first, but they do that with so many other foreign words too numerous to mention here.

As with so many other things the Japanese adopt from the west, they take it, change it to suit their needs, and, in essence, I think it then becomes a Japanese word even though it is written in katagana.

 

[yukio_michael]

By the way, McDonalds is called ﾆ筑ﾆ誰ﾆ檀(in Kansai area), or ﾆ筑ﾆ鍛ﾆ誰 (in Kanto area), and "going to McDonald's" is ﾆ筑ﾆ誰窶堙ｩ.ﾂ Going to Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream is ﾆ地ﾆ嘆窶堙ｩ.
That's all I can think of for now.

We (gf & I) called it ﾆ筑ﾆ誰ﾆ檀ﾂ、in Chiba prefecture as well... also, for fami resu, Johnathans', we call it, ﾆ淡ﾆ停?｡ﾆ段...

to go to a restaraunt, to go to Johnathan's, is to 'do jona'... ﾆ淡ﾆ停?｡ﾆ段窶堋ｵ窶堙??堙ｩﾂ？