thomas said:
cacawate said:MIYUKI! I was on your page no more than 5 sec. when I quickly added it to my favorites. I think it is perfect, and please keep up the good work! Thank you!
ジェフ
Porl said:Coolio!! I've just had a look on your website...very nice!!! I wish i could understand it! haha.. ..
I have a rather dumb question : Is Romaji the name for how Japanese is spelt out frenetically (<--i cant spell ..doh) ...so you can read it out loud from english?
Im a super noobie at japanese....
Porl''
You can't translate an idiomatic expression.What are the words 'cheapskate' or 'stingy' in Japanese? couldnt find one in my pocket dictionary. Is there any other slang for that words?
You can't translate an idiomatic expression.
I still stand by what I said. It may be that someone has chosen the English word stingy to represent kechikechi, Nifty translates it to parsimonious, whereas Excite also translates it to stingy, or stingieness...There is a word for that actually. It is けち (kechi)
or according to jim breen, 吝嗇吝嗇 【けちけち】 (adv,vs) (uk) stingy; tightfisted
Good point. And I totally agree with you that there are many words and phrases that do not translate well. And translation more often than not is inaccurate because the contexts of the two languages are different (ex: politeness levels). There are some Japanese phrases that are impossible to grasp in an English context. Many of the things I can think or say freely in Japanese I would struggle to translate into English.I still stand by what I said. It may be that someone has chosen the English word stingy to represent kechikechi, Nifty translates it to parsimonious, whereas Excite also translates it to stingy, or stingieness...
My point wasn't that you couldn't come up with a word that you could use in a similar way, but that it's not a good idea to start with an English idiom and then try to find a Japanese translation for that. The relationship between the Japanese phrase and the English one is fortuitous at best.
The translation also doesn't give you any idea about the politeness of that particular word, for which you would have to ask a native speaker--- It's similar to when English subtitles use English profanity to indicate Japanese politeness levels--- You're stripping away the culture of one language, and replacing it with another and losing some or all of the initial meaning.
Another good example is the translation of difficult to define words like omae, which may have a very specific tone in Japanese, but do not translate well to English.
My strategy, one I've run by native speakers familiar with teaching the language who seem to think it's a good idea is to only think in Japanese; so instead of asking myself how do "some English phrase" in Japanese, I strictly think of the appropriate way in Japanese to communicate whatever I'm trying to ask or convey.So it is probably best to "pick up" the language (by immersing yourself in it) than to look things up in a dictionary, right?
「けち」「みみっちい」are the normal, negative expressions for tightwad or tightfisted. しみったれる is also possible but I think it refers to a person's character or lifestyle more than just economic situation....:?What are the words 'cheapskate' or 'stingy' in Japanese? couldn't find one in my pocket dictionary. Is there any other slang for that words?
Thanks
Thanks umbaba for elaborating on my very general understanding ! I haven't seen けち used except in economic situations. Cheapskate and stingy are very negative and both are useful for someone who is able to live normally but is annoyingly slow (prudent) about parting with even pocket change. Stingy expands to non-economical situations to describe a mindset of pettiness and small minded meanness. けち may be closest to miser in a technical sense but in English that usually refers to someone who is already rich and perhaps even positive if they are hoarding what they've earned to put to a good purpose.If you are talking about personality けち is perfectly fine. Then again I am not sure if they work like cheapskate and stingy. One thing I am concerned is けち does not tell his/her economical circumstances, it just refers the person's character as it is widely believed some people became rich BECAUSE they were けち and still they are. So you can call a rich 「けち」 depends on how he/she came to be rich.
Off topic but as Elizabeth said it is very negative, might as well say 節約上手(adj) or 節約家(noun) 倹約家(noun) if you want to be neutral/positive and polite.
In my understanding, けち(noun/adj/+るverb) is for someone who does not want to pay even for what he/she needs to live whereas 節約上手、節約家、倹約家 are for someone who knows how to cut down the cost for living well. They are slightly different but that stems from our attitude that leads tone of the speech.
Anyways at least to me both cheapskate and stingy are negative too, so you do not need to be sweet using 節約上手 there....
Thanks for the website.heres a great site for learning nahongo