Wrong Japanese - the opposite of "Engrish"

bakaKanadajin said:

So he was like, 'Hey, check this tattoo out,' and he pulls back his shirt and thinks maybe they'll go 'ooo power!' or something like that. And they exchanged looks and go '... mosquito?'. That really took the wind out of his sails.

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Oddly enough I was discussing this very same kanji tattooed on someone I saw the other day. I explained to someone that kanji are logographs, not ideographs, meaning that they represent words, rather than ideas or concepts...

The one this woman had honestly didn't look too wretched... but nonetheless, what's the point... why not just put the word "POWER" on your body, it conveys the meaning, that character even if done correctly is an isolated word, out of context.

If done poorly it's the same thing as getting PWOER tattooed on your body.

I guess most people still haven't been tipped off to the new fad being tattoos in Hebrew.

Glenn said:

I guess most people still haven't been tipped off to the new fad being tattoos in Hebrew.

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Actually have seen a few lately...

i apologize for getting off topic but it continues the thought process somewhat...

Regarding anyone getting a tattoo in another language, particularly a language you have nothing to do with, whats the point? It's the same kind of hobbyist approach that some people have with their English studies I suppose. You want to appear to know that language, or appear to have some kind of connection to it, but its really only a show you put on for those around you. At Nova I got the feeling some students wanted to level up simply so they could say to their friends 'I'm a Nova level x', meanwhile if they encountered any native speaker who wasn't adjusting their diction for a classroom setting and just spoke naturally, they'd be completely out to lunch.

There are alot of trendy 30-somethings here in Toronto going through mid-mid-life crises with bleached hair and odd tribal and ethnic tattoos. I think they're all retarded to be honest. Even though I have some experience with Japanese and its a part of my blood I still don't know if I'd ever get something in Japanese unless I was able to completely understand and convey the meaning of it to other Japanese people IN Japanese. Otherwise you're just trying way too hard to be cool, whether you're talking about Japanese, Hebrew, Tibetan, whatever.

A young Japanese tourist was killed in Iraq.
I don't know how religeous he was, but he was a christian with his cross on his arm.

ﾂ債≫?彡ﾂ湘伉青ｶ窶堋ｳ窶堙ｱ窶堙坂?堙遺?堋ｺﾅｽE窶堋ｳ窶堙ｪ窶堋ｽ窶堙娯?堋ｩ (窶儕ﾂ行窶怒)
窶ｰﾂｺﾂ静ｬ 窶乃ﾅｽﾂ｡ (窶厖?
ﾂ出窶敕?ｽﾃ? ﾂ新窶卍ｪﾅｽﾃ (2005/10/15)
ISBN-10: 410300231X
ISBN-13: 978-4103002314

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It is an interesting book. The author, Mr Shimokawa, is a sort of founding father of backpacking culture here.

If done poorly it's the same thing as getting PWOER tattooed on your body.

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But then how many people are actually going to know that. Ignorance is indeed bliss.

You want to appear to know that language, or appear to have some kind of connection to it, but its really only a show you put on for those around you.

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Or they just really like the style of the writing, and think it would look cool on their bodies. Sometimes a rose is just a rose.

WHEATTHlNS said:

Or they just really like the style of the writing, and think it would look cool on their bodies. Sometimes a rose is just a rose.

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Yes, and sometimes what one intends to be a rose, is a mosquito.

I've heard of a duvet with "rest in peace" in Kanji on it. i guess they mean sleep well
do you know it. or better do you have a picture??

yukio_michael said:

The one this woman had honestly didn't look too wretched... but nonetheless, what's the point... why not just put the word "POWER" on your body, it conveys the meaning, that character even if done correctly is an isolated word, out of context.

If done poorly it's the same thing as getting PWOER tattooed on your body.

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No matter how much I learn this language, I can't help feeling that there's something beautiful about the kanji that isn't found in the Latin alphabet. I think the Japanese realize it too. There are millions of Japanese of all ages who sit down in a class every week drawing a single word over and over with a brush to make it look as perfect as possible. How many English speakers do the same with their language?
So I can understand the thinking of people who want to get kanji tattoos instead of English ones, but I still think those tattoos are stupid and 力 is just lazy.

Glenn said:

I guess most people still haven't been tipped off to the new fad being tattoos in Hebrew.

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Huh. I saw people with Hebrew tattoos while I was home in the US (in the airport actually) and assumed they were Israelis. Maybe they weren't...

JimmySeal said:

No matter how much I learn this language, I can't help feeling that there's something beautiful about the kanji that isn't found in the Latin alphabet. I think the Japanese realize it too. There are millions of Japanese of all ages who sit down in a class every week drawing a single word over and over with a brush to make it look as perfect as possible.

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My ex's father in his spare time used to be an amateur calligrapher. I too find the language intricately beautiful, though not necissarily in the ways that are inked on people, and most of these look like they were copied straight out of a textbook... It's not the beauty in the language I think that they see, I think it's the novelty.

Even the hiragana used to write Genji Monogatari is beautiful to me, the delicate characters, the writings of [SIZE=-1]Takuboku Ishikawa's, Sad Toys...

I think most people are in agreement that the act itself isn't in question, its that the result is 98% of the time rubbish, and the inked has no idea if this is so.
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Kuroyume said:

I've heard of a duvet with "rest in peace" in Kanji on it. i guess they mean sleep well do you know it. or better do you have a picture??

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I don't know if there is a word for peace in Japanese... in fact, the last time I saw it, it was romanized...

ほどよく眠る (hodo yoku nemuru) ...to sleep well... Is the best I know, from Kurosawa's Hamlet elegy, "The Bad Sleep Well", aka Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru.

JimmySeal said:

Huh. I saw people with Hebrew tattoos while I was home in the US (in the airport actually) and assumed they were Israelis. Maybe they weren't...

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Heh, that's funny -- I actually meant for that to be a joke, but I guess there really is a trend of getting Hebrew tattoos. I should have picked something more obscure, maybe Thai or Tibetan.

yukio_michael said:

I don't know if there is a word for peace in Japanese... in fact, the last time I saw it, it was romanized...

窶堙吮?堙??堙ｦ窶堋ｭ窶督ｰ窶堙ｩ (hodo yoku nemuru) ...to sleep well... Is the best I know, from Kurosawa's Hamlet elegy, "The Bad Sleep Well", aka Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru.

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Yeah, maybe it doesn't mean exactely R.I.P but something like that. In fact it was my teacher (she is Japanese) who saw it somewhere and she she told me that there was "what you say when someone is dead" on it. So I assumed it was R.I.P. so thinking about it, it could be something different but it must have been something like this...☝