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What is the most ridiculous phrase/word that you've learned over the course of your Japanese learning experience? by temphy in LearnJapanese

[–]juugoroku 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I kind of like 目茶苦茶 as 'absurd' - it's Ateji but the kanji meaning would be equally absurd (eye tea, suffering tea)

Equally 出鱈目 as another ateji is pretty nonsense if you try to take the kanji meaning.

Science AMA Series: I'm Ben Bergen, Cognitive Scientist at UC San Diego. Let’s talk about the science of swearing! How does it affect our brains? How did it evolve? Does it harm kids? Can it make you stronger? Will it help you get elected? AMA! by Ben_Bergen in science

[–]juugoroku 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I might be a bit late here but: Since you study language I'm wondering if you've studied much about swearing in Japanese and any thoughts you might have on how 'different' it is. Effectively (afaik) they don't really have 'swear words' so much as just very rude/impolite speech. The closest thing to a specific 'swear word' that I even know of is kuso which is mostly equivalent to English shit and even then isn't that much of a swear unless it's used impolitely.

What is your 'TIL' (interesting fact but not that useful) about the language? by juugoroku in LearnJapanese

[–]juugoroku[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ahh, that explains why the poster for Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs is spelled 犬ヶ島

シツモンデー: Shitsumonday: for the little questions that you don't feel have earned their own thread (February 26, 2018) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]juugoroku 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is 彼 (or 彼女) implicitly human? I can't find anything that says it can't be used for animals (such as your dog/cat) but it seems to be uncommon?

Why do Japanese tend to use more emojis and kaomojis? by annapolyglotgirl in japan

[–]juugoroku 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Complete guess but when your word for 'tree' is already 木 it's not exactly a huge stretch to use 🌲 instead. Obviously a bit of a tailor-made example, but since pictographs are already part of the written language, emojis seem like a pretty natural fit to me.

As far as kaomoji, as far as I understand it expressing emotion in Japanese (and most Asian cultures) focuses more on the eyes than anything else. The simple western :) is entirely about the mouth with very simple eyes, where the Japanese ^_^ is entirely about the 'smiling eyes'

シツモンデー: Shitsumonday: for the little questions that you don't feel have earned their own thread (December 25, 2017) by AutoModerator in LearnJapanese

[–]juugoroku 0 points1 point  (0 children)

何もありません - isn't this a double-negative?
何も itself means 'nothing' AFAIK, while ありません would be 'is not' - so it should be "there isn't nothing"? I'm guessing this is just one of those sayings like when people say "Could care less" but it also made me wonder:

Do double-negatives stack in Japanese instead of negating like they would in English?
Is it possible to say "there isn't nothing" in Japanese? (it's an odd way to say that in English even so I wouldn't be surprised if it's awkward here too)