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20 October, 2003

A Japanese American Glossary

Food might be the cultural constant of the Japanese American community, even generations down the line, but language is the most important.

My new book, coming fall 2004.

Without the ability to speak Japanese, we can't communicate with our relatives, or understand some of the values that we've been given by our ancestors. And without the ability to read or write Japanese, we're left unable to unlock the cultural riches of our heritage.

It's so easy to stop speaking any Japanese, even if you grew up hearing Nihongo. Luckily, if you're young, there are new fun tools to keep language alive in your family, and in your mind. One great project is "Okasan & Me," a CD created by Cynthia Konda, a Sansei in California.

She formed a non-profit organization called Okasan & Me that gives Japanese language lesons, and also provides quarterly seminars on Japanese American history for 4th, 5th and 6th graders in the San Jose area. She recorded a collection of whimsical songs that mix Japanese and English together with an ear towards making Nihongo a familiar sound for kids aged 2 and older. The titles include "Alphabet Go Sei Style," "Touch My Toe, Arigato" and "Taiko Drum Jan Ken Pon," and the instrumentation includes traditional sounds such as the taiko drum, shakuhachi flute and shamisen lute.

Konda sings, and the result is a wonderful fun experience for young people and parents. The package is available at various JA stores around the country and via Konda's website, www.okasanandme.com. Pacific Mercantile in Denver stocks it with a workbook developed by Konda, to maximize the learning from the CD.

Okasan & Me: a fun, interactive way to make the sound of Japanese familiar to kids.

There isn't a fun way to learn the language for grownups, unfortunately. But I found out that many of us know more Nihongo than we realize.

Here are some Japanese words and phrases that you probably grew up hearing if you're JA, with definitions and examples filtered through my JA perspective. The spellings and definitions are mine, and may not be academically "correct." They may not even exist in Japanese. But hey, it's a JA thing. Some of them aren't very nice, and probably show our more course roots in farmer stock, or our juvenile childhood preferences for words that have to do with body functions. See how many of these you recognize:

• Abunai - Dangerous, as in "Don't play over there, it's abunai!" or "Hey, abunai! Put that knife down!" The JA way of saying "You'll poke your eye out, kid!"
  
• Aho (ahotare) - Fool or idiot. "You agreed to work all weekend for $10? Aho!" (See also: Baka)
  
• Baka (bakatare, bakayaro) - Fool, idiot, dummy, trivial matter. "You thought you could ask her out? What are you, baka?" or "Hey baka, what're you doing?"
  
• Benjo (obenjo) - Old-fashioned, crude word for bathroom, as in "Hey, where's your benjo?" Sometimes used as a verb, as in "I gotta go benjo first."
  
• Chisai (chichai) - Small. "Gee, their new house is so chisai for how much it cost…"
  
• Chotto matte - Hold on; wait a moment. The more polite (or sarcastic) version is "chotto matte kudasai. "Chotto matte, I gotta go to the benjo."
  
• Dorobo - Common thief, as in "Wash your face and hands, you look like a dorobo."
  
• Enryo - Restraint, reserve, a very Japanese trait. "Since Uncle Joe is buying dinner, enryo a little bit, don't order the most expensive thing on the menu."
  
• Foo-foo - Onomatopoeic word for blowing on something to cool it off, used especially with kids. "The ramen's still hot, why don't you sit there and foo-foo it for a little while."
  
• Ganbatte - A variant of gaman that's an imperative statement: "Come on, don't be a wuss. You can run five more laps - ganbatte!"
  
• Hana kuso - Snot, mucus. "Here's a tissue, blow your nose. You have hana kuso."
  
• Hayaku (hayase) - Hurry. "Hayaku, hayaku, or we won't be an hour early like I planned."
  
• Henna - Strange, different. "What do you mean you don't want to be an engineer? What kind of henna career are you going to have?"
  
• Inchiki - False, phoney, imitation, cheating. "No, you can't copy someone else's homework - that's inchiki."
  
• Iranai - It's not needed, no thanks. This can be used to answer when someone asks if you need something (although Japanese also use "ie" to decline or say no), or by parents when they're telling their kids, "Stop bugging me about buying candy. Iranai."
  
• Kanemochi (okanemochi) - A rich man, as in "Don't make your uncle Joe mad -- he's kanemochi and you want him to like you."
  
• Kitanai - Dirty. A big one for parents to shout at kids, as in "Kitanai! Where've you been playing? Go wash your hands!" or "Don't touch that thing on the ground, it's kitanai."
  
• Kusai - Smelly, stinky. "Mom, are you cooking daikon again? It's kusai in here!"
  
• Mendokusai - Not worth the trouble, or more casually, pain in the butt. "I'm not going to volunteer to make that dish, it's too mendokusai, and takes too long."
  
• Mochiron - Of course. "Dad, mochiron I did my homework, otherwise I wouldn't be asking for the car keys."
  
• Monku - Complain, bitch, gripe. "We're almost there, kids, stop your monkuing" or "'This isn't hot enough, that doesn't taste right' … boy, you sure like to monku."
  
• Mottainai - Wasteful with a hint of regret or guilt. "You're throwing away that tube of toothpaste already? Mottainai - I bet you can get another week's worth out of it."
  
• Nenneh - Sleep, esp. for children. "OK kids, it's time to nenneh now, here's your blanket."
  
• Nokori - Leftovers, usually referring to food. "Hey everyone, don't forget to take nokori home. Here's the Tupperware."
  
• Onara - Fart. "Gross, Dad - that onara is kusai!"
  
• Osoi - Slow, late. "Gee, the service here is osoi," or "The bus is osoi today."
  
• Shiranai - Don't know. "Uh, what happened to the money you gave me? Uh, shiranai."
  
• Shi-shi - Pee. A communized version of "oshikko," a fancier word, which for JAs gave the opportunity to be clever and say "five-four-four" to mean "Go pee," because "go" is five in Japanese, and "shi" is four.
  
• Sukebei - Lech, pervert. "Did you see that dirty old man? What a sukebei."
  
• Sukoshi - A little bit, as in "I can only speak Japanese sukoshi." Turned into "skosh" by GIs returning from Japan.
  
• Takai - Literally high but used in the context of prices, expensive. Handy word in American restaurants when you want to complain. "Gee everything here is so takai."
  
• Taksan - A lot. "Eat, eat, there's taksan left in the kitchen still."
  
• Toki-doki - Sometimes, from time to time. I've often wondered if this is related to toki, or "clock." "I come here toki-doki to try the squid."
  
• Unchi - Poop, defecation. The casual form of unko. One of those early words children learn. "Mom, my stomach hurts. I need to unchi."
  
• Urusai - Noisy, as in "You kids are urusai - can you pipe down a bit?" (Sometimes used by JAs to mean "mendokusai," or pain in the butt.
  
• Yakamashi - Noisy, fussy, often used at children. "Yakamashi - stop your complaining!"
  
• Yarashii - Yucky, gross, awful, disgusting. "I can't clean that up, it looks too yarashii."
  
• Yasui - Inexpensive. "That's all that cost? Wow, that's yasui."
  
• Yogore - Dirt or filth. "Don't touch that - yogore."
  
• Zannen deshita - Too bad, bad luck. "Well you tried hard and did your best but you didn't win, zannen deshita."

Note: This is an excerpt of a JA Glossary I've compiled for my book, "Being Japanese American: A JA Sourcebook for Nikkei, Hapa… and their Friends." The book will be out in the fall of 2004 from Stone Bridge Press in San Francisco.