It is a linguistic trap few learners of Japanese have avoided: declaring yourself pera pera (fluent in a language) when you’re really peko peko (hungry); or breaking into applause (pachi pachi) when the dentist asks you to kachi kachi (bite repeatedly).
Navigating the rich and varied world of Japanese onomatopoeia can result in laughter and mild embarrassment, but the words can also be a quick and effective way to get through to a friend or colleague.
As Japan’s foreign population reaches record levels, lifted by the arrival of more people to fill a gaping hole in the labour market, volunteers in the western prefecture of Mie have compiled a guide to commonly used onomatopoeic words for language learners.
Photo: AFP
The book, E Kara Oto ga Wakaru Hon (understanding sounds using pictures) was the idea of Masao Hara, the deputy head of a nonprofit in the prefecture whose interactions with non-Japanese convinced him the guide would come in useful.
It contains a host of words that can be used in everyday situations, such as a visit to the doctor, who might hear of their patient’s throbbing (zuki zuki) ankle or pounding (gan gan) headache, a piri piri (stinging) insect bite or muzu muzu (scratchy) throat.
Hara and other members of the nonprofit sifted through a Japanese dictionary to create a list of 100 words, according to the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.
They are divided into categories — from actions and emotions to the weather and descriptions of inanimate objects — and accompanied by an illustration and descriptions in Chinese, Vietnamese, Nepalese and Indonesian.
Wan Fang, a Chinese resident, said the guide had already made her job at a supermarket a little easier.
“When I was told that the floor was tsuru tsuru in Japanese, I didn’t know what it meant, but when I saw the illustration in the book, I instantly understood that tsuru tsuru means the floor is clean or slippery,” Wan told the newspaper.
The print run of 1,000 copies is expected to find a keen readership among students attending local Japanese language schools — as of January, Mie was home to 31,000 foreign residents. Nationwide, the non-Japanese population reached a record 3.2 million last year, according to the immigration services agency.
The guide only scratches the surface, however. There are said to be more than 1,000 onomatopoeia in Japanese — enough to make most language learners come over all fura fura (dizzy).
Oct. 21 to Oct. 27 Sanbanqiao Cemetery (三板橋) was once reserved for prominent Japanese residents of Taipei, including former governor-general Motojiro Akashi, who died in Japan in 1919 but requested to be buried in Taiwan. Akashi may have reconsidered his decision if he had known that by the 1980s, his grave had been overrun by the city’s largest illegal settlement, which contained more than 1,000 households and a bustling market with around 170 stalls. Fans of Taiwan New Cinema would recognize the slum, as it was featured in several of director Wan Jen’s (萬仁) films about Taipei’s disadvantaged, including The Sandwich
“Wish You Luck is not just a culinary experience, it’s a continuation of our cultural tradition,” says James Vuong (王豪豐), owner of the Daan District (大安) Hong Kong diner. On every corner of Kowloon, diners pack shoulder-to-shoulder over strong brews of Hong-Kong-style milk tea, chowing down on French Toast and Cantonese noodles. Hong Kong’s ubiquitous diner-style teahouses, known as chachaanteng (茶餐廳), have been a cultural staple of the city since the 1950s. “They play an essential role in the daily lives of Hongkongers,” says Vuong. Wish You Luck (祝您行運) offers that same vibrant melting pot of culture and cuisine. In
Much noise has been made lately on X (Twitter), where posters both famed and not have contended that Taiwan is stupid for eliminating nuclear power, which, the comments imply, is necessary to provide the nation with power in the event of a blockade. This widely circulated claim, typically made by nuclear power proponents, is rank nonsense. In 2021, Ian Easton, an expert on Taiwan’s defenses and the plans of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to break them, discussed the targeting of nuclear power plants in wartime (“Ian Easton On Taiwan: Are Taiwan’s nuclear plants safe from Beijing?”, April 12, 2021). The
Artificial intelligence could help reduce some of the most contentious culture war divisions through a mediation process, researchers say. Experts say a system that can create group statements that reflect majority and minority views is able to help people find common ground. Chris Summerfield, a co-author of the research from the University of Oxford, who worked at Google DeepMind at the time the study was conducted, said the AI tool could have multiple purposes. “What I would like to see it used for is to give political leaders ... a better sense of what people ... really think,” he said, noting surveys gave