abcnovels
Chapter 330: [High-Context Language]
Chapter 330: [High-Context Language]
Chapter 330: [High-Context Language]
<Japanese often changes meaning depending on the situation or intonation, right?>
<Ah~. For example, “sumimasen”?>
<Exactly!>
Iriena provides specific examples in response to the question.
Our language streaming sessions never run out of topics, thanks to our respective areas of expertise.
<Depending on the situation, it can mean totally different things. It could be ‘Excuse me,’ ‘I’m sorry,’ or ‘Thank you.’>
<Yes! Just that alone could lead to a conversation!>
?When I was traveling, I saw Japanese people having conversations with just “sumimasen” on the station platform (Ukrainian).
?It sometimes happens when people bump into each other, haha.
?I thought it was a joke, but is it for real? (Ukrainian)<Other examples include “Osuna yo! Zettai ni osu na yo!” meaning ‘Push!’ and “Onaka ga itai” meaning ‘Too much laughter’ instead of ‘stomachache.’>
<People hearing this for the first time might be surprised.>
<Absolutely! Among them, the most problematic is “yabai”! It has dozens of meanings, and I think Japanese people use this word too conveniently.>
<It can mean both ‘good’ and ‘bad.’>
<That’s right! Sometimes it’s used with completely opposite meanings, so you need to be careful! I think this happens a lot in Japanese!>
<Is that so?>
<Yes! For example, “arigatou,” “ii yo,” and “daijoubu”… You can't tell if they mean ‘OK’ or ‘NG,’ so you want clear answers!>
<Sorry, sorry>
?It seems like there's a lot of frustration building up, haha. (Ukrainian)
?It feels more like a Japanese problem than a Japanese language issue. (Ukrainian)
?We actually prefer to clear things up by being direct with words. (Ukrainian)
This is just my personal impression, but Ukrainians seem to have a combative approach to conversation.
They want to debate at the slightest opportunity.
Or rather, daily conversations seem like debates.
That's why I think Iriena, despite being young, must have felt a lot of stress coming to Japan, where the language was so different.
Imagining losing the ability to communicate in daily life… it’s chilling.
<In terms of words, “tekitou” also has both good and bad meanings.>
<It means ‘appropriate’ and ‘careless’! Oh, or was one of these a misuse?>
<Hmm, it’s a tricky judgment. Words once considered misused can become accepted meanings over time, like with the earlier example of honorifics.>
<I see>
The same goes for “zotto suru” and “zotto shinai.”
Recently, these words are increasingly used with meanings different from their original ones.
<Speaking about the “correctness” of words would be a lengthy discussion and would stray from today’s topic, so let’s save it for another time.>
<I’m looking forward to it!>
However, with recent recording schedules being packed, it’s uncertain when it will be.
Or perhaps there might not be an opportunity to discuss it at all… No, surely that won’t happen?
<Back to the topic. Words with contradictory meanings are called ‘contronyms.’>
<Contronyms? That’s the first time I’ve heard of it.>
<This isn’t limited to Japanese, though. In English, “clip” can mean both ‘to fasten’ and ‘to cut off,’ while “overlook” can mean both ‘to look over’ and ‘to overlook.’>
<How confusing! Why does that happen?>
<Originally, they were different words, but over time, they evolved and coincidentally overlapped. There are various reasons.>
<I wish it would stop.>
<But it’s common for words and characters to evolve over time. For instance, Japanese kanji were originally different characters but changed to look the same.>
<Is that so?>
<Yes. For example, “gei,” “yo,” and “ben” all have overlapping kanji.>
<If “ben ben ben ben” is lined up, no one would know which kanji is which.>
<Worse than “ikomiki.” This kind of thing is called ‘character shape collision’ or ‘same-form different-characters’…>
<Hey, Iroha-sama! Stop!>
?Even Japanese people find this topic difficult, haha.
?Iroha-chan, please come back, Irysha~! (Ukrainian)
?If we leave these two alone, it seems like the lecture level will keep increasing endlessly. (Ukrainian)
<Oops, sorry!?>
The conversation has veered a bit from language acquisition.
Let's return to more basic topics.
<Umm>
<Iroha-sama, speaking of the same, Japanese also has many homophones, right?>
<Ah, that’s right!>
I ride on Iriena’s helpful prompt.
Nice follow-up.
<For example, when you hear “ame,” the meaning changes between ‘candy’ and ‘rain’ depending on the situation, so it was really hard to judge at first.>
<Ah~, pronunciation~>
<Sometimes, where you break the sentence can also change the meaning. This applies to both spoken and written language.>
<Indeed. Japanese can be extra tricky because there are no spaces between words.>
<That’s right! In Ukrainian and English, spaces between words are standard.>
?Now that you mention it, that’s true.
?Huh? How did we read sentences with only hiragana in first grade?
?? In my daughter’s textbook, there were spaces between words like in English.
<Because of that… or thanks to that? You can play with words a bit. For example, a sentence like “senchou sanjuunanasai” can be read as…>
<“Captain, 17 years old” or “Captain, 37 years old”!>
<Exactly. This is called ‘ginata-yomi.’>
For some reason, the comments section was flooded with posts saying, “Hmm, both are correct!”
What? Why the captain? There’s no deep meaning!