heeee (I don’t believe it!)

Japanese language features quite a few interjections used to express surprise, including majide?, uso!, honto? and ariehen! These can be equated with English expressions such as ‘really?’, ‘I don’t believe it!’, ‘no way!’, ‘get outta here!’ etc.

One such interjection often heard in Japanese conversation is heeee / hēē / he～ (へえええ), which is pronounced ‘hair’ but can be elongated to express greater surprise. The length this phonetic phenomenon is sometimes drawn out to makes it an unusual sounding interjection to non-Japanese, especially when uttered simultaneously during a group conversation.

heeee also bears the distinction of having the premise of a TV show, Trivia no Izumi (トリビアの泉=Spring of Trivia), constructed around it. Panellists are shown a video clip of a surprising piece of trivia and have to express their astonishment by hitting their hē-botan (’hē’ button), a buzzer which makes a heeee sound. The Trivia no Izumi video clip above reveals that Cinderella was a murderer* and shows the panellists reaction to this startling revelation.

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*A transcription and English translation of the Cinderella story featured in the clip can be found on Japanese Meetup, from where I poached the idea of using the clip in this context.

Some of the more common examples of such behaviour include digressing (not only talking about topics totally unrelated to the lesson, but also the more worrying habit of responding to questions with unrelated answers) and strange time-keeping (turning up for the last few minutes of the lesson every week or arriving several hours too early for class without realising it).

Because the Mentalist is such a unique type of student however, their behaviour is usually so strange and idiosyncratic that it’s difficult to find other common examples. Ask any eikaiwa teacher though, and you’ll no doubt hear countless tales about ‘memorable’ incidents and behaviour they’ve encountered in the classroom.

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The introduction to the Eikaiwa Student Stereotypes series can be found here. For more posts like this one, check out the contents page or most popular content page.

Every year the words and phrases that are most searched for by internet users around the world are published in Google’s Year-End Zeitgeist. As the name suggests, the report is a snapshot of where the world’s curiosity and interests currently lie, and as such offers a fascinating insight into global internet usage and the national psyche of the countries that are also listed individually.

Thanks to Google’s awesome Google Analytics software I have installed on Big on Japan, I too can take a peak at what internet users around the world are searching for and how they arrived at my site. And as with Google’s report, the bigonjapan.com year-end zeitgeist indicates the popularity of a number of topics, albeit generally restricted to ones relating to Japan. The top 10 for 2008 follows, with last year’s position in brackets:

1.(6) big in japan
Google searches only acknowledge the most important words used in search terms and ignore less significant ones like ‘in’, ‘on’, ‘and’ and ‘of’: google big on japan and big in japan-related sites take the top 6 search results, with bigonjapan.com 7th. Search for big in japan and Big On Japan turns up in 10th place.

2.(9) 外国の文化 (foreign countries’ culture)
Shows how interested Japanese people are in ‘the outside world’. The jump up 7 places is a mystery though, since my initial plans for Big On Japan to be a bilingual blog have been derailed and I now no longer post any Japanese-language content…

3.(-) common japanese expressions
Shows how many English speakers are learning, or have an interest in, Japanese language. What’s surprising about this is that I only posted the intro to Most Common Japanese Expressions in June, yet it’s already one of Big On Japan’s most popular search terms.

4.(1) bigonjapan
Indicates that a lot of users are coming back to Big On Japan, and they’re using Google to find the website again.

5.(4) tsuruhashi osaka
Shows a surprising amount of interest in Osaka’s Korea Town for the second year in a row.

6.(2) クレクレタコラ (Gimme Gimme Octopus)
Reflects how much popularity this insane 70s kids’ TV show has, and reminds me that I should really write a magazine article about it this year.

7. (-) japanese expressions
See #3 above

8.(12) big on japan
See #4 above

9.(90) teaching english in japan
Like #2, this is mystifying, only moreso. I don’t think I really posted anything about teaching English in Japan in 2008, but the search term has jumped 88 places. Must be something to do with the English teaching websites in my blogroll I suppose.

10.(-) turbo slang
Could relate to the number of ‘revheads’ using Google to top up their Top Gear knowledge, or the number of British pissheads looking for more information about their favourite industrial strength drink of choice. Your guess is as good as mine.

Japanese people often seem easily impressed and frequently display this by clapping like trained sea lions and exclaiming ‘sugoi!’ (that’s great!). In particular, things like magic tricks and new gadgets are guaranteed to get this reaction. Where foreigners are concerned, being able to use chopsticks or speak a few words of Japanese is often enough to elicit a round of applause and a chorus of ‘sugoi!’.

As well as being used to denote the remarkableness or importance of something, sugoi – like the English word ‘great’ – can also be used to talk about a large number/amount or the extent of something. Examples of this usage include sugoi hito (lots of people) or sugoi ame (heavy rain), but as with the use of ‘great’ in English, care needs to be taken when using the expression in this sense to avoid statements like ‘the number of car crashes on this road is great.’

Most Common Japanese Expressions Introduction

Depending on the situation it’s used in, sumimasen can be used apologetically to mean ‘please move out of my way’ or ‘I’m sorry’/’pardon me’. It can also be used to get someone’s attention politely (although it often sounds otherwise when barked loudly), as in ‘I’m ready to order now’, ‘I need another drink’ or ‘get over here!’. Additionally, it can be used to say ‘thank you’ in an apologetic way when someone has done you a favour, as in ‘thank you for going to so much trouble’ or ’sorry to trouble you’.

The expression is basically the same as ‘excuse me’ in English, although the emphasis on politeness in Japanese society results in it being used more frequently and in a wider range of situations than in English: for example, when sitting down next to a stranger on public transport, or as a more formal alternative to gomen nasai (‘I’m sorry’) when apologising for actions perceived as ‘shameful’, many of which wouldn’t warrant an apology in other cultures.

In its attention-grabbing form it’s used extensively in restaurants and izakaya (pubs). Quite frequently you’ll see a patron demanding attention by saying sumimasen in an only-slightly raised tone of voice and – despite there apparently being nobody available to serve – a waiter or waitress will come running out of the kitchen in a demonstration of remarkable hearing ability and conditioning akin to Pavlov’s dog.

Use of the word by non-Japanese people in Japan is also interesting. As often happens with Japanese words, the ‘u’ is contracted when pronounced by native speakers, making it similar to a schwa sound in English. Pronunciation of the word is therefore a good indication of a non-Japanese person’s Japanese language ability: those who speak Japanese naturally pronounce the word ‘smimasen’ (or the even easier suimasen) whereas those who don’t stress the first syllable as ‘su’.

Most Common Japanese Expressions Introduction

Following the problems in the sub-prime lending market in America and the run on Northern Rock in the UK, uncertainty has now hit Japan. In the last 7 days Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up and Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches.

Yesterday, it was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song, while today shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived. While Samurai Bank is soldiering on following sharp cutbacks, Ninja Bank is reported to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black.

Furthermore, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop and analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal.

Part 1 - Availability; Taste
Part 2 - Pseudo-beers; Pricing
Part 3 - Marketing; Uniqueness
Part 4 - More uniqueness

Beer Trivia

European fruit beers available in Japan are sold with stickers on the bottles identifying them as happōshu. While they actually taste nothing like happōshu, their lower malt content than regular beer means that legally they are classified as happōshu for taxation purposes.

]]> http://bigonjapan.com/beer-in-japan-part-5/142.htm/feed/ http://bigonjapan.com/the-most-common-japanese-expressions-itadakimasu/140.htm http://bigonjapan.com/the-most-common-japanese-expressions-itadakimasu/140.htm#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:02:32 +0000 bigonjapan Uncategorized Articles in English Japanese Language and Culture Common Japanese Expressions http://bigonjapan.com/the-most-common-japanese-expressions-itadakimasu/140.htm itadakimasu (lit=’I am receiving something’)
One of many Japanese expressions that has no direct translation in English, ‘itadakimasu’ can basically be equated with ‘saying grace’, a short prayer said by a lot of religious families (particularly in the US) to thank God before eating a meal.

‘Itadakimasu’ may also seem like a prayer because of the gesture that often accompanies it, but in fact has little religious connection in modern day Japan. As abcjp.net explains, its origins lie in thanking both the person who prepared the food and the local kami (deity) but these days the latter is uncommon.

Both ’saying grace’ and the expression ‘itadakimasu’ are used to show a person’s gratitude for the food they are about to eat and are said before a family or group meal commences. But whereas ‘grace’ is usually said with eyes closed, ‘itadakimasu’ is said with eyes open, often while breaking apart waribashi (disposable chopsticks).

Most Common Japanese Expressions Introduction

]]> http://bigonjapan.com/the-most-common-japanese-expressions-itadakimasu/140.htm/feed/ http://bigonjapan.com/the-most-common-japanese-expressions-atsui-and-samui/139.htm http://bigonjapan.com/the-most-common-japanese-expressions-atsui-and-samui/139.htm#comments Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:25:37 +0000 bigonjapan Uncategorized Articles in English Japanese Language and Culture Common Japanese Expressions http://bigonjapan.com/the-most-common-japanese-expressions-atsui-and-samui/139.htm Atsui (hot) and samui (cold)
It’s often said that British people like to talk about the weather unusually often compared to other nationalities, but the same is true of Japanese people.

Whereas the British tend to elaborate on the topic in more detail (‘looks like rain’ or ‘Autumn’s almost here’, for example) however, the Japanese seem content with merely stating the obvious about the temperature – they exclaim ‘atsui’ at every opportunity all summer and ‘samui’ constantly throughout the winter.

This compulsion to comment on the temperature even extends to greetings, so much so that when I ask Japanese people how they are during summertime they almost always say ‘atsui’, while in winter the standard response to my question is invariably ‘samui’.

The introduction to this series of articles can be found here.

Because the intonation used for these comments is that of exclamation, it always sounds like people are half-alarmed and half-incredulous about the temperature. My Japanese friends assure me this is not the case, although I still find it hard to believe they’re merely commenting and not complaining.

Most Common Japanese Expressions Introduction

]]> http://bigonjapan.com/the-most-common-japanese-expressions-atsui-and-samui/139.htm/feed/ http://bigonjapan.com/the-most-common-japanese-expressions-intro/138.htm http://bigonjapan.com/the-most-common-japanese-expressions-intro/138.htm#comments Sun, 15 Jun 2008 19:37:56 +0000 bigonjapan Uncategorized Articles in English Japanese Language and Culture Common Japanese Expressions http://bigonjapan.com/the-most-common-japanese-expressions-intro/138.htm What The Japanese Say

This series will focus on the most common expressions used in the Japanese language. As anyone who’s spent a considerable amount of time in Japan will know, there are certain words and phrases you hear all the time. And I do mean ALL THE TIME, often to the point of being annoying to non-Japanese people.

Some of these are used so frequently because they are from areas of the Japanese language that have far less vocabulary to choose from than the English language, others because they relate to common Japanese customs and important aspects of the culture. Expressions I’ll be looking at include: