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Jan 28 2004 8 Comments

Mildly amusing Japanese-English #3

Beckham hair (pronounced be-ka-mu he-a).

The term was coined during the 2002 World Cup, when David Beckham attained the status of footballing/celebrity deity. In reference to the Holy One’s elegantly coiffured bouffant, anybody with a mohawk since then has been referred to as simply Beckham hair.

Despite Mr. Beckham changing his hairstyle several times since, the expression has stood the test of time. Still being in common use today. Beckham corn-row on the other hand failed to make an impact.

Categorized: Language

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kev says

    1/28/2004 at 8:05 pm

    One thing I’ve always wondered, watching Japanese films and cartoons, is why they add an unnecessary “u” to foreign words?

    Reply
  2. Lee says

    1/28/2004 at 9:39 pm

    It’s because of the sounds in the language. Using Beckham as an example, there is no “m” sounds as such. only “ma” “mi” “mu” “me” and “mo”. There are lots of o’s stuck on the end of English words too. David would be de-bi-do. And just to confuse thingss, Kev would be ke-bu.

    Reply
  3. Kev says

    1/28/2004 at 11:57 pm

    Aha. That explains that perfectly! So, is it the case that the majority of Japanese words end with what we would take as being a vowel?

    Reply
  4. Lee says

    1/29/2004 at 8:45 am

    Yeah. Although there is one exception to the rule. Nothing is ever straight forawrd I suppose. Especially not languages!

    There’s an “n” sound. So for example Gin is pronounced ji-n. It’s a slightly harder sound to the one in English.

    Reply
  5. Kev says

    1/29/2004 at 6:16 pm

    As in “gaijin”? Yeah, forgot about that. Makes sense. Was watching Rising Sun, the Snipes/Connery movie, last night, and that had a lot of Japanese words in it. There’s another, kokujin or something?

    Some people actually say that least straight forward language is English 🙂

    Reply
  6. Lee says

    1/29/2004 at 7:14 pm

    Yeah, there’s gaijin and gaikokujin. Gaikokujin is the polite form. Or gaijin-san.

    It’s a strange one. If I see another foreigner or I’m referring to myself I’ll use gaijin, but on the other hand, if a Japanese person calls me gaijin, I don’t like it. It depends how it’s used, but it can be a derogatory term.

    “Some people actually say that least straight forward language is English :)”

    Some people would, but I’d say the same about Japanese ; )

    Reply
  7. Kev says

    1/29/2004 at 8:15 pm

    I’d always taken it to be a slightly derogatory term, but more because it inferred that the person was “foreign” and therefore there was something wrong with them. It had nothing to do with them, but their nationality.

    In Rising Sun they also refer to the Japanese for negro… an interesting moment that. It’s a good film, showing the good, and bad, sides of the US and Japan 🙂

    Reply
  8. Lee says

    1/29/2004 at 10:00 pm

    I think the literal translation for gaijin is “outside country people”. That says it all really!

    I’ll have to check that film out, it sounds interesting.

    Reply

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