Only in Japan

[JimBreen]

From the latest Language Log:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3688

Jim

[Rik Brown]

That reminds me of the Engrish.com site. That site is funny but, in this
case, where the debased language is obviously intentional (by someone)
this is somewhat sad. One sees this more and more among the younger
generation of kids in Japan. It reflects sadly on the effect of
English-language movies using debased language that show up in Japan
because I don't see a lot of foreigners speaking that way.

Well, anyway, I guess I am never really around those who use such
language either in English or Japanese. I guess that makes me a little
un-cool.

Jim, thanks for posting that!

-- Rik


--
Rik Brown

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[John W.]

On Jan 9, 4:20 pm, JimBreen <jimbr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> From the latest Language Log:http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3688
>

Many moons ago in Osaka I saw an older woman with the word "fuck"
written on the baseball cap she was wearing. It was quite funny and I
wondered if her grandkids got her the hat as a sort of gag gift.

My favorite sign along these lines was on one of those massive
roadside maps that you find in the touristy mountain areas. This one
was on Mt. Rokko (at the upper terminus of the rokko cog rail). It had
the large red dot to tell you where you were, and said "your shitting
place."

John W.

[CL]

I find this type of thing more frequently in Kansai and northern Kyushu.
Maybe Kanto just got more officers and NCOs from the better parts of
the US.

There seem to be very big differences in who knows what English in
several locations and the current spoken varieties seem to be extremely
different in Yomitan, Sasebo, Iwakuni, and Yokosuka. Also, "parking
lot" in Kanto is a "motor pool" from Nagoya southward, but several
elderly Japanese have told me that the units stationed around Tokyo were
mostly Anzac, Scots, and US heavy infantry and paratroops while Kansai,
Chugoku, and Kyushu got motorized armor, motorized infantry, and
artillery due to the fact that it was easier for deep water vessels to
offload armor at Kobe, Kokura, Shimizu, and Iwakuni than at Hinode or
Kujukuri.

--
CL

[Rik Brown]

Jim:

Are you the Jim Breen of 'Jim Breen's Japanese Page'
(http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/japanese.html) fame?

If so, I just want to say thank you for all you have done over the years
(decades) for those of us studying Japanese. I don't know how many times
I've accessed your page.

Thank you very much. -- Rik

[JimBreen]

On Jan 12, 1:08 am, Rik Brown <Rik.Brown.566...@no-

mx.forums.travel.com> wrote:
> Are you the Jim Breen of 'Jim Breen's Japanese Page'
> (http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/japanese.html) fame?

Something like that.

> If so, I just want to say thank you for all you have done over the years
> (decades) for those of us studying Japanese. I don't know how many times
> I've accessed your page.

It is decades. I think my first sci.lang.japan posting was in 1989,
and good
old JDIC (DOS, 640k) first aired in 1990 with a dictionary of a few
thousand
entries.

Usenet and mailing lists were a life-changing occurrence. It's hard to
recall
just how constricted communications and interaction were before then.
Things
have moved on since then, but they were real paradigm shifts.

Jim

[Declan Murphy]

On Jan 10, 7:20 am, JimBreen <jimbr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> From the latest Language Log:http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3688
>
> Jim

I'll give them some marks for consistency. The signage is finally
similar to the lyrics of the BGM so commonly heard on the sound
systems of these stores.

[Declan Murphy]

On Jan 12, 8:03 am, JimBreen <jimbr...@gmail.com> wrote:
<snip>

> Usenet and mailing lists were a life-changing occurrence. It's hard to
> recall
> just how constricted communications and interaction were before then.
> Things
> have moved on since then, but they were real paradigm shifts.

Earlier today, I needed to explain to a new (young) staff member what
a fax machine was.

[John W.]

My son found an old phone at my parent's house with the dial. He knew
what it was, but couldn't imagine a world where it was needed.

John W.

[CL]

On 01/13/2012 08:42 AM, Gordon Freeman wrote:

> Declan Murphy<declan...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Earlier today, I needed to explain to a new (young) staff member what
>> a fax machine was.
>

> I've never managed to master fax machines, I went straight from post to
> email with a bit of telex in between. On the rare occasions I have to fax
> something I always have to ask someone to help me work out which buttons to
> press and how to feed the paperwork in.

With strengths like that, you could be qualified for a position as Chief
Superintendent of Detectives in any County force, a Parliamentary
Vice-Ministership, or Director of Investments at any bank in The City.
With the caveat that you cannot have grown up, nor attended state
schools in Bognor Regis.

--
CL

[Rik Brown]

Declan Murphy;3392796 Wrote:
>
> Earlier today, I needed to explain to a new (young) staff member what
> a fax machine was.

I remember what a game changer our first fax machine was for our office
in Tokyo back in the early 1980s. I believe we paid about US $4,000 (our
parent company bought if for us) and it made communications between our
Japanese offices so much easier since handwritten Japanese could then
easily be sent. Before that, all written Japanese was by mail, courier
services, or we sometimes used a Telex machine -- which, although fast,
was very expensive with high, per-minute charges.

Fax machines caught on much more quickly in Japan and throughout Asia
than they did in the USA. I was surprised on my visits to the States in
the 1980s how few companies there were using them.