What do I, a host of other English (and other subjects, of course) teachers, and Junichiro Koizumi, have in common?
The people that ought to be listening to us are too busy with their cell phones or have their noses in manga.
Childishly inappropriate behaviour has infected Japan’s political elite, as Junichiro Koizumi, the Prime Minister, revealed when he lectured a group of young MPs last year. “Don’t send e-mails on your cell phones or read comic books in parliament while in session,” he told them. “You can be seen very clearly from the Prime Minister’s seat. You should really stop that — it’s disgraceful.”
The London Times reports on the case of the oba(a?)chan-bashing incident (an older woman was sent to the hospital after making a comment to a young woman trying to concentrate on the application of her make-up.
Also discussed is the pathetic state of Japanese profanity. As you know, you can level a deadly insult merely by using the incorrect form of 'you' at your conversation partner, a bit of info that always encourages the fledgling Japanese language learner. However, certain foreign loan words are helping the with-it youngsters over here to bridge the gap.
Japanese in such situations face yet another problem. While it is not true that the Japanese language has no swear words, standards of vituperation are certainly lower than in English. Even the word commonly used to mean “you bastard” — kisama — is simply an impolite way of saying “you”.
The worst that one can do in daily speech would be Shine bakayaro!, which means little more than “Drop dead, you idiot!” Such is the dearth of salty invective that angry Japanese turn increasingly to a reliable English expression, pronounced the Japanese way: Fakkyuu.
I've yet to hear it used seriously in a purely (well...) Japanese context, but am looking forward to this version of international communication.
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