Japanese speaking English

06/02/2002 English German

Edition # 40
San Francisco, 06-02-2002

Japan, Finally Aircraft as Arcade Tokyo Gastronomy Tokyo Fish Market Masks Beverages Beer Paper tissues Shuwattchi! Fashion Safety Technophilia Shinkansen Japanese speaking English Busy Bodies Rambunctious Youth Surveyed by Students Geishas Original and American knockoff Consumer Frenzy Japanese toilets Bicycles in Tokyo Train station in Tokyo Uniforms Taxis To Bow Shoes Off and Shoes On Hiroshima Ryokan Japanese Bath In the temple for AOL Koya-San Cemetery in Koya-San

Japanese speaking English

Figure [1]: Where to?

Michael In Japanese, there is a funny linguistic peculiarity: One answers a negative question with "Yes!" if you want to negate it. For example, to the question "This train doesn't go to Shibuya?" a Japanese speaker would answer with "Yes" if the train indeed does not go to Shibuya, while in German or English, you'd answer "no" for emphasis.

This leads to all sorts of amusing misunderstandings between cultures. For example, when we initially had trouble finding an ATM that accepted our American debit card, we spoke with a bank employee. In broken English, she responded several times in a row to our question, "So we can’t use this card at your ATM?" with "Yes! No!" I was still laughing about it 10 minutes later on the street.

Figure [2]: In the countryside: Game over, no more English. In the cities, at least the name of the station is still in Latin script.

In general, there are hardly any people in Japan who speak English fluently. When you go to a restaurant, at least in the big cities, you might sometimes find someone who knows at least 10 words, so you can at least order a beer and maybe (!) request a menu with pictures or even in English. But be careful: sometimes the English spoken there is a fantasy version that has little to do with the real thing. When we boarded a bus at Narita Airport to ride into Tokyo, the baggage handler slapped our suitcase with his flat hand and shouted "No Breakup!" We looked at each other questioningly because "breakup" in English means "to separate" or to end a relationship. At first, I thought he wanted to make sure that both of us were going all the way into Tokyo and not that one of us would get off first and hence need some of the luggage. But no, he just wanted to make sure there was nothing fragile in the bag!