Jump to content
Linguaholic

【Comments】Linguablog » Untranslatable Japanese Words


Recommended Posts

In response to: https://linguaholic.com/linguablog/untranslatable-japanese-words/

As someone who is surrounded with Japanese in every day life, I consider Japanese easy to use, but hard to translate.
It's very difficult to have a good translation from or to Japanese without sounding weird in either Japanese or the other language, but using Japanese directly is quite easy (once you're at the point where you no longer need to rely on another language to speak Japanese that is).

A 12th word I want to add to this list would be 神様 (kami-sama).
Learning materials teach you that it means "God", but in reality just like you can't actually translate Allah or Buddha to God, you can't translate Kami to God.
God = Christian, Allah = Islam, Buddha = Buddhism, and Kami = Shintoism.
And unlike God, Kami is not 1 being overseeing everything, but rather it's any kind of spirit in nature.

I'm currently self-studying Japanese religions just because I'm pretty interested in it.
And quite honestly, it's very unlike any branches of Christianity or Islam.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

Study With Us on Discord for FREE!

  • Shinrinyoku 森林浴 Shinrinyoku literally translates as 'forest bath'.
  • Komorebi 木漏れ日 The sunlight filtered through leaves on trees. 
  • Kuidaore 食い倒れ Kuidaore means something like 'to eat yourself bankrupt'.
  • Tsundoku 積ん読 Here's one for the book lovers.
  • Wabi-sabi 侘寂 
  • Kintsugi 金継ぎ 
  • Mono no aware 物の哀れ
  • Irusu 居留守

Regards : Japanese language classes in pune

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...