Thank god that's over for this term

[doire]

Well I stood up in front of the class and stuttered my way through a comparison of three manga series. I couldn't tell what I was saying so I doubt anyone else could. There seemed to be some interest in kappas, though.

Then we talked about insults. Sensei warned us again not to use baka. It seems, in the same way that my mother will say es aich one tee, some might say uma shika.  This would explain the scene, in a doujinshi I have, where one character shouts uma at another before being shut up. Why, I thought, why are they shouting horse? I still don't know why they're shouting that but at least I have some clue as to what being shouted.

Idiot is 馬鹿 in kanji. As a compound it's said ばか baka.  individually 馬 , horse, is said うま uma; and 鹿, deer, is said　しか shika.

And then we were told we could use an Osaka dialect word as it's "softer". It's あほ. aho doesn't sound softer to western ears.

Comments

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Mhh well. Read enough Japanese and aho *will* sound softer than baka. Friendlier. Like saying ijjit instead of asshole.

[doire]

Reading's okay. It's the listening, to films, that's the problem. From tone and contex I can see that it's not that harsh, but the faux amis effect means I hear it as a truncated ass hole and it makes me jump.

Mind, my man says he's halfway convinced that Japanese is only masquerading as another language. Our class vocabulary leans heavily to the needs of visiting westerners' requirements which seem to have been imported complete with names.