JSランゲージスクールブログ | Japanese English
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Today I would like to talk to you guys about “Japanese English”. These are English words that many Japanese people use that we do not use in English, or they have a different meaning in English. The words I will explain are: consent, cunning, hip, salary man, jet coaster, and gasoline stand.
First, we have the word “consent”. This is for the plug-in that you plug your electronics and things like that into the wall. In English we would call it a socket or a plug-in. Personally, I use plug-in the most. An example sentence would be, “I need to charge my phone. Do you have a plug-in I could use?”
Next is the word “cunning”. Japanese people use this word when one student looks at another student’s paper during a test or other similar situations. In English, cunning means to be tricky. However, the way it is used in Japanese is incorrect. Instead of cunning, it would be more natural to say “cheat”. Cheat is a verb. An example would be, “I got a good grade on the test because I cheated.”
The next word is “hip”. When Japanese people say “hip”, they mean “butt” in English. In English, you have two hips. They are on the sides of your body. Your hips are the areas where your legs connect to the rest of your body. An example sentence would be, “When people get old, they have problems with their hips.”
Next is salary man. In English, we don’t say “salary man”, we say “business man”. Salary man seems a bit weird for native English speakers. An example would be, “I work as a business man in an insurance company.”
The next word is “jet coaster”. In English, we say “roller coaster”. An example sentence would be, “I love riding roller coasters.”
The last word is “gasoline stand”. This is also a little weird for native speakers. We would say gas station or petrol station. “Petrol” is the British word and “gasoline” is the US word. An example sentence would be, “I have to go to the gas station before I drive to work.”
