| HOME |
Do you know 「四面楚歌」?
I'll try to introduce some Japanese expressions, adages and wordings to you in order to improve my English language skills and deepen my knowledge of Japanese.
「四面楚歌」 ～Shimen-soka
1) to be blamed from all side
2) to be under siege
frequency of usage in daily life .... ★★☆☆☆
We got bowled over by Neo(Keanu Reeves)'s artistic actions in "Matrix." I totally enjoyed it. Actually, I like the idea of unknown powers which people might have deep down inside. It sounds thrilling, doesn't it? If you have trouble being assailed from all sides, you'd be able to get away with it like Neo did!
<<Take Me Out to the Ball Game | ホーム | To commune with nature>>
Comment
all side → all sides
To Michael
"Timely post" is my word! How did you know I'm interested in "Heroes" right now??? I'm renting it tomorrow. Thanks for your recommendation!
No title
I'm glad you'll be checking it out! If you liked the themes explored in The Matrix, this should be right up your alley.
By the way, thanks to a Japanese character in "Heroes", the exclamation 「やったー！」 is now well-known to millions of Americans. Maybe we'll start seeing more and more Japanese words come over to English! ^_^
By the way, thanks to a Japanese character in "Heroes", the exclamation 「やったー！」 is now well-known to millions of Americans. Maybe we'll start seeing more and more Japanese words come over to English! ^_^
To Michael
Yes, I've heard 「やった！」 so many times! I've only watched the first episode, but Japanese characters in "Heroes" speak a bit weird Japanese...in my opinion, of course. Their accents are different. Maybe my English sounds like their Japanese, I mean, a bit weird.
No title
Yeah, you're right about their Japanese. The actor who plays Hiro, Masi Oka, was born in Japan, but moved to the US with his mother when he was six years old. I guess after that he mostly spoke English, so it affected his Japanese. The man who plays his father, George Takei, is 二世 and has spent his whole life in the US, which I'm sure affects his accent, too. And Hiro's best friend Ando is played by Korean-American actor James Kyson Lee.
Although I don't know Japanese well myself, something sounded unusual about the show's Japanese even to me. Not only the accent of some actors but some of their sentences seemed weird somehow. Maybe it's grammatically correct Japanese, but I wondered if it was originally English text that was translated to Japanese. I suspect the show doesn't have any Japanese writers but relies on an agency translate the dialogue for them. No matter how good an agency is, however, translations rarely sound perfect.
Until now it's been really uncommon to hear Japanese on American TV shows, but since Heroes came out Japanese has been making its way into several shows on occasion. We've even had a few commercials where Japanese is spoken. Quite often it sounds like its not spoken by native speakers, but if it inspires some people who hear it to study Japanese for themselves, I think it's a good thing. And maybe in the future we'll start to hire more actors who actually grew up in Japan and speak naturally to appear on our TV shows. Just like some Japanese baseball stars come to the US to play on our teams, I hope you'll allow us to borrow some of your actors, too. ^_^
Although I don't know Japanese well myself, something sounded unusual about the show's Japanese even to me. Not only the accent of some actors but some of their sentences seemed weird somehow. Maybe it's grammatically correct Japanese, but I wondered if it was originally English text that was translated to Japanese. I suspect the show doesn't have any Japanese writers but relies on an agency translate the dialogue for them. No matter how good an agency is, however, translations rarely sound perfect.
Until now it's been really uncommon to hear Japanese on American TV shows, but since Heroes came out Japanese has been making its way into several shows on occasion. We've even had a few commercials where Japanese is spoken. Quite often it sounds like its not spoken by native speakers, but if it inspires some people who hear it to study Japanese for themselves, I think it's a good thing. And maybe in the future we'll start to hire more actors who actually grew up in Japan and speak naturally to appear on our TV shows. Just like some Japanese baseball stars come to the US to play on our teams, I hope you'll allow us to borrow some of your actors, too. ^_^
To Michael
Thank you for your wonderful comment again. I surely enjoy it.
Forgive me about writing down your name on my journal. I was so glad to be informed. I have been watching "Heroes" every day. I tend to spend too much time for it, so I'm a bit sleepy now!
Japanese lines are still funny, but I guess it has a kind of charactor. I like them. Having said that, sometimes I feel like correcting them.
Forgive me about writing down your name on my journal. I was so glad to be informed. I have been watching "Heroes" every day. I tend to spend too much time for it, so I'm a bit sleepy now!
Japanese lines are still funny, but I guess it has a kind of charactor. I like them. Having said that, sometimes I feel like correcting them.
Comment Form
Trackback
| HOME |
If you're intrigued by the idea of hidden powers, you might enjoy the American TV show, "Heroes".