Japanese Antrho Midterm Cody Svientek

Svientek, Cody
3/4/2015
ANTH 308
Midterm
(1) The Japanese language is a difficult and unique language in that it uses a countless
amount of onomatopeia and memetic expression in their daily conversational use, that for
an outsider with little experience in the language would have a difficult time
comprehending these common expressions. To begin, the official websters dictionary
defines Onomatopeia as "the creation of words that imitate natural sounds" and Memetic
Expression as "relating to, characterized by, or exhibiting mimicry". Secondly, the
Japanese are a fairly homogenous society and have had language scholars collaborate on
a official definition of common onomatopeic expressions to avoid confusion amongst
themselves, official government documents, and the common masses and to remove
conflict on what one could classify and name a sound, action, or idea since most people
would agree that a dog would go "" or a knock on the door being "".
Gender wise, the Japanese women are more notorious for using onomatopoeia to
effeminate themselves more amongst their male colleagues, while men are generally
more likely to be more verbose to show intellect.
The roots of these memtic expressions could be traced back to the early development of
Japanese language and how court officials used to write poetry often in their daily lives
and these abstract expressions of feelings and phenomena were written down (
for heart beating and expression of love, for hot surfaces and burning passion)
and the common masses adopted it from there, or the other way around and the
uneducated peasants simply used a pronounced way to describe something going around
them like rainfall being categorized by intensity " for pouring rain while
is a drizzle".
The Japanese like using these expressions because they feel culturally it is important to
them since they coined these terms and it's deeply rooted in their culture, and it's simple
to classify everything since everyone generally agrees with them on what sounds like
what. English however is not like Japanese because historically our language is based off
a large array of Latin, Anglo-Saxon, danish, Swedish, Germanic, and French words. So
we prefer using a broad range of synonyms in our dictionary to describe onomatopoeia
and phenomena, while Japan for the most part was isolated and borrowed from ancient
Chinese and had to invent these descriptions on their own. Plus, we Americans don't like
using onomatopoetic because we do not have any official dictionary published by
scholars and it's hard to come to a consensus because English is a much more diverse
language from cultures around the world. However, we in the west usually agree on
common terms like "buzzing" for bees, "woofs" or "barks" for dogs, "bangs" for
explosions and "ha ha ha/he he he" for laughter. We also consider it absurd to give a name
for the sound of pouring rain, when in english we can use a very broad range of words to
describe something, so using a verbose expression of " the pouring rain" will deliver the
same message to the listener.
(3) Japan for it's history was for a long while sealed off from the outside world due to it
being an island out in the pacific and it's only ties with China. This changed however
during the early modern period of Europe and it's expansionism and discovery
elementally led it to Japan, and brought with it new ideas, words, technology, etc. Japan
embraced the new idea of western-ism because it brought forth a era of technological
advancement and prosperity. The Japanese Government, Merchants, Samurai, Artisans,
and peasants viewed the west as something to admire for it's glories and sophistication
and incorporated their ideas into their language, because it was classy and something for
a cultured person to use in their daily language, and gave them new words to describe and
express new ideas from the west like industry, capitalism, democracy, monotheism,
skyscrapers, television, tobacco, and so on. Japan mostly embraces English (ex. ,
, , etc) and Portuguese ( ex. , , ) loanwords because
Portugal provided guns and technology for the Daimyo in the warring states, while later
after World War 2 the American occupation force built the modern Japanese government
and influenced the nation with a large chunk of American culture, business practices, and
words onto them. While minor European influences such as German (,
) , Russian, and some French loanwords. Japan however avoids Korean and
Chinese loanwords because of it's military history with the two neighbors and other
controversial matters regarding imperialism and racism.
Interestingly, while Japan is now very open to western influences, it still has issues
actually using loanwords correctly to the full extent, whether if it is wanting to take a spin
on the word for it's own cultural reasons , a Japanese misunderstanding some words
because of the complexity of the English language to a native Japanese speaker, and even
using different loanwords to differentiate different objects even though they would
classify as the same object (an example would be vs , even though both
are cup it depends on if the mug has a handle or not).
While it would seem that adopting these words would be easy for a foreigner to
understand, they tend to simplify some words or use old outdated words like
, which would be confusing since the English translation would be business man or
white collar worker. Another example are and which are a slanged term
for Home platform (train station) and Mass Communication, but would be confusing
since masu komi and homu are shortened and are not very helpful for foreigners to read.
Finally are the use of curse words used in Japan and America, while Americans would
consider it taboo to say such words, the Japanese actually have little understanding of the
severity of the curse word simply because western media makes these words sound cool
and many Japanese youth adopt it into their daily language with improper
usage/misunderstanding, or using it in public which would be considered a shameful act,
one humorous example was a hostess wearing a shirt for a PG rated NHK gardening tv
show "" that says "Protect me from your bullshit". She was reprimended
after the episode because of her poor choice of fashion, and that there were many english
speakers watching her show at the time.
(4) The fact that whether or not the Japanese female population has accepted the idea of
western feminism is a controversial one indeed. Throughout Japanese culture the woman
has always been a ruler of the house, open to the ideas of homosexual relationships, the
praising of Geisha and goddesses in Shintoism, the fact that women were some of the
most famous authors in Japanese poetry like Genji Monogatari and the Hiragana writing
system, their system of inheritance is strictly matriarchal, and now with the rise of
western ideals comes the fact that Japanese women have been more and more
independent now than ever to go out and peruse a career, get a formal education, get into
politics, vote, own property, have the court favor in the woman's side, and so one. This
would allow them to have the freedom to follow their own dreams and avoid following
the old traditions of being a mother and housekeeper. So one could argue that feminism is
already present in Japan, however with Japan's strict traditionalism and homogenized
society, it still favors men in government fields, shames women who have been sexually
assaulted, office inequality as most women work as assistants, censorship of the female
genitalia, specific gender dialect for women, mannerisms and a need to beautify
themselves to compete against one another for affection would make it seem that Japan
has quite some work to go with.
The problem lies that Japan is stuck between staying to it's old cultural roots and keeping
a homogenized society to avoid conflict and keep their honor, identity, and tradition, or
embrace western ideas and give women more freedoms. Those that argue against western
feminism say that Japan already has given women plenty of rights and the government
currently needs more mothers as it's population shrinks and grows older, so the need for a
caretaker for children and the elderly is desperatly needed for the prosperity of future
Japan, and the need to keep it's culture and language intact and keep the social harmony,
since Japan has a strict enforcement of how women and men should talk and act to avoid
dishonoring the family. This is because in asian cultures, they value the group's interest
over the individual's interests and those that are viewed dishonorable are considered
lowly than someone who is filial. With due time, the younger and more open generations
should slowly flex Japanese feminist standards of a woman more and mirror that of their
western feminist counterparts.

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Svientek, Cody

comprehending these common expressions. To begin, the official websters dictionary

Expression as "relating to, characterized by, or exhibiting mimicry". Secondly, the

a official definition of common onomatopeic expressions to avoid confusion amongst

more likely to be more verbose to show intellect.

we prefer using a broad range of synonyms in our dictionary to describe onomatopoeia

using onomatopoetic because we do not have any official dictionary published by

same message to the listener.

advancement and prosperity. The Japanese Government, Merchants, Samurai, Artisans,

, , etc) and Portuguese ( ex. , , ) loanwords because

words onto them. While minor European influences such as German (,

controversial matters regarding imperialism and racism.

usage/misunderstanding, or using it in public which would be considered a shameful act,

speakers watching her show at the time.

has quite some work to go with.

western feminist counterparts.

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