Words sure are complex things, and it’s interesting to consider why we use one word over another. This morning I was running late for work, so I grabbed a quick Japanese breakfast of white rice and kimchee, that delicious spicy pickled cabbage from Korea. I remarked to my mother-in-law that I was opting for a simple breakfast today, using the English word “simple” but with a Japanese accent, resulting in something like sin-puru. This got me thinking about why I’d chosen that word rather than the perfectly good term (kantan) that exists in Japanese. The answer is that words serve different purposes to people, and sometimes using a word from another language can provide a little je-ne-sais-quoi to your speech. In Death Note, you can see Light Yagami pull off one of his unique murders of the corrupt and unjust using his supernatural notebook then utter the phrase “Checkmate” when he was done. But the term used to declare victory after a game of Shogi, “Oh-te,” would sound ridiculous if used in the saem situation.
Kira from Death Note, is so bad-ass
I love the smell of kimchee in the morning.
