“I hate it when someone smorks in my face.” For whatever reason, the English word “smoke” is often rendered as “smork” in Japan. Because Japanese is a syllable-based language in which you can express sounds like ka, ki, ku, ke or ko, but not the consonant “k” by itself, English words like “hello” “goodbye” or “beer, please” must be forced through an alien phonetic system, with some rather odd results. The very first fast food I ate in Japan was a McDonald’s clone called First Kitchen (“the City Convenience Restaurant” whose hilarious nickname is Fa-kin), and I remember confusion as to whether the restaurant was First Kitchen or Fast Kitchen. Eventually I learned the strange system of remapping English sounds to Japanese, but it took a while. And I still hate it when someone smorks in my face.
No smorking! And no tout, either!
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