The Japanese are extremely creative when it comes to language, and often invent new English words to describe the things they use every day, a phenomenon known as wasei eigo or “made-in-Japan English.” Sometimes these words can be quite confusing if you were to hear them used in casual conversation, like pepa doraiba, or “paper driver,” meaning someone who has a drivers’ license yet doesn’t drive regularly; or risutora, from the word “restructure,” which means having one’s job eliminated; or rokehan (“location hunting”), to scout for a location for a video shoot; or ekiho, what the girl at Starbucks calls out when I order my coffee “extra hot.” After a while you start to get a feel for the cognitive leap that caused the word to be created, like the way the word “skeleton” is used to mean translucent, like the original iMac. The worse thing is when I get used to these strange “English” words and am crazy enough to use them on anyone outside of Japan. If someone wished you a Meri-Kuri, would you understand that they were talking about a Merry Christmas?
Did everyone have a Meri-Kuri (Merry Christmas)?
