The Japanese People and the English Language

The relationship between Japan and the English language is a long and complex one. Everyone studies the language for six years in junior high and high school, or up to ten if they take the language in university, but not everyone has the same level of real mastery. Some Japanese — doctors, lawyers or politicians — will often show off their higher education by peppering their speech with more English phrases, in the same way English speakers might throw in a French phrase here and there to spice things up, but these terms are far from universally understood. In the popular anime Sword Art Online, an (awesome) show about a virtual online fantasy game in which players become trapped in the game world, forced to play or die. In one scene, Asuna tells Kirito, “When to players get married inside the game, their inventory space is joined. It’s a very platonic idea, but also romantic, too.” Kirito has no idea what the word “platonic” means, so she has to explain it to him. This happens to my wife: after years of being married to me, her Japanese is filled with so many English words that others sometimes can’t understand her easily.

There’s a lot to like about Sword Art Online.