Language Cheat Reincarnation – Young Girl VTuber Saves the World C.330: [High-Context Language]

<Japanese often changes meaning depending on the situation or intonation, right?>

<Ah~. For example, “sumimasen”?>

<Exactly!>

Iriena provides specific examples in response to the question.

Our language streaming sessions never run out of topics, thanks to our respective areas of expertise.

<Depending on the situation, it can mean totally different things. It could be ‘Excuse me,’ ‘I’m sorry,’ or ‘Thank you.’>

<Yes! Just that alone could lead to a conversation!>

?When I was traveling, I saw Japanese people having conversations with just “sumimasen” on the station platform (Ukrainian).

?It sometimes happens when people bump into each other, haha.

?I thought it was a joke, but is it for real? (Ukrainian)

<Other examples include “Osuna yo! Zettai ni osu na yo!” meaning ‘Push!’ and “Onaka ga itai” meaning ‘Too much laughter’ instead of ‘stomachache.’>

<People hearing this for the first time might be surprised.>

<Absolutely! Among them, the most problematic is “yabai”! It has dozens of meanings, and I think Japanese people use this word too conveniently.>

<It can mean both ‘good’ and ‘bad.’>

<That’s right! Sometimes it’s used with completely opposite meanings, so you need to be careful! I think this happens a lot in Japanese!>

<Is that so?>

<Yes! For example, “arigatou,” “ii yo,” and “daijoubu”… You can't tell if they mean ‘OK’ or ‘NG,’ so you want clear answers!>

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<Sorry, sorry>

?It seems like there's a lot of frustration building up, haha. (Ukrainian)

?It feels more like a Japanese problem than a Japanese language issue. (Ukrainian)

?We actually prefer to clear things up by being direct with words. (Ukrainian)

This is just my personal impression, but Ukrainians seem to have a combative approach to conversation.

They want to debate at the slightest opportunity.

Or rather, daily conversations seem like debates.

That's why I think Iriena, despite being young, must have felt a lot of stress coming to Japan, where the language was so different.

Imagining losing the ability to communicate in daily life… it’s chilling.

<In terms of words, “tekitou” also has both good and bad meanings.>

<It means ‘appropriate’ and ‘careless’! Oh, or was one of these a misuse?>

<Hmm, it’s a tricky judgment. Words once considered misused can become accepted meanings over time, like with the earlier example of honorifics.>

<I see>

The same goes for “zotto suru” and “zotto shinai.”

Recently, these words are increasingly used with meanings different from their original ones.

<Speaking about the “correctness” of words would be a lengthy discussion and would stray from today’s topic, so let’s save it for another time.>

<I’m looking forward to it!>

However, with recent recording schedules being packed, it’s uncertain when it will be.

Or perhaps there might not be an opportunity to discuss it at all… No, surely that won’t happen?

<Back to the topic. Words with contradictory meanings are called ‘contronyms.’>

<Contronyms? That’s the first time I’ve heard of it.>

<This isn’t limited to Japanese, though. In English, “clip” can mean both ‘to fasten’ and ‘to cut off,’ while “overlook” can mean both ‘to look over’ and ‘to overlook.’>

<How confusing! Why does that happen?>

<Originally, they were different words, but over time, they evolved and coincidentally overlapped. There are various reasons.>

<I wish it would stop.>

<But it’s common for words and characters to evolve over time. For instance, Japanese kanji were originally different characters but changed to look the same.>

<Is that so?>

<Yes. For example, “gei,” “yo,” and “ben” all have overlapping kanji.>

<If “ben ben ben ben” is lined up, no one would know which kanji is which.>

<Worse than “ikomiki.” This kind of thing is called ‘character shape collision’ or ‘same-form different-characters’…>

<Hey, Iroha-sama! Stop!>

?Even Japanese people find this topic difficult, haha.

?Iroha-chan, please come back, Irysha~! (Ukrainian)

?If we leave these two alone, it seems like the lecture level will keep increasing endlessly. (Ukrainian)

<Oops, sorry!?>

The conversation has veered a bit from language acquisition.

Let's return to more basic topics.

<Umm>

<Iroha-sama, speaking of the same, Japanese also has many homophones, right?>

<Ah, that’s right!>

I ride on Iriena’s helpful prompt.

Nice follow-up.

<For example, when you hear “ame,” the meaning changes between ‘candy’ and ‘rain’ depending on the situation, so it was really hard to judge at first.>

<Ah~, pronunciation~>

<Sometimes, where you break the sentence can also change the meaning. This applies to both spoken and written language.>

<Indeed. Japanese can be extra tricky because there are no spaces between words.>

<That’s right! In Ukrainian and English, spaces between words are standard.>

?Now that you mention it, that’s true.

?Huh? How did we read sentences with only hiragana in first grade?

?↑ In my daughter’s textbook, there were spaces between words like in English.

<Because of that… or thanks to that? You can play with words a bit. For example, a sentence like “senchou sanjuunanasai” can be read as…>

<“Captain, 17 years old” or “Captain, 37 years old”!>

<Exactly. This is called ‘ginata-yomi.’>

For some reason, the comments section was flooded with posts saying, “Hmm, both are correct!”

What? Why the captain? There’s no deep meaning!