blog #9: Japanese slang

   Hello everyone! This is Saori! Thank you for the nice lunch at 10/19! I’m glad to have great food and talk much with nice NzenB classmates! Today, I would like to talk about the summary of the lecture and the three Japanese slang.

1.    Summary of the lecture

      Slang is the language which is an informal speech among the particular group and identified the community of the people. And slang allows people to share the experiences. However slang are used by many people, they are not used in academic study.

2.    Three Japanese slang

    (1)  草食系男子 (So-shoku kei danshi)

   草食系男子is the men who are not active in love and has used by young people since 2008. The characteristics of 草食系男子 are they hate to fight, are careful by an appearance, love to cook or eat sweets and so on and they tend to behave like a “girl” generally. So they are thought as favorable by many women because they may understand woman’s feeling very well. That’s why 草食系男子is not only used to make fun of them.

    (2)  ピンキリ(Pinkiri)

      ピンキリis an abbreviation from "ピンからキリまで(Pin kara Kiri made)"  means from the best to the worst. This ward has used since the Showa era. This ward originated from the Edo era. “Pin” means “one” as dice and karuta, and “Kiri” means “end” as karuta. So “ピンからキリまで” means from the greatest to the minimum and from the best to the worst.

    (3)  歴女 (Reki-jo)

   歴女 is the women who like the history very much. This ward has used since 2009. Most of them are    interested in Japanese military commander of the age of civil strife. The characteristics of them are like to read period stories and remains.

 Most of Japanese slang wards are spread out through media. If the famous person makes or uses a new ward, it will be diffused by twitter or TV. So that Japanese slang is almost trend and it will become outdated soon. I think Japanese people use slang wards because they don’t want to be outdated. And they may use slang wards among friends to show off “I get on the fashion”. Finally, the person who don’t use the slang may feel uncomfortable to be with his or her friends, so I think this is the one reason that leave out are not perished. So many young men and women are captive to follow the newest slang.