Product Description

This text presents an easy-to-use student's reference guide to the most common colloquialisms in the Japanese language. All the entries and sample sentences are presented in romanized Japanese, with English word and phrase equivalents.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #337095 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 173 pages

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"An indispensable reference to have a your side as you switch on the TV to watch a cop show or a soap opera."

About the Author
Akihiko Yonekawa is a professor at Baika Women's College in Osaka.

Excerpted from Beyond Polite Japanese : A Dictionary of Japanese Slang and Colloquialisms by Akihiko Yonekawa. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Following is a list of words appearing in Chapter 4: "The Mind and Emotions: Blazing, Quaking, and Serene Shenanigans." In the book each is followed by one or more sample sentences in Japanese and English, with occasional notes on etymology and usage. Literal translations are given within quotation marks. Japanese script is represented here by X's.

akkerakan (xxxxxx) "jolted" [A]
1. Be stupefied, in (a state of) shock, flabbergasted, floored.
2. Be cool, nonchalant, have a couldn't-care-less attitude.

betabore (xxxx) "to be flat-out amazed" [V] Be head over
heels in love with, really gone on, crazy about, carry the torch for.

bibiru (xxx) "to shrivel up" [V] Lose one's nerve, be a 'fraidy (scaredy) cat, scared stiff.

bikubiku suru (xxxxxx) "to quake" [V] Have a heart attack, be shaking in one's boots.

gingin (xxxx) "squeaking and squawking" [A] Rockin', be
into it, one's hair is down.

gutto kuru (xxxxx) "to come welling up" [V] Really hit one, really get one, hit home.

hetchara (xxxxx) "serene shenanigans" [A] Nothing to get
worked up about, no big deal, no great shakes, no sweat.

hisu (xx) [N] Hysteria, hysterics.

hiyahiya (xxxx) "chilly" [Ad] Be beside oneself with fear, break out in a cold sweat, be waiting for the ax to fall.

kachin to kuru (xxxxxx) "to come with a clank" [V] Really
get one, really piss one off, hit one right where it hurts.

kakka suru (xxxxx) "to blaze" [V] Get all hot and bothered, get all worked up.

kankan (xxxx) "clang" [A] Blow one's top, blow up, explode, throw a fit, lose it, lose one's cool.

karikari suru (xxxxxx) "to crunch (with the teeth)" [V] Be
uptight, wound-up; to get edgy, antsy.

katto naru/suru (xxxxx/xx) "to flare up" [V] See red, hit the ceiling, lose one's head.

kusaru ( xx) "to rot" [V] Be soured on life, down in the mouth, bummed out.

mappira (xxx) "earnestly" [A] No way, not on your life, nothing doing.

megeru (xxx) "to become chipped (broken up into pieces)"
[V] Get bummed out, be (get) down, let something get to one.

meromero (xxxx) "to boohoo" [A] Be all broken up; don't
know which end is up, be all screwed up.

munakuso-warui (xxxx) "(my) sh***y chest is bad" [A] Sickening, disgusting, pukey.

mushakusha suru ( xxxxxxxx) "to be unkempt" [V] Be
fed up, be up to here, have had it.

nan no sono (xxxxx) "what, (only) that" [A] No sweat, no big deal, don't mean nothin'.

okkana-bikkuri (xxxxxxxx) "awfully surprised" [Ad] Be
a weenie, be shaking all over.

piripiri suru ( ) "[of pain] to smart" [V] Be on pins and needles, uptight, be a bundle of nerves, on edge.

punpun suru (xxxxxx) "to reek" [V] Be p***ed off, fuming, steaming, up in arms, bent out of shape.

runrun suru (xxxxxx) "zippity do da" [V] Be on cloud nine,
high, happy as a lark, in seventh heaven.

sabasaba suru (xxxxxx) "to feel refreshed" [V] Feel like a weight was lifted from one's shoulders.

sappari suru (xxxxxx) "to feel purified" [V] Feel great, feel
relieved, feel like a new man (woman).

tamageru (xxxx) "to be scared spiritless" [V] Be flabbergasted, blown away, bowled over, stunned.

yake ni naru (xxxxx) "to become burned" [V] Be desperate, freak out, go ape, go bananas, lose one"s bearings.

yakeppachi (xxxxx) "burned bowl" [N] Don't give a sh**,
couldn't care less.

zokkon (xxxx) "from the bottom of the roots" [A] In love, crazy about, be so in love that one can't see straight.