Japan's NHK sued over use of English words

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Balasubramaniam L.
Balasubramaniam L.  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 12:21
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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I wish someone in India would take a hint Jun 29, 2013

Many Hindi TV channels in India are equally guilty of this trend and I wish someone in India would follow the lead of Mr. Takahashi and sue them for excessively and unnecessarily using English words in their broadcasts. They do it even when better and more popular Hindi words are available to choose from.

 
esperantisto
esperantisto  Identity Verified
Local time: 09:51
Member (2006)
English to Russian
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Is it? Jun 29, 2013

The article says:

“The basis of his concern is that Japan is being too Americanised,”


Well, is it really? I guess, Japan might be being Americanized.


 
Orrin Cummins
Orrin Cummins  Identity Verified
Japan
Local time: 15:51
Japanese to English
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Too late Jun 29, 2013

The time to complain would probably have been after WWII, when there was still time to make a difference. It's really quite annoying, because sometimes these English words are not used in the same way as they were originally, so it's always a challenge to try to figure out what the Japanese were thinking when they adopted it. And since they are written in katakana, you can't even use the kanji to try to guess their meaning.

I've been told by many Japanese people that they don't have
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The time to complain would probably have been after WWII, when there was still time to make a difference. It's really quite annoying, because sometimes these English words are not used in the same way as they were originally, so it's always a challenge to try to figure out what the Japanese were thinking when they adopted it. And since they are written in katakana, you can't even use the kanji to try to guess their meaning.

I've been told by many Japanese people that they don't have a clue what a lot of these English words mean, they just try to guess from the context. Craziness.
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Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 08:51
Member (2003)
Danish to English
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Good initiative, but unfortunately it won't work! Jul 2, 2013

I suspect the same kind of thing is happening in many other countries - certainly in Denmark and Scandinavia generally.

It is trendy to 'translate' a Danish expression and create something that looks English, but is not used in that sense by English speakers elsewhere - like the German 'handy' for a mobile phone, which many of us know by now, but it's not mainstream English.

It is several hundred years too late for English natives to complain over all the Normans, Vikin
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I suspect the same kind of thing is happening in many other countries - certainly in Denmark and Scandinavia generally.

It is trendy to 'translate' a Danish expression and create something that looks English, but is not used in that sense by English speakers elsewhere - like the German 'handy' for a mobile phone, which many of us know by now, but it's not mainstream English.

It is several hundred years too late for English natives to complain over all the Normans, Vikings and Romans and other tribes who mixed their languages into whatever our ancestors were speaking at the time...

But they definitely messed up our spelling!
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bishan sharma
bishan sharma  Identity Verified
Local time: 12:21
English to Japanese
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Just NHK shouldn't be blamed Jul 5, 2013

Well, I don't know what prompted Mr. Takahashi to sue NHK since this kind of trend can be noticed in all electronic media as well as printed media in Japan. The difference can be that some use it more often than others. But this kind of phenomenon certainly bothers the senior citizens in Japan to greater extent than to Japanese youth etc. I doubt if an action of suing NHK can hamper the attemps of Japanese media.
Now as for my country India is concerned it is more frustrating from another
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Well, I don't know what prompted Mr. Takahashi to sue NHK since this kind of trend can be noticed in all electronic media as well as printed media in Japan. The difference can be that some use it more often than others. But this kind of phenomenon certainly bothers the senior citizens in Japan to greater extent than to Japanese youth etc. I doubt if an action of suing NHK can hamper the attemps of Japanese media.
Now as for my country India is concerned it is more frustrating from another angle. Here not just media but even the citizens of India do it. They often mix up Hindi English conversation. One sentence in Hindi and another in English and that goes on for ever. They don't stick to one language. Of course it can be either.
I make a call. The attendant answers "Hello, Good morning." Well, it is quite obvious that I start my conversation in English but what the attendant does is that he or she starts the conversation using Hindi language instead of English. Or first one or two sentences in English and followings in Hindi. I don't know if in their mind they use English in place of Hindi or Hindi in place of English.
Well, I can go on writing on this legacy but in short even if Empire has squeezed the language is still spreading in whatever form it may be.
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Japan's NHK sued over use of English words







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