Favorite japanese words you ~probably~ won't learn in a textbook

I’m transitioning from textbooks (Tobira) to general japanese media for my studying and I’m trying to learn words that Japanese people use everyday but I haven’t learned in class.

For example, I remember the first time I watched Terrace House, I was wondering what this やばい word meant considering they used it every other line!

(Also, anime-only words like てめぇ need not apply)

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A recent one I learnt was 相合傘 (I like that there is such a word :)). I don’t think there is an English word for it though.

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ボケット. I guess it would be translated as “staring off into space.”

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壁ドン is a fun one that prolly isnt in any textbooks.

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Now I’m wondering in Japanese has a word for every kind of anime/drama trope.

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We get 呆ける at level 54, which I believe is the same root.

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I’m pretty sure that one was a real-word trope first.

But yeah, Japanese pretty much has a word for everything. Except schadenfreude. They use the German word for that.

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Japanese onomatopoeias are fun!

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I second that! I hear a new 擬音語 almost every day… they are used a lot in daily conversation. There’s a great article on Tofugu which covers loads of them.

In a similar vein to やばい is おもろい、a shortened (casual) version of 面白い、meaning funny/hilarious/weird.

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Animal onomatopoeia words have been my favorite so far: ニャンニャン、ワンワン

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Then I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear about ニャンコ and ワンコ. Haha.

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いわれてみれば “speaking of which…” or “now that you mention it…”
ちなみに “by the way…”

Those two expressions are used a ton everyday here in Japan. Very useful in conversation and messaging!

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That’s interesting because the Mandarin word for white is pronounced like “ばい”

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帰宅部

Edit – Also, the Sou Matome N2 description of やばい (most of these are in textbooks; just really specific ones) is absolutely hysterical. I need to come back to this later to edit in a photo I took of it.

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真祖(しんそ)true ancestor, var. of vampire (in fiction)​.

Translated as “primogenitor” in Strike the Blood (and probably other vampire related works of fiction).

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Ahh thats so sweet you just melted this penguins frozen heart :sob:

Thats me on a daily basis :+1:

The biggest Japanese meme of our time! Now i just need to learn how to write 壁…

@yw29 @ribihawado @aft2018 onomatopoeia are surprisingly useful! I thought i wouldn’t need them to read books and boy was I wrong

I heard ワンコ on youtube and put it in for “puppy” (answer: 子犬, in kanji) on a quiz for class once… sensei was not having it

Ive heard ちなみ!until now my brain just replaced it with 近く+南 so this is great to know! :sweat_smile:

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