That reminds me I actually forgot the best part!
Mango Languages also translates “Yakisoba” and the translation is… chow mein
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I’m amazed at how fast and smooth-sounding my reading has become…and how little I comprehend on the first pass.
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Isn’t that the chinese name for the plate? At least it’s better than “sliced raw fish”…
Wait… if that’s the case, why is an English based Japanese learning resource teaching translations in Chinese? What on earth am I missing that could make this make any sense whatsoever?
Edit: unless it was Chinese based and I’m just a fool.
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It’s probably japanese based, but if culturally your place uses a chinese (or any other language) name for something, food or otherwise, they’ll probably prioritize that when translating, even if other places keep the japanese name.
So a jpn text with “yakisoba” would be translated to “chou mein” in most english texts, but would remain “yakisoba” if the translation was in portuguese, for example.
Huh, I’d never even heard that name before. For me, it’s always just been yakisoba (in the U.S).
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Same here tbh - I’ve heard the term but never really knew what it was. German Wikipedia claims chow mein is more or less a Chinese-American thing so the translation may make sense to an American audience but to me it’s just kind of baffling. It’s as if an Italian course insisted on translating “pizza” as “Italian flatbread”.
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To be fair, the plate is originally chinese, so chou mein is a more “original” and true word than yakisoba is, if it makes sense. The word you use depends on which type of immigrant introduced it to you it seems
I force translate everything even to the particles I then eventually get confused and frustrated.
If your vocabulary and grammar is limited enough that you can’t get the gist of a sentence without looking everything up, then now is not the best time to try to ‘think in Japanese,’ so to speak. At least not while reading. I would work on building a stronger foundation first.
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Sounds like you’re reading things above your level. That’s fine, and useful in its own way, but reading things at/below your level is a lot more helpful at this stage. Check out tadoku.org; also, someone on reddit put together a compilation pdf of a bunch of their free stories that’s v useful. You could consider trying out Satori Reader, too.
Oh, and maybe you’re already familiar with Nihongo no Mori on youtube, but their videos are really good for absorbing grammar knowledge without the dread of sitting down to do grammar exercises, and are graded by JLPT level. Getting used to grammar explanations in japanese might help build confidence for approaching Tobira.
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They definitely call it sashimi in the Japanese restaurants (read: a lot of sushi joints) that I’ve been to in the states. I lived in fairly diverse/metropolitan areas though. I can’t imagine people out in the countryside would be too familiar with it though.
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I think the relevant difference here is that you can get sushi at the supermarket or the Generic Western Industrialized Nation Asian Restaurant whereas you have to go to an actual Japanese restaurant to get sashimi.
Heck, the cafeteria when I was at university had sushi available every day. It just has penetrated the cultural barrier to an extent most other Japanese food simply hasn’t.
(o̷̳͠ǹ̷͚̞e̵̛̙͆ ̶̛̝͈͝d̴̺̥̑a̸͉̎̀ͅy̵̞̋,̷̯̈́ ̵̘͆ẏ̷̨̡ó̶̟ǔ̶̞̾ ̷̖̦͘̕w̴̧̱̄i̸̥͗̾l̷̩̫̑l̷̡͑ ̸̭̯́͠l̴͕̒͘e̸̯͍͒a̴̜͈͌͂r̶̺̓n̶̼̗͠ ̷̹͂t̸̯͐o̷̘͠ ̶̺̮̐͘a̸͖̲͘ṗ̶̠̞͠p̴̠͒͒r̷̬̾e̸͉͘ċ̷̪̦̽î̵̲̙͑ą̶̼̈́t̸͔̀e̷͇̕ ̶͈̹̉̔ḱ̷̼͠ǎ̸̹ṫ̷̥̅͜s̵̠͇̉̎u̴̟͊̽-̴̱̋̋͜c̴̺̏̊ű̸̞̲ȓ̷̜͐r̸̭̅y̶͎͠)
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Hmm, yeah now that I think about it. I see what you’re saying.
Is this directly at me or the West in general lol?
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Yeah like @anon8142279 said, sushi is way more mainstream.
I think another reason is that you can get sushi anywhere because it can have things like canned tuna or imitation crab meat.
Sashimi requires access to fresh fish so it’s mostly coastal areas and islands.
You can order sashimi at a Sizzler’s in Hawaii but probably not one in Colorado. 
I had a dream that I was going to make chou mein, but actually yakisoba, for my family.
I find it frustrating whenever people or apps or whathaveyou try to translate food names. The food is what it is. You want a description of the food, go ahead and describe it, but it doesn’t need another name. We don’t translate peoples’ names (in general…though this is excluding ‘what does your name mean?!’ type websites)
I hadn’t ever thought about it, but yeah, my family would know what chow mein is, but they would not recognize yakisoba.
well at first it can’t be helped at all, so don’t worry to much about. once you go on and start to interiorize the language it should be easier to avoid it.
Also, obviously force translating is when you use your Jedi powers to translate, which is all well and good but maybe it feels like cheating.
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