japanese

How do I show ’emphasis’ in the following Japanese sentence?

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I’m translating this old book I have from Japanese to English, and I was wondering how to ‘add emphasis’ in English. 背後で聞き覚えのある声がして、　思わずー歩後ずさってしまった。 A rough translation is: I sense behind me a certain voice I remember hearing before, so I instinctively retreat with one step forward. I think in the above instance the して is being … Read more

Do you capitalize yakuza?

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When referring to the infamous Japanese criminal organization, which sentence would be correct? The yakuza member picked up his glasses, scooped some of the jewelry and loose change into his pockets, and whistled a tune as he excitingly strolled away from the scene. or The Yakuza member picked up his glasses, scooped some of the … Read more

What is the first known Japanese loan word that entered the English language?

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I would like to ask here a similar question I have asked in the Spanish language stack. It is known that nowadays the English language has a lot a words of Japanese origin. But what was the first one to made its way into an English dictionary? What are the first English texts that use … Read more

”to master the Japanese Language” or ”to master Japanese language” which way is the correct way?

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I want to say that I want to master the Japanese Language while learning in Japan. But sometimes it feels odd to the Japanese instead of Japanese. I want to master Japanese Language by going Japan and learn it there. Is this correct? Answer The Japanese languauge, the French language, the German language, etc. It … Read more

Problem with “mine” while translating this phrase into early modern english

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I’m translating a certain phrase from Japanese, and its roughly equivalent would be: “It seems like it is my victory in this game as well” Except for the fact the pronoun used to attribute “mine” is an archaic one in Japanese denominated “warawa”. Doing my research, I’ve found out the time period this pronoun was … Read more

How to translate “Setsunai”(切ない)

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I’d like to know the equivalent word in English for “Setsunai”(切ない) in Japanese. It’s the mixture of feelings such as sad, heartache, love and nostalgic. It’s near bitter sweet, I think, but I’d like to know more suitable ones if any. You feel “setsunai” when you think of your ex-boyfriend. You also could be “setsunai” … Read more

Why ‘prefecture’ for Japanese administration areas?

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There are many ways of labeling the smaller administrative areas of a country: states. For the US, provinces for Canada, counties for Ireland for English speaking countries, and departments (or départements) for France, states (or Länder) for Germany as direct translations from the native languages. But for Japan, the areas are called ‘prefectures’. This has … Read more