Outrageous Japanese: Slang, Curses & Epithets [Paperback]

Jack Seward (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 1992

Fun and instructive, this book is perfect for those looking to taste the flavor of informal Japanese, and those who want to shock or surprise a Japanese friend or enemy with a pithy phrase.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Since 1941 Jack Seward has been involved with the Japanese language as student, teacher, and author of more than thirty books. He has also been a lecturer on Japanese culture and communication as well as a professional interpreter and translator. In 1986 the emperor of Japan awarded Seward the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Third Class, for his efforts to deepen understanding between Japan and America. Seward, a resident of Japan for twenty-five years, now lives in his native Texas with his Japanese wife.

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Tuttle Publishing (May 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804816948
• ISBN-13: 978-0804816946
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,918,476 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great slang - if you lived in Japan 40 years ago, December 4, 2007

By 

F. R. Cowan (Yokosuka, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Outrageous Japanese: Slang, Curses & Epithets (Paperback)

I bought this book to try and learn some more "colorful" Japanese. However, when I asked my Japanese wife (born in Japan and just immigrated to the US) if the book was correct, she said that a good number of the insults were from when she was a child in the 1960's.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hehe! the perfect companion for any japanese student, April 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Outrageous Japanese: Slang, Curses & Epithets (Paperback)

ok, so let's face it, most japanese sensei are sweet and innocent. meaning: they won't teach you these types of words. great for the first few years of japanese learning, but after a while, the art of swearing is necessary! i am REALLY glad i had this book with me when i was a student studying in japan. really was useful to scare the drunks off of me on the osaka subway system. my advice: before going to japan study lots and lots of japanese. and have this book with you to complement your hard studies!

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very funny and entertaining, December 16, 2003

By 

magellan (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Outrageous Japanese: Slang, Curses & Epithets (Paperback)

This is probably the most entertaining book you'll ever find on Japanese, and it's probably the funniest I've seen on any foreign language so far, and I've looked at a lot of language books.

The author has over 50 years of experience with Japanese and Japanese culture, including having written over 30 books, and he brings that wealth of experience and a very wry wit and ironic sense of humor to this book. And he's not shy about including some very funny and ribald stories from his younger army days about his first encounters with the seamy side of Japanese culture.

For example, "Ian-fu" means "a girl with no elastic in her drawers." This refers to the women who were sent to comfort the men during times of social unrest and war. As Seward says, most of the comforting took place in silence and in the horizontal position. And a "baka no baita" means an "ignorant slut."

Besides the above, Japanese has so many words for disparaging someone's intelligence that it would be impossible to list them all, but here is a selection from the book:

aho--dumb-ass

gutara--addlepated loafer

gubutsu--foolish chucklehead (this reminds me of when I was learning Mandarin Chinese, and I was told that a "tsao-tao" was a "stupid, happy person"

baka--horse-deer (whatever that is) :-)

Then there are a few strange curses:

Kuso sh_te shine--sh_t and die

Kuso sh_te nero--sh_t and go to sleep (one would think going to sleep constipated would be worse)

Mama-gon--forever scolding hell-hag of a mother

Snakes and turtles come in for a fair amount of abuse in Japanese for some reason, and the phrase, "Omae no yo na dongame wo yatou to wa yume ni mo orawenzo," translates as, "I would never dream of hiring a dull turtle like you." And "deb-game" translates as "a turtle with buckteeth," meaning "a peeping Tom."

So overall, a very funny and entertaining book on an aspect of Japanese language and culture that I haven't seen addressed by the many other books I've seen on Japanese.