Taro's Blog

Continued from WTF of the Japanese Language

My last name, Abe, can be written as 阿部, 安部, 阿倍, 安倍, 阿邉, 安邊, 阿辺, 安辺, 阿武, 安武, and so on. To tell which the Kanji over the phone, I would say, アベのアは「こざとへん」の阿で、アベのベは「おおざと」の部です。 That explanation should work for the people who finished their compulsory education in Japan. By the way, the popular Prime Minister, Late Shintaro Abe’s surname was 安倍.

However, that did not work in Taiwan. So, I would say, 我叫阿部太郎 (Abu Tailang)。阿部 (Abu) 是阿部寛 (Abu Kuan) 的阿部、太郎 (Tailang) 是桃太郎 (Tao Tailang) 的太郎。Thanks to Hiroshi Abe, the famous actor who has also been popular in Asia for several decades, that explanation worked in Taiwan in the early 2000s.

I named my son 賢 (Ken) not only because I wanted him to be worthy and virtuous, but also because I found a character 阿賢 (Kenny) in a Chinese historical drama (situated in Shanghai in the 1920s) I watched in the late 2000s. So, I could call him Kenny in English, ケンちゃん in Japanese, and 阿賢 (A-Xian) in Chinese.

Last but not least, as an easiest explanation, I’d say アベの漢字は巨人の阿部監督の阿部です。 Thanks to Shinnosuke Abe (阿部慎之助), the popular baseball (野球) star, he now serves as the Manager of Yomiuri Giants (読売ジャイアンツの監督). Interestingly, the people still call 読売ジャイアンツ 「読売巨人軍」or 「巨人」for short.

That convention was invented during the WW II, where the use of the enemy language was discouraged. So, they replaed 読売ジャイアンツ with 読売巨人軍, 阪神タイガーズ with 阪神猛虎軍, ストライク with 正球, ボール with 悪球, セーフ with 安全, and so on. What a BS! Did it mean you could still play baseball, the game invented by the enemy, by just localizing its terminology, team names, and calling it Yakyu (野球)?

Well, I guess that was OK because baseball and 野球 were no longer the same sports. 茶 (Cha) was introduced from China by Buddhist monks. Then, we localized it and sublimated it to 茶道 (tea ceremony, or The Way of Tea). Baseball was introduced by the Americans; we localized it as 野球 (Yakyu), then we turned it into 野球道 (The Way of Yakyu). Didn’t you know that Ichiro (イチロー) was a black belt (黒帯) in The Way of Yakyu (野球道) and holds the rank of eighth dan (八段)? In the early 2000s in Taiwan, I was surprised to learn that Ramen (日式拉麺) was a Japanese dish, not Chinese. It was a Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance moment for me.