!!!!!!!????????

[cimorene]

ok, so i used to have a japanese exchange student. this meant that i learned how to say all kinds of slang things like where and bad boy and shut up. and, apparently, boyfriend, even though i thought it was a real word. anyone who speaks japanese: kareshi?

so in this chapter one of the example sentences was "i got a new boyfriend." instead of the japanese word, they used the english. ok. fair enough. loanwords. but then in my evaluation i paused, because it's hard to do loanwords because you're thinking in english if you think "boyfriend" and you want to say "boyfriend" instead of "booihurendo." so i said watashiwa kareshi ga dekimashita. and my professor made a... face. and said, "well, i guess that's ok too," and i said,

"what?"

"it's not a very... neutral word."

neutral word. wtf? it doesn't mean boyfriend? what does it mean--like, partner in hot monkey sex? anyone?

Comments

[strangelette.livejournal.com]

My little sister also did a study abroad in Japan last summer, so I emailed her. Figured most of the Japanese she picked up was along these lines :) She's gonna ask a much more proficient friend tomorrow but this is what she said:
"Kareshi = boyfriend/ I have also heard it used as slang for sex partner or someone I am sleeping with but that is more in the implied sense of the word."

[caribbeanblue.livejournal.com]

There was one anime called "Kareshi Kanojo no Jijyo" (although I'll bet I've done a bad job at spelling bits of it!). The title was translated as "His and Her Circumstances," and AFAIK, it wasn't about sex at all.

K