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How to Talk Like a Samurai

Started by tofugu · 1 year ago

It seems as though bushido, i.e. “the way of the warrior,” is getting pretty popular amongst several (mostly otaku) groups in Japan. Not only are people speaking like Samurai - using Samurai grammar, vocabulary, etc., but people are starting to “act like them” as well.

Here’s a quote from Japan’s Weekly Playboy ... Continue reading »

34 comments

  • Nicholas

    1 year ago

    hahah! yeah this makes me want to start saying Utsuke instead of Baka!
    it rolls of easier!

    -girishajin

    i loved アキハバラ@DEEP...haha "yyyyooouusu!" haha
    reply
  • クリス

    1 year ago

    アｱ~いいねでござる。。。

    Hmm... I don't know. I feel really weird trying to speak like a samurai. I'm even using a deep raspy voice. I can't do it haha.

    [ps] Some-what unrelated to the article but I thought you'd find this interesting. Looks like the globalization of otakus are starting to show up outside of Japan. I know there are many that watch anime etc, but I never knew they actually had places to just sit and watch anime. Plus the poor pronunciation of one of the guys in the video might give you a good laugh. Wotas/Otaku.... *sigh*

    Link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=XJkLJwnSnno

    Watch this video after you've seen the first:
    http://youtube.com/watch?v=ONBjeAjjjGo
    reply
  • Fredy

    1 year ago

    WHAT IS THIS?!?! I'm SO confused...
    reply
  • Viet

    1 year ago

    My thoughts exactly.
    reply
  • Monzika

    1 year ago

    Wow. I'll have to start using utsuke to pepper my mediocre Japanese conversation skills.
    reply
  • Zach

    1 year ago

    WOW. This is really great. I want to use this in Japanese Club and watch the teacher's face turn white.
    reply
  • buratto

    1 year ago

    Awesome, i will definitely use this, totally works with my image and personality

    Oh, and since I am here, here is an AMAZING site i found for learning japanese: http://www.gwu.edu/~eall/vjg/vjghomepage/vjghom...

    They have little movies made in flash (maybe) illustrating all sides of the Japanese grammar. It makes everything clear and easy to understand, in other wods, great for learning the language.
    reply
  • Bi-chan

    1 year ago

    man thank you so much for that website!!!!
    reply
  • mmnessa

    1 year ago

    man that website is genius...one of my favorites, the graphics are sick ><
    reply
  • buratto

    1 year ago

    no prob. i know it really is helpful, and its not cool to keep such cool knowledge away from people. the graphics and the accent crack me up all the time too. with this, a good dictionary, and some japanese newspapers and film, one can get pretty good at japanese i think, just by one's self.
    reply
  • mmnessa

    1 year ago

    You're right! I'm sooo sending the link to everyone I know (who's learning Japanese), I don't think there's anyone who'll look at me in the face and tell me they can't use it. Thanks a lot! :P
    reply
  • Nanci

    1 year ago

    I've heard utsuke before, probably in one of my asian dramas. But thank you, I'm writing this down and plan to 'show off' my new japanese speaking abilities to one of the Japanese exchange students I know, should be fun.
    reply
  • Hana

    1 year ago

    Hana Yori Dango perhaps? I think Doumyouji Tsukasa used it a few times...
    reply
  • mmnessa

    1 year ago

    no, I'm pretty sure he was talking like an idiot, not like a samurai :P
    reply
  • Eevee

    1 year ago

    I like the utsuke as well. It rolls off the tongue, though when calling someone an idiot shouldn't it have a slightly harsher tone to it? But, that's just me. Also makes me imagine a samurai saying the 'tsu' like he's spitting. xD Tough and mean-like.
    reply
  • Jason

    1 year ago

    Thanks for posting this. I think that the historical aspects of any language are fascinating. It pleases me to see people trying to return to their roots. The global cultural amalgamation we are currently seeing is a real pity.
    reply
  • zattsu-ooru

    1 year ago

    Akihabara@DEEP!!
    Akihabara@DEEP!!
    Akihabara@DEEP!!
    reply
  • lolipop

    1 year ago

    Great ! These should amuse my Japanese teacher!
    reply
  • Raflyn

    1 year ago

    Wow, I don't think I could do that...even if it was still popular when I went there. Iunno if it would be polite in me going along with their trends, or if they would think "omg you stupid gaijin, your silly inconcerderate use of my heritage offends me. be gone!"
    I might be going to Kansai Gaidai next year in Hirakata, Osaka, Japan. Has anyone by chance been there? ^^;
    reply
  • Michelle

    1 year ago

    I have exactly no clue what "Baka" or "Utsuke" means, but I do like the idea of Japan following their old traditions instead of the ones America "planted" in them. I'm American, mind you. But I hate how all the other countries were (or are) being forced to be like us. I would like to travel to some place foreign and not see a McDonalds. The world would be boring if we all see the same thing.

    P.S
    Thanks for posting this info Koichi (my world history teacher will find this very interesting) ^-^
    reply
  • クリス

    1 year ago

    I blame it all on globalization. The borders of countries will some day disappear and this cross country frenzy will spread world wide.
    reply
  • zattsu-ooru

    1 year ago

    You need not worry. Before globalization finds any ultimate applicability all will go boom.
    Either by the annihilation of our actual race and its surroundings or by a destruction of true severity. A destruction where both sides(because there are always two sides) suffer that is. Absolution will not apply. Because the Destroy will take action. And after all that, the others of us, what is left of us or what comes in new, will take another course by the Create. After all that, if we don't do anything before that is. Ja.
    reply
  • クリス

    1 year ago

    Way to be optimistic.
    reply
  • zattsu-ooru

    1 year ago

    Yeah, sorry for the biblicallity of all that but i was in mind blur mode at the time... I don't see it as pessimistic , nonetheless. If anything i state that the terror of an actual, realised globalization will not be. I even say that there is a choise for us to actually act.Pessimism would be to think we can't act. Logic would be to think that we won't act right Nevertheless, it's true that both cases, either total globalization or destruction of such scale, sound bleak. But, blame biblicallity for all that. It's actually a simpler order of things.
    reply
  • Fredy

    1 year ago

    I just remembered something from this movie. I did a TOK project on this film. Haha. It was about how history gets portrayed differently in the media. I remember one of my favorite lines from the film:

    "The shame is unbareable! I request permission to end my life!"

    I used it all last year. Haha.
    reply
  • mmnessa

    1 year ago

    haha! that's hilarious, I think I'll try it
    reply
  • Zane

    1 year ago

    Haha, it'd be nice to be able to speak Japanese properly first, but thankyou for the lovely info Koichi :D *Gets out Genki*
    reply
  • Lonna

    1 year ago

    Wow, that's really cool. Never going to use it but like Shakespear it is good to know so you don't look like the retard out of the group....
    reply
  • Sougen02

    1 year ago

    Lol I might use this in everday life
    reply
  • Sougen02

    1 year ago

    SAMURAI CHAMPLOO!! 0.0
    reply
  • Maciel

    10 months ago

    what about ninja talk koichi, didnt u want to learn japanese to become a ninja?? just kidding but that would be cool ifthey had a language too
    reply
  • Arlen

    2 months ago

    I also hear using おる instead of いる (esp. when referring to oneself) is a great idea, especially given it's typically used in polite form these days (so say 拙者は＜X＞しておる instead of 。。。しています, and you get instant samurai appeal).
    reply
  • Rinji

    2 months ago

    I find this very interesting, but at the same time, I dont have much use for it unless pull a Mulan and decide to be a female diguised a samurai.

    Surely there's special forms used by entertainers and maybe geisha?
    I never hear about those, unless maybe they don't exist (yeah, right).

    P.S. Yes I know my name is male. I do it to annoiy Japanophiles. Just like my tree named Mr. Bonsai-san. *brainplodes* XD
    reply
  • GJB995

    1 week ago

    How are you saposed to remamber when to pronunce the Us or the Os?

    Is there a systam or whay?
    reply

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