Do you know these Japanese words? AI超え おうち時間 顔芸 These are some of the new Japanese vocabulary that entered the lexicon in 2020. Japanese language, like any tongue, is a living, breathing thing. It’s constantly changing. This means the process of learning Japanese is an ongoing one. But a fun one! Each year, the education company U-Can releases a list of the 30 new words, called 流行語 or 新語, that have entered the Japanese for that year. I chatted with Moshi Moshi Yusuke もしもしゆうすけ about the different words on the list. We talked about the different social movements in Japan that have occurred over the year that have lead to these new words coming into the Japanese language.
Approx Japanese level
Text Type
じゃあ７行きましょうか。AI超え。これはたぶん知らないですよね。知らなかったですけど 1 回軽くちょっとだけ調べました。でも説明あんまり。。。将棋のすごい選手今年出てきましたね。
そうですね。厳密に言うと今年ではなくてもっと前から有名だったんですけども藤井聡太という人がいるんですけど。
本来そもそも将棋というのは分からない人にわかりやすく説明するとチェスに似たルールのゲームです。
チェスと同じようにとても頭脳を使うゲームなので基本的には年配の人がプレーヤーであることはすごく多いんですけども藤井さんという人はまだ 10 代なんですね。たしか 18 歳か 19 歳かそれぐらいで。で将棋のいわゆるチャンピオンに対して何度も連続で勝つようなこの人ですね。
この人ですね。十八歳か十九歳か。すごく有名な人で若いのに本当に負けないんですよね。当時一番強いとされていた人と対戦したときにすごい難しい局面を迎えたときにチェスと同じで結構考える時間はあるんですよね。
20, 20 分以上考えてとった行動が本当に大逆転の一手だったんですけどね。後で人工知能 AI ですが考えて考えて考え出した最高の一手が藤井さんがやった行動とまったく同じだったんですよね。通常チェスでいうとコンピューターと人間だと大体勝率は同じぐらいかまだ人間が勝てると思うんですけども将棋の場合はコンピュータつまり人工知能と人間が対戦すると人工知能が勝つ場合が多いんですね。
それぐらい難しい競技でそれでコンピューターが打ち出した最高の手段というのをその場でコンピュータが出す前にやってしまったということで人工知能を超えたという意味で超。という言葉が流行りましたね。
じゃあこの藤井さんが、なに、AIに勝ったんですか。
実際に直接対戦したわけではないので勝ったわけではないんですけど人間が緊張した場面で考えだした。わずか 20 分くらいで考え出した手段に対して人工知能は何時間もかけて、出てきた答えが同じだったということは人間の方が勝ったということでAI声と言われているんですね。
Let’s go on to 7,
Supassing AI .
You probably don’t know about this, right?
I didn’t know about it, but I did some research. I couldn’t find out much. A great Shogi player came out this year, didn’t he?
There is a person named Sota Fujii. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t this year, but there is a person named Sota Fujii who has been famous for a long time.
Originally, Shogi is a game with rules similar to chess, to explain it for those who don’t know.
Like chess, it’s a game that requires a lot of brain power, so there are a lot of older people who play it, but Mr. Fujii is still in his teens, maybe 18 or 19 years old and he has won many times in a row against so-called Shogi champions.
He is18 or 19 years old. He is a very famous person, and even though he is young, he hasn’t really lost. When he played against the strongest player at the time, and he faced a very difficult passage of play, you have a lot of time to think, just like in chess.
The move he madeafter thinking about it for more than 20 minutes was really a big turning of the tables move. Later, the artificial intelligence AI thought and thought and thought, and came up with the best move, which was exactly the same as the move that Mr. Fujii had made. Usually, in chess, if it is a computer and a human, the winning rate is about the same for both, or the human can still win. But in Shogi, when a computer, or artificial intelligence, and a human play against each other, the artificial intelligence often wins.
That’s how difficult the competition is, and the fact that he did it before the computer could come up with the best method on the spot, means that he surpassed the artificial intelligence. That’s why the word “AI goe” became popular.
Then this Fujii-san, what, won against AI?
It doesn’t mean that he won because they didn’t actually play against each other directly, but a human came up with a play in a tense situation. The artificial intelligence took hours to come up with a method that took a human only about 20 minutes, and the answer that came out was the same, which means that the human won, and that’s why it’s called AI Goe.
So, we’re saying that this word AI Goe, so aI obviously means “artifical intelligence” and “goe” means to transcend AI. So this Shogi 選手何なんと言ったらいいんですか Shogi player. By the name of Fujii Sota has become very famous in recent years. I’ve personally only noticed him in the news this last year or so but the last few years he’s become very famous as being 18 歳でしだっけ１８はい 18 Years old and being the new champion of this sport, I guess you would call it, and that in the space of 20 minutes when they gave the same problem for him and a computer to try and work out the best solution in the game, the solution that the computer came up with and he came up with proved to be exactly the same solution, so that’s where this “AI goe” is coming from。どうですか。このリストに載るぐらい使われてるというか有名な言葉になってるんですか。
いや実はそんなことはなくて超えAIという言葉が有名というよりも藤井聡太という人物がとても有名でその人を代表する言葉としてそこに入っただけだと思いますね。おそらく藤井聡太とそこに書いたほうがよかったんじゃないかなとは思いますね。他の人個人名が入ってるのもありますからね。
ちょっと不思議ですね。次行きましょうか。 8 Essential Worker英語圏の人だったら誰でもすぐわかると思うんですけど。
そうですね。これは例えば医者とか、看護師あるいはインフラに関わる人達がなくてはならない職業を指している言葉ですね。
これはよく使われていますか。
日常会話でエッセンシャルワーカーといったことはないです。おそらくニュースでそういった言葉が使われたりすることはあるんですけど流行語と言われるとどうでしょうね。日常会話では使わないですね。
僕から今回遠くから見てちょっと不思議に思ったんですけど結構このコロナ禍になってこういう英語の外来語使うことになりましたね。コロナ関しての外来語でなぜ不思議に思うかというとこういう危機的な時こそみんながわかる普通のその国の言葉を使うのが当然じゃないかなと思うんですけどわざわざ英語の外来語を使ってメッセージを伝えようとするのはなんででしょうね。
おそらくそれは 2 番目の新しい生活様式につながることだと思うんですけれども外来語を使う目的が何なのかはちょっとわからないんですけどおそらく。聞き慣れない言葉を出すことによって新しいものだという印象をつけたいんじゃないかなと思うんですよね。
じゃあその分みんな「これはなんだ」もう、危機的な気持ちになるということですかね。
おそらくそれが目的だと思いますね。今までなかったものを今までなかったものが出てきた新しい対応をしなければいけないというメッセージも含めて聞き慣れない言葉を使うということなんじゃないかと僕は思ってます。
そうか、外から入ってきたものだということを強調しようとしているところがありますかね。
うん、そういう意図もあると思います。
あと単純に外来語を使うのがかっこいいと思っている人がたくさんいるというのもあると思います。すごく単純な理由だと思います。
でもそれは何、芸能人の世界とかだったらわかるんですけど政治家とかそういう格好良さとか意識するところですかね。
やっぱり民主主義国家ですから投票で決まるわけですよね。ある種の人気投票でもあると思うんでやっぱりカッコ悪いよりいい方がいいとは思うでしょうね。
そうですか。なるほど、面白いですね。日本のニュースは結構見るんですけど今でもクラスターたぶんどっかに載っていると思うんですけど。
クラスターありますね。
ありますね。今でも大体そのクラスタという言葉をニュースで使うときは集団感染クラスタと言っていると思います。
もうコロナ禍になってもう何カ月くらい経つこの 8 カ月間くらいですかね。
2020 年の 1 月 2 月ぐらいからだから、もう 10 カ月近く 10 カ月以上経ちますかね。
ということはそれだけ時間が経っても集団感染クラスタを言わないといけないとニュースが思う、ということですね。
そうですね。
だったら集団感染だけ行った方が早いじゃないですかと思ったりしますね。
そうですね。
ただ僕がニュースを見ている限りは集団感染という言葉のほうが多く出てきますね、ニュースでは。なのでクラスターが起こったという言い方よりも集団感染が起こったという方が圧倒的に多いですね。きく言葉としては。ただ集団感染という言葉は今までにあった言葉でクラスターという言い方は今までになかったので新語ということなんじゃないかなと思います。
そうですね。
So, we’re saying that this word AI Goe, AI is artificial intelligence and goe means to transcend AI. So this Shogi player. By the name of Fujii Sota has become very famous in recent years. I’ve personally only noticed him in the news this last year or so but the last few years he’s become very famous as being 18 years old, right? old and being the new champion of this sport, I guess you would call it, and that in the space of 20 minutes when they gave the same problem for him and a computer to try and work out the best solution in the game, the solution that the computer came up with and that he came up with proved to be exactly the same solution, so that ‘s where this “AI goe” is coming from. What do you think? Has this word become so popular that it deserves to be on this list?
Actually, I don’t think so. I think it was just that Sota Fujii is very famous and the word was included there to represent him rather than the word “AI Goe” being famous. I think it would have been better to write “Sota Fujii” there. After all, there are other personal names on the list.
That’s a little strange. Let’s go next. 8 Essential Worker, I think anyone from an English-speaking country can easily understand this.
Yes, that’s right. This is a term that refers to, for example, doctors, nurses or people involved in infrastructure.
Is this used often?
I don’t think people use “essential worker” in everyday conversation. Perhaps there are times when the word is used in the news, but I’m not sure if it’s a “buzzword”. People don’t use it in daily conversation.
I was looking at it from a distance and wondering why people have decided to use a foreign English words in the Corona disaster. The reason why I wondered about the use of foreign words in relation to Corona is that in times of crisis like this, I think it’s natural to use the normal language of the country that everyone can understand, but I wonder why people have gone to the trouble to use foreign words in English to convey their message.
I think that this is the second thing that leads to a new way of life, but I am not sure what the purpose of using foreign words is. I think they want to give the impression that it is something new by using unfamiliar words.
So I guess that may help everyone have a sense of urgency, like “What is this?”
I think that could be the purpose. I believe that the use of unfamiliar words includes the message that we need to take a new response to something that was not there before.
So, is there a function of trying to emphasize that it is something that came in from the outside?
Yeah, I think that’s the intention.
I also think that there are a lot of people who simply think it’s cool to use foreign words. It could be as simple as that.
But, I guess, if it was in the world of entertainers, I could understand, but politicians and the like, are they conscious of trying to be “cool”.
It’s a democracy, so positions are decided by vote. I think it’s also a kind of popularity contest, so I think it’s better to be cool than uncool, right.?
I see. I see, that’s interesting. I watch a lot of news in Japan, and I think the word “cluster” is often on the news.
You do hear cluster.
Yes, you do. I think they still generally refer to “cluster” in the phrase “cluster – or mass infection” when they use that term in the news.
How many months has it been since the corona disaster, about eight months?
It started around January/February of 2020, so it’s been almost 10 months, more than 10 months.
So it seems that the news still feels it necessary to say “cluster or mass infection” all that time.
Yes, they do.
If that’s the case, I think it would be faster to just go to the Japanese word for “mass infection”, don’t you?
Yes, it would. But as far as I can tell, the term “mass infection” is used more often in the news. So the term “mass infection” is much more common than the term “cluster”. It’s just that the term “mass infection” has never been used before. However, the word “mass infection” has been used before, but the word “cluster” has never been used in the past, so I think it is more appropriate for a new word list.
Um, so we’re just having a discussion about this one, the “Essential Worker” and just saying that there have been a lot of words that have been brought in from English to describe the whole Corona situation, which seems a little mysterious to me. It seems to me that in a time of crisis, that country would use very simple language from their own language that everyone already understands to try and get that message across clearly. But we’re saying that maybe they’re using it for a couple of reasons. Maybe they’re using these words, one, because maybe it’s a bit “cool” or something, which I was saying I could understand in the world of entertainment, but you would think in the world of politics that they wouldn’t care about that sort of thing so much. But we’re saying in a country where politicians have to get elected, they do think about what sounds cool and that sort of thing. Yeah, but it’s interesting that all of these words have come into Japanese this year to describe this situation.
次も似たようにお家時間、ステイホームどうですかこれ？
やっぱりこれも残念ながらコロナ関係の話ですね。
そうですね。お家空間でどういう風に使うんですか。
お家空間。例えば仕事が休みの日に。お家空間は何やってるの。っていう感じでしょうね。
あまり使わないかな
ステイホームはどちらかというと家にいなさいと言う意味。。。
そうですね。
お家空間はそういう風に使う？
使わないないですね。
おうち時間はただあくまでも家にいる時間のことを言ってるだけで stay home とはちょっと違いますね。うーん不思議ですね。一緒に入ってるのはこれ。ちなみにちょっと飛んでしまうんですけども二十三万も違うことが一つの枠に入ってると思うんですよね。
テレワークつまりリモートワークのことなんですけどワーケーションはワークバケーションですよね。まったくその。違う言葉ですよね。テレワークとワーケーションは内容が全然違うんで。
そうですね。
なぜここに一緒に入っているのかちょっと僕には分からないですね。ただ確かにこのテレワークあるいはリモートワークという言葉が流行りましたね。
そうですね。日本のニュースでよくこれを聞きましたね。テレワーク。オーストラリアでそんなに使われてないですね。でも徐々にちょっと聞くようになってきたんですけどひょっとしたら僕が初めて聞いたのが日本のニュースかもしれないですね。
なるほど。テレワークにしてもワークにしてもお家 時間にしても stay home にしても。
まあ。やっぱり日常会話にはそんなに出てこないですね。ただテレワークに関しては仕事中に出てくる言葉なので結構会話では出てきます。特に会社員はよく使う言葉だと思いますね。
結構使うんですか。多分こっちはほとんど説明的に”work from home”とか”today I’m going to work from home” or “are you working from home”がほとんどだと思います。
やっぱりそうですよね。でも、まあ、使いますよ、結構 。
「ワーケーション」ってどういう意味だったっけ。Work-Vacationしながらちょっと働くということ
働きながら自由な 時間をもつということかな。どういう意味なんでしょうね。
どういう意味でしょう。ワーケーション
ワークとバケーションが合体した言葉ではあるんですけどおそらく、まあ、それこそお家時間と同じような内容なのかなと思いますよね。
そうですか。お家時間
お家時間。
お家時間、ちょっといまだによくわからないですが。お家時間。仕事のコンテクストで使うんですか。 お家時間って
お家時間は仕事だけではないですね。
休みの日も含めてですね。
コロナの関係の言葉ですね。
Um, so we’re just having a discussion about this one, the “Essential Worker” and just saying that there have been a lot of words that have been brought in from English to describe the whole Corona situation, which seems a little mysterious to me.
It seems to me that in a time of crisis, that country would use very simple language from their own language that everyone already understands to try and get that message across clearly, but we’re saying that maybe Maybe they’re using these words, one, because maybe it’s a bit “cool” or something, which I was saying I could understand in the world of entertainment, but we’re saying that maybe they’re using it for a couple of reasons. I could understand in the world of entertainment, but you would think in the world of politics that they wouldn’t care about that sort of thing so much.
But we’re saying in a country where politicians have to get elected, they do think about what sounds cool and that sort of thing. Yeah, but it’s interesting that all of these words have come into Japanese this year. All of these words have come into Japanese this year to describe this situation.
Next, in a similar way, we have “stay home”, how about this one?
This is a Corona-related story too, unfortunately.
Yes, it is. How do you use ouchi jikan?
Ouchi Jikan. For example,when you take a day off work you might say, “what are you doing with your Ouchi Jikan?” I guess.
I don’t know if I use it much.
Stay home means you must stay in your house?
Yes.
So is that, how you use Ouchi Jikan?
Not exactly
Ouchi Jikan just refers to the time you spend at home, which is a bit different from stay home. It’s strange that it’s lumped in with the others. By the way, it’s a bit of a jump, but I think there is another word at number 23.
Telework, which is remote work, but a work vacation is a work vacation. It’s a different word. Telework and work vacation are completely different in content.
Yes, they are.
I’m not sure why they’re in here together. It’s true that the terms “telework” or “remote work” have become popular.
That’s right. You often heard this on the news in Japan. Telework. It’s not used that much in Australia. I think I might have heard about this the first time on the news in Japan.
There you go. Whether it’s telework, workation, ouchi jikan or stay home, they don’t come up that much in everyday conversation. However, telework is a word that comes up during work, so it comes up in conversation quite often. I think it’s a word that is often used especially by company employees.
Do you use it a lot? Over her we usually use explanatory phrases like “work from home” or “today I’m going to work from home” or “are you working from home”.
That makes sense. But, well, I use it a lot.
I don’t know what “work vacation” means, I guess it means working a little while having a vacation.
I think it means having free time while working. I wonder.
I wonder too. Workcation.
It’s a word that combines work and vacation, but perhaps, well, that’s what Ouchi Jikan is all about, isn’t it?
Okay. Ouchi Jikan.
Ouchi Jikan.
Ouchi Jikan,. I still don’t understand it. Ouchi Jikan. Do you use it in the context of work? Ouchi Jikan?
Your Ouchi Jikan isn’t just for work.
It includes holidays.
So we’re talking about this one お家時間 which literally means time at home, which they’ve grouped together with “stay home”, which, I don’t know, we’re not sure why they’re grouped together so much. “Stay home” seems to be used more as a “telling people to stay home”, whereas I think we’re saying お家時間 is more just talking generally about any time that you’re at home and talking about being home. So these seem a little different. And we’re also talking about “telework” and “workation”. And it’s strange that on this list they’ve “telework” and “workation” have been listed together, even though they seem like quite different things. But who are we to decide how the list should be? Let’s go on to number 10.
オンライン。これは何か抜けているかな。
まるまるオンラインなになに。
何だったかな。ちょっともともとのリストをみてみましょう か。
オンライン。まるまるなんでしょうね、は。
オンライン例えばオンライン会議とか今までオンラインでやらなかったことをオンラインでやるようになった。そのことに対してオンライン何々ですね。オンライン会議が一番多いですかね。あとはまあ、あまりないかもしれないけどオンライン面接とか会社ではよく使いますね。
なるほど。なんでもオンラインになりましたということですね。
そうですね。
So this ones just a fairly generalised “online” just saying that there’s an online something. So online meetings, online interviews, that, just this word has started to be used a lot more. That’s relatively simple I think. これはいきましょうか。顔芸・恩返し。
はいはいこれはドラマですね。
半沢、半沢直樹。
ありましたね。最近復活したんですね、今年ぐらいに。
数年前に流行ったドラマなんですけれどもまた今年はじまってすごく人気があるドラマなんですけれどもそのドラマの出演者がすごく顔を大げさにリアクションするんです。それでそれを顔芸という風に言うんですよね。
顔芸ちょっと見てみましょ。
これですねこの人。これが半沢直樹の主役。これが同じ人ですか。
違う人の声ですね。これが主役ですね。
これが顔芸ですかね。
とそう、そのな表情がそのドラマの特徴なのでそれを顔芸という風に言うんですよね。
どういう風に使うんですか。
この言葉は使わないですよ。日常生活では使わないですよ。
でも半沢直樹に関してどういうふうに使うんですか。あの顔芸はすごかったねとか。
そうそうそう。そうですね。あとは恩返しと書いてありますけどこれがドラマの内容ですね。顔芸。顔芸、そうですね。これなぜ顔芸って言われるかっていうと出演者のみんなではないですけど結構出演者の何人かは歌舞伎俳優なんですね。
あ、そうか。
普通の俳優ではなくて歌舞伎俳優なんで歌舞伎っていうのはすごく表情豊かなものなんですよね。なのでそれがドラマの中で出てしまったんだと思うんですよね。
歌舞伎、ちょっと英語でやろうかな。かぶきFace多分出てくるんじゃないかな。こんなんじゃないね。こんな感じかな。
こういうのもありますよね。
こんな感じ。こういうのとか。
そうですね。
ちょっと少ないですけど。
いわゆる日本の伝統芸能ですね。
ええ、面白い興味深いですね、これは
でこの日本の伝統芸能をやってる人たちは歌舞伎をやってるだけではなくて非常に演技も上手なんでこういう半沢直樹のような現代劇にも登場します。
この半沢直樹の主役をやった役者さんも歌舞伎もやっているんですか。
いや、この人歌舞伎俳優だったかどうかちょっとわからないですね。
So we’re saying “kao” means “face” and “gei” means, I guess in this context it’s like a “trick” that you do with your face, or something you can do with your face, literally sometimes translated as art, but doesn’t make sense in that context. Yeah, like a facial “trick” I suppose. And we’re saying that there’s this show called “Hanzawa Naoki”, which is the name of lead character, Hanzawa Naoki, which has been very popular in Japan this year. It was originally popular, I watched the show, I don’t know, it feels like 4-5 years ago that I watched the original. It’s kind of about a bank worker 銀行で働く人だったと思います。
見ましたか、この番組？
ええと見たり見なかったり、全部は見てないです。
僕あはたぶん前の ４、５ 年くらい前じゃなかったかな、見ましたけど最近のやつは見てないですね。
Um, so we’re saying, yeah, it was a drama that was based around a bank worker that’s trying to kind of move his way up in the world of finance. And he’s become very famous for having these super expressive faces I guess you would call them. And we’re saying that, we’re not exactly sure about the lead actor, but there are definitely actors within the program that have come out of the world of Kabuki and Kabuki is very well known, you know, for having these, sort of, facial expressions that are very big and expressive and…舞伎の顔の何か名前があるんですか。言葉があるんでうか。「決まり顔」とかそういう
いやそういう風に言われないですね。
Anyway, he’s become very famous for these big facial expressions that are asort of similar in some ways to Kabuki. So this show has become very popular, and that’s why it’s on the list of words for this year
昔の最近のやつ見てないですけど４、 5 年くらい前にやっていた時にたぶん一応全部全部見たと思うんですけど結構面白かったです。面白かったですけどそういう演技が何でも大げさでよく日本のドラマでそういうふうに演じていることが多いですね。なんか、リアルに現実的に演じるんじゃなくて、結構大げさにリアクションとかすごい大げさにやって演じることが結構あるんですね。
ありますね。
僕から見てすごい不思議に思うんですけど。
僕もすごい不思議に思うんですけど一番最初の話に戻るんですけど愛の不時着っていう韓国ドラマがあるんですけど韓国ドラマもいやむしろ韓国ドラマのほうがすごく大げさに演じる傾向があるんですよね。
僕はちょっと不自然だなと思ってますね。もちろん日本のドラマもそうですね。ちょっと大げさですよね。
でもきっとそれわざとそういうふうにやってるはずですね。
そうですね。
ということはどういうことでしょうね。そういう歌舞伎の伝統とか繋がったりするんですかね。どう思いますか。
通常考えればつながってないとは思うんですけど。ただまあ。出演者で歌舞伎出身の人がいるから多少は半沢直樹に関しては多少はそういうのがあるんじゃないですかね。普通のドラマあまり歌舞伎と繋がってるとは考えにくいですけどね。
でもなぜかそういう演じ方はあるのは事実です。多分そういう、。いやどうでしょう。それわざとやってる。としか思えないぐらい大げさにやってますね。
そうそうそう。普段の生活で見るような見ることがないような動きをしたりしますよね。あれは僕はちょっと好きじゃないですけど一般的になってますね。
でもそうじゃない映画の世界とかすっごい現実現実的に描いてる映画とか「万引き家族」とかありますね。だから全貌はそうだということじゃないですね。
そうですね。
流派的なものですかね。
あるかもしれない。監督の考え方とかそういうのもあるかもしれないですね。
そうですね。はい、「顔芸」でした。
So we’re talking about this one Ouchi Jikan which literally means time at home, which they’ve grouped together with “stay home”, which, I don’t know, we’re not sure why they’re grouped together so much. “Stay home” seems to be used more as a “telling people to stay home,” whereas I think we’re saying I think we’re saying “Ouchi Jikan” is more just generally talking about any time that you’re at home and talking about being home.
So these seem a little different. And we’re also talking about “telework” and “workation”. And it’s strange that on this list they’ve “telework” and “workation” have been listed together, even though they seem like quite different things. Who are we to decide how the list should be? Let’s go on to number 10.
Online. I wonder if I’m missing something in this.
online something something.
I wonder what it was. Let’s take a look at the original list.
Online.
Online, for example, online meetings. Things that we didn’t do online before, we’re now doing online. That’s what online is on here for. I think online meetings are the most common. And maybe not so much, but online interviews are often used in company contexts.
I see. So, I guess we are just saying everything is now online.
True.
So this ones just a fairly generalised one. “Online” just saying that there’s an online something or other. So online meetings, online interviews, that, just this word has started to be used a lot more. That’s relatively simple I think. Let’s move on to “Face tricks”, and “returning a favor”.
Yes, this is a drama show.
Hanzawa. Hanzawa Naoki.
That’s the one? It’s been revived recently, I guess this year.
It’s a drama that was popular a few years ago but started again this year and is very popular. The actors in the drama exaggerate their facial reactions, and it’s called “kaogei”.
Let’s take a look at a bit of kaogei.
This is it. This is the guy. This is the main character of Hanzawa Naoki. This is the same person?
That’s a different person. That’s the star of the show.
Is this the kaogei?
Yes, the facial expressions are a feature of this program, so it’s called kaogei, isn’t it?
How do you use it?
I don’t use this word. I don’t use it in my daily life.
But how would you use it in relation to Hanzawa Naoki? Like, “That kaogei was amazing”?
Yes, yes, yes. That’s right. And it also says “return the favor,” but that’s what the drama is about. The reason why it’s called “kaogei” it is because some of the actors are kabuki actors, not all of them.
Oh, right.
They are kabuki actors, not regular actors, and kabuki is known for very striking facial expressions. That’s why this has continued into this drama.
Kabuki, I think I’ll type a little English. Kabuki Face. Maybe it will comej up. It’s not like this. It’s like this.
This is the kind of thing that people do.
Like this. Like this.
Yes, it is.
There aren’t so many here.
It’s a so-called traditional Japanese art form.
Yeah, it’s interesting. It’s interesting.
And the people who are doing these traditional Japanese arts are not only doing kabuki, but they are also very good actors, and they appear in modern dramas like Hanzawa Naoki.
Is the actor who played the main role in this Hanzawa Naoki also a Kabuki actor?
No, I’m not sure if he was a kabuki actor or not.
So we’re saying “kao” means “face” and “gei” means, I guess in this context it’s like a “trick” that you do with your face, or something you can do with your face, literally sometimes translated as art, but doesn’t make sense in that context. I guess in this context it’s like a “trick” that you do with your face, or something you can do with your face, literally sometimes translated as art, but doesn’t make sense in that context.
Yeah, like a facial “trick” I suppose. And we’re saying that there’s this show called “Hanzawa Naoki”. And we’re saying that there’s this show called “Hanzawa Naoki”, which is the name of the lead character, Hanazawa Naoki, which has been very popular in Japan this year. I watched the show, I don’t know, it feels like 4-5 years ago that I watched the original. It’s kind of about a bank worker.
Did you see this show?
Well, I’ve seen bits and piecees, I haven’t seen it all.
I saw it about 4 or 5 years ago, but I haven’t seen the latest one.
Um, so we’re saying, yeah, it was a drama that was based around a bank worker that’s trying to sort of move his way up in the world of finance. And he’s become very famous for having these super expressive faces I guess you would call them. And we’re saying that, we’re not exactly sure about the lead actor, but there are definitely actors within the program. There are definitely actors within the program that have come out of the world of Kabuki and Kabuki is very sell known, you know, for having these, sort of, You know, for having these, sort of, facial expressions that are very big and expressive and Do you have a name for the face of Kabuki?
Is there a word for it? Do they have a word for it?
No, they don’t.
Anyway, he’s become very famous for these big facial expressions that are sort of similar in some ways to Kabuki. So this show has become very popular, and That’s why it’s on the list of words for this year
I haven’t seen the latest one, but when it was on about 4 or 5 years ago, I think I saw the whole thing, and it was pretty interesting. I think I saw all of them and they were quite interesting. It was interesting, but the acting was exaggerated. You often get that sort of acting in Japanese dramas. Instead of acting realistically and realistically, they often beef up their reactions and act in a very over-the-top way.
Yes, they do.
From my point of view, it’s really strange.
Going back to the first point, there is a Korean drama called “Love’s Crash Landing” and Korean dramas also tend to have exaggerated acting.
I think it’s a bit unnatural. Of course, Japanese dramas are the same. It’s a bit exaggerated, isn’t it?
But I’m sure they do it that way on purpose.
Yes, they do.
I wonder what that means. Is there a connection with such Kabuki traditions? What do you think?
I don’t think you’d usually see them as connected in that way. But well. Some of the actors are from Kabuki, so I guess there is a little bit of that in Hanzawa Naoki. It’s hard to think that ordinary dramas are connected to Kabuki.
But it’s true that somehow there is such a way of acting. Maybe that’s how it is. I don’t know. I think they are doing it on purpose. It’s so exaggerated that you can’t help but think that it must be intended.
Yes, yes, yes. They do in away that you don’t see in everyday life. I don’t like it, but it’s becoming more common.
But there are movies that are not like that, movies that portray reality in a very realistic way, like “Shoplifters”. So I don’t think that’s the whole story.
Yes, that’s true.
Is it a stylistic school thing?
It might be. It could be the director’s way of thinking or something like that.
That was “Kaogei”.
Language Learning Program Reviews
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Who is behind this site?
I’m Peter Joseph Head. I lived in Japan for four years as a student at Kyoto City University of the Arts and on working holiday. I have toured the country six times playing music and speak Japanese (JLPT N1).
ピータージョセフヘッドです。３年間京都市立芸大の大学院として、一年間ワーキングホリデーとして日本に住み、６回日本で音楽ツアーをし、日本語能力試験で１級を取得しました。要するに日本好きです。
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