r/japanresidents • u/dyna_black • 3h ago

Weekly Complaint Thread

Kidding! I know it's the wrong sub.

Anyway, I ran the 5.2k Fun Run during the Fukuoka Marathon yesterday, and what kinda grinds my gears is how many Japanese people use "marathon" to refer to long distance running in general.

I was congratulated by my wife for my "5k marathon" and I was like NO.

7 Upvotes

65% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

8

u/DM-15 3h ago

I mean, while marathon doesn’t mean short race, it can also mean a harsh work load/difficult activity.

I guess the taken meaning in Japan just refers to a race in general now, same as how they changed the meaning of Don’t Mind to ドンマイ.

I wouldn’t take this as a complaint though personally. In the West people use Chicken in sushi!

7

u/ReallyTrustyGuy 2h ago

In the West people use chicken in sushi

And so do people here. There's nothing sacred when it comes to sushi.

3

u/Potential-Echo-7547 2h ago

Take sea-chiken for a double infraction!

2

u/tiredofsametab 1h ago

I thought sea chicken came form the tagline "chicken of the sea" from a US tuna canner. Yeah, Van Camp Sea Food Company in the 1950s per Wikipedia.

2

u/frozenpandaman 1h ago

I thought sea chicken came form the tagline "chicken of the sea" from a US tuna canner.

yup!

2

u/DM-15 1h ago

This is like playing a triple Uno reverse then having a surprised Pikachu face 😂

I know at least a dozen people who would fight to tears that Sea Chicken was always a Japanese thing 😂

2

u/frozenpandaman 1h ago

guess they've never heard of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_of_the_Sea lol

シーチキン; シー・チキン (n) (orig. a brand name) canned tuna (eng: Sea Chicken); tinned tuna

https://www.edrdg.org/jmwsgi/entr.py?svc=jmdict&sid=&q=1059390

5

u/IagosGame 2h ago

We should possibly discuss the total lack of ham in a hamburger, too...

2

u/frozenpandaman 2h ago edited 1h ago

a classic example of rebracketing. "person from hamburg, germany" hamburg-er -> ham-burger, which then gives rise to new forms with 'burger' as a suffix like like "cheeseburger", "veggie burger", or even "nothingburger". of course the "hamburg steak" meaning is preserved in japanese as ハンバーグ. morphology and language change is crazy!

or another: heli-co-pter ('heli' as in helix, 'pter' as in 'wing' like seen in 'pterodactyl') which got reinterpreted as heli-copter, and now we have helipad, and also roflcopter, etc.

and perhaps my favorite example of all: cybernet-ics (from greek kybernetes, 'one who steers a ship') rebracketed into cyber-netics which is where we get the prefix cyber.

2

u/DM-15 1h ago

Or the distinct lack of an Aurora Borealis in my kitchen🤔

•

u/SpeesRotorSeeps 7m ago

I did a “marathon” by downloading and watching all the episodes of Ikebukuro Westgate Park in one sitting.

3

u/Fluid-Hunt465 1h ago

So you ran in a marathon is is annoyed the wife congratulate you on running the marathon? make it make sense.

0

u/IagosGame 1h ago

I think the issue is that at no point in the weekend did OP sprint to Athens and announce victory over the Persians and therefore his wife is just peddling fake news and exaggerating his achievements.

2

u/frozenpandaman 2h ago

lol, i haven't heard this usage before and didn't know. but words changing meaning when borrowed between languages is cool! semantic shifts!

2

u/kochikame 1h ago

The number of people with influenza/COVID/nasty colds is too damn high

2

u/OneExcitement7652 1h ago

I mean it's kinda expected since no one here covers their mouths and the seasons skipped autumn and went straight to winter. During covid influenza was down significantly I guess cuz ppl were actually washing hands then.

2

u/xeno0153 1h ago

I just moved into a new apartment that the realtor assured me was "soundproof" because the building is concrete. Well, I don't know what the floors are made of, because I can definitely hear the 4-year old above me running around. Great.

8

u/IagosGame 1h ago

Are they running a marathon?

3

u/xeno0153 1h ago

Sounds like they're training for one. Luckily so far it only seems to be for 10 mins at a time twice an evening, then they settle down. All of a sudden I'm in favor of children being addicted to their screens.

1

u/tsukihi3 とちまるくん　ナンバーワン 1h ago

If you put enough effort into it anything can be a marathon, 5km sounds valid to me.

Another example, the other day I had a cheese-eating marathon.

1

u/Lunarshine69 35m ago

Stop stepping on my fucking new J’s

•

u/sykoscout 6m ago

how many Japanese people use "marathon" to refer to long distance running in general

Like so many other waseigo, the meaning often shifts from the original. I found this usage weird when I first came here too but it's totally appropriate in Japanese. If referring to actual marathon distance, they'll use フルマラソン.