Quote:
Originally Posted by chiuchimu
So there are English words for each, yet they aren't really used in the same way in English. Specially the last two. Can you imagine telling an American, "Try your best". It's almost an insult. The guy would ask, "What did you think I was going to do? Do a half ass job?!". We Japanese use mendou kusai so much I wonder if we aren't the lazy ones at heart  ? |
Yeah, we use things quite differently, even if we can translate it! I still might say "do your best" to a friend who was worried about an exam or something though, and I don't think that would be odd. It's easy to get confused between American English and British English uses of words too. I used to get so annoyed at my American friends when they'd say "Oh, I'm sorry," after telling them bad news. I kept thinking "Why are you apologizing? It's got nothing to do with you!" but it's just how some Americans like to express sympathy.
Amongst some of my japanese-speaking friends, even if we're speaking english, we don't bother to translate some Japanese words like 'genki' any more. It just makes more sense left in Japanese.