Ten Oriental (Japanese) Words You Already Know

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We know more Japanese words than we realise. Just do a quick count of the words you know. You don't know a single word? Yes, you do. What inspired this thought of mine?

On Instagram I saw a friend's picture of papercutting Philippine style, kiri gami. At first glance it was a long word which I could not remember. ki-ri-ga-mi. Japanese is staccato, even toned, every syllable pronounced, like bullets fired from a machine guns.

I re-read the word for paper cutting, kirigami, and it sounded familiar. It sounded like origami.  So I looked up the word for papercutting. That sounded like origami. So I looked up origami. Well, I never.

Ori means folding
gami means paper.

So I can go into a shop and ask for orgami gami - paper folding paper. So can you. I thought you would be interested in seeing how many Japanese words you already know.

The word origami is already familiar. I didn't know the word kirigami. But it is easy to remember that kiri is cut. K and C sound the same, alliterative. Kiri - cut. Cut - kiri.

So I could go into a pharmacy or visit a doctor in Japan and point to my stomach and say hari.

Let's add what else we already know.
Goodbye is Sayonara.
What about hello? People answer the phone, mushi mushi.

Hai is not Hi but yes. I can remember that by using the phrase, 'Yes, hi'. Imagine somebody asks, is that you, maybe using your name.
Angela?
Yes - hai.
I think, 'Yes, hi.'
I say: Yes, hai.

English - Japanese
belly - hari
cutting - kiri
folding - ori
goodbye - sayonara
hello (on the phone) mushi mushi (written moshi moshi)
paper - gami
paper cutting - kirigami
paper-folding - origami
suicide by knife - harikiri
yes - hai

Japanese
hari - belly
gami - paper
hai - yes
harikiri - literally belly cut(ting) - ritual suicide with knives in the days before guns
kiri - cutting
kirigami - paper cutting
moshi moshi, pronounced mushi mushi - hello on the phone
ori - folding
origami - paper folding
sayonara - goodbye

Now, if I am asked if I know any Japanese I can smile and rattle off ten words:

Here's a bonus:
kamikaze - divine wind

https://www.rocketlanguages.com/japanese/words/basic-japanese-words

A great website about compound Japanese words and their pronunciation:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendaku

You might prefer to stick with or supplement with
Duolingo


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Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.