Our catch phrase is on its way.

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

“Don’t go looking for trouble, because you are very likely to find it!”

Here, I am referring specifically to the English word “trouble”, spelled out in Japanese romanization as “toraburu”. The Japanese language is replete with words similar in meaning to “trouble”: mondai, kon’nan, jiko, koshou, meiwaku, isakai, izakoza, yakkai.

With all of the above lexical items available, still the Japanese media often replaces many of them with the English word “trouble”. For example, the talk about “engine trouble” on an airplane that is having mechanical difficulties, or “fan trouble” when fights break out among fans.

Japanese is NOT an Indo-European language. As such, it should be preserved for what it is: a member of an entirely different language family. Every time words whose phonologies do not match that of Japanese are used in place of a Japanese native word that already exists, then Japanese loses another precious bit of its linguistic uniqueness.

Some counter that so many of Japan’s words actually come from Chinese. To them I say that although the Chinese characters used to write such Japanese words ARE indeed Chinese in origin, at least the pronunciations are quite Japanese – and only subtly different from Chinese.

On the other hand, the Japanese penchant for using “trouble”, words ending in “-tion” (“inflation”, “information”, etc.) , and other English words is contributing to the demise of Japanese as a major world language.

So when you are troubled about how to word a speech you are writing in Japanese, avoid trouble by using a dictionary, where – with minimum trouble – you can find the right words to express yourself without any trouble.

Steve Walker, Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

Kaori Akasaki, Jingles Instructor

© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.