- Forum >
- Topic: Japanese >
- "My friend and I are otakus."
"My friend and I are otakus."
Translation:私と私の友達はオタクです。
66 Comments
1444
THANK YOU! I am worried about how much Duolingo is stressing this word. To me, it is like saying, "I am a gourmet, just like Jeffrey Dahmer.." I tell all my students to use 大ファン (だいファン = big fan)instead. I am giving you a lingot for bringing this up!
And because the word has a different (more extreme) meaning in Japan. So it's not something a person would usually openly admit to, and certainly not confidently. I fact, you beig a foreigner probably soften the meaning. Like, "Oh, but they surely can't mean they're REALLY an (anime) otaku. They probably don't realize what they're saying. I hope."
It's kind of like proudly proclaiming to be a fedora-touting, greasy-haired, "friendzoned" brony. A brony like that would be, in real Japanese, translated as "a my little pony otaku."
438
I wouldn't have expected to see bronies mentioned here. Its a good example though considering how that word has gained such a negative reputation over the years.
Some people actually do. Many people at my university identified as otaku. And it was never embarrasing for anyone being otaku. Some japanese looks down on otaku, but absolutely not all people. That said, people don't go around telling everyone and all "i'm otaku!!!", and it's not cool to be one like some people seems to believe. They are accepted, and people mostly just let them be. And most of the people I see doing cosplay in Tokyo are not japanese.
"Being otaku" is something I found to be normalising when living in Japan. I came across a few guys who openly admitted they were otaku, one of whom shamelessly declared he was NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training). That said, there's still a stigma behind it, and there is nothing good about NEET!
813
not saying that it is fair to pass a judgement of guilt by association, but for cultural context, in japan there was an otaku fellow in the 80s who was a serial killer of small children. the media called him "the otaku killer". so, if you were wondering why there is a negative association with otaku in japan, there you go.
This is so inappropriate. How about: 「私と友達はアニメが好き」 「私は漫画が好き」 「私はフィギュアを集めます」
There are so many ways in saying that you like something than identifying as an "otaku". As a foreigner trying to fit in with a new culture, you need to be the one who has to be culturally-sensitive. Not because you have a few specific people around you that publicly identify as otaku, it is an appropriate sample size for the entirety of Japan.
1193
Plenty of kids, Japanese and non-Japanese alike, find a sense of belonging with the word "otaku", so I think inappropriate might be a strong word about a sentence in a lesson labelled subculture. Of course it's not a normal thing to go around declaring yourself, but it is a Japanese word that people use.
[Downvoters, please engage in a conversation. What do you know that I don't know that makes what I have to say not worth listening to?]
You can see all sorts of words spelled out in random books, including ワタシ and various mangled ways like わっち. The primary reason for わたし being, it provides a very simple way to tell the characters apart just by the way they say "I" :} Sometimes I translate wishing English had that...
Besides, わたくし is 私 as well, so it could be a way to avoid confusion there.
1193
Exactly as you said, when you use と to mean "and", it has to come between two nouns. 私と友達はオタクです (watashi to tomodachi wa otaku desu). When と comes after a person and does not connect to another noun, it means "do something with someone".
1193
I can't help but wonder when the last time the users associating オタク with murder and crime spoke to a young person in Japan. I have met plenty of Japanese people who called themselves オタク, and maybe others thought they were a bit eccentric, but there was certainly no fear of them. In a few cases, they were even quite popular.
Doing a quick google, gives me this article from 2018 talking about how female high school students' impression of オタク has become predominantly positive.
246
So is there a difference between お宅 and オタク in written form? Or is it entirely context-based? Is お宅 used always for its literal meaning and オタク as the stereotype? That's what I mean
294
Yeah, when I took an intro to Japanese course at college, my sensei equaled the word Otaku to a "couch potato".
I always feel dirty having to type out this exercise haha.