Friday, March 12, 2010

Ninu--hey, stop hitting yourself!

One of the great things about living near Osaka is the exposure to Kansai-ben. For any of you who don't know what that is, Kansai is the south central part of Japan that includes Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, Hyogo, Wakayama, Mie, and Shiga. It's also known as the Kinki region. So anyway, Kansai-ben is the special dialect that is spoken in these parts.

Now, you don't have to live in Kansai to hear Kansai-ben. Since there are so many comedians from Kinki (yeah, the people here are that damn funny, I guess), whenever you watch a Japanese comedy or variety show, you will probably hear Kansai-ben. Ergo, the dialect is kind of associated with being funny. But it's also just fun to use - the way a lot of the words just kind of roll of your tongue. And it's awesome to be the cool/funny foreigner who can speak Kansai-ben.

Anyway, I've heard and learned enough of the dialect to know there's a lot more for me to learn. And some of it borders on inane. Here's an example from the vlog of thatjapanesegirl. Just to be clear, I'm not criticizing her - I think this is an awesome video and I lost it when she started to...well, you'll see. It's just, how often do you get the chance to use the Kansai-ben word for "boiled egg?" 見てごらん (Please watch):


5 comments:

  1. I love that japanese girl. This reminds me I need to catch up on her videos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. にぬき?I knew the word for the first time.=)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh yeah? When I first learned "nunuki" I asked a couple of the teachers I work with about it, and one of them had never heard of it, either. Thanks for commenting!

    そうなん?僕は「にぬき」を習ったときに、二人の机が近い先生と話して、一人も「にぬき」って聞いたことないと言った。コメントありがとう!=)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've also got a bunch of Kansai-ben lessons my Osaka-jin wife helped me create here.

    http://www.japannewbie.com/2007/02/17/kansai-ben-round-up/

    I'm a huge fan of all things Kansai!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the link, Harvey. You've got some good ones there!

    ReplyDelete