There was an amusing story about a Japanese woman who was recounting a meeting with a man whom she abruptly described as using the English word “jerk.” The person writing the story asked her how to say “jerk” in Japanese.
“There’s no such word,” the woman answered helplessly. “We have to use [the English word] “jerk.” It’s not as if there are no jerks in Japan. But the Japanese language is just not made for sniping at people. Guess what Japanese drivers say to each other after a car accident. They say: “I’m so sorry.” The Japanese language is simply not designed for hurling invectives at one another.
Take the vicious Japanese insult “kisama,” which is deeply offensive. It means: “Your honorable self.” That’s right. Instead of using all kinds of obscenities, the Japanese insult each other by frowning and growling: “Your honorable self.”
There is one exception. One of the meanest things one Japanese child can say to another is: “Omaeno kaachan debeso.” That means: “Your mom’s belly button sticks out.” This has no deep Freudian meaning: it simply means that your mother is uncouth and ugly. That’s the meanest that Japanese children can be linguistically.
Their Chinese cousins also have this built-in limitation on personal insults. The Chinese dismiss their enemies as “tuzaizi,” or “baby bunny rabbits.” It’s quite charming to think of a furious man ranting in Chinese and then coming up with an epithet like “You baby bunny rabbit!”
Thanks to Nicholas D. Kristoff for these insights.
So often there are so many bleeps on TV I have a hard time following what a person is saying with all the gutter language they are using. Did years of using gutter language help the emotional and spiritual growth of the many people who attacked our Capital on January 6th? Do you think any of these people ever go to church or read the Bible? What Message are they hearing or learning?
I remember a couple of years ago walking out the subway in downtown Chicago. A boy no more than 5-years old was climbing the stairs with his well-dressed father. The young boy’s sentences were fully laced with four-letter expletives. As I walked through the Chicago Loop for the rest of the day, all I could ask myself was: “What is wrong with this world? What can I do to help make this a better world?”
What, if anything, goes through YOUR mind when YOU use or hear a four-letter expletive?
IF YOU ARE GOING TO CURSE, PLEASE USE YOUR OWN NAME! — GOD
