Thursday, March 18, 2010

A Little Japanese For You

Recently two of my students have brought up some Japanese words in class, or rather a Japanese word in class. I had never heard this word before, but I was told it is used in Korea and Japan. The word is otaku, a person who specializes in something and generally does it so much they don't go out. I thought this word must only be well known in Asia but dictionary.com has a reference for otaku here.

Dictionary.com cites the japanese word for house as the origin of this derogatory word. This makes sense since the general connotation is that the person never leaves their home. Knowing that it's in the English dictionary I think I'll start using it more often. "Hey man, stop being such an otaku and come out to the 노래방 with us."

2 comments:

  1. haha i dont think thats the proper use of the word.. saying it like that is kinda like saying "hey, stop being a guitarist and come play yooker with us? =P

    --the atomic invader

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  2. I think maybe stop being a reclusive guitarist would be more accurate.

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