9 ms·
Sarariman (adapted from the English salary man) is the Japanese term for white collar worker.
by mparkms 6y ago
Sarariman (adapted from the English salary man) is the Japanese term for white collar worker.
- krapp 6y agoNative English speakers tend to just say "salaryman" when speaking to other English speakers. Adopting a faux Japanese accent, particularly in print, is extremely cringeworthy.
- slothtrop 6y ago> Native English speakers tend to just say "salaryman" when speaking to other English speakers. We don't tend to use salaryman at all. There's white-collar, businessman etc. By contrast sarariman had been popularly coined in the 90s by the Japanese.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y agoI believe the parent meant we would say 'salaryman' when speaking of the Japanese conception of the term. Which in my experience is true. It could be because 'sarariman', though a reasonable approximation of the Japanese pronunciation, does sound like a racist caricature, but I think it is equally likely it just feels awkward to the native-english-speaking tongue.
- julianmarq 6y ago> does sound like a racist caricature But it isn't. How about we stop assuming offense by default and instead we try to expect that other people are as reasonable as we are? For that matter, that one is in the guidelines here.
- anchpop 6y agoSarariman is a Japanese word, the original commenter wasn't adopting a false Japanese accent. Here's an article from the economist using the term: https://www.economist.com/special-report/1999/11/25/who-wants-to-be-a-sarariman https://www.economist.com/special-report/1999/11/25/who-want...
- earthboundkid 6y agoI lived in Japan for years. I have never seen English speakers write "Sarariman" instead of "Salaryman" when talking about the phenomenon.
- microtherion 6y agoYes, my intent was not to mock a Japanese accent, but to adopt what seemed to me the most plausible spelling. In this particular case, the Japanese concept has far eclipsed the original English word, and the term was more or less a Japanese creation in the first place[0], so that's why I spelled it that way. In other cases, the English spelling is still dominant, so using a back-transliterated katakana spelling (e.g. "Rabu Hoteru" instead of "Love Hotel") would be just weird. [0] https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=salary+man%2Csalaryman%2Csarariman&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Csalary%20man%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Csalaryman%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Csarariman%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Csalary%20man%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Csalaryman%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Csarariman%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=salary+man%2Cs...
- jbay808 6y agoThe English word "cookie" is derived from Dutch "koekie". If some Dutch people bring back Oreos as souvenirs from the US and call them "cookies" instead of "koekjes", are they adopting a cringeworthy faux-American accent? Making fun of how English butchers their language? Or just calling them the way Americans do, without any further judgement?