From: mtachiba@rkna50.riken.go.jp (Masahiko Tachibana)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: What do most of Japanese think of Korean (Re: An open letter..)
Date: 24 Aug 92 02:18:17 GMT
Organization: Institute of Physical & Chemical Research (RIKEN) Saitama,Japan


    Let me join the discussions.  I'm a Japanese who has been living only
in Japan.  
    But how things go fast here in s.c.j.  In a three or four day's
absence of getting out from fj. haaaa (sigh).

In article <2465@aegis.or.jp> davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane) writes:
>ntetsuya@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Nishimura) writes:
>
>>In article <2459@aegis.or.jp> davidg@aegis.or.jp (Dave McLane) writes:
>
>>>So 'baka-chon' means 'stupid dot'? ? ?
>
>>	"baka demo chon demo toreru kamera" -> "baka-chon kamera"
>>	"a camera with which both baka(a stupid person) and chon (a person with
>>	less wisdom) can take pictures."
>
>Maybe that's the literal meaning but....
>
>>>I don't know myself, but a lot of (~30) Japanese nationals have told
>>>me that 'baka-chon' meant "so easy that even a stupid Korean could
>>>use it." Maybe they were wrong and it doesn't mean that, but they
>>>thought it did and gave it as example of how Koreans are made fun of
>>>even in advertisements. 
>
>>	Yes, there are such people ignorant about the facts, and to tell the
>>	truth I had been one of them until I looked up the origin of the word
>>	in the dictionary.  (Still I had hated to use the word.  Now? Still 
>>	don"t.)
>
>... it sounds like a play on words to me; a word literally has one
>meaning but is close enough to another than people can take it that
>way as well. 

    FYI, in other cases 'chon' means abbrv. of 'cho^sen' in rude manner.
    When I was in highschool at Tokyo, I sometimes heard of stories
there had been a quarrel between Korean students and Japanese students.
The reporter used the word 'chon-ko^' which means both 'Korean guys'
and 'Korean school'.
    I don't use the word 'baka-chon' because it is believed to most people
that it comes from 'even a fool or a Korean could use this'.

>[* shifting to another topic *]
>
>>	We have to be careful about food because even if you think there is 
>>	no better food in the world than your favorite, there ARE people who
>>	just cannot stand it.  I like sushi but I know some people sho cannot
>>	imagine having raw fish.
>
>Yes, I know what you mean. Speaking of plays on words, this isn't
>quite the same but my favorite sushi shop is "Long Eight". Yes, Long
>Eight. That's what the kanji say to me, although native speakers
>read them "Cho Hachi" which is something different. Still, Long
>Eight brings a smile and this is something worth doing :-)
>
>>	BTW, I *love* kimchee.  How about sending me some of those, Dave?
>
>Heh, heh, no way! I eat it all!
>
>>	PS.  the other day my friend who is a Czekoslovakian made some kimchee
>>	     and I tried some...   Boy, they were great and my Korean friends
>>	     agreed, too.  Now I have one of the bottles with kimchee in my
>>	     refrigerator.  :->
>
>Ahhh, sounds like you have enough. All I get is a little plastic bag <sigh>.  

    Mmmm.  Indeed some of Japanese hate Koreans simply because they smell
garlics.  It's the big difference of culture between the two.
    
    Me?  Oh, thinking of Kimchi immediately turn me Pablov's dog (spelling
right? :-)

[stuffs concerning Czecho-Slovacs omitted]

Hi!          >Dave

--
 Masahiko Tachibana	          E-mail:  mtachiba@rkna50.riken.go.jp
 Lab. of Organometallic Chemistry,   Tel:  +81-48-462-1111 ext.3513
 The Institute of Physical and       Fax:  +81-48-462-4665
 Chemical Research (RIKEN), Wako-shi, 351-01 Japan.