Wasei-Eigo Collection

[Samurai Equine 45,937]

I decided to make a topic where we can post Wasei-Eigo or any other similar colloquialisms.

What's Wasei-Eigo?

Spoiler

Wasei-Eigo (Japanese-made English Terms) are everyday English (or English-sounding) words that are used differently in Japan than how they would be used in America, the UK, or any other English-speaking country. Thus for the sake of accurate translating, these words would be replaced by a more proper English word or phrase that conveys the intended meaning. Wasei-Eigo words are often written in Katakana; symbols with no meaning that are used to help Japanese people pronounce various words, including foreign or unique-sound words such as those from the English language.

Is Wasei-Eigo limited to Japan?

Spoiler

Probably not.
However, when it comes to other Asian languages, I have absolutely no idea what you'd call these transformative language conventions. Each language/country probably has its own term for it.

So if you want to post words like this from China, Korea, etc.; go ahead!

 

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Today's Wasei-Eigo word is:

クレーマー (Claimer).

In Japan, a Claimer is a customer who goes out of their way to complain about stuff; thus becoming a nuisance to deal with. You could say, they are claimers because they make a lot of wild claims.
In a laundry mat, a claimer might constantly turn in and "claim" their laundry to try and find something to complain about. If an entitled customer doesn't win the grand prize in a contest, they might "claim" the contest was rigged. And if you're just trying to do your job, you better hope your boss doesn't say that someone has made a "claim" against you.

In actual English, we don't really have a common use for the word "Claimer". According to more modern English slang, a proper translation/replacement would be the word "Karen". You might not like it, but using that word does indeed keep the intended message. Alternatively, you can also use the word "Complainer", since a person with that title is very likely to file a complaint against you.

[Evil Pink One 13,000]

Oh I've heard of play of words from japanese song using MAYDAY. don't know what it is but it sure is hella catchy

[Samurai Equine 45,937]

Today's word isn't necessarily Wasei-eigo, but it is adjacent to wasei-eigo.

ネバギバ (Neba Giba)

This expression is very common in Japanese. It's the shortened, fast way of saying "Never Give Up!".
The long way would be ネバー・ギブ・アップ (Nebaa Gibu Appu). And while that is technically correct, because of the limitations of the Japanese language, it doesn't roll off the tongue as fast as how native English speakers would say the phrase. "Neba Giba" is just as fast and sounds close enough to the English phrase that it has become the accepted way of saying "Never Give Up" in Japanese.

And it wouldn't be the first time Japan has shortened English words and phrases for the sake of saying them faster or saying them closer to how a native speaker would.

[Samurai Equine 45,937]

Wow, where did the time go? Sorry for blanking, everyone!

Here's a two new wasei-eigo terms for you all:

マンション (Mansion)
アパート (Apāto / Apartment)

DON'T GET CONFUSED! A mansion isn't a rich person's house; it's an apartment or condominium. Why that word exactly? Well, it's a long history. To put it simply, the word Apartment (Apāto) was all ready being used to describe smaller, cheaper apartments made from wood frames and simple materials like that. Think of it like a small cabin. At most, they'd have two stories, though usually they only have 1. A Mansion describes modern apartments that you would find in any city or town made with more structurally-sound housing materials. Because of this, the apartment buildings can indeed be multiple stories tall, just like a rich person's house. ...Even if you're only living in one section and not the entire building. 

Interesting fact. The reason why this happened is because the cheaper wood buildings were given the name Apartment (Apāto) first. So when the more modern versions of apartments started coming into popularity, the Japanese needed a different name to call them. Due to a mistranslation, the English word Mansion was chosen at random, and the word got popular and just stuck. Stuff like this happens in just about any culture. Kind of like how we tend to call all adhesive bandages "Band-Aids", even though that's the name of a specific brand of bandages.