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stevemcgee99
17th January 2003, 18:56
How would you define, or when do you use "sugoi"?

I'm also curious how to spell what I'd think is "yushi", or "youshi". It's an exclamation made when one is resigned to do some hard work, duke it out, etc.

Rennis
17th January 2003, 19:32
Originally posted by stevemcgee99
How would you define, or when do you use "sugoi"?

I'm also curious how to spell what I'd think is "yushi", or "youshi". It's an exclamation made when one is resigned to do some hard work, duke it out, etc.

Its "yoshi". As for "sugoi" the standard dictionary definition is along the lines of "awesome".

best,
Rennis

ghp
18th January 2003, 00:58
Steve,

Adding to what Rennis said ... sugoi also means "wow" as in "impressive, dude" or "holy cow."

"Anno hito no waza wa sugoi desu" -- [His technical application is impresive.]

Yoshi is pronounced "yosh'!" and is the alternate reading of ii" meaning "good" or "very well."

Rennis -- let me know if I've misremembered my lessons. :D

And Steve, if you have other questions, feel free to ask me or Arthur at the dojo. Arthur speaks Japanese quite well.

--Guy

Rennis
18th January 2003, 04:37
The only thing I'd add to Guy's addition to my comment is to mention that many youngsters in Japan now a days also say "Suge-" instead of "sugoi" with that whole change the final sounds to "e" thing some kids seem so found of.

Rennis

stevemcgee99
18th January 2003, 04:48
Sounds good. I'm studying japanese, so I'll try to practice some at the dojo. I can't believe I didn't start commuting earlier!

I learned kana first, so sometimes romaji is confusing. I think it's good to think in kana.

Can you recommend ultra-basic kaji books?

ghp
18th January 2003, 04:48
Hi Rennis. Yeah, you're right. I tried that ... once. Then my wife lit right into me angry as hell. Seems that is a very crude way of talking ... carpenter-type talk.

If I understand the situation, it's okay for elementary school boys to end verbs in ~ei, but it "ain't perlite" fer us oldsters!

Cheers,
Guy

renfield_kuroda
21st January 2003, 07:47
In a slightly 'negative' sense, sugoi can also be used in the cases where you don't really want to say something bad. Best translation I can come up with is "extreme".
Example (from real life, of course):
2 little kids are playing. One is really happy, running around and laughing. The other is nearly terrorizing every pigeon in the park with tribal screams and flailing arms.
Mother of the psycho kid says to mother of the nice kid "genki-desune!" (Your kid is so healthy/happy!)
Mother of nice kid says to mother of psycho kid "Sugoi desune!" (Your child is so...extreme!)
Can't really say "You're kids a friggin' maniac!" now can you?

And regarding the changing adjective '-i' ending to '-ee' (rhymes with bay), it's very Kanto thing. I picked it up in Chiba when learning to speak Japanese by talking to junior high school kids, and it's something that marks me immediately as a Kanto-speaker. And yes it's pretty informal/crude so I'd recommend against using it in the dojo!

To really tweak it, try saying "sungee!", the 'n' gives a nice nasally pregnant pause before the 'gee'.

For that high school girl twang, try "sugokunai?" -- basically make everything a negative query.

If I could just speak normal, polite Japanese as well as high school gutter slang...

Regards,

renfield kuroda

Rennis
21st January 2003, 13:20
Originally posted by renfield_kuroda And regarding the changing adjective '-i' ending to '-ee' (rhymes with bay), it's very Kanto thing. I picked it up in Chiba when learning to speak Japanese by talking to junior high school kids, and it's something that marks me immediately as a Kanto-speaker. And yes it's pretty informal/crude so I'd recommend against using it in the dojo!

To really tweak it, try saying "sungee!", the 'n' gives a nice nasally pregnant pause before the 'gee'.

For that high school girl twang, try "sugokunai?" -- basically make everything a negative query.

If I could just speak normal, polite Japanese as well as high school gutter slang...
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i to ee thing is also very well ingrained in the Tohoku areas as well where I unfortunately picked it up as well (Japanese roommates, ya gotta love 'em).