Pseudo-Anglicism 03 High Tension

Another pseudo-anglicism in Japanese.

In Japanese, we often say when talking about a person,
"Oh, he is always in high tension."

If you are going to throw a party, you would want to include couple of these "high tension" people in your guest list to make the party successful. They are entertaining and would warm up the place very quickly with talks and laughs.

When a person is "high tension", it means he is easily excited, cheerful, or hyper, in a positive way. A comedian is often described as "high tension". So the person is likely to respond to or laugh at almost anything - cute, lovely or funny.

The word tension in English has negative meaning when it talks about a person's feelings, quite opposite to Japanese -- under stress or pressure, the feeling anxiety that makes one impossible to relax. When we talk about tension between two people, they are in a very unfriendly situation, difficult to find understanding.

Interesting how the word has opposite meaning in two languages.

"Tension" in Japanese seems to be used similar to "feeling", so there is the expression "high tension", and also the opposite "low tension" meaning the person is depressed, not likely to cheer up with little jokes.

We have many "high tension" comedians in Japan, but it means they are anxiety free people (well, at least what you see on the surface).

Pseudo-Anglicism 02 Mansion

Pseudo-Anglicism - words that look and sound like English but the meaning is very different in the foreign language context.

The word "mansion" is used in Japanese to describe a type of housing, but the picture the word gives is completely different from the original English word.

English "I live in a mansion." would be like this:

You would be a member of a family headed by a person with a title.


I have often heard my Japanese students say in their crude beginners' English:

"I live in a mansion."

presuming that the word has the same meaning in Japanese and English, but the picture they have in their mind is this:

The same word in Japanese means housing for multiple family, all living 'cells' like in a bee-hive.
Some of my students have made mistakes in saying "I live in a mansion" to English speaking person, giving them the impression that they come from a rich prestigious family. English speakers would be surprised by how many Japanese people live in a "mansion".

Pseudo-Anglicism 01 OL, Miss contest, Companion

OL (office lady), Miss contest, Companion

These are words that are used in Japanese. They look and sound like English, and maybe a lot of Japanese people believe that they are actually English.

Here are some examples of how these words would be used in a Japanese conversation context.

"So, are you a student?"
"No, I am OL (office lady). I work for Sony."

"How come there are always so many beautiful women around him?"
"Oh, he is the owner of that Miss contest."

"Are you going to the motor show next week?"
"Of course! I love all the concept cars, but I really want to take photos of the companions."

These words are called pseudo-anglicisms. Words are used in a non-English speaking society which sound like English but the actual meaning is different. Their meanings in Japanese are as below:

office lady → office worker
Miss contest → beauty pageant
companions → motor show girls (party hostess, convention guide)

All these above words slightly irritate my mild feminism spirit.

The word Office Lady (OL) was first introduced into Japanese vocabulary by a woman's magazine in 1964. It refers to working women whose role is mainly assistant work, so it doesn't refer to women in a managing post. I feel it has sort of a condescending nuance, but most people take it very neutrally.

The word "companion" had always reminded me of stories like "Lord of the Rings", "Three Men in a Boat", "Journey to the West", "The Wizard of OZ", all those journey stories, and it always had wholesome buddy chummy kind of feel. However, the same word in a Japanese conversation context carries slightly lascivious impression.

I would happily be a companion in an English context but not in a Japanese one.