Wednesday, June 25, 2014

To Die For -- ROTFL Mr. Abe

Yesterday Prime Minister Abe Shinzo launched a new blog about the empowerment of Japan's women.

The blog is causing quite a stir in Japanese cyberspace -- but not for its message of transformation in these fraught times. (Link)

No, people are sharing it for the blog title's inadvertent hilarity.



"Shine!" is of course supposed to be read as [ʃaɪn] - the imperative case of the English language verb "to shine" -- in Japanese 輝け: kagayake.

A not insignificant number of wags are reading the title not as English but as Romaji -- which is to say they are wondering whether or not the pronunciation should be [ʃineɪ] - the imperative case of the Japanese verb "to drop dead" -- in Japanese 死ね : shine.

So, women of Japan, your prime minister says unto you, "Shine!"

Read it as you will.

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Tip of the hat to JM at The AS, who alerted me to this and another to David Line, who provided me with a clearer English expression for 死ね!



Later - A treatment of the tale, in Japanese. (Link - J)

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