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get your Japanese idiom and slang....

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2010.07.12

The website I use for translations isn't downright insane but it sure is given to certain quirks.

Usually, it's the slang and idiom that gets me. I don't mind the impressive tilt toward sex slang, in particular because I can pass it all on to my friend who's put out a book of such terms.

Here's an example of the stuff I often find. Just now, in an effort to write a short bit of copy for an ad campaign, I entered "attractive". It came back with "ナイスミドル: attractive middle-aged man" among other things (the pronunciation is "nice middle").

I wonder if I qualify. I've got the middle-aged bit right.

rand()m quote

The greatest of our crimes and the worst of our sins is poverty.

—George Bernard Shaw