While watch Ironing Chef, I notice that a lot of the tasters, especially the women, end their comments with a pause and “That is what I think” I’m guessing this is something that doesn’t translate the subtlety. Lots of time it kind of seems like an disagreement/apology, but I can never quite tell, and it just seems kind of out of place. Is there a Japanese language expert who can expand on what they are really saying?
Make that “While watching Iron Chef”, (stupid brain and eyes not communicating).
yeah, there’s also a lot of social hierarchy that the translations don’t quite cover. for instance, a lot of times another panl member will simply say “I agree with what Judge Sakamuru said.” is this sycophantism, or Japanese culture? I’ve assumed the latter, but w/ no proof.
The Japanese are nothing if not polite and humble. Nearly every sentence spoken in polite society (which is just about everywhere over there) involves the speaker downplaying his ability or memory. If you’re not doing that, you’re trying to see if people agree with what you’re saying so you don’t sound strident.
So, the Chairman always starts out his introductory story about the challenger with “If memory serves me right …”
Of course his memory serves him right, he’s reading a script! But, it wouldn’t be right to just say “Chef X in Y prefecture is really good. He’s going to come here and kick some Iron Chef butt.”
The other thing you can hear are phrases that end in “-ne”, which from what I’ve been able to pick up, means, “don’t you think so too?”
Every now and then a challenger will say that he’s going to win, but most of the time, they just say “I’ll do my best”, which is even more important than winning.
Bwahahahaha!! I’ve having hysterical visions of Morimoto chopping with one hand and pressing Chairman Kaga’s cape with the other!
Yes. Its common to end Japanese sentences in “…to omou” which means, “…I think.” Its an indirection, its intended to soften a directly criticial statement. So the tasters wouldn’t say “it tastes bad” but instead they might say “it tastes bad, I think.” It is intended as a polite expression, a way to state a negative opinion without being too direct. There are a lot of levels of politeness in Japanese, but this is rather a complex subject, so I’ll leave it there unless you’re curious.
If you notice also, they never dub the chairman’s voice. My assumption is that, due to his position as the HMFWAICAS*, it would be seen as disrespectful to have another person speak for him, especially as the actor providing the dubbed voice would be speaking over the chairman’s voice. His speech is subtitled instead, so that he is the only participant whose real voice is heard unadulderated.
Now is my assumption correct, that this is due to an Iron-Chef-specific interpretation of a Japanese tradition of hierarchy and respect? Or is this just an idiosyncrasy of that lovable freak, the Chairman?
*Head Mother F…ker What Am In Charge And Sh.t