Makudonarudo
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Here's an amusing Japanglish song by a Malaysian Chinese hip hop recording artist who is called Namewee:
As one of my grad students from mainland China said, "The groove is very catchy and captivating. Give it a try!"
Charming solo dance version by Ola Aphrodite:
Here are the lyrics, YouTube style:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvyhYNQu2Is
Here are the lyrics printed out:
Tokyo Bon
Ohayo Tokyo Konichiwa
Sumimasen I'm foreigner
I don't speak Japanese
But I love Aoi Sora
When you say Wakarimashita
I say Hitachi Toyota
Kawasaki Nintendo
Canon Sony Honda
I'm losing my way
Obasan where should I go?
Shinjuku so big
I need a Doraemon
You speak Japanglish
And show me body language
What can I do?
Where should I go?
No nonono
Makudonarudo (McDonald's)
Guguru (Google) Toiletto (Toilet)
Kitto Katto (Kit Kat)
Dizunilando (Disneyland)
Takushi go Hoteru (Taxi go Hotel)
Sebun Elebun (Seven Eleven) Miruku (Milk)
Basu (Bus) Biru (Beer)
Sutabakkusu (Starbucks)
Ohayo Tokyo Konichiwa
Sumimasen I'm foreigner
I don't speak Japanese
But I love Ramen Tempura
When you say Arigato Konbanwa
I say Suzuki Yamaha
Uniqlo Toshiba
Casio Godzilla
I'm losing my way
Obasan where should I go?
Shinjuku so big
I need a Doraemon
You speak Japanglish
And show me body language
What can I do?
Where should I go?
Please take me home
No nonono
Makudonarudo (McDonald's)
Guguru (Google) Toiletto (Toilet)
Kitto Katto (Kit Kat)
Dizunilando (Disneyland)
Takushi go Hoteru (Taxi go Hotel)
Sebun Elebun (Seven Eleven) Miruku (Milk)
Basu (Bus) Biru (Beer)
Sutabakkusu (Starbucks)
Sarada(Salad) Hanbaga (Hamburger)
Sandoitchi (Sandwich) Soseji (Sausage)
Kohi (Coffee) Keki (Cake)
Aisukurimu (Ice-cream) Konbini (Convenience Store)
Furaidopoteto (Fried potato)
Esukareta (Escalator) Arukoru (Alcohol)
Bareboru (Volleyball) Besuboru (Baseball)
Basukettoboru (Basketball) Gorufu (Golf)
Makudonarudo (McDonald's)
Guguru (Google) Toiletto (Toilet)
Kitto Katto (Kit Kat)
Dizunilando (Disneyland)
Takushi go Hoteru (Taxi go Hotel)
Sebun Elebun (Seven Eleven) Miruku (Milk)
Basu (Bus) Biru (Beer)
Sutabakkusu (Starbucks)
Also here
The grammatical matrix of the song, to the extent there is one, is English, but it consists mainly of a torrent of loanwords (nouns). Most of them are English words borrowed into Japanese, but there are also plenty of Japanese words borrowed into English in this song.
I was intrigued by the artist's name, Namewee, so I did a bit of research to find out how he arrived at it. He's well known as a Malaysian Chinese, but what crazy kind of name is that?
His real name is Wee Meng Chee 黃明志 (MSM Huáng Míngzhì). So our first task is to figure out in which topolect 黃 is pronounced something like "Wee". I know a fair number of Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese who use Wee (also spelled Ooi and Oei) as the romanization of their surname, and they are mostly of Hokkien descent. It's no surprise, then, that in Hokkien we have for 黃 (POJ): n̂g / ûiⁿ / hông. The second form is close to "Wee", so Wee may come from a family of Hokkien speakers. On the other hand, there are a number of sources that say his family originally came from Hainan before settling in Malaysia (e.g., here), so they are Hainanese speakers. Although not mutually intelligible with Hokkien, Hainanese also belongs to the Southern Min group of languages, so the Wee of Namewee's name could probably come from either Hokkien or Hainanese.
Malaysian Chinese speak many languages — Malay, English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew (and occasionally Hainanese and Hakka) — or some combination thereof.
Here's Namewee himself rapping about the language situation in Muar (Mápō 麻坡), the Malaysian town he comes from:
Apparently his mother runs a coffee shop (a typically Hainanese trade in Malaysia) there. This is one of his first songs.
And here he is proudly rapping in Hainanese:
Namewee early on became extremely famous and controversial because of his biting take on the Malaysian national anthem, which he calls "Negarakuku", where "kuku" sounds like the word for penis in Hokkien:
Some of his songs mock religion, which is — to say the least — pushing the envelope in Malaysia.
Linguistically, Namewee seems to have a special talent for soaking up languages like a blotter and then spinning them out in some kind of creative mix.
Here's one of him singing about Thai culture:
Quite an amazing talent, but always pushing the limit.
Finally, we started out by determining how Namewee got the last part of his name: it comes from the Hokkien or Hainanese pronunciation of his Chinese surname, 黃 (MSM Huáng). Many readers have undoubtedly long since speculated that the first part of his name ("Namewee") comes from the English word "name". We shall end by affirming that is indeed true. Namewee fancies that Meng Chee 明志 (MSM Míngzhì) sounds like míngzì 名字 ("name"). Sure enough it does, and it is just that sort of linguistic cleverness that enables Namewee to churn out one provocative song and one edgy video after another.
[Thanks to Yixue Yang, Geoff Wade, Leander Seah, Janet Williams (Geok Hoon), and Yilise Lin]
Johnsmith said,
June 2, 2018 @ 9:36 am
The Japanese subtitles for Aoi Sora say 青い空 instead of 蒼井そら.
Erik said,
June 2, 2018 @ 11:20 am
When I first visited Japan, I asked the taxi driver to take me to the "Comfort Inn" /ˈkʌmfɚt ˈɪn/. He had no idea what I was talking about. We spent several minutes trying to get on the same page. When we finally figured it out, he triumphantly said "コンフォートイン" (konfōto in) /konɸoːto in/.
The funny thing is that I knew enough Japanese to have been able to come up with "コンフォートイン", but I didn't say it that way because it felt like making a stereotype out of Japanese mispronunciation of an American name.
But of course, that's not really what's going on. "Comfort Inn" is a brand name that has a big enough presence in Japan that I'm sure they even say "コンフォートイン" in Japanese commercials, just like "Subaru" is pronounced /ˈsubəɹu/ in the US and not スバル /subaɾu/.
Gabriel Holbrow said,
June 2, 2018 @ 1:40 pm
Another interesting thing about the Tokyo Bon video is that even though all of the video scenes, and many of the direct references in the lyrics, are of Tokyo, the background refrain of "hiya sasa" and the waving hands dance are markedly Okinawan.
"Hiya sasa" is distinctively Okinawan, and particularly associated with Eisā, the Okinawan o-bon dance (or so I am told).
The side-to-side waving hands dance is generally typical of Okinawan dancing, especially the kachāshi, the Okinawan celebration dance. There are probably o-bon dances with similar hand motions on the main islands of Japan, but the dancing in the video looks distinctively Okinawan to me.
This suggests something interesting about Namewee's entry points into Japanese culture.
Victor Mair said,
June 2, 2018 @ 5:21 pm
From a Malaysian Chinese correspondent:
Namewee is highly talented but I’ve found that he gets a bit repetitive now with his foreign songs. However his recent ‘duo’ in Taiwan has been quite successful and has won him some awards.
Yes Namewee is pushing boundaries so he even makes me feeling uncomfortable sometimes.
It’s quite rare to have ‘侨生’ [VHM: qiáoshēng 僑生 ("overseas Chinese student")] to Taiwan from Malaysia to be so successful in entertainment. His parents both sing beautifully and they are great supporters of him. Namewee had featured them in his videos before (singing with him). I think Namewee is a 异数 [VHM: yìshù 異數 ("exotic; unique type; one-off")] and he does make people uncomfortable。
I respect his creativity, but I do feel that he shows that he is a misogynist through some of his songs. Namewee has tried to explain that he has been misunderstood, and that he is a wonderful human being. With this new government we have, perhaps he will have more to sing about.
David Morris said,
June 2, 2018 @ 8:21 pm
Koreans use many of the same English loanwords. It would be quite easy to 'translate' this into Korean.
Captain Clouseau said,
June 4, 2018 @ 5:48 pm
Is there something going on with the options for closed captions (CC) on the video? There's three bracketed Chinese options I see now: Hong Kong; China, and; Taiwan. I am fairly sure that earlier saw Hong Kong, Simplified and Traditional.
Nicki said,
June 8, 2018 @ 1:31 am
Hainanese ftw! He does rap in Mandarin some there, too. Anyway, that video put a big smile on my face, lots of familiar scenery. Thanks!