"Japlish" Words
I didn't want to join this cool forum just to post a recruit/request message, so in the hopes of giving back some... (and if everyone already knows the below, it's the thought that counts, right? ^_^;
It is becoming increasingly common in Japan to deal with the influx of new words (particularly in the IT field) by just taking the foreign word and incorporating its phoneticized version into the Japanese language. Most of them (like コンピューター) are pretty straightforward, so we can just put our brains on hold and transliterate the words back into English. But sometimes, the way the word is used enters the Twilight Zone and confuses English speakers because a simple transliteration may result in a confusing or even incorrect translation. I've had several translators ask me about these words before, so I thought it might be helpful to list some of the more common twilight-zone 外来語. They're usually verbs:
アピール
Parent word: appeal
What it means in Japanese: to emphasize or to promote (though it can actually mean "appeal" in select cases, it's rarely used as such)
スカウト
Parent word: (recruit) scout
What it means in Japanese: to recruit, to headhunt
フォロー
Parent word: follow (up on)
What it means in Japanese: to cover for, to ameliorate, to smooth over
メリット・デメリット
Parent words: merit/demerit
What it means in Japanese: pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages
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