Japanese Tongue Twisters Lesson 2

April 19th, 2009

Here’s the second lesson. It’s one that a bunch of commenters have mentioned. It’s still pretty simple, though. I don’t usually say the bus guide part, though, usually. I dunno, I guess I feel bad calling someone ugly. By the way, the “busu” comes from the word “busaiku” (不細工) as far as I know. It means “homely” or “plain.” Not very nice. But when you shorten it into a slang expression, which is then spelled in katakana, it becomes stronger. Hence “ugly.” One thing that’s helpful in saying this one quickly is to remember that the u sound on many words that end in su can be sort of…de-emphasized. (That’s why desu sounds like “dess” sometimes and not “de-soo” all the time.) Be judicious when applying this shortcut, and mimic native speakers to use it properly – but for tongue twisters, I say it’s fair. :-D Video responses with you attempting this tongue twister are highly encouraged!

Difficulty: Easy
Kanji: バスガス爆発(ブスバスガイド)
Hiragana: ばすがすばくはつ(ぶすばすがいど)
Romaji: Basu-gasu-bakuhatsu (busu-basu-gaido)
Meaning: Bus gasoline explosion (ugly bus guide)
Audio:

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  • Literati
    Marvelous! I'd already read this a while ago, but I've been so busy I haven't had time to comment. Seriously, though, great.

    The first part reminds me of the sentence "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." Somehow, that works out to be gramatically correct.

    And I just miiiight make a video response to the first video, and then this one. Maybe. They'd be my first (self-recorded) videos ever. :D
  • love it

    if i wasn't so camera shy i'd do a response
  • You should toootally do a response! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! (Peer pressure!)
  • Endless
    This one is hilarious :) The first time I heard this was during a L'arc~en~Ciel concert when they had Ken do this and one other. Awesome :)
  • I'm glad you enjoyed it. Ha ha. What was the other one he did?
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