Okazaki interviews, comments and pictures from the Japanese media

[Swiper]

I've got some really stupid questions for our Japan-based crew:

When Okazaki is called a "Samurai," is that because that's a nickname of his back in Japan, or is that a way of saying he's a Japan national team (Samurai blue) player (similarly, like when Mahrez is called a "fennec").

Is the "shin" part of Shinji related in any way to shinobi ("ninja")? Because if it is, then "The Shinobi" would be an awesome nickname for our man from Japan.

 

Even if there's no relation between "Shinji" and "Shinobi" as far as the way they are written and the way the characters appear in Japanese, I think "Shinobi" is a fantastic nickname for him. Really fits his playstyle!

Edited 16 August 2015 by Swiper

[Mike Oxlong]

Could chant

There's obi wan Okazaki

Wan Okazaki

There's obi wan Okazaki

[Finnegan]

Could chant

There's obi wan Okazaki

Wan Okazaki

There's obi wan Okazaki

Wh..-?!

[Mike Oxlong]

Wh..-?!

Did you mean WTF?

The man is a Jedi warrior. Bet he's tasty with a Lightsabre

Edited 16 August 2015 by Mike Oxlong

[Swiper]

My friend make it now.

Also h is ninja.

 

The Naruto thing fits pretty well given the fox theme, haha.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

"If he got an afro it would be perfect"

 

 

 

SHINJI AFROZAKI

[gerrytaggart]

SHINJI AFROZAKI

Fantastic

[CosbehFox]

I said the fans would love him. Works his arse off. Loved his 1980s arm pump celebration

[Manjiro]

More headlines please, Kushiro. 初ゴールとか！

[kushiro]

To continue Yuta's comments on the meaning of 'Shinji' (慎司）- the simplest way to think of it could be as follows:

 

Shin  慎　meaning 'humble'

Ji      司 　meaning 'perform task thoroughly'

 

Which gives you something close to 'humbly get the job done' or, at a push,  'less talk, more action'.

 

Japanese parents give a lot of thought to this. Male names often have connotations of strength or integrity, female ones beauty. I haven't found a definitive explanation of why Mr. and Mrs. Okazaki gave their son that name, so the above remains a little speculative, as Chinese characters can have a variety of nuances. Still, that seems the most obvious reading.

More headlines please, Kushiro. 初ゴールとか！

 

I'm working on it!

[norwichfox]

Many thanks for this Kushiro, I appreciate you sharing this. I've just read your introduction post and I'm looking forward to future posts.

Edited 16 August 2015 by norwichfox

[kushiro]

First a close up to see him and the Chinese characters 岡崎 (= Okazaki) properly.

 

[kushiro]

Now the full article. No translation needed for this headline.

 

 

[fleckneymike]

Now the full article. No translation needed for this headline.

 

561 2.jpg

 

This is going to sound really stupid/ignorant on my part but how do you know where one word stars and one ends, there doesn't appear to be space marks used between what I assume are words?

 

Those news reports with the use of fonts do make the game seem really really exciting though

Edited 16 August 2015 by fleckneymike

[kushiro]

The sub heading on the article above states: 英メディア称賛の嵐, which means 'storm of praise from the British media'. 

 

(英 is the character that means 'UK'.  In spoken Japanese the word for the UK is 'igirisu' (イギリス) which apparently comes from the Portugese word 'inglez'.)

 

In interviews for Japanese TV after the game he was saying 'I want to become a player who scores when it counts'. （ここぞというときに点を取れる選手になりたい）

Edited 16 August 2015 by kushiro

[kushiro]

This is going to sound really stupid/ignorant on my part but how do you know where one word stars and one ends, there doesn't appear to be space marks used between what I assume are words?

 

Those news reports with the use of fonts do make the game seem really really exciting though

 

Very good question, Mike. You're right - no spaces in Japanese. A full answer would take a long time, but here's a simple explanation:

 

Familiarity with the language is part of the story . So even in English, with a sentence like: 

 

Andnowyou'regonnabeliveus, 

 

as native speakers we can be pretty confident of where one word ends and the next begins even without spaces.

 

Japanese gives you extra assistance beacuse individual Chinese characters, unlike letters of the alphabet, have meaning.  

[fleckneymike]

Very good question, Mike. You're right - no spaces in Japanese. A full answer would take a long time, but here's a simple explanation:

 

Familiarity with the language is part of the story . So even in English, with a sentence like: 

 

Andnowyou'regonnabeliveus, 

 

as native speakers we can be pretty confident of where one word ends and the next begins even without spaces.

 

Japanese gives you extra assistance beacuse individual Chinese characters, unlike letters of the alphabet, have meaning.  

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer. It's fascinating seeing how another culture reports on our efforts.

 

One final question, and again apologies if it sounds ignorant/stupid but my understanding of how characters work is next to zero, how are new words invented in Japanese? Do you have to spell them our character by character before deciding upon a new 'character' or can you create a charcter and people who be able to identify the 'sound' of it?

 

Edited to add, I ask this question because I wonder if Leicester could get a character or whether we'd have to stick with レスター

Edited 16 August 2015 by fleckneymike

[yuta]

I find the news about Okazaki's game from Yuki Abe who was in Leicester before.

He talked about variously.

He said ”I think I'll visit to play/Sightseeing to Leicester in a off season.”

[Larry_LCFC]

I've decided I ****ing love Japan.

[kushiro]

Thanks for taking the time to answer. It's fascinating seeing how another culture reports on our efforts.

 

One final question, and again apologies if it sounds ignorant/stupid but my understanding of how characters work is next to zero, how are new words invented in Japanese? Do you have to spell them our character by character before deciding upon a new 'character' or can you create a charcter and people who be able to identify the 'sound' of it?

 

Edited to add, I ask this question because I wonder if Leicester could get a character or whether we'd have to stick with レスター

 

Another great question. In Japanese, only a few select countries are given their own special character. The UK (= 英) is an example. For most words introduced from other languages, Japanese has a special alphabet called katakana. レスター (= Leicester) is an example. Here's how they make the word:

 

レ　 =  re

ス    =  su 

タ    =  ta

ー      makes the 'a' sound longer

 

That gives us:

 

resutaa

 

But the 'u' in 'su' is typically silent, so we end up with this pronunciation:

 

restaa,

 

which is the closest Japanese can come to the English pronunciation of 'Leicester'. (At least in the opinion of the person in the distant past who chose this spelling. Actually, レスた (= resta) would be closer, but that's another story).  

 

 

In China, there are no special alphabets, only 漢字 (pronounced 'Kanji' = Chinese characters). So the Chinese word for Leicester is :

 

莱斯特,

 

made up of characters with sounds that match the phonemes of the word 'Leicester'. The word for 'Manchester', you can see, has the same two characters at the end.

 

曼彻斯特

 

Should Okazaki inspire a first ever league title, I'm sure we could petition the Japanese Ministry of Education to come up with a special character and make 'Leicester' the only western city to have such an honour. 

Edited 17 August 2015 by kushiro

[Larry_LCFC]

Another great question. Only a few select countries have their own special character. The UK (= 英) is an example. For most words introduced from other languages, Japanese has a special alphabet called katakana. レスター (= Leicester) is an example. Here's how they make the word:

 

レ　 =  re

ス    =  su 

タ    =  ta

ー      makes the 'a' sound longer

 

That gives us:

 

resutaa

 

But the 'u' in 'su' is typically silent, so we end up with this pronunciation:

 

restaa,

 

which is the closest Japanese can come to the English pronunciation of 'Leicester'. (At least in the opinion of the person in the distant past who chose this spelling. Actually, レスた (= resta) would be closer, but that's another story).  

 

 

In China, there are no special alphabets, only 漢字 (pronounced 'Kanji' = Chinese characters). So the Chinese word for Leicester is :

 

莱斯特,

 

made up of characters with sounds that match the phonemes of the word 'Leicester'. The word for 'Manchester', you can see, has the same two characters at the end.

 

曼彻斯特

 

Should Okazaki inspire a first ever league title, I'm sure we could petition the Japanese Ministry of Education to come up with a special character and make 'Leicester' the only western city to have such an honour.

I've decided I ****ing love you aswell .

[fleckneymike]

Another great question. Only a few select countries have their own special character. The UK (= 英) is an example. For most words introduced from other languages, Japanese has a special alphabet called katakana. レスター (= Leicester) is an example. Here's how they make the word:

 

レ　 =  re

ス    =  su 

タ    =  ta

ー      makes the 'a' sound longer

 

That gives us:

 

resutaa

 

But the 'u' in 'su' is typically silent, so we end up with this pronunciation:

 

restaa,

 

which is the closest Japanese can come to the English pronunciation of 'Leicester'. (At least in the opinion of the person in the distant past who chose this spelling. Actually, レスた (= resta) would be closer, but that's another story).  

 

 

In China, there are no special alphabets, only 漢字 (pronounced 'Kanji' = Chinese characters). So the Chinese word for Leicester is :

 

莱斯特,

 

made up of characters with sounds that match the phonemes of the word 'Leicester'. The word for 'Manchester', you can see, has the same two characters at the end.

 

曼彻斯特

 

Should Okazaki inspire a first ever league title, I'm sure we could petition the Japanese Ministry of Education to come up with a special character and make 'Leicester' the only western city to have such an honour.

Fascinating. Thanks.

Does this mean that language, or rather spellings, don't evolve quite as quickly in Japan as they do in the UK if you have a ministry controlling characters?

[kushiro]

Fascinating. Thanks.

Does this mean that language, or rather spellings, don't evolve quite as quickly in Japan as they do in the UK if you have a ministry controlling characters?

 

The charcters are pretty much fixed. School children have to learn about 2,000 of them. The only changes the govenment makes are occasional tweeks to this number. But language is incredibly flexible here. I posted above about how Okazaki is often called Zakioka here, flipping the two halves of his surname. Generally, the Japanese have a very playful attitude to language. This may or may not be a reaction to the strict requirements for polite language when speaking with senior work colleagues.

[Dan LCFC]

Becoming one of my favourites already. He's got the lot for me.

[kushiro]

This headline could be translated as 'Okazaki is so courageous'. The content of the article (see post below for detail) tells us that the word 'courageous' is referring to his all-round performance (including the head injury).

 

Edited 17 August 2015 by kushiro