Weird Japanese in a book I saw today

[tōkai devotee]

Hi all! I was in a bookstore today and I saw a book which caught my eye. It was called Kimonos, and it was it the kid's section. It was teaching kids some Japanese words and culture. Well, that was its aim, but it won't succeed. It had the Kanji 今日は instead of the kana こんにちは for hello. The romaji was there as konnichi wa. For the days of the week, the romaji was Getsuyoubi, kayoubi etc but in the Kanji they had just 月曜 , 火曜 without the 日.
I found many other mistakes in the book, including some words in Korean, not Japanese!!! I was totally shocked

[Adriano]

made in China? XD

[tōkai devotee]

made in China? XD

Hee hee! I didn't check. But it was not written by a Japanese person, that's for sure!!

[NileCat]

Is this the one?
http://www.motherdriven.com.au/public_p ... id_ART=796

[tōkai devotee]

Ah yes, NileCat-san, I believe that's the book! Very resourceful of you!!!

[Dustin]

Is this the one?
http://www.motherdriven.com.au/public_p ... id_ART=796

I like how this review gave the book a 6 out of 5 :p

[tōkai devotee]

I like how this review gave the book a 6 out of 5 :p

It could be a 6/5 for "cuteness and girliness"

[phreadom]

I thought those weren't technically wrong?

The days are listed as abbreviations in WWWJDIC when written that way, and even こんにちは can technically be written the other way but just usually isn't because it can be confused with きょうは, right? (This has been covered before on the forum)

Clearly the author isn't Japanese (she's French), but I didn't think those things were errors, so much as just not really standard?

[NileCat]

The original book seems to be written in French.
Taking a look at this, it’s kind of obvious that the choice of the words was made by a non-Japanese person. (But it’s not too bad, I think personally)

Here is another picture.

I found the choice of “愉” instead of “楽” interesting.

It seems this book has been translated into many languages.


The problems like -youbi/-you one might have occurred when they translated it into English, I suppose. (I couldn’t find the page on the internet)

Just one thing: The kanji for konnichiwa is not a mistake. You can render it with the kanji. (I don’t know if it’s good for children’s books, though)
http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF- ... 3406985300

EDIT: phreadom'd ninja'd me!

[Dustin]

What I thought was the MOST interesting was tokai's claim of Korean words in the book instead of Japanese in some cases.

Is there any more on this?

[tōkai devotee]

What I thought was the MOST interesting was tokai's claim of Korean words in the book instead of Japanese in some cases.

Is there any more on this?

I'm trying to find that out for you, Dustin, without much luck so far, but I'll keep looking! I may have to go back to the store and take a closer look and maybe even sneak a pic of it

As for the 月曜 , instead of 月曜日, it may not be incorrect but when the romaji was getsuyoubi, then it's a bit confusing.
As for the Konnichi wa, Kyou wa issue ..... Yes, I guess that's technically not a bad mistake either, and I have had letters and email from friends using the KANJI 今日は for hello, and I thought they were just having a joke.

[Dustin]

As for the 月曜 , instead of 月曜日, it may not be incorrect but when the romaji was getsuyoubi, then it's a bit confusing.

That's a good point too!

[phreadom]

In the picture above, it only says "getsuyou" for the romaji, but that's also not the English version of the book. Maybe it was an error just for the English translation? Either way, I think it's the first time I've heard it without the 日 at the end.
(maybe I've seen on a calendar or something where it made sense... since it takes up less space? and just never really noticed...)

And as a matter of fact, I think I've only ever seen it before as either the full 水曜日 or the fully abbreviated 水.

[Dustin]

Have you gone back to see this book yet ?!?

[tōkai devotee]

No, I haven't yet. It's not in my local area. I have been meaning to get there but just haven't had the time. There are not enough hours in the day.