The word めっちゃ is probably the most common kansai word I have heard. It means ‘a lot’ or ‘very,’ and replaces the word とても. I kept hearing this word all of the time and finally figured out its meaning. Another word is おもろい which replaces おもしろい and means ‘interesting.’ There are probably many other words that are Kansai dialect, however as I learn more every-day language in Japan, these words are never differentiated from “normal japanese.” There have been a couple times where my japanese friend has been asked to give us some words in Kansai-Ben, and she can’t really list more than three things., Kansai dialect is how she speaks, it isn’t anything different or unusual.
To me, adopting these words has been strange. In some instances, when describing something I try to adopt めっちゃ into my sentence and I am unsure whether I am using it correctly. I know I am, but because I learned a different word previously, it feels wrong when I say it. However, as my Japanese improves, I know that being immersed in the Kansai dialect will eventually cause me to use words from Kansai and I think that that is really cool.
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| A night out in Ebisuhigashi, Osaka. |
2 comments:
I agree with Mahala that the idea of the Kansai dialect was a little intimidating and not what I expected. In fact, I already knew the word めっちゃ and how to use it before coming to Japan. I didn't even know it was Kansai Ben, my friend at the immersion camp I worked at told me that it was simply an even more informal version of とても. Another word that I did actually learn in the last couple weeks is おきに or おおきに. I can't remember which way is the correct spelling but it means thank you.
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