Ash Hardell’s “The ABC’s of LGBT+” in Japanese!
…..annnd look what i randomly* stumbled across at the bookstore tonight. Ash Hardell’s “The ABC’s of LGBT+” in Japanese! even Amazon Japan doesn’t seem to have it yet, but somehow Kinokuniya has it? which makes absolutely no sense, but hey! not complaining. it’s a complete translation of Ash Hardell’s book, including a lot of ace and non-binary terminology such as aceflex, quoiromantic, genderfluid and maverique transliterated phonetically into Japanese approximates.** even the [English] pronouns section is translated into Japanese, which i kinda have feelings about as to how helpful that and / or phonetic translations will be for Japanese people who will be approaching this book from a cultural and linguistic context that is not the same as that of a native English / germanic or romance language speaker. that said, at a glance, there does seem to be added explaination of English grammar to help non-English speakers better understand gender…
Q&A: “…is there are word for “aromanticism” in Japanese?”
livingxvxfaith said: Hi Vesper! I was wondering, is there are word for “aromanticism” in Japanese? For アセクシャル/アセクシュアル there’s アセクシュアリティー, but I can’t find an official Japanese noun companion for アロマンティック… hi. 🙂 ‘aromanticism’ is phonetically transcribed as アロマンティシズム in Japanese, but it’s very rare that i see anyone actually using that word. actually, even アセクシャリティ / ‘asexuality’ isn’t used often. outside of perhaps academia or writing where someone is discussing sexual orientation(s) in an abstract or objective way, it’s more common to use adjectives or adjective phrases… that is, if any distinction is even being made between ‘asexual(ity)’ and ‘aromantic(ism)’ at all. ……but anyway uhhhhhhh. yeah. アロマンティシズム is the word you’re looking for, although there’s nothing particularly ‘official’ about any of these words or language in general? unless we’re talking French or something.
Feedback: “it is so fucking cool to know that there is a resource for me to learn about queer language and culture in [Japanese]…”
anonymous said: Can I just say that as someone who’s currently learning Japanese in school, it is so fucking cool to know that there is a resource for me to learn about queer language and culture in this new language. glad to be of help, anon. 🙂
Q&A: “So using “jibun” can work as a personal pronoun?”
anonymous said: hey i saw your post about how to say you’re NB in japanese and that’s super cool but i have a question. So using “jibun” can work as a personal pronoun? because i’ve seen it as such but i also thought it was closer to use it for the word “oneself” rather than a simpler “i” or “me”. Also it might mean “yourself” in kansai dialect or something? Could you expand on that if it’s not too much trouble? please and thanks ( re: this post ) 自分 (”jibun”) is a reflective pronoun that generally refers back to the person using it. how it translates into English is simply a matter of grammar (ie. what grammatical role it’s serving within a sentence). 例 / example: ※ 自分は別に納豆が嫌いなわけじゃないけどさ… JP： jibun wa betsu ni nattou ga kirai wake janai kedo sa… EN：it’s not like i particularly hate natto or anything, but… ※自分の誕生日さえも忘れちゃって、超恥ずかしい。…
Q&A: “what does Xジェンダー mean?”
anonymous said: Heya! Sorry to bother you, but what does Xジェンダー mean? Is it literally the Japanese translation of non-binary? Or has the same meaning? Thanks according to 「Xジェンダーって何?」, Xジェンダー (”x gender”) is: 性自認を表す言葉の一種で、出産時に割り当てられた男性もしくは女性の性別のいずれに二分された性の自覚を持たず、自己の性別に関し、男女どちらでもない、あるいは男女どちらでもある、さらにはそれすらもどちらでもないっといった認識を自己の性に対してもっている人々のことを指す日本独自の呼称です。 a word that refers to a gender identity; a term unique to Japan to refer to people who do not identify as either of the two genders, male and female, that are assigned at birth, but rather self-identifies as neither male nor female, both male and female or as a different gender entirely. while i don’t have any sources to link to at the moment, i’m fairly certain that Xジェンダー was coined in Japan completely independent of “non-binary” in the English language. in fact, i’m also fairly certain that it was coined before usage of “non-binary” in reference to gender in English, but again, no source links because i’m too tired to dig for them. either way, Xジェンダー is…
Q&A: “Would you mind telling me some basic LGBT vocabulary in Japanese?”
hush-hush-little-heart said: Hi! I just found out about your blog, and I’d like to ask you something. I’m part of the LGBT community, and next year I’m going to study a Japanese Philology at the university. Would you mind telling me some basic LGBT vocabulary in Japanese? Just so I can understand and talk a bit about it, please ♡ (I’m a trans boy, and pansexual btw :3) oh also! (sorry i forgot to write it in the other ask) Do you know anything about getting hormones (testosterone, in my case) in Japan? Is it easy? Just in case, because I’d like to have a job/live there in a future, at least for some time hi. 🙂 sorry for taking so long to get to your asks. regarding LGBT terminology in Japanese, it’s a little hard to answer that question because it’s so broad…. so instead, i’m going to…
Q&A: “I’ve explained to my mom a couple of times what asexuality and aromanticism are and how they differ…”
buffintruda said: I’ve explained to my mom a couple of times what asexuality and aromanticism are and how they differ but she can’t remember. She’s very supportive of me being aroace so I don’t think it’s purposeful. Japanese is her first language so it might be better to explain in Japanese, but I can only speak English. I understand if you’re busy, and this isn’t too important, but if you have the time and energy, could you link a website that fully explains it or write your own explanation? Thank you! hi! sorry for taking so long to respond to your ask. i’ve decided to respond to it publicly because others may find the information in it useful, but i will gladly take the post down if you’d so prefer. just let me know. i don’t know whether your mom will find this easier to understand or not, but this…
Q&A: “I showed a friend your post about how to say you’re nonbinary in Japanese, but he’s a demiboy…”
anonymous said: I showed a friend your post about how to say you’re nonbinary in Japanese, but he’s a demiboy and there wasn’t anything for demiboys specifically on the list. I was trying to figure out what would work (barring katakana), and I came up with 半男、やや男、and 男の一種. Which of these would be better (or is there already a Japanese term?) (re: this post) sorry for taking so long to respond to your ask! i’m afraid that i haven’t come across a Japanese equivalent (or even approximate) to “demiboy” (or to demigenders in general). the closest thing that i can think of is the commonly used: FtMよりのXジェンダー / FtM yori no x-gender /(an) FtM-ish non-binary (person) 男よりのXジェンダー / otoko yori no x-gender /(a) mannish non-binary (person) ………mmmm, yeah. *cough* as i said, these phrases are commonly used in Japanese, but your friend may not feel comfortable using them. understandably so. i would caution…
Q&A: “I heard that “nonsexual” means non-aro ace and “asexual” means aro ace in Japan.”
anonymous said: I heard that “nonsexual” means non-aro ace and “asexual” means aro ace in Japan. I’m still confused about general Japanese terms in the ace community. If you don’t mind, could you please explain the most commonly used terms? hi, anon. you heard correctly, “asexual” (Aセクシャル) doesn’t mean what it means in English in Japan.
Q&A: “have you/would you ever made a vlog where you speak japanese?”
anonymous said: have you/would you ever made a vlog where you speak japanese? i’m a japanese learner and aside from all of your other vlogs which are of personal interest to me, i thought it would be really cool to hear you speak japanese! (of course you’re not obligated to if you don’t want to ^^) also, do you have any tips on learning? i studied a bit in school but now i’m entirely self-studying and i feel like i’m hitting a plateau first off, thanks for watching my vlogs and sorry for taking so long to respond to your ask. re: speaking Japanese in a future video i haven’t spoken Japanese in any of my videos to date and haven’t really given any thought to speaking Japanese in my vlogs since i know that 99% of my channel’s viewership doesn’t speak Japanese and may not be particularly interested in…
