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loser!
by samurai_tofu @ 12/11/2006 - 20:52:15

My 6-year-old son has been in a local english school for more than one year and has come to speak in english better than I.

One thing shocked me a little is that he and other children (and people at large) often use the expression "loser!"

It sounds very strong to me.

We usually think that when one won, one should not say that one won too much because someone lost and that is the rule.

In sumo wrestling, a japanese traditional sport, you will be warned if you display your victory. A mongolian Yokozuna-champion was once really critised very much. (judo, kendo, the same, but being internationalised, things are a little changing.)

Calling someone who lost "loser" after you won over them is impossible.

Is it because the english have been always winning against their enemies in wars?

Or just that is the world standard (shared at least by the english and monglian) and we are minority as is often the case.

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lizdavieslizdavies [Member]
12/11/06 @ 21:24

I agree with you that I wouldn't care to hear a small son of mine using that expression - I think often these trendy "catchphrases" are over used and people seem not to realise the hurtful nature of them. I think the point is, that the phrase is being used by small boys in its devalued sense - we wouldn't actually jeer at someone we had just defeated in a contest in that way, but only use it in a trivial situation.
It would be like another phrase that I don't personally like "I'll kill you!" - obviously not used to mean just that, only in the trivialised sense of "you just annoyed me; how can I get you back?"
That's the trouble with another language - many phrases don't mean what they say!
But I should still discourage your little boy from using the "loser" idiom - it isn't very kind.

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samurai_tofusamurai_tofu [Member]
12/11/06 @ 23:30

Thank you very much for your detailed comment.
My understanding about english people has got improved.

Actually, "I'll kill you!" did not shock me because we often use the same phrase in our own language although this would be far horrible expression than "loser!" when literally understood.

I sometimes hear foreign women who got married with japanese men in japan complain japanese expressions "master(shujin)" for husband and "deep inside(okusan)" for wife, saying "he is not my master and i work outside too!!!"

Most of the japanese can't help but just smile, being riminded of the original meanings of the expressions which were lost long before.

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[Visitor]

28/11/06 @ 21:48

It is a very bad use of the english language.

Children nowdays do seem to have strange turn of phrase, still I suppose it is better than swearing.

samurai_tofusamurai_tofu [Member]
28/11/06 @ 22:16

Thank you for your comment.

Really? Is swearing regarded as so bad?

We often fail to understand how much religion is important in this country.

This is related to my today's post Q62a.

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