Wakamonokotoba and abbreviations

Japanese really is an interesting language. Because it's a society that values politeness, honor, and respect, there are many different ways of saying the same sentence depending on who you are speaking to.

For example: In English if I went to an office somewhere wanting to speak to someone, I would probably just say: "Is M. Smith in?" or "Is it possible to speak to M. Smith now?" or even "Has M. Smith arrived yet?"

But in Japan, because the pecking order (hierarchical relationship) must be respected at all times, I would have to say : スミスさんはいらっしゃいますか？ (Sumisu-san wa irrashaimasuka?) which translates to "Is the honorable M. Smith in yet/available?

Anyhow, I don't want to focus on keigo (honorific language) in this post. I'll keep that for a post in itself because there's a lot to be said on the subject.

In fact, I'm going to talk about the complete opposite of keigo. In Japanese, they have what they call "Wakamonokotoba" which translates to Young People's language, or as we usually call it in English, slang.
However, compared to English, Japanese slang is almost like a whole new language. The majority of adults haven't even heard of the following words: (Note: there are much more words than those listed here but these are just a few I've learned since I've been here)

- maji/majide: It means "really?" or "Are you serious?"
- chou: (pronounced chō) and means "very"
- mecha: (pronounced mettcha), also means "very"
- JK: stands for 女子高校 (joshi koukou) which means high school (for girls). Girls will use it for example to say : JKに戻りたいな　(I wish I could back to high school...)
- PK: stands for パンツ食い込んでいる (pantsukuikondeiru) which means that someone's (usually more for girls) panty lines are showing (weird, right?)
- KY: stands for 空気読めない (kuukiyomenai) which describes someone who is unable to read a situation. For example, he'll just jump in a conversation without paying attention to what people were talking about or talks on and on even though the listener is completely bored out of his/her mind
- hanakin: (花金) My roommate explained it to me but I'm not sure I remember the explanation correctly. The two characters stand for "flower" and "Friday", and it essentially means that because it's Friday and there's no school tomorrow, people can go out and stay out late. Apparently, we have an equivalent in English which I have never heard of but found on the Internet : TGIF = Thank God it's Friday ; )

Now they also have tons of abbreviations, words that are shortened from their original version:
(Some of these can probably be classified as slang as well, but some of them are used even by adults and written in newspapers)

- takuru: to go by taxi; shortened from takushi (taxi) de kuru
- copiru: to make copies; shortened from kopii o suru
- masukomi: mass communication, the media; shortened from masu komyunikeeshon
- pasokon: laptop, personal computer; shortened from pasonaru konpyutaa
- makku/makudo: McDonald's; shortened from makudonarudo
- tanpure: birthday present; shortened from tanjoubi (birthday) purezento
- buresuto: brainstorming; shortened from bureensutomingu

Interesting, eh? : )