Japan loves Acronyms.

Every foreigner living in Japan is going "duh" right now, but I wouldn't consider this an obvious fact to those that haven't lived here when thinking about about the country and culture.

This is random, but I thought I would add a note about it after the last post.

Take DV. In Japan, it is widely used, and is short for Domestic Violence, often pronounced "Dee - Bwee". We joke about it a lot (sort of punching each other and yelling DV, DV), but now I am sort of wondering if there is an acronym for it here because it is so common. Maybe not so funny if that is the case.

One interesting thing, though, is that we often use English acronyms in place of Japanese words, or create a new word with the acronym that is essentially a new English word and holds meaning here... but often doesn't mean anything in English-speaking countries.

KY ("kay - why") is a good example. It is actually my favorite Japanese word/phrase right now, too.

KY stands for kuki yominai (or "can't read the situation/environment"). It is basically a word used to describe a person or who doesn't know how to act appropriately to the situation (we would probably just say awkward in English). You can use it for situations that are uncomfortable, too (like, "that situation was so KY" - meaning awkward), although I should also mention not all KY people are considered really awkward in Japan (they may be shy).

I really like the use of these acronyms (hmm, maybe because I moved here directly from working at a corporation in America?), but I am also starting to wonder if I am going to have issues with them when I get back. I mean, people here know what air con, a konbini and KY mean... but do you? Starting to forget these are not regular English words :-P