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+--- Thread: Where does the である stereotype of Chinese residents in Japan come from? (/thread-3883.html)
Where does the である stereotype of Chinese residents in Japan come from? - TheTrueBlue - 2009-08-29
I've read that it's a stereotype in Japanese print or film for Chinese characters to use the copula "である" all the time. Is that supposed to make them should superficially bookish?
As a half-Japanese, half-Chinese Nisei who hasn't yet developed a native Japanese speaker's acute sense of what's おかしい or 変， I would like to know how such a copula sounds or what it could be compared to. And does anyone at all in Japan really use this copula in plain speech at all and if so, is there a reason they use it?
お願い致します。
Where does the である stereotype of Chinese residents in Japan come from? - Sebastian - 2009-08-29
That detail caught my attention while playing Guilty Gear with Jam.
You can see an example here.
Where does the である stereotype of Chinese residents in Japan come from? - albion - 2009-08-29
http://oshiete1.goo.ne.jp/qa664789.html
Some Japanese answers for あるね・あるよ, ranging from direct translation of the Chinese 「了」 to coming from various actors or fictional works.
Where does the である stereotype of Chinese residents in Japan come from? - TheTrueBlue - 2009-08-30
Ah thanks for the link albion, that Q&A page had some good answers.
And I used to play a lot of Guilty Gear when I was younger, I never noticed Jam talked like that! Her wheedly high-pitched "I just swallowed a flock of helium ballons" voice was already distinct enough.
有難うございました
Where does the である stereotype of Chinese residents in Japan come from? - Evil_Dragon - 2009-08-30
The funniest explanation I read was pointing at a special kind of "easy Japanese" developed to be taught in Manchuria during the Japanese occupation. Apparently, ending sentences in ある was a feature of this language, with its meaning being both the Japanese verbs of existance and the Copula.
I have no idea though if there's any truth in that story.
