Shitty Tower
- Katakana English: シティタワー
- sounds like: SHITI TAH-WAAH
- English origin word: city tower
- Actual Japanese word: 都市タワー(toshi tah-waah), 都市塔(toshi-toh)
Here the katakana words are a proper noun, ‘City Tower,’ the name of a new high rise condominium building. I can easily forgive the use of words from a foreign language in this case since English speaking countries also often borrow names from other languages, especially French, to make shopping centers, residential areas, and the like sound classy. But in this case the use of ‘city’ is a poor choice. Yes, the stereotype is true: Japanese, like most Asian languages, lacks a sound for sih. The closest they have is shi. So when they talk about this place, what comes out isn’t ‘City Tower,’ but rather ‘shitty tower.” Doesn’t sound like such a classy place to live after all.
Nohongo 