Q 01/05

What does the Japanese word karaoke, coined for singing over a backing track, literally mean?

A) Borrowed melodies

B) Empty orchestra

C) Open stage

D) Drunken chorus

Answer · why

B) Empty orchestra

Empty orchestra is the literal sense: 'kara' means empty and 'oke' is clipped from ōkesutora, a borrowing of the English word orchestra. So the term i...

Q 02/05

What does the Japanese word emoji literally mean, despite its chance resemblance to the English word 'emotion'?

A) Picture character

B) Colored expression

C) Little face

D) Feeling symbol

Answer · why

A) Picture character

Picture character is the literal meaning, from 'e' for picture and 'moji' for character. The symbols spread worldwide in the 2010s, after Unicode bega...

Q 03/05

The monster name Gojira, anglicized as Godzilla, is said to blend the Japanese words for gorilla and which animal?

A) Lizard

B) Shark

C) Whale

D) Dragon

Answer · why

C) Whale

Whale is 'kujira' in Japanese and gorilla is 'gorira', which together give Gojira. In the best-known account it was the nickname of a burly employee a...

Q 04/05

Japanese speakers call a green traffic light 'ao', a color word that normally translates into English as what?

A) Yellow

B) White

C) Black

D) Blue

Answer · why

D) Blue

Blue is the usual translation of 'ao', an old color word that also took in green. Japan's 'go' signals are still called ao, and so are green apples an...

Q 05/05

Some Japanese hospitals and hotels have no room four because 'shi', a word for four, also means what?

A) Death

B) Sorrow

C) Fire

D) Debt

Answer · why

A) Death

Death and four are both 'shi' in Japanese, which makes the number unlucky. Speakers often prefer the alternative reading 'yon' instead.