Two things that really drive me nuts when English speakers talk about Japan…

The first one is when they call Okonomiyaki “Japanese pancakes”.

Seriously people, do you lack imagination so much? What is the link between an Okonomiyaki and a Pancake? The fact that they’re both round, flat and contain flour? Pizzas also are round, flat and contain flour… Well, now that I think of it, I’ve heard Okonomiyaki being called Japanese Pizza too.

And I’m not even going to go to the ethnocentric side of the issue. Imagine one second Japanese people calling a Hamburger “American Yakiniku.” That would be as ridiculous.

The second thing is when people add “Island” after the name of an island ending by -jima or -shima, like in “Ogijima island.” I mean seriously, you don’t have to be fluent in Japanese to understand in about half a second that if almost every island in Japan has a name ending with -jima or -shima it’s because those suffixes mean “island”  and when you say “Ogijima island” you’re actually saying “Ogi island island.”

That’s it, I’m done ranting for today, but this really drives me nuts.