Star Wars Japanese

I stumbled upon the Star Wars in English blog (英語でスターウォーズ） while checking up on some movie quotes for a presentation. Learning Japanese via movies like Star Wars has always been a fun way to pick up juicy new vocabulary without ever feeling like you are studying, but having the quotes on the web makes for a great chance to cut and paste your way to a Star Wars based repertoire of phrases:

ヨーダ「集中しろ！」
ルーク「なんてこった。これじゃあもう取り出せないよ。」
ヨーダ「そんなことはない。おまえはいつも弱音を吐く。わしの言ったことを聞いておらん。」
ルーク「マスター、石を動かすこととはわけが違います。」
ヨーダ「違わん。おまえが違うと思い込んでおるだけじゃ。固定観念を捨てろ。」
ルーク「わかりました。やってみます。」
ヨーダ「やってみるではない。やるか、やらぬかだ。試すなどない。」

Y: Concentrate!
Luke: Oh no. We’ll never get it out now.
Y: So certain are you. Always with you it cannot be done. Hear you nothing that I say?
L: Master, moving stones around is one thing. This is totally different.
Y: No. No different. Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.　
L: All right, I'll give it a try.
Y: Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.

Interestingly, unlike in English, Yoda's syntax in Japanese is regular, but he is given a distinctive wizened-old-man accent:
「わしの言ったことを聞いておらん.」
「...思い込んでおるだけじゃ」
「やるか、やらぬかだ」
Given his English is not so much ungrammatical as archaic 「Hear you nothing that I say? 」this seems to be an excellent way or rendering Yoda-speech.

May the フォース  be with you!

Tags learning Japanese | studying Japanese | star wars

Comments

[Paul D]

Do you know what なんてこった is a contraction of?

[Durf]

なんということだ！ is the base form for that one. An interjection of dismay.

[master-one]

I appreciate you referring to my Blog!
私のブログを参照していただいてありがとうございます！

Nihongojouzu is very interesting.
I am studying English. English is difficult for me.

日本語を勉強している人を応援しています。