September 03, 2008

Japanese language -- Tadaima Sanjyo

There's a phrase I've heard several places that I can't figure out. It sounds to me like "tadaima sanjyo" but that isn't right.

Nene says it in the first episode of Kirameki Project at time mark 18:35. Bart Garsus says it in the second to last episode of Vandread: The Second Stage. In both cases they say their names and then follow it with that phrase e.g. "Bart Garsus tadaima sanjyo". What it means is "I, Bart Garsus, have arrived!" or "I, Hyper-Nene, am here!"

"Tadaima" is, of course, the phrase everyone announces when returning home. What I can't figure out is the other word, or words. My first intuiton is that it would be a verb, but I can't figure out what.

Help?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Japanese at 08:54 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 129 words, total size 1 kb.

1 I believe the word you're hearing is 参上 (sanjou, "a visit") - the verb form is sanjousuru.

By the way, tadaima seems to be different from the usual way it gets translated - if you break it apart you get tada "just" and ima "now", which is the definition my dictionary provides for it. I assume that in the case of returning home, the full phrase is "tadaima kaerimashita", but the verb is frequently omitted.

I noticed it after hearing tadaima in a different context, specifically a waitress delivering food. However, my Japanese is mostly self-taught, so I may be making a fundamental error here. Any insight?

Posted by: TimF at September 03, 2008 09:50 PM (9QRdA)

2 Whatever it is, it's obviously an idiom that is used for something other than its literal meaning.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 03, 2008 10:02 PM (+rSRq)

3 Indeed. It's basically a way of saying "the heroes have arrived!" Massively hammy.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at September 03, 2008 10:05 PM (pfysU)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Enclose all spoilers in spoiler tags:
      [spoiler]your spoiler here[/spoiler]
Spoilers which are not properly tagged will be ruthlessly deleted on sight.
Also, I hate unsolicited suggestions and advice. (Even when you think you're being funny.)

At Chizumatic, we take pride in being incomplete, incorrect, inconsistent, and unfair. We do all of them deliberately.

How to put links in your comment

Comments are disabled. Post is locked.
6kb generated in CPU 0.0042, elapsed 0.0137 seconds.
21 queries taking 0.0105 seconds, 20 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.