A pain in the bum
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Here’s an interesting look by DIMSDRIVE Research at one particular Japanese word, 面倒くさい, mendokusai, bothersome. The word can be literally translated as “the smell of trouble”, and I always internally translated it as “a pain in the bum”, thus the title of today’s post.
Demographics
Between the 28th of April and the 12th of May 2010 13,802 members of the DIMSDRIVE monitor group managed to make enough effort to fill in a private online questionnaire. 52.4% of the sample were male, 0.6% in their teens, 8.5% in their twenties, 28.1% in their thirties, 32.8% in their forties, 18.9% in their fifties, and 11.0% aged sixty or older.
Here’s one Japanese-English dictionary with a number of example sentences.
I often mutter mendokusai under my breath at work, usually at procedures at work that are far more complicated than they need be. I did spend five minutes typing out a description of one of the work procedures, but then realised that there’s another even bigger pain in the bum, but as it’s too mendokusai for me to type it out, tough!
I’ll stick with mendokusai throughout this article, because as you can see from Q2SQ1, there are many nuances.
Research results
Q1: Do you think that you yourself are mendokusai? (Sample size=13,802)
Quite so 27.3% To some degree so 47.5% Can’t say 16.0% Not really so 8.1% Not at all so 1.2% About 85% of those in their twenties thought of themselves as , whereas just 55.9% of those over 60 were of the same opinion.
Q2: Do you use mendokusai in normal conversation, etc? (Sample size=13,802)
Often (to SQs) 22.3% Sometimes (to SQs) 47.7% Rarely (to SQs) 26.0% Never 3.9% 88% of those who rated themselves as rather mendokusai also at least sometimes used mendokusai, whereas just 7.0% of the not at all mendokusai often said it.
Q2SQ1: With what implication or nuance do you often use mendokusai? (Sample size=13,257, multiple answer)
Nihongo English 手数がかかる Troublesome 69.1% 煩わしい Awkward 66.9% 厄介 Cumbrance 48.8% うっとうしい, うざい Irritating 37.3% 大変 Difficult 32.1% ややこしい Complicated 31.2% ダサい Primitive 30.7% 拒否したい Want to refuse 25.1% イライラする Annoying 19.9% しつこい Persistent 12.1% うるさい Noisy 7.3% Other 0.6% Q2SQ2: Which people that you deal with do you think are mendokusai? (Sample size=13,257, multiple answer)
All Male
N=7,237Female
N=6,565Spouse, partner 25.3% 19.9% 31.1% Boss 21.2% 25.5% 16.5% Co-workers 15.5% 17.4% 13.4% Mother 13.5% 10.8% 16.4% Children 12.2% 6.9% 17.8% Neighbours 11.9% 8.2% 15.9% Strangers 10.4% 10.6% 10.3% Father 9.6% 7.8% 11.5% Acquaintances 8.8% 7.1% 10.7% Subordinates 8.7% 12.7% 4.4% Relatives 8.7% 5.9% 11.7% Friends 8.0% 6.0% 10.1% Mother-in-law 7.5% 2.4% 13.0% Siblings 6.1% 4.8% 7.5% Father-in-law 4.6% 1.7% 7.9% Siblings-in-law 3.4% 1.4% 5.7% Opposite sex 2.9% 2.9% 3.0% Boyfriend, girlfriend 2.5% 2.3% 2.7% Other family 1.6% 1.2% 2.0% Students in the same class 1.2% 1.1% 1.3% Older students 1.1% 1.1% 1.0% Younger students 0.6% 0.6% 0.7% Other 4.8% 5.3% 4.3% No-one in particular 27.1% 32.0% 21.9% Q2SQ3: Which circumstances do you think are mendokusai? (Sample size=13,257, multiple answer)
Telephone, doorstep sales 47.3% Cleaning 42.6% Interpersonal relationships 40.1% Getting along with the neighbours 33.6% Getting along with the relatives 30.9% Customs, rules 28.6% Washing dishes 26.9% Cooking 23.6% Throwing out rubbish 23.3% Washing clothes 22.0% Keeping excess body hair under control 21.1% Work 20.6% Wining and dining 19.1% Telephone 16.7% Hospitals 15.8% Shaving 13.3% Letters 12.9% 12.0% Having a bath 11.1% Makeup 10.9% Setting hair 9.9% Looking elegant 9.7% Studying 8.5% Marriage 8.1% Shopping 7.9% Love and romance 6.5% Child-rearing 4.7% Taking dog for walkies 4.5% Other 1.6% Nothing in particular 7.5% Q2SQ4: Which kinds of people do you think are mendokusai? (Sample size=13,257, multiple answer)
Self-centred person 50.0% Person who I cannot communicate with 49.0% Incessant talker 44.3% Person who keeps repeating the same story 43.2% Person who always boasts 42.8% Person who cannot sense the mood 41.8% Person who doesn’t listen to others 41.3% Person who gets clingy after a drink or two 39.9% Person who’s always talking about himself 34.1% Stubborn person 30.9% Contrarian 30.0% Negative person 26.8% Pompous person 23.5% Parent who always boasts about their children 22.8% Child-like girl 19.2% Lazy person 19.0% Person who changes character with different people 18.8% Tearful drunk 18.4% Talkative person 15.9% Narcissist 15.9% Hot-blooded person 14.9% Eccentric girl 13.9% Person who always boasts about their pet 13.2% Over-positive person 13.0% Person who refers to themself in the third person 6.3% Person who is afraid of strangers 5.8% Other 2.2% No-one in particular 8.4% Q3: Do you think you have lots of friends or not? (Sample size=13,802)
Lots 4.0% Quite a lot 12.3% Can’t say 30.1% Not so many 21.7% Few 31.8% People who often say medokusai are less likely to report having many friends.
Q4: Do you usually use mobile phone email? (Sample size=13,802)
Yes (to SQ) 84.3% No 15.7% Curiously, those who often say medokusai were more likely to use mobile phone email than those who didn’t, although that could be explained by younger people being more likely to say medokusai.
Q4SQ: What kinds of mobile phone email do you think are mendokusai when you receive them? (Sample size=11,630, multiple answer)
All Male Female Frequent email 36.7% 34.7% 38.5% Difficult to read with no line breaks email 31.0% 29.7% 32.2% Difficult to read with no punctuation email 30.6% 28.7% 32.3% Decomail and other over-elaborate email 23.7% 23.2% 24.2% Midnight email 22.5% 20.0% 24.9% Email with photographs or other large attachments 18.3% 17.8% 18.8% Email sent with little effort 13.5% 14.2% 12.9% Email finished with a doubt that needs a reply 13.4% 11.5% 15.3% Email full of heart marks 11.2% 11.2% 11.3% Other 5.6% 4.7% 6.6% None in particular 22.9% 25.8% 20.2%
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