Talk:Kuwabara kuwabara

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This article was nominated for deletion on 21/8/2006. The result of the discussion was keep.

Contents 1 Spelling in Japanese 2 Another legend 3 Famous in English? 4 Not Wiktionary 5 "Out of place" or "not right"? 6 Deletion?

[edit] Spelling in Japanese

It would be nice to have this phrase in Japanese

There you have it: 桑原桑原, or at least, as near as I can figure out. --mordicai. 23:21, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Another legend

For another legend, see ja:和泉市#寺院. Fg2 05:12, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Famous in English?

We read: "The phrase was arguably made famous in English...."

Its fame hasn't reached me. In which English dictionaries does it appear? -- Hoary 08:12, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Not Wiktionary

This is an encyclopedia, not a dictionary; why list this phrase? -- Hoary 08:12, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. Also, why is this on the English wikipedia, not the Japanese one? I think this article should be deleted. 2_of_8 (talk) 01:14, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

One day after posting the message above, I nominated this for deletion. As you can see, it got three "keep" votes and two critical comments that fell short of explicit "delete" votes. The person closing the debate chose to say (without elaboration) "The result was keep." It can be nominated for deletion a second time, but for that to have a chance of success you'd have to show that something was seriously misrepresented in the previous AfD, or that the article had deteriorated with little prospect of recovery, or something similarly stunning. Merely saying that intelligent folks such as yourself didn't have the chance to state your points the first time around, or that the "keep" voters were dumb, or whatever, wouldn't hack it. -- Hoary (talk) 02:30, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

It's one of the reasons that I'm losing faith in Wikipedia: it's being constantly filled with culture-specific articles, completely ignoring the "world perspective" part of it. And the people likely to vote in a AfD nomination are the ones who want to propagate this culture-specificity. =( 2_of_8 (talk) 14:01, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't know what you mean by culture-specificity. If it's that "Kuwabara kuwabara" is a Japanese and not an English phrase, that doesn't worry me at all. I'm happy to create and edit articles on subjects that are known in Japan but utterly unknown in the English language, and I only wish there were people doing the same for Latvian, Azerbaijani, Guatemalan and other non-anglophone stuff: really, the mania for specifically anglophone trivia appals me more (see this). As for the interest in specifically Japanese trivia, well, great numbers of en:WP contributors (not including me) seem to be mad keen on Japanese comic books, cartoons and computer games and seem to thrill at opportunities to cite these.

What seems odd to me is that "Kuwabara kuwabara" is a phrase. I suppose it gets its article because it's a speech act phrase: there seems to be a de facto exemption for words so used, which (I think) is why there's an article on the word "Fuck" but not on the word "Read" or "Walk" (both mere redirects); there are also, quite properly, encyclopedic articles on the activities Reading, Walking and Sexual intercourse (but not Fucking). -- Hoary (talk) 15:10, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Let's put it really simply. Why is an article about a Japanese phrase, not used outside of Japan, transliterated into English and put on the English wiki? Should it not be on the Japanese Wiki?

By extension of this idea of taking one language's phrases and describing them in another, should I take random words from, say, Russian, transliterate them into English, and describe that word with its English counterparts' definition, but tack on "in Russian" at the end? Should I take the Russian word Хлеб, meaning bread, and create an article on WP:en called Hleb, and say "Hleb means bread, in Russian." 2_of_8 (talk) 18:34, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Out of place" or "not right"?

We read:

"Kuwabara kuwabara" is a phrase often used in Japan when something is felt to be 'out of place' or 'not right'. The two words together would be uttered when one person feels something is wrong. It is akin to saying the English phrase "bread and butter" to ward off bees.

No dictionary I have seconds this. A native informant I've just asked is very surprised to read it too. (Incidentally, I've never heard, or even heard of, "bread and butter" being used to ward off bees.)

If this material is encyclopedic (which I very much doubt), what's the source for this? -- Hoary 08:12, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

I've never heard of "bread & butter" either, & think a better example in English would be "knock on wood." mordicai. 16:35, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Apparently, use of the phrase "bread and butter" as a magic formula to ward off bees isn't widespread. Surprisingly, as a phrase divorced from its literal meaning, it goes back to Lewis Carroll, but the use is different. "Knock on wood" would certainly be meaningful to a lot more people. Please do substitute it. Fg2 21:34, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

It googles, therefore it is. I found *one* Google hit for "bread and butter bread and butter" ward off bees -alice here. I had put it in the article because it's a magic formula, like "kuwabara kuwabara," and even has the same number of syllables. Fg2 09:56, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Alright then, there you have it. I left it in, but added "knock on wood" for clarity of example. Bread & butter, huh? Who'd've thunk. mordicai. 16:48, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Deletion?

Why delete this article? Clean & expand, sure, but I for one think the subject of superstition is worthy of inclusion in Wikipedia. mordicai. 16:48, 21 August 2006 (UTC)