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Names of different foreign languages in Japanese Posted by on Jul 30, 2014 in Grammar

I recently came across this video below. The famous “FROZEN”, “LET IT GO” sung in 25 different languages.  As you know, the movie, Frozen is famous world-wide. When I first watched it at the theater, I didn’t think this movie was going to be that popular around the world. Perhaps that’s because I don’t have a daughter. Although my boys really liked the movie, they don’t sing the song, “Let it go” at home like my friends’ daughters.

While I was in Japan, it was so obvious that this movie took a big hit in Japan.  You could hear the Japanese version of the “Let it go” almost everywhere, including, book stores, grocery stores, drug stores, and clothing stores.

The “Let it go” in 25 different language inspired me to write this article. Here are the different foreign languages and how we would call them in Japanese. The key point here is that we add the word “Go, 語、ご” at the end of each language. “Go, 語、ご” means “language” in Japanese.

 

ENGLISH 英語 EIGO
HINDI ヒンディー語 HINDI-GO
SPANISH スペイン語 SPEINGO
ARABIC アラビア語 ARABIAGO
PORTUGUESE ポルトガル語 PORUTOGARUGO
 RUSSIAN ロシア語 ROSHIA GO
JAPANESE 日本語 NIHONGO
GERMAN ドイツ語 DOITSUGO
KOREAN 韓国語(朝鮮語) KANKOKUGO
FRENCH フランス語 FRANSUGO
VIETNAMESE ベトナム語 VETONAMUGO
TURKISH トルコ語 TORUKOGO
DANISH デンマーク語 DENMA-KUGO
DUTCH オランダ語 ORANDAGO
SWEDISH スウェーデン語 SWE-DENGO
POLISH ポーランド語 PORANDOGO
HUNGARIAN ハンガリー語 HANGARI-GO
CATALAN カタルーニャ語 KATARU-NYAGO
ITALIAN イタリア語 ITARIAGO
SERBIAN セルビア語 SERUBIAGO
BAHASA MALASIA マレーシア語 MARE-SHIAGO
BULGARIAN ブルガリア語 BURUGARIAGO
NORWEGIAN ノルウェー語 NORUWE-GO
THAI タイ語 TAIGO
FLEMISH フラマン語 FRAMANGO
CHINESE 中国語 CHUGOKUGO

I believe I covered most of the languages, but if you don’t see a particular language above, and would like to know what it is called in Japanese, please let me know.

I have to post this again, “Let it go” in Japanese version. This song is sung by Takako Matsu. This Japanese version has been very popular.

Let it go phrase has been translated into “Arinomama、ありのまま”. “Arinomama、ありのまま” means more like “let it be” in my opinion but it was translated this way to better fit into Japanese version of this song.  Enjoy!

 

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About the Author: keiko

Born and raised in Japan. She currently lives in U.S. with her husband and two kids.