喝采

kassai
acclaim, herald

---

this was the word that convinced me that a friend was not actually fluent in Japanese but was using machine translation.
the story unfolds like this.
I'm addicted to the book of face. (Facebook)
I update my status with my cell.
yesterday, while driving toward the border during the afternoon, I complained about the snow in Burnaby.
several of my friends responded, including two that I know are fluent, and one who surprised me. I hadn't known he knew Japanese at all.
that comment was odd, but understandable. it seemed to be written by someone with a textbook (i.e., not a real-life) understanding of Japanese...
but then, the plot, like the snow fall, thickened...
(and don't I just love ellipses? they go so well with my e. e. cummings-esque avoidance of the uppercase.)
when I made it home after a harrowing drive on I-5, saving that rant for another day, I noted my relief on the book of face as well, and then my suspect friend posted something very odd in Japanese, including today's word:
私は嬉しい安全に得たホーム-喝采を
watasi wa uresii anzen ni eta houmu -- kassai wo
the best way to translate that would be to evoke Tarzan:
me happy. safely train platform gotten. acclaim!

I smell machine translation, don't you?

if we reverse engineer, I think that what my friend typed into Babel (or whichever auto-translator he used) was:
I'm glad you got home safely. Congratulations.
In normal Japanese, that'd be:
無事に帰れて良かった。おめでとう。
buzi ni kaerete yokatta. omedetou.
(leaving aside that Japanese don't normally congratulate one another in these instances...)

anyone notice the 'train platform' business?

more on that later...