Kaho’s Japanese Corner: "Kawaii" and "Kowai"

Back in 2008 we had a regular contributor, Kaho, whose first language was Japanese.  She wrote many posts with helpful information about commonly used and needed Japanese expressions, often added to the ends of her posts about shopping.  We’re turning her “Japanese Corner” tidbits into posts of their own so that you can hopefully feel more comfortable beginning to use what is likely still a foreign language for many of you. 

ORIGINALLY CONTRIBUTED BY KAHO in February 2008

Kaho’s Japanese Corner:“Kawaii” and “Kowai”

“Kawaii” means cute and “kowai” means scary.  They sound close to non-Japanese speakers and it seems that it’s hard to distinguish the pronunciation of the two.  You just have to enunciate correctly to make sure that you do not mix them up.  If you mean to say “cute” to someone’s baby and mispronounce it, you could be saying “your baby is so scary!”  No, you don’t want to do that.  Actually in some African countries, people say that a baby looks scary to be polite.  By saying that babies look scary, it is believed that bad spirits go away.  Anyways, get back to the subject…  Cute and Scary in Japanese are pronounced as below.

‘Kawaii‘
Ka is car pronounce with British accent
Wa is want without ‘nt’
Ii is ‘e’

‘Kowai‘
Ko is coal without ‘L’
Wai is why

Please feel free to correct the above pronunciation or put your way of explaining how to pronounce them in the comment section!

Want to read more of these helpful Japanese language posts?  Check them all out HERE.