1.The Theme for our 7/19 Episode, #AdultingIn5WordsOrLess
The theme for the July 19th episode of Sekai e Hasshin! SNS Eigojutsu was #AdultingIn5WordsOrLess. We featured posts from Twitter users who were expressing what it means to “adult" in five or fewer words.
The nonstandard use of adult as a verb and in the gerund form adulting has entered the English lexicon over the past decade, chiefly used by or in reference to the millennial generation. Adulting is about acting like an adult by doing the things that adults regularly have to do on a day-to-day basis. How is adulting different from the idea of behaving or acting like an adult? Why did the concept of adulting develop? Let’s look at some #AdultingIn5WordsOrLess tweets for some insight.
Sparkling or still water? Sparkling #AdultingIn5WordsOrLess
— Tom (@Surround2ound) June 25, 2019
Weekend plans? Doing the laundry. #AdultingIn5WordsOrLess
— Myles Lyon🇨🇦 (@Lyonpryde1080p) June 24, 2019
A treadmill of responsibilities #AdultingIn5WordsOrLess
— Jane Roberts - PastToPresentGenealogy 🇺🇦 (@JaneElRoberts) June 22, 2019
As these tweets show, adulting refers to the kind of mundane tasks and chores and choices that are familiar to any adult living in a modern society in a developed nation. These are superficial acts that many would scoff at as being so obvious as to be trite; however, the tweets reveal an awareness of lingering immaturity, still not fully comfortable in the shoes of an adult.
Although we can assume #AdultingIn5WordsOrLess was meant as a lighthearted theme for a hashtag game, the tweets speak to the fact that we do not wake up one day and suddenly feel like we’ve become an adult. Rather, the realization sets in over time as we go through the mundane tasks of everyday adult life.
2.Adulting and the English Language
In English, there are many ways in which we talk about adulthood. One word we use is grown-up, which emphasizes the distance between a child and adulthood, and is mainly used by adults talking to children, or children talking about adults. Growing up, whenever a number of families would gather at somebody’s house for dinner, there was a grown-up table and a kids’ table. When adults are having a conversation and a child tries to butt in, the child is made to wait because the adults are having a grown-up conversation. Children grow up dreaming about someday being let into that grown-up world, proudly declaring,“When I grow up..." To a child, an adult is a vague concept, but a grown-up clearly has it made.
Another word commonly used in reference to adulthood is mature. Mature means to become fully grown or developed. When used in reference to certain foods or drinks—wine, whisky, cheese, meats—it means to ripen and become ready for consumption. When used in reference to people, it can mean fully grown and developed physically, as in “she had become a mature woman" or “You’ve matured!", as well as level-headed and responsible, as in “she is very mature for her age".
In contrast, the opposite of mature is childish or immature. When you want to tell someone that they are being immature, you tell them to “grow up", or, if you’re the sarcastic type, you tell them that they are “very mature". Other mature phrases include mature artist, mature economy, and mature decision. Emotional maturity is the ability to manage your emotions calmly, while sexual maturity is the biological capability of an organism to reproduce.
In Japanese, the word adaruto (アダルト) is most commonly used to refer to sexually explicit content intended for adults. Adult entertainment in Japanese is adaruto sangyo (アダルト産業) or fuuzoku sangyo (風俗産業), while adult films are known as AV (short for adult videos). And currently, adult magazines are being phased out of their corners at convenience stores nationwide. Then there’s the term adultery, which refers to voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone who is not their spouse. Interestingly—but perhaps not surprisingly, given their essentially opposite meanings—adult and adultery have completely different etymologies. Adult comes from a Latin word meaning “to grow", while adultery comes from a French word meaning “to corrupt". Some say that the phonetic similarity is partly why the word adult has come to hold dirty, indecent connotations.
3.Adulting and the Japanese Language
Japanese people love to use “adult" as an adjective, as if the modifier instantly makes things fit for adults. There are a number of commonly used phrases that are particularly challenging for a translator.
Take the prevalence of travel packages advertised as being otona no kyujitsu (大人の休日, a holiday for adults) or otona no ryokou (大人の旅行, a vacation for adults). The publishing house Kodansha even has a monthly magazine called Otona no Shumatsu (『おとなの週末』, a weekend for adults). The copy is puzzling—for any self-respecting American adult, the “adult" thing to do would be to plan your own vacation based on the activities you want to do. While there may be activities for kids prepared at a destination, they are merely supporting players in your getaway, and overuse of the term “adult" should raise red flags. Japanese tourism-related copy can be a challenge to translate into English when the client is overeager to emphasize how “suited for adults" a destination is. And while Japanese people like the sound of a vacation for adults, Americans prefer the sound of an adults-only vacation.
Japanese adults also appreciate otona no aji (大人の味, which might be roughly translated as “an acquired taste")—things like beer, black coffee, soba (buckwheat noodles) and shiokara (the salted and fermented innards of squid or other seafood), which you can’t appreciate as a child but come to understand as an adult. To an American, everybody has likes and dislikes when it comes to food, making it impractical to categorize certain foods as being for adults or for children. What’s more, Americans have long been known for their unsophisticated culinary tastes—you eat pizza and hamburgers as a kid, and will more than likely eat pizza and hamburgers as an adult, and later in your more “mature" years.
In recent years the term otona-gai (大人買い, an adult purchase) has also come into vogue. Otona-gai is when an adult buys something cheap in bulk. In English, an “adult" purchase would be something you buy that makes you feel like you’ve become an adult—like your first car. In the Japanese usage, it’s not immediately clear what is so “adult" about buying in bulk.
Japanese people also like to use the phrase dekiru otona (できる大人, an adult who is good at doing things). By that, what is usually meant is that a person fully grasps the mores of society and acts and speaks in accordance with those unwritten rules. Similarly, an adult who deals with trouble calmly and without getting angry has just shown otona no taiou (大人の対応, a grown-up response). And when a company or an adult individual cannot elaborate or divulge something in public, or when they simply want a reason to not have to explain the truth to their children, their go-to excuse is otona no jijo (大人の事情, grown-up circumstances). In contrast, Americans are more direct, saying in no uncertain terms, “none of your business".
The prevalence of the word otona in Japanese reflects the central position children hold in Japanese society. It speaks to the fact many things in Japanese society are implicitly intended for kids. In contrast, adults are at the center of American society, and things for children are the exception, not the rule.
I’ve written about this cultural difference between Japan and the U.S. before, in LANGUAGE & EDUCATION #016. In Japan and the other rice farming based countries of Monsoon Asia, children have historically been cherished as a source of manpower, tasked with helping the family make ends meet. Meanwhile, in the U.S.—and other Western societies—children were wicked, lacking knowledge of the world and morals, and insufficiently mature to serve as manpower. As a result, in Japan it was considered virtuous for kids to remain as kids and remain at home, where they could contribute to their family’s wellbeing; in the U.S., it was considered virtuous for kids to grow up as soon as possible so that they could join the workforce and become independent.
In Japan, the concept of otona can be very vague. It’s no wonder that there are so many self-help books and magazines and television shows about navigating those waters. As a translator, it’s a constant challenge to convey these cultural differences. To this day, I have no idea how to translate the Japanese phrase dai no otona (大の大人, which roughly translates to “a grown grown-up").
4.The Paragon of Adulthood in Modern American Society
In our #AdultingIn5WordsOrLess episode our resident commentator Sasaki Toshinao-san talked about how the tweets showed young people (millennials and Generation Z) struggling to navigate the treacherous terrain toward adulthood. We live in times when the big questions have become “What is true happiness?" “What is a fulfilling life?" and “What should our relationship be with technology?" With the traditional paragons of adulthood crumbling before our very eyes, the answers to these questions are not yet clear. (Case in point: the Donald Trump baby balloons seen flying at protests in the U.K. and across the U.S.)
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Ever since Millennials began entering the workforce, older generations have denigrated them as entitled, emotional, and selfish. On a previous episode of our show where we featured the hashtag #StrugglesOfAMillennial, we explained that Millennials, who are generally known for being interested in eating healthy, were being chastised for their supposed love of avocados—told that if they didn’t spend so much money on the smooth, creamy fruit, they’d be able to afford a house. That sentiment, of course, misses the point. Millennials do not accept at face value their parents’ obsession with owning a house, and more generally, material wealth; they prefer to use their hard-earned money on quality food. They are determined to navigate a different path to adulthood.
That shift in values is representative of a larger paradigm shift in modern society. For so many previous generations, it was considered virtuous to sacrifice rather than follow your own desires, work diligently to provide for your family and give your children every opportunity to enjoy a better life than the one you experienced. As a result, many Millennials grew up in relative comfort, taught from a young age to be themselves, and repeatedly told that if they put in the effort, they could accomplish anything. Meanwhile, from the perspective of Millennials, they’ve been saddled with the fundamental problems and injustices largely left unaddressed by the generations that came before them: the environment, gun control, money worship, globalization, etc. And all signs indicate that Millennials and Generation Z—or their children—will have to pay the price.
With all the talk about bills and responsibilities, #AdultingIn5WordsOrLess may seem frivolous on the surface. Read between the lines, however, and you begin to notice the underlying sarcasm and frustration toward the idea that such mundane actions and considerations could truly constitute what it means to be an adult. How noble is it to go through the motions if there’s no thought or heart put into it? If those holding positions of power in our world are truly representative of what it means to be an adult, then perhaps the generations coming of age are better off not growing up, so to speak.
In any case, my preferred way to “adult" is to kick back at home, listening to the AOR music that captivated so much of Japan in the 80s, sweet potato shochu on the rocks in hand, savoring shiokara and fine tsukemono (preserved vegetables) from Kyoto. It’s in those moments, tipsy and swaying ever so slightly to the smooth sounds of Boz Scaggs, that I think to myself: maybe the Japanese idea of otona is not so bad after all.
5.My Wardrobe This Episode
“Coraux" loafers by Paraboot
Pink linen shirt by Azabu Tailor
Orange chinos by Brooks Brothers
Dark red long socks by Tabio
