What does suki mean?

[Takeru]

好き　ー　すき：　like; favorite
愛 ー　あい： love
恋　ー　こい： love (passion)
恋愛　ー　れんあい：passionate love (a bit over-the-top IMO)

Most of the differences are things that are almost incomprehensible by the western mind.

I guess one could compare it to why German has so many variants for "the", but then again, I may be wrong.

[Clarste]

Originally Posted by Takeru

好き　ー　すき：　like; favorite
愛 ー　あい： love
恋　ー　こい： love (passion)
恋愛　ー　れんあい：passionate love (a bit over-the-top IMO)

Most of the differences are things that are almost incomprehensible by the western mind.

I guess one could compare it to why German has so many variants for "the", but then again, I may be wrong.

"Western mind?" The Greeks are pretty famous for all their words for different kinds of love. Philia, eros, agape, etc.

Basically, all languages make different distinctions. Eskimos famously have some absurd number of words for different kinds of snow (not sure how accurate that is, but it's not implausible). Ancient Greek (again) has various words for different categories of knowledge that English doesn't distinguish between. I wouldn't be surprised if English has a variety of words for something that there's only one word for in some other language.

[Takeru]

Originally Posted by Clarste

"Western mind?" The Greeks are pretty famous for all their words for different kinds of love. Philia, eros, agape, etc.

Basically, all languages make different distinctions. Eskimos famously have some absurd number of words for different kinds of snow (not sure how accurate that is, but it's not implausible). Ancient Greek (again) has various words for different categories of knowledge that English doesn't distinguish between. I wouldn't be surprised if English has a variety of words for something that there's only one word for in some other language.

Hm, I was unaware of those.

I guess my point is that we may have several different kinds of love in the west, but we mainly use "like" and "love" because the others usually have to incorporate some sort of lengthy explanation for their meaning to be clear. But that's just my opinion. -shrug-

[Vexx]

I'm not quite sure why English descriptions for affection degenerated so much over the centuries. There are Greek and Latin terms for more refined measures of affection and more than a few lasted into Old/Middle English.

Nowadays, its gotten very difficult to describe your relationship or feelings about someone.
"I love my sister" can go all different directions.
"I love my best friend" (right, right, we're all gay, time to punch the gigglers)

It can get particularly tense when explaining a good friend of the opposite sex.
"My best friend, she... what? No!! right, you die now"
"I have this girlfriend, no, wait, she's a friend of the opposite sex... no, I'm not bonking her, we go hiking.. .argh! I kill you now!"

Then there's "sig.other", "partner", "life partner" (blech), "room mate" (what?)

Perhaps the safest solution is to simply punch the lights out of anyone who laughs

[Anh_Minh]

Explain nothing, punch anyone who asks.

[Phantom-Takaya]

To reiterate...

suki - like
daisuki - like a LOT/Love

[Spectacular_Insanity]

Originally Posted by Clarste

"Western mind?" The Greeks are pretty famous for all their words for different kinds of love. Philia, eros, agape, etc.

Basically, all languages make different distinctions. Eskimos famously have some absurd number of words for different kinds of snow (not sure how accurate that is, but it's not implausible). Ancient Greek (again) has various words for different categories of knowledge that English doesn't distinguish between. I wouldn't be surprised if English has a variety of words for something that there's only one word for in some other language.

I definitely agree. I think English probably is the language with the biggest number of synonyms in it, mostly because a lot of words are borrowed/adopted into it and just because it has so many different ways to say things. I would definitely say Greek or Latin come pretty close, but not quite just because they are older and haven't had as much time (relatively speaking) for newer terms and words to develop.

[Onizuka-GTO]

I like!!!







...that's my definition anyway, I prefer Aish'teru to "I love" to the more romantic interpretation

[Kang Seung Jae]

Mixture of like and love.

[Theowne]

I don't think "suki" is all that difficult to explain. We have a word in English...it's called "like". It can be used to describe liking a food or television. It can be used to describe liking the company of a friend of family member. Yet, it can also be used in a romantic context as well. It actually seems like this is one instance where English shares some similarities with Japanese.

[Kang Seung Jae]

Originally Posted by Theowne

I don't think "suki" is all that difficult to explain. We have a word in English...it's called "like". It can be used to describe liking a food or television. It can be used to describe liking the company of a friend of family member. Yet, it can also be used in a romantic context as well. It actually seems like this is one instance where English shares some similarities with Japanese.

I disagree, being able to speak in Korean, Japanese and English.


Suki is closer to the Korean word "좋아하다" than the English word "like". The main difference is that while "suki" covers a range from "having a liking" to "half-loving", "like" covers a lesser form of like.


If we put it into a scale on 1 to 10, suki covers from 3 to 7, while like covers 2 to 4~5.

[Phantom-Takaya]

Well, there is one thing that I remember about Japanese culture regarding relationships; "aishiteru," which we all understand as "I love you" is not common at all to the point that it's only used during special occasions such as say...Valentines (the Japanese equivalent at least), weddings and the like. It was never really explained to me why when I was there, though. So, I'm under the impression that the Japanese holds a very special meaning to that form of love.

So, I guess "suki" can be a Japanese equivalent of how most people in the US now-a-days refer to love in a loose manner, though I will continue to see "suki" as "like" than it is "love" and "daisuki" as "really like" and what I personally actually see as the actual Japanese equivalent of using "love" loosely, yet in a meaningful way for simply that moment and however long that moment lingers. Of course, in the end, I think it also depends on our personal preferences of the meaning of "love" and when it should be used.

[Theowne]

Originally Posted by Kang Seung Jae

I disagree, being able to speak in Korean, Japanese and English.


Suki is closer to the Korean word "좋아하다" than the English word "like". The main difference is that while "suki" covers a range from "having a liking" to "half-loving", "like" covers a lesser form of like.


If we put it into a scale on 1 to 10, suki covers from 3 to 7, while like covers 2 to 4~5.

I don't think I was really saying that the words have identical meaning. My point was more or less that it shouldn't be difficult to understand that "suki" can have multiple meanings in different contexts, just as "like" in English can be romantic or not romantic, and etc. It doesn't make any sense trying to pin it down certain meanings (as some people did in the first page) because it would be like describing the word "like" as "having a romantic affection for."

[WanderingKnight]

I'm not quite sure why English descriptions for affection degenerated so much over the centuries. There are Greek and Latin terms for more refined measures of affection and more than a few lasted into Old/Middle English.

Heh, Spanish has several words for that (and Spanish has considerably less words than English) to represent several levels of affection.

Originally, the verb "querer" (to want) was used when wanting to express personal affection towards your lover. However, with the advent of the Englishification of the language, it's been dropped in favor of a not-so-typical "amar" (to love). It still means the same, but nowadays it's more classy to say "te amo" than "te quiero". I blame the "I <3 NY" T-shirts.

We also have a different word for "girlfriend" (akin to "bride" in English).

[Satsuki Yuuhi Ramius]

Suki : Like or Love
Daisuki : I really like

[Amray]

If you watch the anime School Rumble you would hear this Japanese term in practically every scene. That is how I eventually came to understand what it meant.

[Jill Valentine]

Originally Posted by dot|hack

Suki means b*tch in Russian lol

Lol he/she is right, it's kinda funny sometimes

[Nosauz]

doesn't this make you sad, as an user of english, the language really loses the impact. "I love you" just doesn't have the impact of aishiteru. To me growing up with the english language has made me realize that so many other languages have "better" forms of expression, maybe its just because of the casual nature of love stateside but I just find it hard to get the same emotions out of english words, compared to other languages.

[Circular Logic]

Originally Posted by Nosauz

doesn't this make you sad, as an user of english, the language really loses the impact. "I love you" just doesn't have the impact of aishiteru. To me growing up with the english language has made me realize that so many other languages have "better" forms of expression, maybe its just because of the casual nature of love stateside but I just find it hard to get the same emotions out of english words, compared to other languages.

'aishiteru' sounds unbelievably foreign and unnatural in Japanese, fyi.

[Nosauz]

yea but its a word that hasn't lost its meaning compared to I love you, which is basically tossed out like their hershey kisses. Though all languages suffer from over usage. This is probably propagated by hollywood, and television, but I just feel english is just a really bad language to translate to, because it is so general.