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Tuesday, June 3, 2008

大同小異 ・五十歩百歩

大同小異
だいどう しょうい
dai dou shoui

and

五十歩百歩
ごじゅぽ ひゃっぽ
gojyupo hyappo

This year, I've been lucky enough to get to travel to Thailand, Cambodia, and India, which have all been interesting experiences, since I'm used to living in an Asian country where I can manage with the language. Fortunately, you can get by with English in most of the places where sightseers would go. Even so, the little language mishaps that occur when you, say, order food or ask to go to a specific guest house, are frequent. And they're often dealt with by the locals in the same way.

Definition (in order top to bottom):
少しは違っていても、大体は同じなこと。
わずかな差はあるが、大まかに見れば同じであること。
Translations:

1. Same difference.
2. Six of one; half a dozen of another
3. Same same, but different.

Anyone who's been to Thailand has heard number 3, without doubt, but I have to say that so far, India has been the king of this kind of rationalization for being mistaken... although I don't think the term mistaken applies because most times, the incidents were most likely intentional. Once a friend and I ordered two different meals and were given two of the same meals. Our waiter's explanation: Fried Chicken and Sweet and Sour Chicken are the same thing.

例文:
「大同小異」と「五十歩百歩」の違いは何でしょうか?大体一緒です。
What's the difference between "Daidoushoui" and "Gojyupohyappo?" Same difference.

2 comments:

lisze said...

A: これは Pepsi。Coke がほしかった。

B: 大同小異、よ。

A: This is a Pepsi. I wanted a coke.

B: Same difference.

Bobby Judo said...

People who think that there's not a significant difference between Pepsi and Coke should be sterilized... with Pepsi.