New Japanese - Google

Japanese is evolving, just like any other language that is used today. Occasionally I come across very interesting new Japanese words when talking to young people.

One that I came across recently is a word that is also finding its away into the vocabulary of most languages spoken in developed countries, the “verbification” of the popular internet search engine, Google.

In English we can use Google as a verb in everyday conversation now to mean, “I searched for it on Google.” For example a conversation could proceed as such…

Sam: “Hey where did you learn so much about the organization of wolf packs man? Did you read it in a book or take a class on it?”

Max: “Oh I didn’t learn anything any of that in school or from from a book, I just googled it last night and found tons of information!”

Likewise, in Japanese, you can say the following.

Tanaka: 「え、オオカミの群れの組織について詳しいね、どっか学校か本かなんかで学んだの？」

e, ookami noi mure no soshiki nitsuite kuwashiine, dokka jyugyou ka hon ka nannka de mananndano?

Eh, you sure know a lot about the organization of wolf packs. Did you learn that from school or a book or something?

Sato: 「いや、本とか学校じゃないよ。ただ、昨夜「オオカミの群れ」をググったら、たくさんの情報が出て来たよ。

iya, hon toka gakkou jyanaiyo. tada, yuube, “ookami no mure” wo guguttara, takusan no jyouhou ga detekitayo.

No, not books or school. It’s just that last night I googled “ookami no mure” and lots of information came up!

Otherwise, you can also conjugate the verb ググる just as you would any other Japanese verb.
ググる。ググった。ググって。ググれば。ググれ。ググれない。Etc.

Interesting! If you Google the term ググる I’m sure you can find many examples of this word in action! Like, this website explaining about the word ググる！ Here is a long thread in Japanese discussing the same.

- Harvey

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