Ad Text in Japanese:
「尾形係長、非常停止ボタンはここですよ。」
Bottom White and Yellow Text:
「ホームでは黄色い線までお下がりください。」
「プラットホーム安全キャンペーン」
I love the facial expressions on these guys faces in this ad…. So much that I’m going to give it to you again.
Now, what is this poster talking about?
For a hint, the guy on the right is drunk out of his mind. The guy on the left is a sober train station employee. The button they are pointing to, is the big red button”.
Let’s get into the text.
「尾形係長、非常停止ボタンはここですよ。」
「尾形」is just a proper noun, someone’s name, pronounced “Ogata”.
「係長」is pronounced “kakaricyou” and is basically means, “the head person in charge”. 「係」
In Japanese you know that usually people’s names is followed by 「さん」or 「様」as a matter of politeness. In situations such as business, or in schools, these extensions can be replaced by things such as 「先生」for teachers, or 「社長」「部長」or「課長」for business situations.
「非常停止ボタン」This is pretty much word for word what the Kanji and Katakana says. 「非常」is “emergency”, 「停止」is “stop”, and 「ボタン」is “button”. This is the “emergency stop button.”
It’s worth breaking down 「非常」. The Kanji 「非」generally means “negative” or “not”. For example, the word, 「人道的」means “humanitarian”, and in contrast the word 「非人道的」means “inhumane”. For example, 「非人道的犯罪」is “crimes against humanity”. I felt a little guilty pulling out such a formal word as “humanity” to explain this point, but usually 「非」is used in higher level Kanji words such as this. Of course,
「〜はここですよ」 is pretty simple. 「は」is the particle, and 「ここですよ」simply means “is here!”
So this first section means, “Mr. Ogata (the guy in charge), the emergency stop button is here!” (Note that the drunk guy on the right is Mr. Ogata, and he is a salaryman, so he is a “kakaricho” apparently.)
「ホームでは黄色い線までお下がりください。」
You have probably been exposed to this phrase hundreds of times if you are living in Japan. This is the phrase that is repeated at every station before a train pulls in.
「ホーム」This one is tricky at first. It is Katakana, and pronounced like “home” in English, but in fact, it means “form”, as in “Platform”… The train platform.
「黄色い線までお下がりください」
「黄色い線」 is simply “yellow line”. You’ll notice the yellow line painted on the ground, which also doubles as the raised blocks for guiding the blind, on the train station platform. 「まで」in this case means “until”. 「お下がりください」is the honorific form of 「下がってください」. The verb 「下がる」means to “go down” or “stand back” in this case. This verb has many uses, and can also mean “to hang”, “dangle”, or even “decline”, as in “the price of gas is declining” 「ガソリンの価格が下がっている」.
「プラットホーム安全キャンペーン」
「プラットフォーム」means “platform”. 「安全」means “safety”, and 「キャンペーン」simply means “campaign”. This last part is pretty straight forward. It means “platform safety campaign”.
You may also see the 「安全」Kanji on those good luck charms (お守り) that you can get at temples. A popular one is 「交通安全」which means “traffic safety” and is supposed to keep you from getting into traffic accidents.
Dispute!
I don’t know why this post refers to the drunk dude as Mr. Ogata… I think he might actually be a famous television personality. Also, I’m not even sure if he is really supposed to be drunk or not in this poster… He looks drunk to me… Which would explain why they need to point out the emergency button… I mean, he might fall onto the tracks and get himself into trouble… However a Japanese person told me that he might not actually be drunk, and that just might be the way he normally stands and smiles… I dunno.
Anyone got an opinion on this?
That’s all!
- |Harvey
