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Re:The Opa Language by bishop_mandible on Saturday July 11, 2015 @04:41AM (#9869084)
Every German speaker will read this as "The Grandpa Language".
Re:The Opa Language by KMag on Saturday July 11, 2015 @06:00AM (#9869226)
"Opa" is very easy to learn to pronounce, and not surprisingly is used in many languages to get the attention of some of the more important people a young child may need help from. Many many languages use ma and pa/ba for parents, and I'm not surprised that opa is used for other relatives by many languages.

I'm not Korean, but my understanding is one reading might be "Mister Language". Several of my Korean friends address me as "Karl Oppa" or just "Oppa". (Yes, "opa" isn't the standard Romanization, and the word order isn't correct.)

In Korean "oppa" is the word for older brother used by a younger sister, and by extension, an honorific used by a younger woman to show respect for an older man. (When my Korean friends meet someone new, they quickly figure out who's older, even by just one year, in order to figure out who's supposed to use the honorific addresses.)

Imagine if in English, we only used Mr. and Ms. when talking to someone who's chronologically older, and had different forms depending on if the speaker is male or female, and furthermore it was considered very rude not to use the title where appropriate. Oppa is kind of the word for "mister" used by women, but is mandatory in many more cases than would be expected in English.

Re:The Opa Language by curiousjorge on Saturday July 11, 2015 @11:50AM (#9870191)
It always irks me, I don't know when this trend started but when I moved away from Korea in the mid 90s as a young child this was strictly a honorific for older brother from a younger sister OR maybe I was just unaware of the trend because I was a kid.

So I get grossed out when a Korean girl calls me oppa and I have expressed my discomfort which was met with a cold response (I guess they really like calling older men oppa), part of the reason I never date younger Korean women. That and the whole 'mister' or aekyo (adult women emulating an infant) shit I find very creepy and unattractive. There's this national inclination for young women, sort of like Japan's obsession with schoolgirls.

On the other hand, being called 'ajusshi' which doesn't carry the same affection as 'oppa' and intended for much older men and some Korean men take offense when addressed as 'ajusshi' but less so than Korean women who go apeshit when I made the mistake of calling them 'ajumma'.

on an offtopic side note, Oppai in Japanese means tits.

Re:The Opa Language by evincarofautumn on Saturday July 11, 2015 @02:21PM (#9870949)
> Imagine if in English, we only used Mr. and Ms. when talking to someone who's chronologically older, and had different forms depending on if the speaker is male or female, and furthermore it was considered very rude not to use the title where appropriate.

In parts of the South, you’re still expected to use “sir” and “ma’am”, particularly with strangers. Most speakers find this a bit old-fashioned or excessively polite, though.

Re:The Opa Language by wofo on Saturday July 11, 2015 @04:49AM (#9869105)
Also Dutch speakers :P
Re:The Opa Language by erkaes on Saturday July 11, 2015 @05:00AM (#9869124)
Also Indonesian speakers :P (we got it from you Dutch)
Re:The Opa Language by pavelludiq on Saturday July 11, 2015 @06:31AM (#9869273)
In Bulgarian it could be translated as "oops! language". Really, really unfortunate.
Re:The Opa Language by StavrosK on Saturday July 11, 2015 @05:42AM (#9869188)
And Greeks are dancing to it.
Re:The Opa Language by pmontra on Saturday July 11, 2015 @05:55AM (#9869212)
OPA in Italian is IPO in English (actually not only Initial, any of them). Definitely a good omen for startups :-)
Re:The Opa Language by icebraining on Saturday July 11, 2015 @07:12AM (#9869350)
On the other hand, it means Takeover (of a public company) in Portuguese. (OPA = Public Offer of Acquisition)
Re:The Opa Language by ushi on Saturday July 11, 2015 @04:57AM (#9869117)
if you can do all the shiny web things by writing grandpa code, this might be a good thing :)
Re:The Opa Language by phaed on Saturday July 11, 2015 @05:15AM (#9869151)
That is really unfortunate.