クマのプーさん

こんにちは (konnichiwa, hello)! Welcome to 何だっけ (Nandakke), a silly observational blog about me learning Japanese.

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For some initial context, in Japanese there are honorifics appended to people’s names.

• さん (-san): for someone older or more experienced, like adults. Polite and respectful.
• ちゃん (-chan): for someone younger or less experienced, like children or pets. A little endearing.
• くん (-kun): for a close friend or pal, mainly among boys.

Disney movie titles and character names sometimes are a little different in Japanese from English, so when talking with someone about a movie, we might have to look up the titles in our respective languages to make sure we’re on the same page. I was surprised to find out that Winnie the Pooh translates to クマのプーさん (kuma no pu-san).

クマ (kuma, bear) is usually written in hiragana rather than katakana as it is here. But Pooh-san ?? San! Is Winnie the Pooh not the most innocent, cuddly, childlike character? Surely -chan is more appropriate here, or even -kun if from Christopher Robin’s perspective. But -san implies he is older or wiser, which—I think by all accounts—he is not.

プーさん comes from the original 1940 Japanese translation of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne, from 石井桃子 (Momoko Ishii), who wrote and translated children’s books. I’m not sure if there was ever a reason given for why, but everyone I’ve spoken with about this says that プー (Pooh) alone kinda sounds weird. I think on that, we can all agree.