異文化コミュニケーション楽しい時間 (Cross Cultural Communication Happy Hour)
Tupac vs. Biggie. 50 Cent vs. Ja Rule. Eminem vs. GLAAD. Jay-Z vs. Nas. Rick Ross vs...Kreayshawn...er...anywho. There's plenty of beef to go around in Ameica, and I ain't talkin' about the stuff Oprah bashed on her show 15 years ago. One of my co-workers, Ryo, the cool guy who's into "underground" hip hop and streetwear, asked me what beef meant, so I broke it down into it's noun form (quarrel, disagreement) and its verb form (fued) and gave some examples ("Me and Takeshi recently squashed our beef. But then I started beefin' with Junichiro because he said my girl smells like fish tacos!"). So I wondered...is there a Japanese slang equivalent to beef?
Hell nah.
But why?! Don't people around the world get into fights? Randomly stop talking to people? Spread vicious lies over drinks? Say, "Bitch, kick rocks?" in their language of choice? Yes, but in Japan they like to keep these sorts of things private-ish. And I have a feeling that beef and beefing wouldn't really work in such a passive aggressive culture. Nobody in Japan is gonna pull a Mike Tyson and flip out and talk about ripping stomachs out and eating children. They'd be more likely to be like, "Well, I think your mom is kind of nice and mildly attractive." Is it an insult? A backhanded complement? An actual complement? Who the hell knows! That's why there can't be real beef. You can't go "Ooooooo, you got dissed, son!" when you're busy trying to read between the lines and analyzing things to suss out the implied meanings.
That said, if beef ever were to really exist in Japan as it does back home, I've decided to call it gyutan.