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How to say "The West" in Japanese

If you are wondering what's the Japanese word for "The West" you've come to the right place!

the Japanese word for "The West" is "Oubei", written in japanese as "欧米".

Here's a more detailed explanation:

The noun '欧米 (おうべい)' refers to Western countries, particularly those in Europe and North America. It is a common way to collectively refer to the highly developed nations of the Western world. This term is often used in contrast to Japan and other Asian countries. For example: The culture of the West is quite different from that of Japan - (欧米の文化は日本の文化とはかなり異なっている). The economies of the major European and North American countries are considered to be part of the 'West' - (欧州と北米の主要国の経済は「欧米」と呼ばれている).

The Kanji are characters that represent meanings. As you can see, this word is made up of 2 Kanji:

The kanji "欧" means "Europe" and "Europe" and can be read as "Ou". And The kanji "米" means "Rice" and can be read as "Mai", "Bei", and "Kome".

Now, let's make sure you understand this word the other way around too.

What does "Oubei" mean in japanese?

"Oubei" means "The West".

To learn more about the kanji in this word, checkout this pages:

What is the Kanji for Europe and europe?What is the Kanji for rice?

If you also want to learn how to write this word in Japanese, you can checkout this page:

How to write "The West" in Japanese

To make really sure you learn this word, I've prepared an interactive lesson for you. You are going to learn the readings and meanings of this word and of the characters that comprise it.

But first, you need to know a little bit about Hiragana and Katakana.

Hiragana and katakana are japanese syllabaries, this means that each character represents a syllable.

This are the characters you need to know for this lesson:

The hiragana "お" is read as "o". The hiragana "う" is read as "u". The hiragana "ま" is read as "ma". The hiragana "い" is read as "i". The hiragana "べ" is read as "be". The hiragana "こ" is read as "ko". And The hiragana "め" is read as "me".

About kanji, you need to know that most Kanji have two types of readings: Kunyomi, based on native japanese pronunciation. And onyomi, based on chinese pronunciation.

You are finally ready for your free japanese Lesson.

Heres a quick tutorial on how to use it. You'll be asked three type of questions: meaning, reading, and writing.

For meanings questions all you have to do is type the english meaning. If there is more than one meaning, you have to include them all in your answer separating them by commas (,).

For Reading questions you have to type the reading in romaji (roman letters, our normal alphabet) and it'll be automatically converted to hiragana if necessary. If there is more than one reading, you have to include them all in your answer separating them by commas (,).

For Writing questions some options will appear and all you have to do is select the correct ones.

How to say "The West" in Japanese oubei