Is there any idiomatic way to express doing an activity or behaving "like an old man" or "not in a cool way", particularly in the context of skiing?

Question

In English, "dad turns" is a slang term for a style of skiing. If you are making "dad turns", you are skiing like an old man.

I found 親父 which I believe is "pop". Is that the best translation for "dad" in this case?

I'm struggling to find the translation for "turns", the plural noun, as in ski turns.

As a person not into skiing at all, I have a hard time understanding the slang term even in English. I've read stop calling regular turns "Dad turns" and seen dad turns only (video), but still I don't get it. The video in the second link looks like a humor take on the "dad turns" thing so I'm not sure if it's representative of it, either. — jarmanso7, Sep 23 '23 at 18:24
I also have the feeling that "dad" can also be used to label other stuff besides "turns", Judging by the first link and by how to be a better dad cam, "dad cam" seems to be a thing as well. Do you also say things like "you ski like a Dad"? In any case, this slang seems so niche that I highly doubt there is a specific Japanese expression for it only used in the context of skiing. But maybe there's some other idiomatic way of conveying "clumsiness", "being a dad" or "being not cool" when doing sports or such. — jarmanso7, Sep 23 '23 at 18:31
Also, note that since this use of "dad" in English is idiomatic, it's probably not a good idea trying to translate it to Japanese with any Japanese word for "dad" whether it's 親父, 父, とうさん or パパ — jarmanso7, Sep 23 '23 at 18:36
Related: What are cars called that look stock but have lots of performance modifications in Japan? Americans call them "Sleepers" — jarmanso7, Sep 23 '23 at 18:54
Just as ス{su}リー{rii}パー{pa} can be used for the English slang "Sleeper" in a very specific domain, maybe ダッド{daddo}ターンス{taansu} could be used for "dad turns" if it really is a set expression in English and there's no correspondence in Japanese. I would take Naruto's advice in this comment, but you would be coining a term in Japanese, not using a well-known expression. — jarmanso7, Sep 23 '23 at 18:54

naruto · Answer 1 · 2023-09-25T02:30:37.310

Turn is ターン. Period.

As for Dad, おやじ (オヤジ, 親父) is not bad, but you may want to choose おっさん or おじさん instead. おやじ can be used to carry a connotation of "dandy" sometimes, and recently it may even appear on the cover of a fashion magazine:

On the other hand, おっさん is often used to playfully express something that has an "old man vibe", so if you want to humorously convey a dad-like action, おっさんターン or おじさんターン might be more fitting. If used appropriately, it wouldn't sound too negative.

Note that this is just a literal translation attempt. With おっさんターン, even people who are not familiar with skiing can infer that it refers to some traditional-yet-uncool turn, but those who are knowledgeable about skiing may not necessarily understand what specific style is being referred to.

パパターン, 父親ターン and so on are simply confusing.

For another example, this writing style featuring lots of emoji is often referred to as おじさん構文 (but not オヤジ構文):

jarmanso7 · Accepted Answer · 2023-09-25T14:56:49.830

Please read my comments under your original question first.

In this post, I'm specifically answering only to:

I'm struggling to find the translation for "turns", the plural noun, as in ski turns.

According to this page スキー用語集 that compiles a list of terms related to skiing, a turn in skiing is simply:

ターン{taan}

which is the transliteration of the English word to the Japanese writing and phonetic system.

This is the definition for ターン{taan} provided in this site:

which translates as

To rotate and change your direction.

Is there any idiomatic way to express doing an activity or behaving "like an old man" or "not in a cool way", particularly in the context of skiing?

2 Answers2