Though I guess it's weird we didn't do that a lot of Chinese dishes. Soup dumplings instead of Xiao long bao. Idk how to even properly pronounce that.
> Idk how to even properly pronounce that.
And there's your reason why we say dumplings and not xiao long bao! :)From what I've heard, the Japanese has no qualms about importing English words or just making up "nonsensical" new English words to suit their needs.
Want more counterexamples? Probably literally every Italian food: spaghetti, pizza, ravioli...
To me, this is just more evidence for how strong this meme of Japanese uniqueness, coolness, "sugoi kawaii desune~~ ^-^" is. I'm not bashing people who think Japan is cool. But I do think it's weird how they can't recognize it's just a meme, to the point of fetishization.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Chine...
Some languages had periods where they tried finding a new, “pure” name for a foreign concept/item, but these have varied success rates, and often sound idiotic to native speakers, and they don’t see the point.