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| Would You Like Some Fries With That? I was studying at a University in Japan, and while my Japanese was improving, I was not too good at remembering the names of food. My friend was eating a tasty looking dish and Iasked her what it was. She told me it was Katsudon (pork cutlet on rice with egg). I went up the the counter to order it for myself, but I guess I didn't remember correctly because I ended up asking for "Ketsudon". The woman looked at me strangely and said in Japanese "Oh, you mean Katsudon." She then asked me if I knew what Ketsu meant. It turned out I was basicly asking for "butt" on rice. Todd Dirickson |
| One Little Piggy . . . I work for a duty-free store in downtown San Francisco. Most of the store's employees are of Japanese descent and can speak Japanese, but some of the other employees speak only a smattering. One day, when a customer asked to see the manager, a non-Japanese employee was at the front desk. Eager to show off her language skills, she stepped up to the microphone, and in a rather loud tone, announced: "Ms. Kobuta, Ms. Kobuta, please come to the front desk!" Shortly after the announcement, several employees rushed to the front desk to point out that the manager's name was Ms. Kubota, and that kobuta meant "little pig" or "piglet!" Fortunately for the employee who made the announcement, Ms. Kubota was not around the "farm" at the time. Daisy Huang El Cerrito, CA |
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Recycling at its tastiest I had been learning Japanese for the past few months, mainly for the purpose of communicating with my Japanese neighbor. One evening when he was visiting us, my mother served him a sweet she had prepared. He had never seen anything like it before and looked at it a little apprehensively. I tried to explain to him how the sweet was prepared, intending to say, "Kore wa goma kara tsukurimashita," which means, "This was made from sesame." In my overenthusiasm, however, I said, "Kore wa gomi kara tsukurimashita," which translates to "This was made from garbage." Geetha Ranganathan Madras, India |
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The What is Greener? The setting was a speech in front of a Japanese PTA group. The speaker wanted to say that the grass at home was a different color from the grass of Japan. Instead of kusa ("grass"), however, the word that came out was kuso, or, politely put, "excrement." The most amusing part was that the mothers only nodded their heads and muttered, "Ah, so desu ka?" Joseph Tomei Sendai, Japan |
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The Armpit Proudly Flies Each student at the high school class I was visiting had prepared a question to ask me in English. One student asked, "What is the symbol of America?" I explained that it's the eagle, but judging from the sea of blank stares, it seemed that the word "eagle" had yet to appear in their textbooks. I tried to explain it in Japanese, but instead of saying washi ("eagle"), I said waki ("armpit"). A chorus of snickering told me that something was amiss in my interpretation. Failing to get the meaning across in either English or Japanese, I resorted to my final option--miming. Tucking my thumbs into my armpits, I began to flap my folded arms like a bird. The students, however, all thought that I was pointing to and displaying my armpits. Thus, the notion of the symbol of America being the armpit was further embedded in their young minds. Gomen! Jim Hawe Saitama-ken, Japan |
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Feeling Crammy During my homestay in Japan, the host brother had just started attending a juku, and my host mother asked what the English word for it was. I answered "cram school," and asked if she understood "cram." She answered "Yes, cram chowder!" Amelia Chapman Los Angeles, CA |