Mine came from a time when my Japanese was very basic. I had just moved here, and knew basic phrases of asking and telling where you are from etc. The college I went to had a lot of meet up cafes etc to get to know local students, I i’d use my humble few sentences quite often. Soon however I was very befuddled by the amount of people from this mysterious city called “Inaka”. I couldn’t find it on the map, yet every other person I met seemed to hail from there… It took over a month for me to figure out what it means…
by Yonda_00
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I was at Tokyo Ramen Street…grabbed a pitcher of what I thought was ice water and started to pour it into my cup. It wasn’t water LOL.
About a month after I first moved to Japan a coworker took me to his golf course for a game. I kept telling him “コースはきれい” but he just looked kinda annoyed so I kept saying it, hoping to please him. When I got home and check my Japanese I realised I’d been saying “コースはきらい”. He didn’t invite me again.
Before I learned that *mushi* could mean “steam” , I thought the word for “humid”, *mushiatsui*, would probably be written with the characters for “bug” and “hot”.
I knew it meant humid, but I figured it made sense to be “bug heat” because insect populations exploded when it was humid.
When i first travelled here shortly after finishing Genki 1, on the train from Kansai airport, I wanted to offer my seat to an exhausted looking lady. I intended to say 座りたいですか but she started laughing after a short pause. Some years later, I realised I must have said 触りたいですか
For the longest time I though it was うそけんな stemming from うそ to lie.
So like, “stop lying”
For like three months I asked tellers at the combini for a “ofuro” instead of “fukuro”.
Early in my time here, I learned about attaching 〜そう after adjectives to make “looks ___.”
Took a little bit to realize that this did not extend to かわいい though
First month in Japan pre-internet, I had recently learned that “kakuekiteisha’ means local, “kaisoku” means rapid, and “kyuukou” is express. I hadn’t learned the kanji yet. Anyway, one day I’m in a new neighborhood and I’m trying to find a nearby ATM so I go to the koban for info.
Me (nervously speaking in very broken Japanese): Sumimasen, kakuekiteisha ginko ha doko desuka?
Cop: Eh, eki desuka?
Me: Iie. Kakuekiteisha ginko desu.
Cop: Densha? Ginko?
Me: Banku, banku. Okane hoshi. ATM.
Cop: Ginko desu ne. Eki no tonari desu.
It was only later that I learned kakuekiteisha literally means trains that stop at each station, not the general term for “local.”
When I took my mom to get a shiatsu massage, we walked in to a small clinic and I saw two pairs of shoes. One indoor slippers and another pair of rubber ones. I thought nothing of it. Had my mom put the slippers on, and I wore the sandals. Turns out it was the practitioner’s outside shoes. 🤦♀️
Not mine but a friend of mine went to 711 looking for a bathroom and asked where the お風呂 was
I once asked my Japanese tutor why Japanese married women wear bands instead of diamond rings. It was then that I learned that 人妻 is not simply a general term for married woman.
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