the auroran sunset (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} tithonus) wrote,@ 2006-09-04 18:12:00 |
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| Entry tags: | humour, japanese |
japanese mistakes you don't want to make
This is from the latest JList newsletter, always amusing, if often inaccurate/misleading:-
I feel bad about these lapses, although I know that I've given as good as I got, providing my Japanese hosts with many hours of amusement thanks to my own language slip-ups over the years, like the time I tried to order some mango juice, and, er, nevermind, it's a long story.
It took me a few seconds to get. Now I don't want to explain... Just remember that foreigners often have problems distinguishing clearly between a syllable with a diacritic and a syllable without. That's all the explanation I'm giving you. :-p
It reminds me of a time when I was out with the other oxbridge grads studying with me up in Fukuoka. It was probably in our first month there. Time came to leave the restaurant/izakaya. One of the others - I know which, but I'm not telling - decided to ask for the bill, something we should all be able to do no problem. She must have been a little the worse for alcohol, because "kanojo wo kudasai" popped out of her mouth - something like "a girlfriend, please", or "give me her, please". She meant kanjou, rather than kanojo - and apparently knew the moment she said it. It was probably deliberate.
Later we sometimes deliberately asked for a 'kanchou', or an enema, to get the staff to laugh. That's our story and we're sticking to it.
The JList guy's error is 'rude'r.
