My most embarrassing moment in Japan was when I first came here on a two week vacation. My friends were trying to teach me some useful Japanese phrases and probably the most useful expression you can learn is that "adjective + so" means "_____ seems / looks like adjective."For example:
Taka so = That looks expensive
Oishi so = That looks delicious
Omoshiroi so = That looks funny / interesting
Tanoshi so = That looks really fun
Useful and simple, don't you think? You just put "so" on the end of the adjective and it's a Japanese phrase. So of course I wanted to practice these kinds of phrases everywhere. Those of you who are familiar with this kind of Japanese expression will know where I'm going with this story when I tell you that I was sitting with my friends on the bus and saw a lady holding an absolutely adorable child on her lap.
...
Let this be a lesson to you if you plan on coming to Japan.
Kawaii means cute.
The logic should be that kawaii (adjective) plus "so" will mean, "________ looks cute"
Unfortunately for me, "kawaii so" means "I feel so sorry for you" or "You poor thing."
Why?
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Taka so = That looks expensive
Oishi so = That looks delicious
Omoshiroi so = That looks funny / interesting
Tanoshi so = That looks really fun
Kawaii so = I feel really sorry for you, poor thing
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????
So of course, I offended the lady on the bus and mortified my friends.
That's my most embarrassing moment in Japan, probably.
What's your most embarrassing Japan story?
21 comments:
In English, "kawaiiso" would be totally condescending. Imagine that something really bad happened to your friend and your friend began to cry and your consoling words were, "You look cute."
If you said that to the wrong person, you could get smacked.
Also, for those of you who love romanji, I know that I didn't spell the adjectives properly. I am writing this for English speakers (mainly my family and friends) and "soo" / "sou" don't work well for English easy pronunciation. I really don't like Romanji, anyway. I don't like Katakana either. They teach bad habits when you're trying to learn the language.
Hahah! This is too funny. I'll have to remember that!
Well, once I couldn't figure out how to flush the toilet in a restaurant bathroom and spent about 10 extra minutes in there waving my hands and pushing buttons.
Another time I left a restaurant and instead of saying thank you I said good morning. I was really tired.
My coworker once pushed the button in the washroom that calls the security guards instead of flushing the toilet.
By the way, have you ever tried pushing the POWERFUL DEODORIZER button on the toilet? I have never pushed it. It looks so scary! Haha.
I just learned this in my Japanese class. How would you say, "he/she seems cute"?
Looks like I need to study more, egad.
There's a button on the toilet that alerts security? To what exactly? Is there also a button that files your taxes in a timely manner?
There's also "poi" that you can put on the end of nouns or adjectives to make the same sort of thing. For example, if you say "gaikokujin poi" it means "That person doesn't look Japanese."
But as far as I know, there's no "He/she seems cute" because people use cute for everything over here. Almost absolutely everything is called CUTE here in Japan. It's the most overused adjective in this country by far.
But watch out!! In my country, if a young girl says a guy is cute, it's a good thing. It means that she finds him kind of attractive/handsome. But in Japan, DO NOT CALL A GUY "CUTE" -- Kawaii is a huge insult to guys. It means you think he's a baby / not a man / very weak and childish.
Conversely, calling a guy "cool" here in Japan means you find him attractive. In my country, it doesn't really have those connotations. So watch out when you call your FRIEND "cool" because he might think you're interested in him.
Different, hmm?
I got embarrassed once when I read the cash register otsuri (change) as oshiri(butt) out loud. It was written in katakana and the shi and tsu characters look pretty identical.
Just a side note, you can also substitute "rashii" for "so". "kawaii" would become "kawairashii" or you could use the Kansai shortened version "kaerashii".
Um... I was thinking of it in the shower the other day. I closed the elevator doors on the head of some poor man because I had just learnt the kanji for "開”and "閉" and then mixed them up. He looked really pissed off. And THEN, because I had been in Japan for two months and was still convinced all Japanese must be really nice (?!), I spent the entire elevator trip apologising to him and explaining that I was studying Japanese and made a mistake, and he basically told me to piss off. Why did I babble like that? I have no idea. >_<
I once pushed the emergency button in the bathroom too! It was in a train station and it was so humiliating because a security guard ran in there and banged on all of the stall doors. I just played dumb and shrugged my shoulders at him as he yelled at me frantically. There was an elderly woman in the bathroom too but I think he knew it was me.
Another time I got LOCKED in the bathroom because the door "open" button wouldn't work. I just stood there banging on the door and yelling until someone got someone. But it took a very long time.
I guess this means I should avoid public restrooms.
I think they got upset because kawaisou (可哀想 or かわいそう) sounds a lot like kawaii sou (かわいい そう) - which is probably why nobody says it, because they're sooooo similar in sound, even a native can't tell them apart. The difference between "i" and "ii" is pretty small, but the difference between "pathetic" and "cute" is huge. Apparently this is a really common mistake for foreigners to make. I read about it in a textbook.
I also heard of a woman who remembered the word for "good morning" as "Ohio" to help with pronounciation, but then when she got to Japan she got all mixed up and pronounced it "Iowa." He he. I can't wait to see I how screw up. I'm sure it will be monumental.
I'm trying to think of something but the only embarassing things I did in Japan were mixing up words and getting my pronouciations wrong.
That sounds really confusing! I would have done exactly the same thing.
A friend of mine missed her last train so she came to sleep in my home. We made a stop at the conbini and she bought a toothbrush, and some toothpast.
Few minutes later, I brushed my teeth in the bathroom, and I used her paste... It tasted and felt quite strange but, hey, I've been in japan a while, so I'm used to eat anything. Then I asked her about it, and she told me it was indeed a cream for her face. >o<
My boyfriend opened the door on the driver's side in a taxi, and was on his way in when he discovered the terrified driver. He was so embarrase!
Haha the alarm button in the bathroom incident happened to me too :) I was trying to flush and there was nothing but this green button with an arrow pointing to it....so I assumed you flushed with this! The moment I pressed it an alarm sounded. I rushed out of the stall but tried to act normal by washing my hands, and then a security guard rushed in saying: "Daijobu desu ka?" I finished and quickly got out of there... I still don't know if what I did was right or if I should have gone back and told the truth to the guard... :S...
I also couldn't figure out how to flush the toilet once, and pressed the alarm button by mistake...
I was really embarrassed!
I've been wondering about something, and it's a little bit related to this topic so I'll ask you here: What is the general dress code for female language teachers in Japan? I'm planning to teach there and have so far only had 'creative' jobs without any real rules for clothing. You seem to have a unique style so I'm wondering if you're able to incorporate that into workplace dressing. Thanks!
One thing I love about being a girl in Japan is that we don't have to wear uniforms to teach English but the guys have to wear suits!! Ha. Ha. Ha. That goes for just about any English school anywhere in Japan.
I can wear what I want, but I was told not to wear jeans. I hardly ever wear pants anyway (I am a person who wears skirts and dresses every single day) so it hasn't been a problem.
Just so that you know, though, in Japan looks are really important. You can dress the way you want to dress, but if you look nice and wear black, you'll get more respect. Just imagine Audrey Hepburn. That is the kind of girl people like. Professional and feminine. I don't always aim that high, but nobody has ever had any problem with whatever I wear.
My embarassing moment were:
- when I was trying to buy a shinkansen ticket using money and a local train (credict) card. I did not know that that train card is only valid for local trains;
- when I was in a toilet at Shin-Fuji (Fuji City Shinakansen Station) and was looking for the flush button. No sucess because it was automatic;
- my wife (girlfriend when it occurs) and me were travelling from Yokohama to Kyoto. The ticket guy told us to hurry up because the shinkansen was just leaving the station. We ran and went to first shinkansen we saw. After some minutes looking for our seats we found a girl in our places. After 15mins talking about who's who place we figured out that we were on wrong train. That train was finve mins early train that was late and that's why we thought was our train. Two crazy gaijins trying to seat on wrong train;
- not me but my cousin rent a car (here in Brazil the driver is on left side as in USA), pick me at Station at night and when we were going out of parking lot a japanese woman just appears on our front. My cousin was trying to tell her to get out when we figured out that our car was on wrong side of street. Problems when your car's driver seat is on left side.
kawaii desu ne
Once I was with some foreign colleagues visiting the factory in Nagano. In the evening, after the second (third?) party, we wanted to go for a beer in a quiet place so that we could talk. The first best place we could find was a Skylark family restaurant. So we sat and talked and drank our beers. The waitress was so charming and cute, and every few minutes she came to check on us. (We thought we were so popular, all good looking foreign guys). Suddenly I noticed that the thing I took from the table and inattentive played with, in fact had a purpose. It was a plastic cylinder with a button on top that had a kanji character written
on it. It didn't do much when I pressed (maybe broken or empty battery), but only after half an hour I started to notice that
this device was actually a wireless pager to call the waitress to our table.
Poor girl, she was too professional to tell the kyaku-sama to stop messing with the buzzer. Our ego's were a little damaged too :)
I din't know if you'll ever read a comment on such an old post, but I still can't get away from what I did on a cold winter's day in Kawaguchi, after forgetting my wallet on a bus (not realizing that, though) and walking around everywhere looking for it:
Koban cop: Yes?
Me: I wasureta'd my saifuku somewhere.
Koban cop: Your what?
Me: My saifuku! I lost it somewhere here. Has anyone reported it?
Koban cop: Saifuku?(Dirty-as-hell look)...You mean saifu.
Me: Yes, right, saifu. Oh shit, I just said I lost my junior high school girl's uniform, didn't I?
Koban cop: ...We haven't seen it. Try the other koban.
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