Not a Clue

"I'm an idiot," T says as I walk in the door to our apartment.  He is sitting on the edge of the bed, holding up the screen of his (Nintendo DS) electronic dictionary in my direction.

It reads the word: 喪中­ , which is pronounced "mochuu" and means "mourning".

As it turns out, T has accidentally bought New Years Cards for his friends and family without bothering to look up the unfamilliar words in the calligraphy that decorates them.  As a result, he sits solemnly on the bed with a stack of cards which read the likes of: "the present year has regretfully been spent in mourning. . ."

"It happens to everyone," I try to cheer him up.

"I bought two bottles of conditioner the other day because I was too lazy to read the labels correctly," I lament, "and I masquerade as a translator!"

I had, in fact, just days ago, accidentally purchased a bottle of "shiruki smuuzu condishonaa" (silky smooth conditioner) because the words "shyampuu" and "shiruki smuuzu" start with the same letter and I had apparently been too lazy to read any further.  Plus, I could have sworn it was placed on the rack with the "shyampuu".

I am reminded of a passage on the author profile section of Bob's Blog (a recent discovery), in which he describes himself as a:

"5 year veteran living and working in Japan...I spent 1 year here in High-School, 1 year in College and 3 years at UMass majoring in Japanese language and Literature. So I've been here for a while, speak-read-write Japanese like a mofo, but still don't have a clue as to what's going on some days..."

Yeah, not having a clue what is going on despite over-education in the language and culture, I feel like that a lot.  Then again, that is another reason why I love living here.  Every day I learn something new and weird, whether I want to or not.

Comments

[Bob]

I did the complete opposite this year. My wife's grandmother passed away so we have to send out Mochuu hagaki, but I ordered 200 regular New Year's cards. Not a language nor culture mistake, I was just not thinking that day...
BTW thanks for the quote- always happy to share my confusion