OIOI

One of my favorite department stores in Japan has a big sign that looks like "OIOI".  I thought the name of the store was pronounced "Oh E, Oh E".  I mentioned that one day to a Japanese friend and she thought it was the funniest thing she had ever heard!  The store's name is Marui which means circle, so the "O" s are to represent the circles.  Well live and learn...

OODS

I went to Japanese School every Saturday when I was in elementary school.  I can honestly say I felt it was a total injustice that I had to go to school on a SATURDAY.  However, I did have some memorable experiences.  I was sitting in class one Saturday and the teacher was teaching us some Kanji and new Japanese words.  He started talking about "oods" and then he wrote in Japanese what that was.  I turned to the girl sitting next to me, who was from Japan, and I said, "oods? what is that?".  She said, "you know oods".  I looked at the blackboard and saw in English, the teacher had written the letters "oods" on the board.  I was quite perplexed because everyone else seemed to understand what he meant.  Finally, the girl sitting in front of me moved her head slightly and I saw he had written, the word "woods" on the board. 

Translator

When my sister came to visit me in Japan, it was towards the end of my stay so I had picked up some Japanese, albeit, not a lot.  I thought I would be able to translate a little.  While we were out and about, I began to realize that what I was translating was not Japanese, but the English that was being spoken with Japanese accents.

The good news is that my sister was teaching English as a second language in the United States so was actually pretty good at understanding what people were saying.  Since she knew some Japanese the interspersed English and Japanese, didn't throw her too much.

Know Your Japanese Part II

Although, I lived in Japan for a year, I can't say I can speak fluent Japanese at all.  Towards the end of my stay, my sister came to visit me for a month and we had great adventures.   The first night she arrived we went to a small Japanese restaurant near my apartment.  We could read the menu and my sister said the spinach dish looked really good, so I told the waitress I would like to get 1 order of the spinach dish.  She said something in Japanese to us and then I looked at the menu and thought that looks really good, so I changed my request to two orders.  The waitress gave me a very strange look and spoke in Japanese again.  I then realized what she had said originally, was they were out of the spinach dish and I had just said, "ok, I'll take two orders".

Along those lines,  my sister and I went to a restaurant and sat down in a booth.  We looked at the menus and were ready to order.  A woman came over and I gave our order.  She said something to me in Japanese.  I then restated my orders and she gave me this odd look.  I finally realized she was telling us we needed to pay first and then we could be seated!

Know your Japanese

A woman I know who doesn't speak Japanese very well, saw a really cute Japanese baby sitting in a stoller.  She heard the mother speaking Japanese, so she thought she would speak to the mother in Japanese to be polite.  She asked the mother, in Japanese, "how old is your baby?"  To her surprise, the mother's face turned white and she quickly pushed the stroller away.  The woman's friend burst out laughing and told the woman, "you just asked the mother, how much does the baby cost?"

On a similar note, my cousin went to Japan to visit her friend, who was living in Japan with her Aunt for a year.  It is customary, when someone asks if you would like more to drink, you politely say, no thank you or "Kekko desu."  Well, my cousin was perplexed whenever her friend's Aunt offered her more to drink and she said no thank you in Japanese, her friend's Aunt got a weird look on her face.  One day, my cousin's friend burst out laughing when she heard my cousin say "Kekkon desu" after her Aunt offered my cousin more to drink.  My cousin had been saying, "I'm married" whenever the Aunt offered her more to drink and my cousin wasn't married at the time!

Reading Japanese

When I was in elementary school, every Saturday, I had to go to Japanese School.  I thought it was such an injustice to have to go to school on a Saturday!  We learned to read and write hiragana.   Hiragana is a set of Japanese characters that were usually taught first when I was growing up since it is simpler to read and write.   My mom was taught katakana first, which is set of characters used for non-Japanese words.  I also was taught katakana but I think because I was taught hiragana first, I know those characters better and my mom said she knows katakana better.  Kanji is the more complicated characters, which I know a few, but not enough to read and write.

I have relatives that live in Japan and when they write my family letters, they write in hiragana since it is simpler for us to read.  Since I can read hiragana better than my mom,  I read the letter out loud in hiragana but I don't really understand what I am reading, but my mom understands the Japanese so between the two of us we can understand the letter.  I was talking to my cousin the other day and she said she does the same thing with her mom.

Just find it interesting to be able to read a letter, but not necessarily understand its meaning.

Gambatte - Inspiring Word

Gambatte is a Japanese word, that I find really inspiring. When faced with adversity, in my family, we will say "Gambatte", which means to persevere, do your best, go for it. I think of it as buckle-down and face adversity head-on.  It's up to you. Don't feel sorry for yourself.  I really like the phrase, since it motivates you to move forward in a positive way.  We also use Gambatte to describe an attitude i.e. that person has a great Gambatte attitude!