Ganbatte

Communication: Experiences in the language exchange.

Today I sent the following text message via my sleek, new SoftBank prepaid phone:

すみませんけど、これはジェリットです。私たちは昨日会ったと思います。僕はアメリカから外人だよ。haha.今日の集いを遅れたから、見つけられませんでした。何をすればいいですか。英語で話してもいいですか。

Overall I was pretty impressed with my usage of the potential and conditional forms, but I got a message back that simply said “?, call me” in English, which I’m assuming meant they had no idea what the heck I was trying to say.

Phrases/Terminology: A random collection of learned Japanese phrases/terms.

nande/doshite/naze=why: I was extremely confused until I realized that these were all several ways to ask the same thing.

abunai=dangerous: I know this only because its what Youko yells at Kento every few minutes.

chotto matte=please wait: This is the less formal way of making a request, rather than shou shou omachikudasai. Useful in any situation, as you can’t tell the people of Japan to slow down often enough.

ukkuri=slowly/in a relaxed fashion: I learned this when the Japanese interviewers asked me to take it easy during my English description of myself.

yopparai=drunk: this is handy during hanami season.

ippai = full: this can be used in reference to one’s own stomach, i.e. onaka ga ippia = I am full, or in reference to a place or thing, such as full of soysauce or full of people.

Idiosyncracies: Odd notables I pick up from the Japanese culture.

Everyone in Japan looks as though they are 35 years of age. Everyone in Japan is at least 70.

The Japanese have developed a method for eating very hot food; it is called burning the crap out of your mouth. Everyone does this, no one complains.

If you enjoy being touched by 12 people simultaneously, in places on your body you did not even know existed, ride the 8:00 a.m Saikyo line from Omiya to Akabane station.

If you ride the 8:00 a.m. Saikyo line from Omiya to Akabane station, avoid the guy who who looks like he hasn’t slept in several days and might kill you; he hasn’t slept in several days and might kill you.

Everything in Japan is capable of transforming; cell phones transform into televisions, toilets transform into sinks, and kindly old ladies transform into furious she-devils when it comes to packing into the trains.

Gas stations in Japan sell anything you could possibly need: strange cartoon pornography, octopus flavored ice-cream, and foot long sausages. They do not, however, sell gas.