I tried to find a thread for it, but couldn't find any except "Embarrassing myself in ハワイ".

So once my japanese friend's mom asked me to help her buy frames for her artwork( she's a painter) as she didn't speak estonian nor english.

So we agreed on a specific time (I checked my school schedule and I told her that I could meet her in front of that shop at １４時) ...and so we agreed to meet at ２ the next day.

But when I was at school the next day it struck me: I told her the WRONG time...not １４時、But 15時。。。

So in the middle of the day I sent an sms to my japanese friend that I would meet her mother not at 14.00, but 15.00...but she was at her friends place and probably didn't notice the sms and when I reached the shop at 3 and I called her, and she said that her mother had already gone to the shop and bought what she needed. So she apologized and me too and ...that's the outcome.

But that's not the worst... She and her mother were going to return to japan after living here for 2,5 years and so it came out that I couldn't meet her mother before departure because I had an essay at school during their plane's taking off.

And so the last thing her mother will remember about me (until I meet them in japan) is this embarrassing case.

So what is your funniest/most embarrassing situation associated with japanese learning or your lack of knowledge in japanese?

probably saying もげる instead of めげる and having my friend roar into laughter. I didn't truly realise the mistake til about a month later!!

Saying と思います instead of と申します in the first sentence of my 自己紹介 to a high up toyota executive who was visiting our office (it was over a year ago but still haunts me lol).

Probably my first oral exam in Japanese class I got so nervous I started using intermittent German without noticing it and the teacher didn't interrupt me until I finished.

How about introducing myself using "<MY-NAME>-さん" - done that a few times

Maybe not the most embarrassing one, but..
I got asked a question about 大麻 (たいま).
BUT at the time I thought he said タイマー (as in timer, clock), and went on for minutes talking about what kind of timers we use in Norway, about how often trains get delayed and yadayada.
Everyone just smiled in a polite, Japanese way, until a Japanese friend poked me and said "dude... the guy asked you about weed. Not trains. Shut up!"

Oh, 関西弁, how hard you kick my ass from time to time.

I asked a waitress for 目黒 (めぐろ as in 目黒駅） instead of マグロ. It ended up with me having to go outside and point to what I wanted like a stupid 外人... I still want to crawl under a rock and hide.

Then there was the time I said there was a lot of bears (くま instead of くるま）in Tokyo. That got me a laugh.

I used to often refer to cute, cuddly animals as 可哀想 instead of 可愛い. At first, I meant it in the same way as 美味しそう, but after realizing the silliness of the statement I kept making the mistake out of habit for months. Doh

I used to mix up おもしろい and おいしい all the time, so I was always calling foods おもしろい -- luckily calling food おもしろい seems to be taken as a compliment in Japan (for the most part) but it's still embarrassing.

So I was at a pretty busy restaurant one time, and I ordered some curry or something.
She asked me how much rice I wanted:
「ご飯の量は？」
I couldn't hear her, and since I just ordered my food, so I thought she said 「お飲物は？」
So I respond,
「コカコーラで」

"How much rice do you want?"
"Coke"

:/

The time when I saw a magazine about car audio and TVs, so I asked my friend if he liked AV.

The time when the waiter asked me if I wanted mayonnaise on my okonomiyaki, but I thought he asked me for my name so I told him that.

The time when the waiter asked me how many grams of katsu I wanted, and I responded by telling him how many pieces of katsu I wanted. (You only want 4 grams?!)

Was in the post office today sending stuff home for christmas, and asking the woman at the counter (who's clearly thinking shit i got the short straw) for some stamps for letters, and she's just looking at me... so i point at the big panel of them.. and she's looking at me.. and until i finally point at the letter and ask again for a stamp she gets it. I've no idea what I was doing wrong... do they not just ask to buy stamps here or what.

I'm sure i've mispronounced words all over the place but I can't think of any times it's caused any totally embarrassed. Although another time on a saturday I was in the post office asking for an air mail letter, and the saturday girls matter of factly told me they don't sell them at weekends and to come back during the week...
and considering they looked at me blankly for a few seconds before i popped the word onto my dictionary and showed them incase i pronounced it wrong or something.
i left a little confused, perhaps they just didn't want to deal with the gaijin.

My favorite band had a meet and greet, and one of the members had posted on his blog in advance that he wanted fans to hug him instead of doing the usual handshaking. So I hugged him. After the event, my friend asked if I'd done it, so I said something that I *thought* meant that I'd hugged him, and she burst into laughter. When she calmed down, she explained that I probably meant だきしめる instead of だく. This is what you get for learning words from song lyrics! I wish I'd thought to go with a plain old ハグする!

And not too long ago, I had to read a sentence aloud in class which contained the word 上手. My teacher laughed, got up, and drew a shark on the whiteboard. Jaws. Apparently it's really important to raise the pitch on the うず part.

Gingerninja Wrote:Was in the post office today sending stuff home for christmas, and asking the woman at the counter (who's clearly thinking shit i got the short straw) for some stamps for letters, and she's just looking at me... so i point at the big panel of them.. and she's looking at me.. and until i finally point at the letter and ask again for a stamp she gets it. I've no idea what I was doing wrong... do they not just ask to buy stamps here or what.

That just happens sometimes. It hasn't happened to me in the last 2 years, but in my first year in Japan. I even confirmed with my coworkers later and they told me that there was nothing wrong with my Japanese.
I guess for some Japanese people they just can't accept that Japanese is coming out from a foreigner's mouth, so whatever a foreigner says it must be English or some other language they can't understand and so they're not listening.
That's only my theory, though XD

chochajin Wrote:I guess for some Japanese people they just can't accept that Japanese is coming out from a foreigner's mouth, so whatever a foreigner says it must be English or some other language they can't understand and so they're not listening.
That's only my theory, though XD

Unless you're an Asian foreigner.


Then, whatever you say, if it isn't Japanese, is probably Chinese. Never English.

chochajin Wrote:I guess for some Japanese people they just can't accept that Japanese is coming out from a foreigner's mouth, so whatever a foreigner says it must be English or some other language they can't understand and so they're not listening.
That's only my theory, though XD

You're not the only one with that theory.

I remember a year ago, some elderly woman was riding a bicycle and slammed into me (on foot). I reacted in time and basically stopped her bike right in front of me. I asked if she was alright in Japanese ... she stared blankly and responded "アイム・・・アイム・・・ソーリー". I still laugh about that time.

Alternatively, I went with my girlfriend to get a flue shots a few weeks ago. I filled out my own paperwork, so clearly they should know that they can talk to me. After giving us thermometers to take our temperature, the nurse was confused by my "abnormally high temperature of 37 deg. Celsius [(98.6 deg. Fahrenheit)]". The nurse called my girlfriend over and explained that it was too high and that she should ask me to take my temperature again just to make sure. My girlfriend explained that my temperature is always 37 and that if she had any problem to just come over and talk to me since I can speak Japanese. She looked at me scared and I just nodded with a grin. She never ended up speaking to me, even when I asked where the bathroom was (she just pointed). We won't be returning to that hospital again. (The doctor also acted very strange ... but i think he was just "above" giving flue shots)

chochajin Wrote:That just happens sometimes. It hasn't happened to me in the last 2 years, but in my first year in Japan. I even confirmed with my coworkers later and they told me that there was nothing wrong with my Japanese.
I guess for some Japanese people they just can't accept that Japanese is coming out from a foreigner's mouth, so whatever a foreigner says it must be English or some other language they can't understand and so they're not listening.
That's only my theory, though XD

Going to swoop in a back this up as well.

I was in a game store in 秋葉 getting some old SNES and N64 games (both systems are super easy to mod if you have a non-Japanese one, so look into it!). I was buying Zelda OoT and the guy was (trying) to tell me I needed the expansion pack for the system in really broken English. Props to him for trying, but I told him in Japanese that no, it was fine, you can use Japanese. He kind of looked at me for a minute, then proceeded to try to explain. So I just started to explain back to him that I already have the piece and don't need it, in Japanese. 5 minutes of this, and my Japanese friend laughing off to the side, and he finally switched to Japanese with a あ、わかりました and a slightly embarrassed looked, and we proceeded with the transaction.

As others said, my Japanese friend, who is very blunt, said he was just an idiot and my Japanese was perfect.

chochajin Wrote:I guess for some Japanese people they just can't accept that Japanese is coming out from a foreigner's mouth, so whatever a foreigner says it must be English or some other language they can't understand and so they're not listening.
That's only my theory, though XD

I've heard this theory a lot, and people bring it up all the time, but I'm convinced that 90% of time time something else is going on. So, it happens, but much more rarely than people think.

For one, I've heard my friends complain about this happening to them, but I happen to know that my friends have really awful pronunciation. I don't tell them that, because that'd be mean, and Japanese people won't tell them that either. A lot of times people just can't understand them because they are not used to listening to the pronunciation of a foreigner. But my friends go around talking about how they're Japanese as fine and yet the person just didn't understand!

Sometimes something else is going on entirely. As was mentioned, sometimes this kind of thing results in situations in which you speak Japanese to people and they try to respond in broken English. One time this happened to me really bad, and it was when I was trying to get into the Ninja restaurant in Kyoto (btw, those Ninja restaurants are depressingly mediocre, so don't go). The Ninja-dressed lady at the entrance was trying to explain to me how long the wait was, and I kept telling her in Japanese that I understood Japanese, but she wouldn't switch to Japanese. We didn't end up going into the restaurant that night.

I went to the restaurant a couple of months later and realized what was going on. Like all theme restaurants in Japan, they do a sort of show for you. At the Ninja place they are expected to be able to do the show in English for when they have foreign customers, so it's kind of a job duty. So when I approached, the lady was obviously worried about the fact that she'd probably have to do the show in her really mediocre English if we decided to stay for the wait, so her head was in English mode. Especially since, while it was obvious that I could speak Japanese, my friends didn't seem to be able to (and she was right, they had just moved to Japan and couldn't really understand Japanese). So, it was the context of English as a job duty, and her nervousness, that made her act like that. But at the time I chalked it up as more evidence for this theory. But, I was wrong, it was something else.

I definitely have some embarassing moments--I'll try to think of a good one.

I don't think human brains can fail to detect mother tongues that easily. It's a reflex. There is no room for stereotypes and such getting in the way. Even if it were a cat that spoke to me, I'd recognize it was Japanese as long as his accent was within the range of the standard Japanese language.

On the other hand, if it was with too thick an accent, I might fail to realize it's Japanese regardless of whether the speaker has yellow skin or not. It can happen when native Japanese speakers of heavily accented dialects talk to me.

Because the Japanese are generally not used to foreign accents, the range of immediately recognizable accents may be narrower than that of English. But that's hardly native Japanese speakers' fault. It's narrow because there are too few non-native speakers, which, in a sense, is foreigners' fault.

As Tzadeck said, particular situations may also make it difficult to recognize the language. So I agree that it's not always due to your accent. But if you're absolutely positive that the situation wasn't the cause, then most likely it was due to your accent.

If you still insist it's due to a stereotype or assumption, um, are you telling me you look way weirder than a parrot for a creature speaking Japanese?

Does it take me a few minutes to realize I'm watching a French movie dubbed in Japanese because actors don't look like Asians? I don't think so.

I completely agree that the situation is very important here. It can be confusing to switch languages when stressed and/or you psyched yourself into trying a new language. Because of this, I decided about a year ago to just go on with English if someone started speaking to me in English. In a sense, I just assume the person wants to practice English and help them out if they have trouble.

However, you can't just put all the blame on foreign accents or what not. You cannot possibly say that there is not an, albeit small, sub-population in Japan that automatically assume all non-Asian's speak English (or at least not Japanese) and refuse to alter their understanding of reality.

In America, I have seen idiots realize that they are talking to someone with little English skills, but decide they should repeat themselves ... just LOUDER.

The original poster said "some Japanese" and that is all. These stories are few and far between, but at least amusing. One time I asked a man for a free sample of his hand made tororo in Kamakura. He turned to my girlfriend and told her (not me?!) that I may not have any because "all white people throw up when they eat tororo." So, being polite, she grabbed only one ... and gave it to me right in front of him. I winked and ate it delightedly.

Some people are just leprechaun ... they exist in every country. Just gotta put up with it. Don't blame the story-teller,

*edit
lol, curse words become *goblins* on the forum, I never knew

dat5h Wrote:However, you can't just put all the blame on foreign accents or what not. You cannot possibly say that there is not an, albeit small, sub-population in Japan that automatically assume all non-Asian's speak English (or at least not Japanese) and refuse to alter their understanding of reality.

You can possibly say that, actually, being that it's only ever been reported on half-assed anecdotal evidence. It's possible that such a population could exist, but it's not like there's strong evidence for it.

When coming to Japan, I went around saying "なるまど" instead of "なるほど"　for weeks.
That time I often mixed up the hiragana まand ほ - so I guess I just wrote it down wrong in my notebook...

But that's part of the fun in learning a new language, isn't it? You just get to be like a child again. The only trouble is, that over here no-one tries to correct your wrong Japanese...

Your brain automatically tries to find meaningful sequences of sounds even if your conscious mind is fully aware that it's a foreign language. That's why phenomenons like soramimi happen. We hear words of our native languages even in nonsensical sequences of voices spoken in foreign languages. Being xenophobic/racist/stupid/whatever doesn't prevent this process because it's pretty much a reflex.

Of course, if the listener panicked or became too nervous because of an unusual situation, he may fail to respond in a logical manner. But if you're sure that an unusual situation isn't the main factor, I can't imagine how a person fail to recognize the language when he hears a sequence of sounds which are close enough to his native language. Our brain has an automatic native tongue detector which can go off even when you know you're hearing a foreign language.

If it weren't because of a particular situation, accent or their combination, the listener must be so stupid that he thought the constant flow of soramimi'ed Japanese words coming out of your mouth was just a sequence of foreign words which happened to sound like Japanese. I don't believe this is the case.

I think it could be the case that the listener was fully aware that you were speaking his native language but responded in a foreign language or ignored your speaking his mother tongue. The reason may vary from situation to situation. But I think it's extremely unlikely that it was because the listener had an unbelievably skewed view and couldn't accept the reality. It's more plausible if it was because he was very nervous, it was too sudden, etc.

If you argue that the listener was nervous, stressed, too surprised or whatever because he was a firm believer of some kind of no-Asian = no Japanese theory, then you must be running into too many extreme Japanese specimens as if you are looking for such idiots.

English speakers (unless they're from rural areas and don't watch TV) tend to be very good at understanding accents. It's stunning how badly people can butcher english and we still click to what they're trying to say.

This is probably partly because we get a lot more practice with non native and different native accents but i think it's also because english is more diverse sound-wise. If you mispronounce a word, it usually ends up either not being a word or being a word that is utterly incompatible with the context, allowing you to figure out what they must have meant.

When people mispronounce japanese (even just the pitch accent), it quite often becomes a different word, and one that almost makes sense (with a totally different meaning of course). Japanese people who have more experience with foreigners are probably better at still making sense of what you're saying. Japanese teachers and people with gaijin friends may not even realise that your accent is as incomprehensible to normal people as it is.

I studied on my own but then transferred to a community college for a quarter for school credit. (They were finishing Genki 1 -- so it is far from bragging) Having learned all the sounds by a computer I must have sound strange but I knew a student who had a great vocabulary but talked with a strong accent by pausing before the particles rather than afterwords. Now often enough some of those words mixed with particles became confusing when they formed different words.

Ex. こんかい。。。。わだい。。。すきじゃない。(I didn't like it this time > I didn't like this time's topic.)

I think the pauses themselves may make an allready ambiguous language more confusing. That and the difference between particles like へ and を. It took me a while to be able to understand that 公園で渡る should be 公園を渡る.

Back on topic. In class I though the word デブ meant ふとい. I was asked to describe the character in the book -- my teacher laughed really hard and told me that I had said a "mean word". >..<;

Later on that week I introduced a Japanese girl to another student. I used 彼女, which has two meanings. She said, "No no he not boyfriend" and covered her face. It was a bit awkward.

I'm curious how my accent compares though. It's definitely not "English accent" but I'm sure I sound funny -- perhaps a bit to "clean". Like a female robot voice or something. XD