There's probably another one of these threads somewhere but damned if I can find it using the search engine.

So we're at University yesterday doing a "teach English to children" type thing. We're at the front greeting everyone as they enter before it starts, and a little kid asks my friend..

Kid : 何人？　(as in なにじん　not　なんにん　 wanting to know his nationality obviously)
Friend : 何人と思いますか?
Kid　:　外国人　

At which point I nearly fell over laughing. Turns out the little kids a little shit with no parental discipline (shocker I know) but for that 2 minutes he was my favourite person ever. My friend was completely at loss for a response. So unexpected but in a way an obvious response from a 4 year old.

On a skype language exchange thread on 2ch:

あとNARUTOは必須知識なんだなorz皆言ってるよ…
俺アニメ最近ほとんど見なくなってしまったしなぁ…

すまんナルトわからねー、他にどんなのが好き？って聞いて
多少なりともしってるのがDEATH NOTEしかなかったぞorz

We're getting a bad reputation, huh. :/

I once heard a person say a funny thing.

dizmox Wrote:On a skype language exchange thread on 2ch:

あとNARUTOは必須知識なんだなorz皆言ってるよ…
俺アニメ最近ほとんど見なくなってしまったしなぁ…

すまんナルトわからねー、他にどんなのが好き？って聞いて
多少なりともしってるのがDEATH NOTEしかなかったぞorz

We're getting a bad reputation, huh. :/

Could you translate that please?

Quote:It seems Naruto is required knowledge [when talking to these foreigners on skype], everyone mentions it...
Lately I've hardly been watching anime...

When I ask "Sorry, I don't know about Naruto, what else do you like?" they only seem to know about death note"

I've heard strange things from my girlfriend like "boys have to be smart to succeed in life, but girls don't need to worry about education so much". What era is she living in??? 明治？　江戸？

dizmox Wrote:I've heard strange things from my girlfriend like "boys have to be smart to succeed in life, but girls don't need to worry about education so much". What era is she living in??? 明治？　江戸？

平成

dizmox Wrote:I've heard strange things from my girlfriend like "boys have to be smart to succeed in life...

Meh, you can always become a politician.

fakewookie Wrote:

dizmox Wrote:I've heard strange things from my girlfriend like "boys have to be smart to succeed in life, but girls don't need to worry about education so much". What era is she living in??? 明治？　江戸？

平成

It's a sad day for feminists.

I was eating in a Korean restaurant with my Japanese friend, and there was a Japanese couple next to us. I was speaking mainly English, but there was a phone call that I had to take in Japanese. I overheard the girlfriend of the couple say something like：

「えっ！？あの人、外国人なのに、日本語話してるんじゃん？初めて聞いたな」

dizmox Wrote:I've heard strange things from my girlfriend like "boys have to be smart to succeed in life, but girls don't need to worry about education so much". What era is she living in??? 明治？　江戸？

Ask all the 20代 女性 who's ideal "occupation" is 主婦, and the many other young women who still think marriage is a free ticket to retirement no matter how childless they intend to remain...

I was in Japan having a drink in a cafe with a friend and we were chatting in English. Suddenly this girl from the next table leans over and says "Oh wow! You're speaking English! I'm from China." She told us how she was waiting to meet her friend and ends the conversation saying "If you ever come to China I'll show you around!" which was odd as she never mentioned her name or even whereabouts in China she was from...

dizmox Wrote:

Quote:It seems Naruto is required knowledge [when talking to these foreigners on skype], everyone mentions it...
Lately I've hardly been watching anime...

When I ask "Sorry, I don't know about Naruto, what else do you like?" they only seem to know about death note"

I've heard strange things from my girlfriend like "boys have to be smart to succeed in life, but girls don't need to worry about education so much". What era is she living in??? 明治？　江戸？

Thanks for the translation. Orz is a brilliant and a funny emoticon, those crafty Japanese.

I used to think I think "orz" was onomatopoeia, like "ugh". My image recognition fails. :/

Javizy Wrote:

dizmox Wrote:I've heard strange things from my girlfriend like "boys have to be smart to succeed in life, but girls don't need to worry about education so much". What era is she living in??? 明治？　江戸？

Ask all the 20代 女性 who's ideal "occupation" is 主婦, and the many other young women who still think marriage is a free ticket to retirement no matter how childless they intend to remain...

She objects to the prospect of being a housewife, actually. I think she meant guys should be doing the hard jobs like being doctors, engineers and businessmen, while girls should work as OLs, makeup artists and child carers. #_#

i don't get it... what IS orz?

pudding cat Wrote:I was in Japan having a drink in a cafe with a friend and we were chatting in English. Suddenly this girl from the next table leans over and says "Oh wow! You're speaking English! I'm from China." She told us how she was waiting to meet her friend and ends the conversation saying "If you ever come to China I'll show you around!" which was odd as she never mentioned her name or even whereabouts in China she was from...

I guess, fate will guide you?

Quote:i don't get it... what IS orz?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoticon#Orz

IceCream Wrote:i don't get it... what IS orz?

Just google Orz pictures. Orz is a stick guy in praying/crawling position: Orz is supposed to be depressed, pounding his fists at the floor screaming Noo... O is piture of the head, r the arms, z the legs. OTZ seems also common.

SheekuAltair Wrote:

IceCream Wrote:i don't get it... what IS orz?

Just google Orz

OMG.. I just spent 10 minutes reading all sort of descriptions and explanation of it, NOW I see , awesome emoticon. I'm going to spam this from now on

I was shopping at my local supermarket when a 30ish year old couple saw me and went: "外人だ！"
I'm like "WTF?", pointed at them and went "あっ！日本人だ！"
They turned red and ran away. ざまみろだ！！

Another episode:
I was sitting minding my own business on the train from Osaka, when an entire high school class jumped on and instantly started discussing my skin color, height and nationality. They concluded after a while that I was Russian.
(I was reading a Japanese book, but they obviously ignored that, and continued talking in Japanese).
Just before I left the train, I went over to the leader of the gang and went:
"すいません！あのね、僕、ロシア人じゃないですよ！ノルウェー人です！よろしくね〜！"
They freaked out and ran away screaming. Oh, satisfaction.

Zorlee Wrote:I was shopping at my local supermarket when a 30ish year old couple saw me and went: "外人だ！"
I'm like "WTF?", pointed at them and went "あっ！日本人だ！"
They turned red and ran away. ざまみろだ！！

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Before some middle aged man came up to me, stopped about a foot in front of my face, looked me up and down then asked the Japanese person I was with about me, as if they were my owner. -_-

I never have any luck with the funny stuff. So far a few people have abused me, which I think is hilarious as it has no affect on me in Japanese.

So far:

1. Drug store
Old guy, dressed very samuraish, sez to the girl I'm with she's a slut while looking at hand lotion. Lol, she's married and I was just hanging out with her.

2. While bicycling.
Some guy called me "Gaijin-shit" or close enough (my comprehension at the time wasn't as good as now) while ringing his bicycle's bell full tick and sprinting past like a guy on speed - he probably was.

3. Old lady.
An old lady called me an idiot then said something that made my friend pretty pissed. He sorta gave me the "forget her eye roll" and we headed off. I never did ask what she said.

4. Heaps of other times while bicycling.

Now if one of them called me a MF I might get annoyed a tad.

Oh, and heaps of students saying "SEX" instead of "SIX". This 12 year old said it a few days ago and せんせい had to take a moment to stop himself from laughing his ass off right in front of the poor guy.

thecite Wrote:I once heard a person say a funny thing.

No way! Me too!

Early evening, clerk at Lawson deliberately ignores me as I look through the newspapers.
I look at him, pointing at the afternoon edition of the Nikkei: すみません、今日の「日本経済新聞」の朝刊 ...
He interrupts me and frantically waves his hand in front of his chest: ーあっ、あっ、英語できません...

Cranks Wrote:This 12 year old said it a few days ago and せんせい had to take a moment to stop himself from laughing his ass off right in front of the poor guy.

In Japan they don't have the 'dining at the Y' gesture. That is, putting you hands in a backwards peace sign over your mouth to symbolize cunnilingus.

Quite a few times in the last few years I've been talking to Japanese people, and without thinking they were doing that gesture. It's really hard not to laugh every time.

Still trying to think of funny things people have said to me...

I'm not Japanese but I've never heard of that gesture before... :S