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!!

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.

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.

Last edited by Zorlee (2010 December 08, 8:47 am)

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

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"

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.

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

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:

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.

Last edited by Tzadeck (2010 December 08, 10:11 pm)

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 goblins ... 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

Last edited by dat5h (2010 December 08, 10:07 pm)

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...

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.