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This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 6:30 pm and is filed under All About . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
17 Responses to “All About #14 - Top 5 Tips for Avoiding Common Mistakes in Japanese”
Monday at 6:30 pm
Hi mina-san! Have you made any of these mistakes before? We hope that the tips in this lesson will help you!
Monday at 9:43 pm
Mind anyone who want to hand over a business card (meishi), that you:
* hand it over with both hands (holding the edges close to you).
* hand it over with the text “readable”/”facing” to the receiver.
Monday at 10:00 pm
Another classic short vowel-long vowel pair is;
びょういん/byouin (short)= hospital vs. びよういん/biyouin (long)=beauty salon.
I’m sure that’s tripped up lots of people.
Monday at 10:25 pm
OK, well I’ll tell you one that happened to me, I accidentally said something VERY bad, in front of a lot of people. I was with some colleagues at a bar and wanted to request a change of song from the owner of the bar. I wanted to say something like “オーナに行って来る” (o-na ni itte kuru) but rather said ”おんなにい行って来る” (onnna nii itte kuru). Correct me if I’m spelling that wrong. Everyone was dying laughing. It apparently means that I’m off to go “take care of myself” to put it lightly.
恥ずかしい!!
Monday at 10:52 pm
From 5 mistakes , one for sure I never make , attaching -san to my name.
Long ago I remember, but look the forum, I smile when see how many people “bad copy” and use on their names suffix -san.
Politeness level , my Tokyo after little long time say “please do not talk too much polite, I am not stranger”
Thank to my native language I have no major trouble in Japanese
and example in this All About #14 make me smile. Is it possible make this mistake?
But really need time to remember this:
Ame,雨rain 飴candy
Hashi 箸chopsticks 橋bridge
OK understand in the All about#14 is used most bigger mistake, but this in lesson never sound me same, I hear big difference.
ゾラン
Monday at 11:28 pm
Very interesting lesson
As most Japanese for foreigners teachers are female, male Japanese learners have to be careful not to use female expressions in Japanese. I have heard about this too.
Is there a list of male / female expressions e.g. particles avaible ?
Tuesday at 2:39 am
P.S. I love Hello Kitty!
Tuesday at 9:43 am
Thanks for all of the comments and stories!
You might want to check out this link for more information on the differences between masculine and feminine speech:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_differences_in_spoken_Japanese
Tuesday at 1:41 pm
A friend of mine in Tokyo made two good mistakes. On ad train, an elder lady got on, so he stood up and offered her his seat. But instead of saying: “すわって下さい”、he said: “さわって下さい”! (Please touch me). You can imagine the strange look he got from this 80+ lady!
Tuesday at 5:32 pm
Yamanchu -san
I’ve heard the same story from my friend too. Are we talking about the same person? Maybe not.
I’ve also heard another mistake story.
A person wanted to say “after all we are all the same human beings”in a discussion but instead he said 「けっきょく、私たちはみんな同じニンジンじゃないですか。」”After all we’re all the same carrots.”
にんじん=Carrot
にんげん=human
I’m pretty sure I make this kind of mistakes all the time when I speak English.
Wednesday at 1:23 am
How funny, I just taught my Year 7 students about not using ’san’ for yourself today! I will show them the picture above tomorrow to reinforce the point.
Thanks, I love this site, it’s so relevant to a lot of what I teach. I love the fact it’s ‘nama’ no nihongo!
Muntosensei
Wednesday at 6:47 am
Naomisan,
I’m sure these mistakes happen all the time. A Japanese friend of mine here ((in Australia) was trying to tell an over-excited puppy to ’sit down’. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t pronounce the word properly and instead of saying ’si’ was using the Japanese sound ‘し’. And was wondering why all the kids were laughing until I explained what she was saying!
Thursday at 2:17 pm
Muntosensei-san,
What an coincidence!
Friday at 9:19 pm
Naomi san,
Thanks for nice tips. I also made a mistake initially while asking for card. But now i am perfect, while talking to Japanese delegates, when they arrive here for the seminar or for any other job.
Thanks once again.
Ranjana
Sunday at 6:51 am
Konnichiwa Naomi san and Peter sanhttp://www.japanesepod101.com/wp-images/smilies/icon_smile.gif,
This is a wonderful lesson. In some cases, I have seen male students in the USA mimic physical gestures of their female Japanese sensei. One fellow started covering his mouth with his fingers whenever he laughed. It’s okay to do. But it looked very Japanese feminine to me. Another ‘home run’ lesson from JapanesePod101.com.
PS… I’ll be in Japan again for my trip #10 Nov.11 to Dec 1st. Wondering if we can shake hands with a visit together.http://www.japanesepod101.com/wp-images/smilies/icon_nihon.gif
Friday at 4:06 pm
Hi everyone im extremely new just signed up today the stuff is easy to learn and your comments are hilarious and true
i
Saturday at 11:39 am
Is there a clue for males learning like in spanish? How would they know whats the female version and the male version
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