Embarrassing Moments In Learning!

[G San]

Hi everyone.

How about some group therapy? Have you had any embarrassing moments while learning Japanese, or any language for that matter. I ask because I had one last night which I would like to share with you. Please be supportive!

I went to a Sushi Restaurant yesterday. It's the only one in the local area that doesn't involve going into London for so we (my girlfriend and me) thought we'd try it out. I was a little nervous to whip-out my super (ok basic) language skills straight away but as I got more relaxed I decided to give it a go.

The waitress came over to take our order so I thought "now or never" and tried my best to order in Japanese. Part way through I noticed she seemed less responsive than I would have imagined, in fact she looked embarrassed.

That's when she told me she was Chinese. As was the whole staff. It was a Chinese run Sushi restaurant.

Oh boy, I was so embarrassed. I still cringe with shame as I type this. So please make me feel better and share your red-faced tales with me and all the listeners.

It'll be our form of therapy.

[Belton]

ha ha

I had exactly the same experience!
There are a lot of Chinese restaurants in disguise in London.

To be fair the waitresses were saying Irrasyaimase to everyone who came in. And it was in a part of town that does have some Japanese run Japanese restaurants.

But the waitress was very indignant when I spoke to her in Japanese.

I had a close call at work when I was told there was a party of Japanese visitors making a tour. I stopped myself in time when I realised they were in fact Chinese.

Then in class, misreading できます for 〜てきます。and blithely giving examples for a different grammar point until the teacher put in the tenten to make it look as if I had got it right...

[Outkast]

I went at least a year speaking rude, informal speech to senior citizens before someone stopped me and explained about polite speech (and why telling older people stuff like 「じゃな」was a bad thing.)

That's what you get from teaching yourself with mainstream radio and anime shows...

[Ulver_684]

Great stories!

I'm going to share mine it just happen now on Mixi!

I was sending friend's request very normal and to be honest informal just like I do on myspace, facebook and 1UP then I receive a reply from a Japanese girl that she was gonna block me or report me for intimidiate her and I say "What?"
I didn't knew that sending friend's request was intimidiating people so I have to say sorry and calm down because I was very angry and was about to tell her truths but I remember that Japanese people are and like polite people.

Its has become very difficult to me to get use to their politeness but I learn my lesson too!

[Tom]

I had just started my first Japanese class. My cousin had been studying the language for a while, and sent some phrases in one of his e-mails. Rather than ask him what they meant, I took them to my Japanese professor, who proclaimed that I must have copied the sentences down wrong and that she couldn't tell what they said. Well, it turns out that it was correct Japanese---the sentences were just too vulgar for her to want to translate them!

So, uh, the moral is to translate things yourself!

[JonB]

a restaurant story.

I work on a project that involves Japanese and HK Chinese. We had a team get together in Tokyo and at the restaurant the waiters were talking to the Chinese ladies in Japanese. I should point out that this is a very famous and popular gaijin restaurant and most of the staff are not Japanese...

Next meeting was in HK and yes you got in the waiters were speaking cantonese to the Japanese ladies.

Very amusing to all

[Psy]

I made the mistake of saying お巡り instead of お代わり once... won't be doing that again!

[roquesdoodle]

I write comic books for a company called BOOM! Studios (yes, shameless self-promotion; forgive my vanity). Last summer, BOOM! published a book by Yoshitaka Amano called "Hero."

Now, along with writing several titles for them, I also enjoy helping them during comic conventions. Last year at the San Diego Comicon, we had Yoshitaka Amano do signings for "Hero" at our booth. The entire BOOM! crew was excited. We were all going to have a chance to meet one of our favorite artists.

At that time, I had been listening to Jpod 101 for a couple of months and I was looking forward to using some of what I had learned. But the first day that Amano-san came to the booth was a whirlwind of activity. Amano's translator/handler ran a tight ship so introductions were given to the publisher, editor, and PR guy; the important people (I'm just a writer and a fan, therefore no one of real consequence). So even though I got to work with him a little that day, we were never formally introduced.

The next day I was determined to introduce myself. So when he came to the booth, I politely approached him and said, "Hajimemashite, yoroshku onegeishimasu." To which his handler promptly said (with a hint scorn), "You met him yesterday."

Needless to say I was terribly embarassed and I spent the rest of the con wanting to hide under the booth every time he came to sign autographs. But Amano-san thought nothing of it. He is a wonderfully sweet and gracious man. And he drew an amazing picture along with his autograph on my copy of "Hero" so it was definitely worth the humiliation.

[Psy]

The next day I was determined to introduce myself. So when he came to the booth, I politely approached him and said, "Hajimemashite, yoroshku onegeishimasu." To which his handler promptly said (with a hint scorn), "You met him yesterday."

I wouldn't feel embarassed by that if I were you. To be honest, I'd feel more insulted. You just don't do something like that, especially to a learner wanting to try out what he knows in the real world. I mean c'mon, unless the interpreter was one of the few raised on both English and Japanese, wouldn't he have had moments like yours during his own studies?

Sheeeeesh.

[niedec]

My friends and I have made some of the worst mistakes you could possibly make in the Japanese language (at least as far as I'm concerned, anyway). First off, it's important to know that my current Japanese teacher used to make frequently annoying mistakes in Japanese, being as how she's not a native speaker. This leads to weird statements from her such as "Kami wa deshou" and "Denki desu ka?" One of my friends learned informal Japanese from a friend of hers that's a native speaker. Also, there's another friend of mine in the class, and they refuse to let us take Japanese Two, so we're forced learning kana all over again. Not good. Anyway, this friend of mine got really mad at the teacher after she made yet another mistake, and wound up muttering "sensei ga kirei desu ne." She realized her mistake immediately and was pretty embarrassed. We made fun of her for quite a while about that.

Another comes from my other friend in the class, who on the carpool back to our school (we take Japanese off-campus) said that we should call him "Onii-chan." Unfortunately for him, he wasn't thinking and asked us to call him "one-san." We did.

Then there's my mistake, where my teacher made the "ya" in "oishiya-san" really small on the board, and I wound up translating it as "Oishii-san." A lot of inside-jokes came out of that one. It was pretty bad.

The ultimate mistake, however, is a mistake one of my friends made at a restaurant. The worst ones are always in a restaurant, aren't they? She knew the waiters there pretty well, and knew that they spoke Japanese. She had also talked to them in Japanese several times before with no problem whatsoever. This time, however, while asking for "mizu," she wound up saying "mizuge." She caught herself halfway through and corrected herself, but not before embarrassing the waiter, followed by a lot of blushing and awkward silence. This was the same friend that called my Japanese teacher "pretty," by the way.

Oh, and yes, I could have typed this in kana, but I felt that the newbies learning Japansese would like to read these, too. That, and my Japanese Input thing isn't working right now for some reason.

[seanolan]

Classic mistakes my friends and I have made:

1) calling someone "kawaisou" when we meant "looks cute"

2) writing "マンコ" instead of "マンゴ" (totally different meaning!)

3) our exchange student from France was asked what French people say for "kampai". She told them "chin-chin" which set off a room full of giggles...

Sean

[Bueller_007]

Classic mistakes my friends and I have made:

1) calling someone "kawaisou" when we meant "looks cute"

I've also done this. Not about people, but about things.

I'd say it's a common killer for people who are first learning the i-adjective + sou construct.

[Psy]

my current Japanese teacher used to make frequently annoying mistakes in Japanese, being as how she's not a native speaker. This leads to weird statements from her such as "Kami wa deshou" and "Denki desu ka?

There's no excuse for this. There are some pretty talented non-native speakers out there, but it's clear she isn't one of them. You're better off with a few books and the internet-- don't waste any more of your time with her.

[Ulver_684]

Another embarrasing moment was in a restaurant In NYC on 49st and 8th Ave! We went to a Japanese restaurant and guess what? I didn't know how to use the Sticks and the food fly and fell on the floor!

I was so ashame I had to order another dish "Sashimi" thanks to the correction there!

But I said Sushi outloud, when it wasn't!

ohhh GOD I have done so many mistakes please forgive me for my sins!

[jacusa]

I am French, but live in Boston USA.
Last year, I went to Los Angeles and decided to visit "little Tokyo", thinking that it would be a great opportunity to try and use the little Japanese I new.
So, I parked the car and went into the first store in order to ask if they had a map of the area. I approached the lady in the store and asked: "sumimasen, chizu ga arimasuka?" She looked at me puzzled, did not respond, and finally called another woman who told me that the person I had been talking to was chinese. That second woman was Japanese and understood the question.
The moral is that you can't necessarily expect to be talking to Japanese people even if you are in "little Tokyo".

Jerome