🌈 ✨ Stories of funny mistakes when learning Japanese ☀ 🌈 ✨

Japanese
#1

Just to keep the mood light, I wanted to share some stories of me buggering up Japanese and making funny mistakes. Embarrassing at the time, but good stories later haha.

One morning I wanted to say to my girlfriend that I thought she had lost weight.
I wanted to say “本当にやせたよね！” - You have lost weight, haven’t you!
I actually said “本当にやさいよね！” - You are a vegetable, aren’t you!
She was brushing her teeth at the time and spat it out all over me, a la sitcom

One night I was out with her and her friends and we went to プリクラ. I wrote a little message on one of the pictures
I wanted to say “We Are なかよし” - We are close friends
I actually said “We Are よこなし” - Nonsense, but could translate as “We are without horoizontals”

One day at school I was filling in a work trip request to go to the prefectural office. I handed the sheet to the vice principal, as I handed him the paper…
I wanted to say “(県庁)けんちょうに行きます” - I am going to the prefectural office
I actually said “(浣腸)かんちょうに行きます” - Loosely translates (poorly) as I’m going for a finger up my bum

One evening my girlfriend and I were settling in for the night, my alarm clock was broken so I wanted her to wake me up at the same time she was getting up for work.
I wanted to say “6時におこしてね” - Wake me up at 6 yeh?
I actually said “6時におかしてね” - Violate me at 6 yeh? HA

Anybody got similar stories? :smiley:

32 Likes
#2

I don’t have any fun stories, but thank you for sharing! Great laugh in the morning :smile:

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#3

I have a similar one, also something I said to my girlfriend about a year and a half ago. There were lots of people at the station -
I wanted to say - 人はいっぱいね (There are lots of people!)
I said - 人はおっぱいね (People are boobies, arent they?)

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#4

Something like “馬の毛並み” passed by quickly in a game and I read it as “馬並み” and was completely confused by the direction the conversation had taken.

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#5

They really are, they really are.

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#6

Love mistakes like that that bring entirely new sub-stories to games and movies hahah

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#7

Yesterday I was talking to my GF and had noticed a zit and was like “あ~乳首だよ” Instead of “あ~面皰だよ”

Oh, a Nipple/Oh, a Zit

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#8

Hahah I get those mixed up allllll the time XD

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#9

Definitely. It happened as well with 御釜 because I was unaware of the alternative meaning so I thought they were just talking about a pot.

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#10

Funny isn’t it, i’ve never known that word to mean anything other than, well, that haha. Good to know it also means a pot, might start throwing that into conversations just for a laugh :wink:

edit: apparently お釜帽 is a bowler hat (snigger)

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#11

And the Japanese word for the korean city Busan is 釜山.

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#12

I have one that had my tutor dying xD

I wanted to say “他の人” but for some reason, and for the first time ever, my brain mixed in English, and I said “他のpeople” instead.

I also read 木々 as もくもく once and she found it wildly adorable. We still joke about it xD

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#13

There is something very cute about that haha

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#14

Most of mine come down to misunderstanings.
One that sticks out in my memory is when I told a girl her haircut looked nice and she said お世辞ですか
Jisho.com and Takoboto said that word means “compliment” so I thought she was asking if it was a compliment and I said yes. She didn’t look happy. This particular misunderstanding happened a few times before I realised what was happening. Later I learned that word actually means an insincere compliment you give someone just for the sake of being polite so she was essentially asking “are you just being nice?” and I said yes.

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#15

I recently saw a conversation in the comment section of bilibili where some chinese people were saying おありがとう to each other. I thought it was funny because I completely understood why they thought to use the お but yet it’s just odd.

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#16

Not entirely on topic but hey, it’s my topic ahha

This is comedy gold

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#17

If we’re allowed to go off topic I love this advert

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#18

I’ve used 刑務所 when referring to 事務所 in conversation several times.

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#19

My university had a big Japanese exchange program. One time I tried to flex my Japanese around a group of Japanese girls I’d just met, and I referred to them as あんたたち. They laughed. Loudly and a lot.

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#20

I had a brain mix-up moment. One time in a Japanese conversation group, I was talking with a native Japanese in Japanese. She found out that I knew some Spanish and wanted to practice her Spanish. So she suddenly asked me “Puedes hablar español?” (Can you speak Spanish?). I responded with “Un poquito だけ” (just a little bit — should be “solamente un poquito“). I was immediately like, “what the heck did I say??”

15 Likes