elfs: (Default)
[personal profile] elfs
"Bae Yong Jun ga totemo kawaii desu ne?"

The woman operating the cash register paused in her habitual repetition of the credit card dance. The thoughts turning in her head were visible in that pause: who is this guy? His Japanese is serviceable enough for commercial transactions, probably a second-year student, but what he had sought out was obscure. Westerners browsing the Japanese novels section was rare but not unheard. Westerners who watched Winter Sonata, on the other hand, were simply not to be found. For one thing, the show isn't even in Japanese; it's made in Korea, and available in Japan only in subtitled editions.

The pause enters its second phase as she took in the picture. Groomed and business casual, wedding ring, iPod, PG-rated shoujo-ai kanji novel, Korean soap opera, "the male lead is very cute, no?" It was simply not adding up.

Instinct took over and she finished the ritual with a pallid flourish of the receipt. I took the book and opened it to page one: "Gokigenyo."

I love messing with folks' heads sometimes.

Date: 2005-02-09 08:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] antonia-tiger.livejournal.com
I've heard my father do something similar with the fragments of German he picked up from PoWs, 60 years ago. Apparently he has a very rural accent.

Date: 2005-02-09 08:55 pm (UTC)
ext_3294: Tux (Default)
From: [identity profile] technoshaman.livejournal.com
Hee hee.

(Be even funnier if I could translate the Japanese, but still pretty funny... you could just see the "WTF??" as she tried to figure this gai-jin out... and failed miserably... :)

Date: 2005-02-09 09:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elfs.livejournal.com
Well, the Japanese is mostly translated: The first bit is "Bae Yong Jun is very cute, don't you agree?" The second is "Good day to you," said in a feminine flourish, and is the opening line of the book "Maria-Sama looks over us, Ep. 20: In the Library."

I should probably add that her co-worker had just put up a small poster behind me advertising that Winter Sonata was going to "be available soon" in the states, with a picture of he and his co-star on it.

Date: 2005-02-09 08:58 pm (UTC)
ext_3294: Tux (Default)
From: [identity profile] technoshaman.livejournal.com
Reminds me of something I saw one time...

Arabic has more or less two versions. What we think of as Arabic, being the male version, and a women's version, apparently radically different. Went to a Shoney's with a certifiable psycho bitch my then-gf, and we ended up with an Arab waiter. He filled our glasses, and as he walked away, she told him thank you. In men's Arabic. He *skidded* to a stop, turned around, and we had a couple very interesting minutes of conversation...

Date: 2005-02-09 09:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elfs.livejournal.com
Yeah, I've been told I "talk like a girl." It's all the flourishes I learn from watching the anime I like, which is mostly girl stuff.

Date: 2005-02-10 03:09 am (UTC)
kengr: (Default)
From: [personal profile] kengr
Yeah, I've been told I "talk like a girl."

And this is a problem because?

:-)

Date: 2005-02-09 10:51 pm (UTC)
ext_74896: Tyler Durden (Default)
From: [identity profile] mundens.livejournal.com
Yeah, freakin people like that is fun!

Being an old fart, I often get to freak kids by discussing shit that's current. It's coz my 17 & 19 year old sons have very similar interests to me, so they keep me current, dinner time conversation is often "scope this fresh cut from the White Stripes", or "I just DLd the latest fan sub, wanna watch tonight?". You'll have that to look forward to as yours grow up!

Kudos on doing it in Japanese though!
I can just about sing and understand the themes to a couple of series, and know the basic common phrases and words that everyone knows, but that's it.

A friend of mine, [livejournal.com profile] evie_fae, took a Japanese course and was commended on picking up the pronounciation quickly, which was all down to watching so much anime.

Date: 2005-02-10 03:11 am (UTC)
kengr: (Default)
From: [personal profile] kengr
Sounds like an old friend of mine. First person I ever dated, and bi. So here we are, a guy and a gal walking down the street and she's pointing out the cute girls to me. In the mid 70s..

Got a *lot* of odd looks. :-)

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