Hello, friends
I just got to level 12 and got to learn the ‘stream’ kanji. I’m not sure what I’m missing but I can’t make sense out of the mnemonic. How does a boob look like in tsunami weather??? Are we talking about a human boob?? lol I’m just really confused.
I should say English is not my first language, so that could be my problem.
In this instance boob is used to mean “a foolish or stupid person”, which is a seldom used definition of the word.
I see. Thank you very much.
Is this used in a specific country or would any English speaking person understand it?
Google lists it as North American English. As a British English word, it lists it as “an embarrassing mistake” or to make such a mistake. I don’t know how much other parts of the world would recognize those two dialectal variations.
I’ve heard it used in the manner that Leebo described, as well. I can’t speak for other English-speaking countries.
It is derived from booby, a type of seabird that I expect people thought behaves in a stupid or awkward manner. We also have similar origins & usage for dodo.
P.S. British-Canadian-Australian here - have heard it (both boob and booby) used in each of those countries, but less often recently - people are more direct / less metaphorical with their insults these days!
The thing I love about WK is that I get to learn Japanese AND English at the same. It’s like two for one.
In hindsight, the title of this thread is pretty awesome. (And the answer is “not anymore” I guess 
)
This booby has the same meaning/origin in the term booby trap, which you may be more familiar with.
You’ve already got water/tsunami and river, for me that was enough to remember the kanji.
I find that I end up making up my own mnemonics and stories, as the ones provided often refer to people I’ve never heard of (Hard Gay?) and words or situations that don’t make any sense to me. But the main point is just to be able to recall the different subgroups in a kanji. If that thing is a boobie, a fireplace or a laptop it really doesn’t matter as long as your story is strong enough to remember.
Also: boob tube = idiot box = television
(Just trying to provide some current usage examples for OP)
I don’t know him either, but he has grown to become a real person in my mind based of the mnemonics, I kinda like him now!
こういち has become a multidimensional beast that can transform in to different things, cause they are never the same O_o
Hard Gay was a Japanese comedian and wrestler in the mid 2000’s. He really only had one joke so his act dried up pretty quickly, then he got a knee injury a few years later and had to quit wrestling. He has gone back into comedy since but no longer playing that character.
Here is an old video. It edges on NSFW but only cause of constant hip thrusting.
He is as memorable as all his mnemonics will now be. I don’t need to imagine the catchphrase, his pelvic thrusts have etched themselves forever into my brain.
A German Hard Gay is just a hilarious image to picture. He is one of my favourite characters, up there with Mrs Chou
