Meaning of おまじない

Hey everyone,
I started using HelloTalk to communicate with Japanese people and it’s fun, but sometimes I have a hard time understanding everything.
I wrote for example, that I probably sometimes communicate in way that may seem too straightforward. And a nice lady answered me:

そう思っているならおまじない。

The app offered me something like “If you think so, I feel sorry“ as a translation, but when I searched for the meaning of おまじない I only found “good luck charm“. And the lady told me it means “magic”. I’m a bit confused know, so I’m thankful for any help!

It’s kind of a magic phrase too

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Thanks, that’s the definition I found. But i doesn’t really help me to understand the meaning of the sentence or why the translation „I feel sorry“ was chosen. :v:

Hmm… it sounded like you hadn’t found the one about saying it when doing magic (Definition #2)

What was the source of the translation? It’s obviously just wrong, so I wouldn’t put much thought into it.

If I were to put it into something more like what we would say in English, it’d be like “If that’s what you think, then just cross your fingers (for good luck) when you are speaking.”

That’s how I would take it anyway.

I can ask a native later.

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Ah okay, I can understand it a little bit better now. The translation was suggested by HelloTalk and I found it a bit strange.

Thanks, would be awesome if you could ask a native speaker, but you’ve already been very helpful!

The English translation exactly marches what you get using Google Translate, so maybe it just did a machine translation because there was no proper translation available?

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I explained the situation to my girlfriend as it was explained in the original post, and she said she would have no idea what the person was trying to say.

We know natives aren’t infallible, so she could always just not be understanding it. But maybe I took too far of a leap in my reading of it? Or there’s some part missing?

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Maybe it’s worth asking other natives on HiNative?

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Translating it with DeepL tallies with the magic theme, I get
“If that’s what you think, it’s a spell” :stuck_out_tongue:

Is it perhaps a local idiom of some kind?

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Could it be something like “That’s a self-fulfilling prophecy” or “Don’t jinx yourself”?

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Reminds me of this clip (yes, “weird” seeming expressions like that exist in English, too :stuck_out_tongue: )

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Could she have been saying something like
“If you think so, good luck to you.”

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This was my sentence:

私は時々思っていることを率直に言いすぎると思います。:no_mouth:

And this was her answer:

そう思っているならおまじない。
幼少期(6歳以下の)の自分をイメージして何故言いたい事を率直に言ってしまうか尋ねてごらん。幼少期の自分は答えを知っているよ。
理由が分かれば対処できるでしょ?

Maybe this helps.

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Yeah… you left out the part that actually had to do with おまじない >_>
That’s how she’s referring to imagining (conjuring?) your young self.

I’m not sure it’s actually super helpful, but eh.

Also, this person knows she’s talking to a non-native right? Why is she using things like 何故 in kanji. Kind of beside the point I guess.

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Maybe it’s more like

If you think so, I’m sorry (to hear that).

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The kanji were not the problem and I understood this imagining part. I just couldn’t make out the connection between this part and the おまじない. Sorry for posting the sentence in isolation, I did not assume that it would be such a mysterious expression. :smile::v:

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