My kanji blunder confession

[Amarkyea]

I live in Japan, I’m constantly surrounded by kanji, I spend lots of time reading things I run across in everyday life, I’m level 28 WaniKani, I’m studying for the N3 etc etc…and yet sometimes I have experiences in the wild that are completely humbling…like today…

My toddler daughter has been wearing disposal face masks when we go out. There is a single kanji stamped into both the left and the right side of the mask. For weeks, every time I put on her mask I’ve briefly wondered why it says “stop” in kanji.

Today, a Japanese friend asked me if my daughter’s mask was a kid’s mask and I said yes…but why does it say “stop”? She said oh that means “up”.

(…umm… of course I knew that Grade 1, WK lvl 1, N5 Kanji. I’m confident I would have been able to read it correctly in a vocab word, yet that simple standalone kanji tripped me up for weeks…granted I was only 1 stroke off )

[Slayermusiq1]

Oof, that’s embarrassing.

Kind of like confusing the difference between さわる と すわる
because “may I sit down?” becomes “may I touch?”

[downtimes]

I hate these too words so much and when speaking I often mix them up.
さわってもいいですか while pointing at a seat will never become boring…