So, this is possibly my favourite thread of all time!!!
also prompted me to search うんこ on jisho.
scrolled down a bit and saw this -
うんこ製造機 -
Noun
- person who does not contribute anything to society; poop-producing machine
brilliant
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At school in Japan we were meeting some students from a local college. The student I was talking to said they were studying economics. I was horrible at economics class, so I wanted to say I think economics is difficult… but I said the wrong word, and said I think economics is boring. The student looked kind of sad that I was not interested in their major 
I still feel bad about it 4 years later.
経済は難しいと思います （けいざいはむずかしいとおもいます）
経済はつまらないと思います。
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I quite like the idea of the weather being difficult ! kinda works 
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I don’t know how we’re supposed to follow OP, but I was attending a tea ceremony in Kyoto and someone complimented my very bad Japanese.
I intended to reply with いいぇ、僕は日本語が下手です。
Instead I said, 僕は日本語が上手です。
Obviously the wires got crossed in my head.
I cringe thinking about it, because my Japanese is definitely definitely not 上手
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I accidentally told my host mother I wasn’t able to visit her because I became a hospital instead of getting sick. She took it as I had been admitted to a hospital and started freaking out immediately.院 vs. 気 is a very subtle, but important difference.
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This is a pretty reasonable interpretation, to be honest.
If a foreign exchange student said in English, “So sorry, I am hospital” I would think that too.
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Perhaps you already know this, but when you’re (or someone else is) coming down with something, saying “病気” isn’t the word to use. It implies that someone has a serious, most likely untreatable, problem with their body or mental health. Unfortunately, this word is often translated as “sick” rather than “infirm”
if you do know about this, sorry. I learned about this a while back and was corrected when referring to someone who had the cold as 病気. So that would also explain such a strong reaction from your host mother. For those who are curious, you should probably say 風邪を引いている (have a cold), インフルエンザにかかっている (have the flu), 体調が悪い (not feeling well)
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@Daisen I don’t fault her for it at all. I caught myself pretty quickly realizing my mistake. It was embarrassing though to say the least having said I had become a hospital rather than had gotten sick.
@LucasDesu Did not know that. Another shortfall of Genki. I usually said ちょっと 病気になった to downplay it a bit, but most likely that was incorrect as well with what you are saying. If only it had been a cold…
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I’ve never heard of that before! That gives a deeper meaning to the novel I’ve been trying to read though, noice.
Thanks for sharing! (even if it wasn’t addressed to me, I’m just hijacking)
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It’s not just Genki. I’ve found that many resources use it as though it means “get sick” in English.
In fact, as I was looking up the link in my previous post, I wanted to use ejje.weblio because it’s a English-Japanese dictionary, they had this sentence under 病気.
食べ過ぎて病気になる → “make oneself ill by eating too much 《candy》 [too many 《cakes》]”
This gives a really inaccurate use to learners especially when the Japanese-Japanese dictionary defines it differently. It’s just a good practice to always understand that one-to-one translations aren’t always as accurate as one would want.
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Not super bad just a lil embarrassing:
instead of
私の猫はふとった。
I said
私の猫はふとんだ。
I realized what I had said and laughed while miming throwing a cat like a basket ball…
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… That recovery sounds worse than the original error.
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I think I’m missing something. What’s the connection between saying your cat is a futon and shooting a basketball.
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no futonda like “flying away”
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Maybe a little? It sounds exactly like “is a futon” though.
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It’s a known pun:
ふとんがふとんだ
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Isn’t it ふとんがふっとんだ?
吹っ飛ぶ (ふっとぶ) is a verb, but ふとぶ isn’t.
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probably, I’ve only heard it said and I’m really too tired to be trying to be funny in Japanese
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I mentioned my friend who has a disability as “不死身” ふじみ (imortal) instead of “不自由” ふじゆう (disability).
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Well it is not really embarassing but I personally was still annoyed by it… I met someone and wanted to tell that I went to Japan 2 years ago instead I said 2000 years ago…
二年前
二千年前
I got a weird look but they could laugh about it like me.
And a other classic one to mix up やさい and やすい … one time I said … “やすいはおいしい” … Instead of this vegetable are delicous.
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