My boyfriend works for a Japanese company in one of their US offices.
They are having a Halloween costume contest and we like the idea of being “monkey Business”. Wear a brown suit, monkey ears and a tail along with a banana for a phone.
Most of his coworkers are from Tokyo and we aren’t sure if “monkey Business” is an American only idiom. I’m guessing it is.
Will they understand the reference?
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/y6rvof/monkey_business/
2 comments
If they’re working in America they may well be aware of the term “monkey business”, but they may also be aware of the “monkey” term and image being a racial epithet against Asian people in general. You might not want to take that risk.
They won’t, it’s English-only. But it only takes one sentence to explain ‘We have this phrase in English…’ so it’s not anything worth worrying over.