“I and a few other American scholars were at a party and one of us tried to compliment our Japanese host by saying, Konban wa oishii mono ga takusan arimasu ne. By this he intended to say, “What a lot of tasty dishes you’re serving us tonight.” The host laughed and remarked, “You mean I’m usually stingy on other nights?” By putting wa after “tonight,” my colleague had in effect said, “Tonight, for a change, you’re serving us a lot of tasty dishes.” Although our host seemed to take this in good humor, he unobtrusively committed seppuku later as the rest of us were drinking cognac.”
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Read this book (in its first edition when it was called *Gone Fishin’*) back in the dark ages as a university/grad student and loved it.
Though there’s obviously some hyperbole involved here, yeah, Jay Rubin has a lot of insight and a great sense of humor and I’d recommend his book to any late-intermediate/early-advanced or beyond student looking to gain some deeper knowledge into the language combined with a fun read.
(To those who aren’t aware, he’s Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Harvard and one of Haruki Murakami’s personal translators.)
Coincidentally just bought it yesterday, he’s very funny and perceptive. I’ve been enjoying it alongside Polly Barton’s “Fifty Sounds”, which is much more of a contemplative essay about the life experience of a prominent Japanese translator.