For example today I accidentally said ごめんね instead of ごめんなさい to a bus driver today (forgot to scan my bus pass when I hopped on so he had to toggle the machine so it could accept the second scan to get off) and I feel so bad for some reason. I think it’s because I said ごめん(ね) more than the polite form so the former was the first thing that came to mind at that moment.
Anyone else have a moment like this?
22 comments
Saying 帰ります instead of 買います for an entire comiket.
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Back when I started, and I just baaaareeely started learning grammar and sentences… it must have taken me about a year to stop saying です at the end of EVERY sentence.
Because kind of like:
* か = ?
* よ = !
I somehow got under the impression that
* です = .
I used to always say ありがとうお願いします instead of ございます and it still bothers me to this day lol
I said something about a sakana viewing instead of a sakura viewing. Easy slip of the tongue, but it made for an awkward moment.
Once, my teacher asked me to present a speech I had written to the class. I said 溺れます instead of 覚えます。She was incredibly confused.
Also, not me, but when we got back from holiday we went around describing in Japanese what we had done. One classmate mentioned he didn’t really see anyone, and the teacher asked if he had a girlfriend. He replied 彼女はいりません which I found funny—doubly so in hindsight when I found out he was actually gay.
My friend said something like 今度一緒に遊びに行こう but I didn’t speak much Japanese yet and didn’t now all the words so I assumed it was コンド and meant an apartment and she was asking me to come over and pretty much invited myself over for a sleepover. In my culture we also don’t have this “hey we should hang out sometime” sort of chit chat so any time anyone would say something like that I took it literally and made plans on the spot with them. Thinking back to it I think I basically forced a lot of people to hang out with me!
I once said 「着替えしてもらえますか？」 instead of 「両替してもらえますか？」 to the cashier.
And I repeated it twice before realizing. 😂
Parroting.
何名様ですか？
2名様です。
whoopsie
I still mix up 読む and 飲む when reading out loud to this day, even after 3 years. I know the difference between them and when reading can picture the action correctly, it’s just when speaking it I constantly mix them up. I correct myself after but it’s always my first instinct for some reason.
I guess “drinking” words and “reading” water is my speciality.
Early on I was so focused on saying stuff correctly when asking some man for directions, and didn’t understand his reply which was something like “You are asking a blind man with dark glasses and a cane for directions are you an idiot?” ok probably it was a lot more polite than that but that was the gist
I used to say 緑な instead of 緑の for a long time, without ever being corrected. I only realized it was wrong after I reset my IME history and phrases with みどりな in the middle started to produce unexpected suggestions.
きなこ and きのこ.Everytime I go to order a Kinako latte (delicious btw. 10/10 recommend if you haven’t had one before) I end up asking for a “mushroom latte” instead.
Dropped the しいfrom 激しい競争. Ended up with 禿げ競争. Got a 確かおじさん何人いるですね。。。
I said 食べたい instead of 飲みたい and it got broadcasted on Japanese tv 😬😬😬😬
Reviewing vocabulary in class and anyone can shout out how to say it, teacher asks what the verb is for “to die” and my mouth decides to say 死ね 💀
Not when I was a beginner but I have one all the same so I hope it’s ok to share.
I studied abroad for a semester and for some reason my brain replaced すいたwithすいか
And so for a couple months until I finally heard myself I was actively telling my friends お腹がすいかinstead of お腹が空いた
Needless to say on day I heard it and went “oh I did not just have I been doing that?” Luckily with how I spoke my consanants may have just sounded muddled enough no one really questioned it or everyone just chose to never correct me. Idk and that haunts me more.
It will haunt me forever but at least I laugh about it and use it as a “don’t worry kids if you make a mistake with English I once told people my stomach was a watermelon instead of empty, very different meanings. You got this”
Whenever a cashier ask for a point card I would answer “ない” instead of ”ありません” or “持っていません”, to be honest I was visiting as a tourist and hasn’t learn Japanese all that much but thinking back at it, it sounded so rude ughhh.
A lot of people don’t use 丁寧語/敬語 with public or service workers
Some Japanese おじさんs in that situation would probably have just said something like ああごめんな
私はおしこです。
A true beginner’s journey has to start somewhere…
oof. thinking for some reason that やっぱり meant ‘also’, ‘in addition to’, and using it in conversation several times in one trip…nobody corrected me but they must have thought I was mental
New to Japan I thanked everyone with ありがとう, strangers, shop clerks, my boss. Everyone. I didn’t realize that this isn’t the polite way. But I don’t look Asian in the slightest so I assume nobody took offense… they immediately saw that I can’t speak Japanese I guess, haha