Improv Resource Center - Forums
"Do you know CUM? C-U-M?" asked Mr. Ishijima, a member of my weekly English conversation class, as we chatted in a local family restaurant. The other members of my class (5 middle-aged businessmen) looked towards me expectantly. I put on my best 'I don't, as yet, have any idea what you are talking about, so please extrapolate' face and tilted my head to the side (typically Japanese gesture of incomprehension). "CUM SHAFT" he elaborated, making some gestures. The others nodded in agreement, and murmured "cum shaft", still waiting to see if I know it. At this point I started laughing hysterically. It was the ridiculousness of the situation, which became rapidly funnier and funnier as they all began to try to make me understand. "OVERHEAD CUM" they shout, making overhead gestures with their hands. Mr. Takano passes me his fan and a glass of water in concern for my health. "DOUBLE OVERHEAD CUM" elaborates Mr. Ishijima, now more than a little confused. That makes 7 of us... Finally, I ask them to look up 'cum' in their high-tech portable electronic dictionaries. Mr. Lucky Rice Field's (that's what the kanji for his last name means - my witty nickname for him) dictionary cost over a hundred and fifty quid and does in fact contain the word 'cum'. The rest of the class dissolve into nervous, also slightly hysterical laughter, when they realize what they have been shouting at me, with the gesture too! Gotta watch those double overhead cum shafts. I take a big breath. Turns out they were talking about D.O.H.C. shaft engines or some such nonsense. The 'C' stands for CAM, not CUM...
Of all the pronunciation difficulties the Japanese have with English (there is no 'B' or 'th' sounds in Japanese, also 'R' and 'L' have exactly the same sound) the 'A' and 'U' confusion seems the most innocuous. Or so it had seemed previously to this incident - but there's nothing like a good laugh to lighten things up, eh!
After that things lightened up considerably. The class even felt comfortable enough after that to ask me what noise a poo makes in English when it falls in the toilet. (Plop, obviously). Japanese is very onomatopoeic, and has at least 2 sounds for this, one being 'pocham' and another being 'boton'. Guess which word is for the light poo and which is for the heavy one!
Miscommunication makes everyday in Japan exciting.
I have to go now, it's a Friday and I am going to the local 'gaijin' (foreigner) watering hole - The Sitting Bull - or in Japlish, 'Za Shittingu Buru'.
Of all the pronunciation difficulties the Japanese have with English (there is no 'B' or 'th' sounds in Japanese, also 'R' and 'L' have exactly the same sound) the 'A' and 'U' confusion seems the most innocuous. Or so it had seemed previously to this incident - but there's nothing like a good laugh to lighten things up, eh!
After that things lightened up considerably. The class even felt comfortable enough after that to ask me what noise a poo makes in English when it falls in the toilet. (Plop, obviously). Japanese is very onomatopoeic, and has at least 2 sounds for this, one being 'pocham' and another being 'boton'. Guess which word is for the light poo and which is for the heavy one!
Miscommunication makes everyday in Japan exciting.
I have to go now, it's a Friday and I am going to the local 'gaijin' (foreigner) watering hole - The Sitting Bull - or in Japlish, 'Za Shittingu Buru'.