When living in a foreign land and not speaking the language very well you are bound to have miscommunications. Most misunderstandings I don't lose any sleep over but the other day was a bit different. The girlfriend of a co-worker of mine, let's call him Yoshi-san, just gave birth a few days ago. Every day for about a week before she gave birth I asked Yoshi-san, "are you a papa yet?" he replied "not yet, but soon." Masako and I decided to have a planned delivery date before the due date (induced labour), so I asked him if they to would have a planned delivery date. My Japanese didn't make any sense and his English was not up to par so I asked a passer by, call this guy Suzuki-san, what "planned" was in Japanese. Immediately the conversation ended. Seems that Yoshi-san thought I was asking him if his girlfriends pregnancy was planned or an accident! Of course this is something I would never bring up, especially with someone I rarely talk with. Still have to straighten this one out because he still seemed a bit ticked at me today.

Name:

Email Address:

URL:

Remember info?
YesNo
Comments: