(The following conversations take place in Japanese, translated for your convenience)
a year ago….
Roxy: *thinks* Is that the fighter Omigawa?!
Omigawa: Hi! I’m Omigawa Michihiro. Call me “Michi.”
Roxy: Hello! uh, ….Michi?
Omigawa: Yes, Michi.
Roxy: Nice to meet you, Omigawa-san.
I can’t call him “Michi!” ^_^; It’s inappropriate for anyone other than a good friend or family to call him by that kind of nick name. I know he introduced himself like that because I’m a foreigner and we always go by our first names…but like, if the average Japanese person outside the dojo heard me address him as that, they’d think we were lovers or something. LOL
When I say, “How are you?” he likes to scream out loudly, “Bin bin da ze!” and everyone around us laughs. At first I was like, “Bin bin?” (which prompted other laughs) “What does that mean?”
“It means…great!” he said.
“Uh huh,” I replied. “With what connotation?”
“Hahaha it means great! You can say it!” he said, enthusiastically. “Try saying it!”
“Um, that’s okay.”
It obviously means something else, probably dirty.
See, I know this stuff because I’ve been speaking Japanese for 10 years. I don’t get fooled.
I caught him trying to teach Brittany that. Why? Because it’s FUN to teach foreigners wrong stuff 😀 and then laugh at them! LOL See, if I do that, I get fired from work. Please repeat, “Please call me Taro! I am a bad mother f*cker!” XD
I also caught our wonderful coach teaching her “Abayo,” which is like ‘See ya, suckers!’ and is usually accompanied by the middle finger or sticking out the tongue. hahaha Not something you should yell out to the class before you leave the building.
I gotta increase my vocabulary…. I’ve been studying and taking notes a lot lately….