Friday, November 12, 2010

Japanese language mistakes (and crash!)

I'm crashing.

If you've been here long enough, you know I'm bipolar (manic-depressive).

Quick explainy: depression is an extreme prolonged sadness, often for no reason at all. Mania is the opposite- extreme high. Manic-depressives alternate between depression and mania. Bipolars have different cycles. Rapid cyclers can go from depressed to manic and back a few times a day. Some of us tend more towards depressive, some more towards manic.

I'm more of a manic myself. But I've learned how to 'control' the mania, i.e. not end up dead. I do this all on my own since meds don't work for me. I was on meds for two years, and although they got the depression under wraps, the mania was worse. After nearly getting myself killed in almost every way imaginable, I gave up on medicating, figuring that by the time they found the right combination (medicating is trial and error) I'd probably be dead.

The result of giving up on meds is that I periodically have to deal with depression.

And I can feel it coming on.

What's it like?

It's like life losing its taste. No desire to do any one thing more than any other. It took me an hour and a half to get out of bed this morning. I just lay there awake, unable to find any reason why getting out of bed was more desirable than staying in it.

And I didn't go to my hip hop class today. Instead I went to one of my favourite restaurants, and had one of my fave foods. Might as well have been eating paper.

And I'm not even at the bottom of the pit yet. (I've been doing this a long, long time and I know how much further down you have to go.) It's being coming for a while. Remember how the October INSANITY (giveaway) didn't happen because it was too mentally-taxing? That's how it starts. Stuff just gets too hard.

Anyhow, I'm not trying to depress anybody else :) This is purely for the sake of imformation. I know how to fight this (Think Happy until You Feel Happy) and I'll be fine- in a few months or so.

So in return for suffering through that misery, here's a few interesting mistakes that you can make in Japanese. With the exception of the first one, which I got from an anime, they're all things my friends and I have said.

1.
a. Goshuushousama- My deepest condolences
b. Gochisousama- Thanks for the food. It was delicious

2.
a. Onnaka ga itai - My stomach hurts
b. Onnaka ga hentai - My stomach's a pervert

3.
a. Kutsu wa genkan ni arimasu- My shoes are in the entranceway
b. Kutsu wa gunkan ni arimasu- My shoes are in the battleship

4.
a. Onnaka ga ippai- My stomach is full
b. Onnaka ga oppai- My stomach is a breast

5.
a. Yakuba ni ikimasu- I'm going to Town Hall
b. Yakuza ni ikimasu- I'm going to the Japanese mafia

Until next week, happy thoughts!

8 comments:

Jessica Bell said...

Hi! I know what you're going through. I go there myself a lot. But I've learned to control my bouts of depression. Mind you, every single day is still a struggle to get up in the morning. It takes will power to get through it. So go you!!!

I've got a funny German mistake for you. My father made it the first time he visited my mother's family in Germany. 'Chus', means goodbye. This he was supposed to say. But he said "Chush' instead, which means vagina :o)

KatOwens: Insect Collector said...

Hang in there Claire.

When I lived in the NL I made a lot of dumb and embarrassing mistakes.

Dutch is really guttural-- a lot of kind of phlegm-like sounds. I was parking my bike one day and I thought this guy was talking to me, so I said, "oh, I'm sorry, I didn't understand you."
To which he said: "I wasn't talking, I was coughing."
oops.
Once my husband asked for a goat (geit) at the hardware store instead of a pipe (giet).

Aleeza said...

aww, claire. i really hope the mania goes away soon, since i kinda know how supremely sucky it is. and omg, those language mistakes are HILARIOUS, including those german and dutch ones. so incredible how a tiny vowel changes the meaning ENTIRELY.

A.T. Post said...

Tell me you didn't get that first one from "One Piece." That's my favorite manga/anime, you know.

Ha! I remember when you wrote about mixing up town hall with yakuza...funny stuff.

I have to go lie down now, my stomach's a pervert.

Claire Dawn said...

Thanks for all the love.

Yes, Postman, it was Luffy's mistake. I love Luffy. He'd be my best friend if he was real. :)

Unknown said...

My mom's Japanese and I'm pretty sure I've said some nasty things to her and her family by mistake because I speak horrible Japanses. These are so funny.

"Watashi no oppai wa gunkan ni arimasu ga hentai to"

Elana Johnson said...

Sending good vibes your way. *hugs*

Claire Dawn said...

Clarissa, I love your invented sentence. So tempted to try using it :)

Thanks, Elana.