Little girl with closed hands at face6/14/2023 ![]() The little finger pointing straight up in the air originally meant a baby, but nowadays it is more commonly used to mean girlfriend, mistress or wife. If you are talking about someone and crook your index finger at the same time, you are saying that the person has the unfortunate habit of taking objects not rightfully his. Watakushi, of course, is the word for I, me, self. There is the story of the foreigner who was studying Japanese in a language school and on the second day of classes he heard the teacher say “ watakushi” and point to his nose.Īssuming that watakushi was the word for “nose,” he proceeded to use it that way: “My ‘watakushi’ itches” and “My ‘watakushi’ tells me dinner is ready,” thoroughly mystifying the teacher and his Japanese friends. Accordingly, when referring to themselves, they will often point to their noses, whereas we point to our chests. Traditionally, the Japanese have regarded the stomach as the abode of the spirit or soul (not the region of the heart), but they have felt that (he nose is the entrance leading eventually to the lower abode. When one of those many non-English-speaking Japanese finds that he somehow has to communicate with you, his first compulsion may be to try to use gestures and, since these will inevitably be Japanese gestures, it behooves you all the more to learn the basics. It may bring the house down-but mystify His Nibs. ![]() This is the moment for the bereft wife to clench her right fist and point past it toward the husband with her left index finger. If an American husband takes his I wife out shopping in Japan and they’re shown the same $500 pearl necklace as above, he may protest in tones of outrage that the price is entirely too high and that he would never consider buying such a souvenir. In fact, this should be easy to remember since we have the expression “tight-fisted” that means the same thing. To the Japanese, however, you are making the sign for someone who is stingy and close with his money. If you shake that clenched fist at an American, he would know you are angrily threatening him. He will understand, believe me.Ĭlench your fist tightly. Make the sign for money and then the negative wave of the open hand. ![]() ![]() Solve the problem by using the first gesture above and then the second. You don’t have nearly that much money, but you can’t make this persistent clerk understand. Suppose you are in a store where a sales clerk tries to sell you a pearl necklace that costs $500. (Your hand can be right up against your nose or it can be held 10 or 12 inches away from your face.) This is the sign for No, none, not, negative, I haven’t any, I don’t want any. Wave your open hand back and forth in front of you, as if you were chasing a mosquito away from your nose. To us, this would mean everything is O.K., it’s all right to a Japanese this finger-formed circle is a standard reference to money. Let’s review some basic Japanese gestures first:įorm a circle with the thumb and index finger of your right hand. There is another reason why gestures, which are called temane or teburi in Japanese, are important in this country, but we will come to that in due course. It’s a lot easier to learn the gesture than it is to pronounce and remember the phrase you would have to use to convey the meaning of the gesture. You must resign yourself, therefore, to learning entirely new gestures, but be not dismayed. They seldom coincide in meaning with the gestures of any other country. Japanese gestures are a world of their own, just as their language is. Are these gestures universal? Or, more to the point, are they used by the Japanese? sign, the finger-pinched nostrils and so forth.īut wait. What can you do in the beginning? Use some gestures.įine, you say, and you begin reviewing those gestures we have all used since childhood: thumbs up, thumbs down, V for victory, middle finger in the air, clenched fist, A-O.K. With about seven percent of the Japanese population knowing enough English to lend a linguistic hand to a forlorn foreigner, you will sooner or later find one of them to help you solve your problem, although you may meet several blank looks before you reach that one person in 14 you are seeking. What should be done? Give up your hopes to enjoy your stay in Japan? No, that would be going too far, since Japan is a marvelous experience. But no matter what you do, you will have this problem at least to some extent. Just how serious this problem will be depends on where you go and how long you stay and whether or not you travel in the company of a Japanese-speaking friend. One thing is sure for newcomers: You will have a communications problem. With the beginning of a new year, it’s a certainty that a large number of new arrivals to Japan are beginning the endless task of coping with what we’ve come to call Things Japanese. Japanofile Jack Seward tells what they all mean…
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