Friday, May 16, 2008

"Maido ari - Thank you for your continued patronage."

ETA: this entry keeps getting search engine hits for the definition of maido ari, so I though I should expand on such. "Maido" means every time, and "ari" is short for arigato. So it means "thank you every time," something a super-casual shop-keeper might say, mostly in the Kansai area. Notably used by the swindler Kurosagi (in manga and TV drama, played by Yamashita Tomohisa) at the completion of each one of his gambits. 毎度あり!

Ten Ways You Know You Work at a Japanese Junior High:
1. You double-take when you see a boy and a girl actually speaking to each other.
2. You don't, however, look twice at a boy undoing his belt and letting his pants fall to his knees, or a girl with her skirt up around her head, because they invariably have a full sweatsuit on underneath.
3. When you're done drinking something from a carton or juice-box, you tear it open along the seam, flatten it out, peel out the plasticky inner layer, and put it in a stack to be tied together and put out to recycle.
4. You develop mad taking-off-and-putting-on-of-multiple-pairs-of-shoes skills.
5. You say, "Bye-bye!" more than you have since you were three.
6. It seems like a third of your body water content has become tea.
7. You eat everything that is set before you. EVERYTHING.
8. You realize that twelve-year-olds who have been writing the Roman alphabet for five weeks have better penmanship than you.
9. You never want to respond to "How are you?" with "I'm fine, thank you, and you?" Ever Again.
10. The more you teach your native language the less it makes sense even to you.


Normal friendly people also say "ohisashiburi desu ne" - actually the o-and the -desu make it polite, so sometimes you'll hear it abbreviated to "sashiburi!"
There's an awesome "novel" - well, written-word-piece - here about hikikomori. It's such a strangely Japanese thing - I'm sure it happens other places occasionally but I think the pressure of the school system here exacerbates it.

Very glad to hear Obama is doing well, and also about the California decision. I do follow the news on TV here and online, but I can only take so much, what with Burma and Sichuan.

I'd like everyone's input on something: for the English board in the hallway I'd like to put up some phrases that aren't necessarily for survival but are fun to know. The sort of thing they'll hear if they come to America but that definitely aren't in their textbook. Right now we have things like, "I can't take you anywhere", "Well, that does it", "this isn't my lucky day" etc. Those were compiled by my predecessor, so I'm looking for things more positive in tone (since part of my job description is teaching "moral awareness".) Things that are easy to say but don't have the same meaning as the literal definitions, things that teenagers would find amusing without being inappropriate for school. All suggestions welcome.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Hmmm..."what's kickin?"; "dial-it-in" "how you doin?" "21C Transition" "Millenials/Gen Y" "forget about it" "yezz ir (yes sir)"I toljah (I told you)" "do it" "whatcha doin?"

Unknown said...

Taking peoples names and adapting it into a nickname is very common, thus stuart becomes Stueee, Sammy become Sambo, Woody becomes Wood/Woodman/Woodah/Woodrow/man of wood, or you call people by their last names, (ie nick hickman is referred to as Hickman)

Beeniac said...

What's up?
How's it goin? Everything OK?
How about this?
How bout those Mariners?
Did you hear?
Talked my ear off
In one ear, out the other
Thanks, thanks a lot, thanks so much, thanks a bunch, THANK you. No, thank YOU.
Hit the road
Hit the mark
Hit the high points
Hit the shops
Hit the hay
More to come
I'm sure
Love,
Mom
Hold your horses.

Off like a dirty shirt.
Good to see you!
See you soon.
Take care.

Unknown said...

"up in my grill" "he's a grinder" (someone who bothers you)

Unknown said...

"chilled out" Chillin like a villain" "chilled out hombre" "full court press" (when pressuring someone) "mellow yellow" (someone who has clean piss if they are gonna take a UA test) variations of hot (although i don't like when people use this "she's hot" "that's hot" "smokin hot" "cold shoulder" "scratch that" "strike it, reverse it" "kicks" (shoes) "don't get it twisted" (distorted) "that's wack" (stupid, faulty thinking) "townie" (someone always hanging aroudn town) "gutter punk" "hipster" "frat boy" "barbie doll" "in crowd' "fanboy"

Unknown said...

"nailed it" "right on" "dude" "man" "drawing blanks"

Unknown said...

"lifer" (someone you expect to twiddle away their life at some place of business)

Unknown said...

Lots of people, in response to new computer programs have started to use "vista" and "seachange"

Unknown said...

"lock down"

Grouchy said...

Cool beans.
Mind your P's and Q's.
Smartee pants.
Dot your I's and cross your T's.
Don't rock the boat.
She had a wild hair.
He lies like a rug.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
Git R Done.
Happy as a clam.
Wears their heart on their sleeve.
Apple of my eye.
Cruizin for a bruizin (oh, yah, you said positive. OK, then hipster doofus makes the list too)
Walk in my shoes.
Tomorrows another day.
On the spot.
Back in the day..
Say it aint so.
Smelling like a rose.
He wears many hats.
Smart as a whip.
She had to McGuyver it.
Say cheese.
Whadda ya know.
See you later, alligator.
After a while, crocodile.
Later, potater.
There's more where that came from.
Catch you later.
Catch you on the flip side.

Grouchy said...

a stitch in time saves nine.

MaidoAri said...

This was a brillant post- it cut straight to the bone for anyone who has ever done the Eigo Sensei thing in Japan. Good title too!

I would submit a timely Obama phrase:

"Never Stop Believing in Change"

Supporting image is here:
http://thepeopleslounge.ning.com/photo/photo/show?id=1519924%3APhoto%3A51947

mike@maidoari.info