Stealing Chickens
The last time I skyped in Japanese with my Skype partner, just before we said our goodbyes, he said to me, "Your Japanese is good". When he said that, I was over the moon. In the two years that we have been skyping, he has never said that to me before. Instead, he has stoically sat and listened to me, occasionally wincing, as I happily murdered his language.
And so, I thought I should remind him of the huge blunder I'd made only a short time earlier. I had intended to say, "when you get older,...", but instead I'd said "when you steal chickens..". My Skype partner looked completely nonplussed, and asked politely, "Chickens?". When I realized my mistake, I burst out laughing, turned to bed beside me, and buried my face in it.
And then I told him how in a recent Japanese lesson, I had said "Excuse me, I would like to touch you", instead of "Excuse me, I would like to sit there".
It was only after my Japanese teacher, sounding amused, asked, "Really?!" that I realised my mistake. Of course, in both cases, my mistake consisted of just one wrong syllable. But what a difference one syllable can make! It's scarey when you think about it.
I once corrected an entry by a very bright woman. She had titled her entry, "Buttock Juice", but of course had meant "Burdock Juice"."OMG!!!" was the comment written by another corrector. I didn't say anything but systematically changed all the "buttocks" in her entry to "burdock". As I did so, I solemnly thought, "There but for the grace of God go I".
Anyway, although it would be disingenuous to say that my Japanese has not improved over time, I think there are more plausible reasons for why my Skype partner praised my Japanese. In the 2 years we have been skyping, not only has he got used to listening to my less-than-perfect Japanese, but his young two year old daughter has also begun to speak. I think that he has just got good at deciphering our babble.
