Grammaticas for the Idiot Abroad pt 2
last modified: Thursday, February 14, 2013 (11:12:31 AM)
(cue eyeroll) Seriously. If you're not familiar with a language, don't pick two random characters and say that these identify you and your essence. It's just stupid, especially when you refer to yourself by the foreign word, but you had to look it up on the internet and never bothered to verify your pronunciation with someone who speaks the language. Also, don't take said characters and go to a tattoo shop to brand yourself with them. Or, if you really have to do that, make sure you go to someone who understands the language and can write it. I can't tell you how many times I've seen passengers with a tattoo that says "Black Pepper" in lieu of "Black Power".
Anyways, I asked the man if he was correct with his writing of the kanji for tiger, and mentioned the sickness radical, and how, by writing it incorrectly, he basically wrote that he's a watery, sick number 7. He got really mad at me, and hurriedly informed me that he just wrote it to be able to identify his bags quickly. I was rather amused by his anger - I just pointed out the obvious. Besides, any language student can tell you that there's no shame in making a mistake like that. But there is when you brand yourself, or your items, with that.
(Apologies for the kanji characters not appearing the blog. You can look them up here if you need the visual -
http://www.saiga-jp.com/kanji_dictionary.html )