Hilo Days: Humor in My Own Mind

The Japanese phrases we used when we were kids in Hilo have stuck with me all these years. I wrote about them in my old Hilo Days website. Even today, when I hear people use them, I have flashes of memories of my youth. 

I Kill the Language

Arigato Gozaimasu

"Itadaki-masu." Please excuse me while I eat. As long as I can remember, we always used to preface our meal with this phrase.

Mom was a stickler on Japanese good manners (I guess she picked it up from her Mom) and made us say that before we ate. Didn't bother me at all.

Every time I said it, I would pretend I was saying "Eat a duck if you must."

"Ogochiso-sama." The food was delicious. We had to say this when we were done eating. Good manners again. I didn't mind. It always sounded like "Oh good, she's sewing some."

"Arigato-gozai-masu." Thanks a lot. "Never forget to say please and thank you," Mom used to say. Impeccable manners. I didn't mind. I used to think I was saying "Alligator goes high in March."

"Oyasumi-na-sai." I'm going to sleep now. Guess this was to let everyone know you were going nightie-night and not worry about you if they looked up and you were gone. Manners again. I didn't mind. It sounded like "Oh yeah, sue me outside."

With this wonderful insight into the Japanese language, is it any wonder that I just squeaked by when I entered Japanese School in the second grade.

To this day, this language game has continued to provide me with hours of fun. Sometimes a phrase would strike me as funny and I would start to chuckle out loud. People around me probably would chuckle to themselves as they watched me chuckle to myself. And they probably still do.

But I didn't care, and I still don't. They don't know what they're missing.