Talking with people from other cultures often requires a “sense” for words that’s quite unrelated to actual skill with a foreign language, which is known as kan in Japanese. Before I started studying the language, we had a Japanese foreign exchange student at my house, who praised me for something by telling me I was “good head.” After more than a little confusion, I figured out that she was telling me I was smart, and this is indeed how you express this concept in Japanese (atama ga ii, lit. “good head” for smart, and atama ga warui or “bad head” for someone who is stupid). Soon after arriving in Japan, I had a conversation with a student who was trying to tell me how good Mitsubishi vehicles were. “They are very good. They make…army’s car. You know, boom!” For several minutes I scratched my head, wondering what he was talking about, then I suddenly realized he was talking about tanks. I’ll never forget the year my wife asked my American family for “gross lipstick” for Christmas, but happily they were able to figure out that she had meant “gloss lipstick.”
Moe Moe Tank. I love this.
