When you learn a foreign language, you definitely need to develop a sense of humor. Like the other day when I was talking about the concept of katami, which are the treasures of a person who has died which are distributed to friends and family members. But I’d gotten the word wrong, substituting kataki, which literally means a sworn enemy who you must kill. So instead of talking about the big fur cap my father left me when he died — otosan no katami — I had said kataki, implying that this object was the hated enemy of my father which I was duty-bound to destroy. The best thing to do when you do screw up like that is to embrace the awkwardness, since you’ll definitely never make that mistake again. And be careful when ordering mango juice from a pretty waitress…
The word manko, referring to the female genitilia, is the worst word of Japanese — way too similar to “mango.”
