Thursday, March 03, 2005

Hey hey hey! Wait a minute!

Isn't it funny how sometimes you really don't know what you're saying. For a long time now I have said "oi oi" as a kind of exclamation (despite my not being Jewish), and this continued in Japan. When people said things I was mildly surpised at, they got an "oi oi". Well, it turns out "oi oi" is also a Japanese phrase meaning "what!? Wait a minute!". Apparently it's a manly term (what else would you expect from me?) but this doesn't help the fact that I've been using it to Japanese people without thinking. I have told my supervisor to "wait a minute" on numerous occassions as well as his boss and his boss's boss. And probably half the town.

Oops.

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