Muchiuchi 鞭打ち

I was recently interviewed by 2 2nd Grade students for the school paper. You know - "meet the new teacher " kind of thing. Well I'm not sure who was more surprised by our encounter.



Stock questions - where are you from? what do you think of Jogakuin? when did you come to Japan? what's your favourite colour?

Then: " What's your favourite word?" To be honest they were probably looking for a motto - like " Smile and the World Smiles with you!", but you can interpret the Japanese as "word" too so the cunning linguist in me likes to take a different tack. As you know I like words.

Now, purely from a phonetic point of view, one of my favourite sounding Japanese words is "muchiuchi" (moochioochi). I think it's hilarious. I learned it after a car accident I had a few years back, and it means "whiplash".

Perhaps I've been lulled into a false sense of security by the cute sailor suits and the predeliction for Disney characters which surrounds my teenage charges, I don't know. They always seem so young and naive compared to their British counterparts. Eyes opened once again.

Conversation:

"What's your favourite word?"

"I like " muchiuchi"."

Look at each other with momentary kind of " what does that mean again?" bewildered look, that sends my self confidence back to zero - have I been mispronouncing this word for years??!! - I'd heard of the concept of a stiff neck after an accident when I was in 2nd year, hadn't I???" Then , visibly, the penny drops.

To each other, without the slightest trace of surprise or embarrassment beyond the fact they hadn't known immediately:

" Oh that's it, the SM thing with the leather!"

"Right"

And then went to look for the next questions.

THEY'RE 13!!!!!!

I mean, yeah, it doesn't take a large leap of imagination to get to that tack in English either, but I didn't expect that from the cherubic child who'd quite literally just asked if she could cuddle my Kermit, as if it was the biggest thrill she's had all year!

I'm like: "WHAT???!!!! Car crashes??? Stiff necks????"

"Oh yeah, it means that too!"

" I think I'll give you a new answer..."

" Oh , OK, if you want"

In a totally unfazed tone, as if it was bizarre that a new teacher might not want to go down in the journalistic anals of her missionary founded school's history as a secret whip cracking dominatrix!

On the plus side, my street cred has probably soared to new heights..........

Scary Genetics

Since we moved back to the city, our lives have changed dramatically. Not least in our morning routine. That is, now we have one. This involves me getting up at 6am every morning, making 2 or 3 packed lunches depending on who will be gainfully employed that day, followed by Y and M who trundle out of their pits at about 6:30, to be fed and get ready for 7:20 departure. Yasu heads on foot for the tram stop, and M and I head for the parking lot otherwise known as Hiroshima Western Bypass, for our trip to her school bus stop.

None of this involves anything in the least genetic of course - frankly me getting up at 6am goes against all the laws of nature as far as I'm concerned.

Once safely ensconced in the traffic jam, Mairi and I have a chance to chat, sing various Disney songs, and philosophise on various subjects - such as whether the Toyota showroom is open on various days of the week. (We have just bought a new car from said showroom, and it seems to have become Mairi's focal point for teaching herself the days of the week in two languages - Mummy is it open on Monday? No . Is it open on Tuesday? Yes, it's only shut on Mondays. Well - how about Wednesday? and on it goes). Or whether the driver in front is a good person or an evil wrongdoer- based on whether he flashed his hazards twice to say thanks or not when I let him in off the slip road. Do people do that anywhere else??

We also , needless to say, have a good opportunity to look at cars. Mairi shares my love of cars, and thankfully her interest has gone past giving me a heart attack by bellowing "AUDI!!!!" at the top of her voice out of the blue every time she sees one. (Thanks for that Aunty Fi!). Now she likes to learn all the different makes and tell me who of her friends drives what. She also went through a phase of announcing which cars' tail lights she liked the shape of - scarily reminding me of a guy on a German Variety show called "Wetten Dass" I saw years ago, who could tell you the make and model of about 200 cars, just by looking at the tail lights.

The past couple of days the topic has been colour, and this is where the genetics comes in.



The following conversation took place this morning:



M: "Mummy, there's a nice purple car".



J: "Yes, and I like that blue one."



M: "That's not blue that's green. "



J: " It's blue"



M: "No. It's defintely green blue!"



A 4 year old version, but the hairs stood up on my neck! Anyone who knows Janet " Dulux shade chart" Kyle will know why!

Of course Janet would have called it something like "Adriatic Aquamarine"!




If it were only the colour thing, I wouldn't be quite so freaked out.......

I can hear shrieks of "Whiddi ye mean????" sailing across from Dunfermline as I type....