Here are 50+ funny/embarrassing Japanese language mistakes LDS missionaries have made while serving a mission in Japan.
50+ Japanese Language Mistakes
- When asking for bread, I asked for “pan no mimisu.” (Should have been “pan no mimi.” So I asked for bread worms…I think. (Steve)
- Accidentally calling little babies and children ‘scary’ is something that frequently happens for new speakers of Japanese. That’s because the word for ‘cute’ is ‘kawaii’ and ‘scary’ is ‘kowai’. (Travis)
- Called a child Kowai so. (pitiful) instead of Kawaii so. (cute) (Craig)
- Nikkutai= physical body. Nekkutai= neck tie. Ninshin= pregnant. Nesshin= with conviction. (Amaree)
- I got two words mixed up and told a family that my parents were growing illegal mango drugs in their backyard. (Baden)
- During the contacting process, instead of saying that they are volunteer activity performing missionaries, an elder said they were volunteer circumcision performing missionaries. Look it up. “Activity” and “circumcision” are similar when said. (Richard)
- One of my companion from Utah was telling someone about his family and he told that his grand-father had 20 “mushi” (mosquitoes), but he really meant to say ushi (cows). (Gabriel)
- “If you listen to the prophet, you’ll die.” That one still gets brought up at reunions. (Erica)
- The words for sweet bean paste (they put it in snacks or desserts) and poop are very similar, so a missionary meant to say they liked eating the sweet bean paste, but they accidentally said the other word. (Lacee)
- I told a man who answered the door that we were there to talk about the law of chastity. I meant to say the purpose of life. (James)
- I was teaching a lesson about the Word of Wisdom, and I explained that tea is bad for your books. (Paul)
