Eeeehhh??!!

[Dan B]

So I was looking through the Forum's smilies and came upon this one.

Having absolutely no idea what this little fella was saying, I looked it up in the dictionary. Happily, there was an おじゃま listing, which I thought might be close enough for the moment. Unhappily, there was no English translation. But there was a tiny little hand which—I momentarily thought was placed there to give me a rather rude set of instructions about what I should do to myself—seemed to point towards some mind-numbingly complex Kanji.

I immediately reached for my glass of wine.

Then I saw the furigana: じゃま. So I turned to じゃま and the first translation I saw was, "obstruction, hindrance, obstacle." In the style described by Mad Pierrot (see his post on April 19th), I thought, "EEEEEHHHHH???!!!"

Why would there be an icon showing someone happily bursting through the door, yelling, "Howdy! I'm here to get in your way!" A bit unnerved but not yet undeterred, I read further and found the more appropriate entry, listed here (thank heavens for furigana...):

お邪魔します meaning "(when entering another person's home, office, etc.) Pardon me for intruding."

Ah. Yes. I suppose that makes more sense...

Dan

 

[Keiichi]

Just ranting?

 

[Dan B]

Kind of, in a way.

But it's more like a confession. I was brought up as a Roman Catholic and I still find confession cathartic.

And, who knows, maybe another beginner will read this and learn what おじゃまします means without having to look it up.

Hmmm. Okay, granted, that seems like a fairly remote possibility...

Dan

 

[Elizabeth]

Ojama shite sumimasen. (Sorry to interrupt you)

Jama suru tsumori de wa nain dakedo (I didn't mean to interrupt you)

Doumo ojama shimashita. (Sorry to bother you).

Ojama shite mo ii desuka? (Am I interrupting you?, May I interrupt you?)

 

[Dan B]

Thank you, Elizabeth! Are these arranged from least formal to most formal (or, perhaps, more formal)? . It seems like they may be...

Thanks,

Dan

 

[Elizabeth]

There was no formal sequencing to this list....although by most accounts the first and third would be considered most respectful.

 

[Dan B]

Elizabeth,

Okay, thanks!

I'm going to Okayama in July and I'll be traveling on my own for at least part of the trip (my friends will be working for much of my visit). It would seem likely that I'll need to stop someone and ask for directions at some point.

I would guess that "Sumimasen" would be appropriate for most of those situations but if I'm alone and need to ask someone (who might already be talking to someone else) I'd think that one of those could be immediately useful.

(Or would that be inappropriate? It probably wouldn't be an "intrusion" into someone's home, per se... Indecision!)

Thanks for all your help!

Dan