The "I don't get it" thread.

PaulTB · 29 Apr 2004

For apparently humourous or interesting bits of Japanese where I don't get the punchline / point.

From MANUKE Homepage

後ろの席で、おっさんが御客と話している。

おっさん：「そうですね。その辺で企画をもらっておいて、
時間をかけて検討できると、いろいろ準備できて安全ですね。
石橋の上にも三年って言いますしね」

あたい：「・・・それって通行妨害じゃないかい（っボソ）」

What's 石橋の上にも三年 ? From the sound of it I'd guess it's some sort of parable / proverb ...

NANGI · 29 Apr 2004

Konnichiwa PaulTB-san!

What's 石橋の上にも三年 ? From the sound of it I'd guess it's some sort of parable / proverb ...

Hahaha... it is the 石の上にも三年 correctly.
It means "Be patient. It takes time to accomplish something worthwhile" in English.

NANGI

PaulTB · 29 Apr 2004

NANGI said:
Konnichiwa PaulTB-san!

Hahaha... it is the 石の上にも三年 correctly.
It means "Be patient. It takes time to accomplish something worthwhile" in English.

Ah thanks.

I should have guessed it had a word wrong when I only got one Google hit.

Oh, and look what I found
石の上にも三年（いしのうえにもさんねん）: ほったいもいじるな
Issue nowhere NEMO son end.

PaulTB · 29 Apr 2004

どおも、会社のオフィスが移転するらしい。
今度こそ、情報収集して置かないと、ホントに置いてかれそう。

・・・置いてって欲しい気もするけど。

***
ふふふ。。気持ちは分かります。(^^)

===

I'm probably going to kick myself for not getting this later ... but what is
the (auxiliary) verb at the end of 置いてかれそう。?

[EDIT] Is it 枯れる like a pot-plant left to dry out and die?

kara · 30 Apr 2004

1)石橋の上にも三年
That ossan confounded two proverbs --- "石橋を叩いて(tataite)渡る(wataru)" and "石の上にも三年".
石橋を叩いて渡る means "look before you leap".

The punchline must be
a)He wanted to act as an educated person in their serious business talk, but failed miserably.
b)Both proverbs are appropriate to his situation independently, but when they are combined....

2)the (auxillary) verb at the end of 置いてかれそう
置いていく = leave without/drop off/not wait for
置いていかれる = passive form of 置いていく
置いてかれる = colloquial flavor of 置いていかれる
置いてかれ = continuous form of 置いてかれる
そう = likely to

PaulTB · 30 Apr 2004

Thanks!

kara said:
置いてかれる = colloquial flavor of 置いていかれる

その手がありました。
I didn't think of the ていく -> てく with passive form.

PaulTB · 8 May 2004

This is obviously a pun. But what with the dialecty bits I can't work it out. (Well, I'm not good at puns anyway ^^; )

大幅に遅れたバスにおじさんが乗り込みながら、「バスってえのは遅れた時は待たにゃならんが、客が遅れた時は１分だって待ってくれずに、「ハイ、サヨナラだからな」」と言った時、後に続く乗客全員がうなずいた。

Glenn · 10 May 2004

PaulTB said:
This is obviously a pun. But what with the dialecty bits I can't work it out. (Well, I'm not good at puns anyway ^^; )

大幅に遅れたバスにおじさんが乗り込みながら、「バスってえのは遅れた時は待たにゃならんが、客が遅れた時は１分だって待ってくれずに、「ハイ、サヨナラだからな」」と言った時、後に続く乗客全員がうなずいた。

Well, I don't know why it's a pun, but here's my shot at a translation:

While getting on a bus that was very late, an old man said "when the bus is late, people are forced to wait for it, but if someone is even one minute late for the bus, it doesn't wait at all; all of the bus workers just say 'sorry, it's time to go,' and nod at the late passengers chasing after the bus."

How does that sound?

PaulTB · 10 May 2004

Glenn said:
Well, I don't know why it's a pun

Well it is called the "The "I don't get it" thread. " for a reason ;-)
On looking again I'm not sure it is a pun after all. ^^;

Glenn said:
While getting on a bus that was very late, an old man said "when the bus is late, people are forced to wait for it, but if someone is even one minute late for the bus, it doesn't wait at all; all of the bus workers just say 'sorry, it's time to go,' and nod at the late passengers chasing after the bus."

How does that sound?

Minor point - I'm not sure where you got 'all of the bus workers' from. (I think a simple 'they' would do).

More significant point - I think it is the passengers late for the bus who nod in agreement with the conductor's point.

PaulTB · 10 May 2004

I'm not sure whether I'm missing anything or not on this one...

僕の友人は、先生が「今から図を描くので、白紙の紙を配ります」と言ったにもかかわらず、自分に紙が回ってきた途端に立ち上がって、「先生はくしー！」と叫んだ。

My friend, even though the teacher said "Now we're going to be drawing charts so I'm handing out blank paper," always would, when the paper got to him, stand up and shout - "Teach! The paper's blank!".

... I guess he just wasn't paying attention and was expecting a printed handout. :?

[EDIT] What's the word 妻や ? Is it maybe a slang word based on 一夜妻 ? Presumably it's not 妻屋 unless that's got another meaning I don't know about.

しょうまはいつも「しまじろう」が大好きで、毎日ビデオをみています。
休みの日にパパがあれだれ？としまじろうをさしてきくと、答えたのですが、
しまじろうのママをきいてみると、「妻やぁ～～！！」
と叫んだのです。誰も教えてないし（まさか保育所で！？）

私、そんなこと教えてないわ！なんで知ってるのそんな単語～！！

Glenn · 11 May 2004

PaulTB said:
Minor point - I'm not sure where you got 'all of the bus workers' from. (I think a simple 'they' would do).

The reason that I didn't use "they" is because I thought that the antecedent would be unclear, and the only way that I thought to make whom I was talking about clear was to say "all of the bus workers." I realize that it's strange, but I didn't know how to get around it, that's all.

PaulTB said:
More significant point - I think it is the passengers late for the bus who nod in agreement with the conductor's point.

Ah yes, it seems that I just overlooked the が after 乗客全員. Sometimes I just go retarded.

PaulTB · 18 May 2004

I'm still missing the word 妻や (see earlier post).

Meanwhile a "I don't get it" post

COZY BREAK

～コージー家にみんなを呼んでカニスキをしていたら．．．～

パンダ：あっ、鍋が泡吹いてきた．吹きこぼれそう．
カエル：泡？．．．．ああ、カニだけに．．．
サル：ぷ、ぷぷーーーーーっ！！
コージー：おいおい、そんなんで受けたらカエルがつけあがるぞ．．．あっ！
カエル：ふふふふふー（＾-＾）

ほら、やっぱり！カニスキが吹きこぼれないように気をつけよう！

Where's the joke ^^;; ?

kara · 20 May 2004

> 妻や
In this case, や is a dialect(maybe kansai's) which means です or だ. The point is the word 妻(wife). しょうま must be a 3-5 years old kid, and children of that age usually don't know that word. Shouma's dad(and readers of the story) expected the answer such as "しまじろうのママ" or "しまじろうのおかあさん" from しょうま. 妻 is an adult and formal term. Not suitable for kids.

> カニ
Crab is somewhat a symbol of the bubble(because of their froth). Bubbles in simmering broth don't come from crabs of course. Not so strong commonality, not so good joke indeed.

PaulTB · 20 May 2004

kara said:
> 妻や
In this case, や is a dialect(maybe kansai's) which means です or だ. The point is the word 妻(wife). しょうま must be a 3-5 years old kid, and children of that age usually don't know that word. Shouma's dad(and readers of the story) expected the answer such as "しまじろうのママ" or "しまじろうのおかあさん" from しょうま. 妻 is an adult and formal term. Not suitable for kids.

Ah. I was way off then. ^^;
Although I should have realised the や = だ bit.

kara said:
> カニ
Crab is somewhat a symbol of the bubble(because of their froth). Bubbles in simmering broth don't come from crabs of course. Not so strong commonality, not so good joke indeed.

I considered it might have been something like that - but like you say that didn't seem to make a very strong link.

Thanks for the info.

PaulTB · 20 May 2004

Er, what's げんなり ?
Actually there's an entry at dictionary.goo.ne.jp but the definition doesn't seem to be the same.

～会社のお弁当は、ケースから取って、カラ箱を別のケースに返す．．．～

アヒル：今日さー、お昼に会社のお弁当食べてさ、カラ箱片づけるときに
まだ中身が入ってる方のケースにせっせと返しちゃったよ．
コージー：これから食べる人がそのカラ箱持ってかんかったん？
アヒル：その前に気付いた．あやうくげんなりさせるとこだったよ．
コージー：そういえばオレ、昨日メーカの人とアポとるのに、「16時以降ならいつでも」
って書こうとして「16時ならいつでも」って書いたよ．
そんな自分にちょっとげんなり．
アヒル：ちょっと使い方が違う気もするけど（^^）．
コージー：でもな、昨日マウスと間違えてホッチキスをクリックしてた
パンダちゃんよりはげんなりしてないよ．
パンダ：ちょっと、なに言い触らしてんのー！

みんなのげんなりを集めて、げんなり玉をつくろう！（なんじゃそら）

Kentaro · 21 May 2004

PaulTB said:
Er, what's げんなり ?
Actually there's an entry at dictionary.goo.ne.jp but the definition doesn't seem to be the same.

～会社のお弁当は、ケースから取って、カラ箱を別のケースに返す．．．～

アヒル：今日さー、お昼に会社のお弁当食べてさ、カラ箱片づけるときに
まだ中身が入ってる方のケースにせっせと返しちゃったよ．
コージー：これから食べる人がそのカラ箱持ってかんかったん？
アヒル：その前に気付いた．あやうくげんなりさせるとこだったよ．
コージー：そういえばオレ、昨日メーカの人とアポとるのに、「16時以降ならいつでも」
って書こうとして「16時ならいつでも」って書いたよ．
そんな自分にちょっとげんなり．
アヒル：ちょっと使い方が違う気もするけど（^^）．
コージー：でもな、昨日マウスと間違えてホッチキスをクリックしてた
パンダちゃんよりはげんなりしてないよ．
パンダ：ちょっと、なに言い触らしてんのー！

みんなのげんなりを集めて、げんなり玉をつくろう！（なんじゃそら）

I'm a native Japanese speaker but the use of げんなり in this text doesn't make much sense to me. I use げんなり as listed at dictionary.goo.ne.jp
(1)飽きていやになったさま and I've never heard anyone use it other than to express that he or she is tired of something. My guess is that the person who wrote this has poor command of Japanese or in some dialects げんなり has other meanings than "to be fed up with something". I think it's the former.

PaulTB · 21 May 2004

Kentaro said:
I'm a native Japanese speaker but the use of げんなり in this text doesn't make much sense to me. I use げんなり as listed at dictionary.goo.ne.jp
(1)飽きていやになったさま and I've never heard anyone use it other than to express that he or she is tired of something. My guess is that the person who wrote this

COZY BREAK ... somewhere.

Kentaro said:
has poor command of Japanese or in some dialects げんなり has other meanings than "to be fed up with something". I think it's the former.

Actually on reflection I think the speaker in the dialogue used the wrong definition, accidentally or not, (c.f. ちょっと使い方が違う気もするけど（^^）．).

kara · 24 May 2004

It's rough around the edges as you said, but is based on an excellent idea in my opinion. If you know the famous manga/anime "Dragon Ball", you'll understand what I say and where is the punchline.

PaulTB · 24 May 2004

Here's another one from COZY BREAK

【ちょっぴり太めな３人組】

～コージーとイノシシとクマが体育館に来た．．．～

コージー：よぉ、今日は早いね．
イノシシ：おお、テニスがなかったからな．
クマ：うぃ～っす！
コージー：おっ、めっずらし～い．クマが来るの久しぶりじゃない？
クマ：おう．なんか今日はぽっちゃりしてるのが集まってるな．
コージー：そうだな．後ひとり来たら、オレら消えるなっ．
イノシシ：あっ、ぽわわわ～ん！、って？ <--- *
クマ：ハハ、ぷよぷよかっ！<--- *
テン：あれ？今日はなんだか人が多いね．
みんな：く、来るなぁ～！！

ぽっちゃり体型は４人以上集まらないように！消えるぞ！

* I'm not sure of the 擬態語 (?) on the two lines indicated.

Kentaro · 25 May 2004

Paulさん、そのページ好きね＾＾

ぷよぷよ is the name of a game that was very popular some 10 years ago. It's like a different version of Tetris. Round-shaped jello-like balls with a face, which are called ぷよ, are used instead of blocks. The balls are ぷよぷよしてる (I don't know if the word already existed or it was after the release of this game that people started using it). Search google for ぷよぷよ and ゲーム and check one of the sites that comes up. ぽわわわ～ん in this case is used to express the sound of ぷよ disappear.

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