Sometimes the nuances of another language can be hard to figure out. They’ve tripped me up on quite a few occasions.

Let me explain. One example I stumbled upon a while ago was the expression “hard to see” in Japanese. In Japanese, one can use the root form of a verb followed by -nikui (difficult) to express the meaning, “difficult to (do something).” For example, wakarimasu means “to understand”; wakari-nikui means “difficult to understand.”

Well, I figured that the root of “to see” is mi (from mimasu), so I tried to say, mi-nikui. Problem is, minikui means “ugly.” That makes sense, when you realize that mimasu is not “to see,” but “to look at”; saying that something is “hard to look at” could be interpreted as saying that it’s ugly. Miemasu is “to see,” and so mienikui means “hard to see.”

However, “hard to look at” does not necessarily mean “ugly,” at least in English; it could mean something that is difficult to focus on, or something that causes eye discomfort. “My computer screen was hard to look at after spending all day in front of computers” would have a very different feeling than just “ugly.” What I haven’t figured out yet is whether or not minikui really means “ugly” or if it is simply translated that way; maybe in Japanese, ugly things are referred to as “hard to look at” as a way of “softening” or euphemizing the language. In Japanese, muzukashii (“difficult”) is used to mean “impossible” in the same way.

A slightly different problem has popped up for me in the past week or so. Twice, I’ve made a mistake when talking with Sachi in Japanese. It comes when I use another verb-root suffix, this one being -gai ga aru (or possibly -gai no aru), which means that something is “worthwhile doing.” For example, yarimasu means “to try,” and so yari-gai ga aru means “worth trying.”

Well, I wanted to say, “it’s worth waiting for.” Tonight, I made a nice dinner for Sachi–sauteed chicken (with cream cheese and spices for flavoring) and stir-fried vegetables, and some salmon with a sauce I cooked up (cream, lemon juice, wasabi, and pimenton spice), along with a salad and rice. It took a long time to make and Sachi was hungry waiting for it, but it turned out really well. So I wanted to say, “it was worth waiting for, right?”

The problem is, the root of “wait” is machi-, and when put together with -gai ga aru, it comes out as machi-gai ga aru, ne? –which means, “there’s a mistake, isn’t there?” You see, in Japanese, machigai is homonymous with the word for “error” or “mistake.” Sachi thought I was saying that something went wrong with the meal, so she disagreed. We then had to figure out where the miscommunication took place.

At least I’m learning.