Not too bright
One of the members of my beginners' Japanese class just couldn't remember the stock reply to the question "how are you?" (o-genki desu-ka), which is genki desu, I am well. Each time, he would confidently reply denki desu, meaning something like "I am a light bulb".
Sent by: Lyn
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I've taught 10-year-olds very basic Japanese, and they had problems with that sentence, too. I normally got 'kinky desu' after asking o-genki desu-ka, so I hope that they didn't demonstrate their new-found Japanese skills to their parents!
Denki means electricity. Eell, a kind of genki from the viewpoint of being dynamic!
I haven't known anyone to declare themselves electric, but when learning adjectives in high school the teacher asked us to describe her. I thought she was yasashii, kind, and confidently called out. Unfortunately, it came out as yasai, vegetable. The class thought it hilarious, and fortunately, so did my teacher.
I'm just about to take my GCSE in Japanese and my classmate makes that mistake a lot! It's so funny to hear him declaring himself as an electrical good :)
Denkyu is a lightbulb. Denki is electricity. He was saying 'I am electricity'.
We were learning about transportation a few weeks ago in my Japanese class, and subsequently learned the word densha. There's a kid in my class with the last name Denke, which is pronounced like denki, so now he goes around saying he's electricity.
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