Whenever I say a pun in either English or Japanese, I am usually met with rolled eyes and a head shake. However, whenever Japanese children make an English pun they just eat it up and repeat it ad nauseum.
Today, the kiddies and I were playing Fruits Basket. One of the words they are allowed to shout out is “Everybody”.
One boy thought it sounded like ebi-body and he would laugh with his friends about his joke, wiggle in his seat, and gloat how he cleverly realized that “every” sounds like ebi which means “shrimp” in Japanese.
Then one other friend of this same boy realized that “body” could easily sound like “party”.
During the game, a boy came to the center of the ring, grinned hugely before he started dancing side to side like seaweed and shouted, “EBI PARTY!”
Groups of boys rushed out of their chairs, scrambling to find a new seat to sit on while they wiggled their bodies like partying shrimp.
It is said that girls grow up faster than boys and the Japanese girls of the class rolled their eyes and shook their heads as they found a new seat to sit on and waited for the next command.
“EBI PARTY!”
at 6:53 am
Oh crap. This is bringing back painful memories of my high school Japanese class, in which inter-language puns were the primary memnomic used. D:
at 6:22 am
I recall from Japanese Linguistics class an awesome single-panel comic of an eel at a restaurant, saying “????????”
Puns are awesome.
at 6:22 am
Fine, “Boku wa unagi desu.”
at 10:02 pm
Heh. Sorry about that. For whatever reason, the Japanese is not compatible with WordPress even though it is suppose to be compatible. Strange.