I have bears under my eyes?
Busy day again... I had 6 classes and I had to do all of the signups for Intensive Week too.
I learned a new Japanese word/phrase today: 目の下の隈. "me no shita no kuma" or I guess "kuma no me", it means "shadows below the eyes", or, well, what we call in english, "bags".
Unfortunately the way I learned this phrase was in my 9pm class... where the day's lesson's conversation and topics were all about "do you prefer to sleep late or wake up early?" and whatnot (for "do you prefer?" "Would you rather?" etc). At the end of class, my student said, "You look really tired."
"I do?" I said, smiling and trying to appear as genki as possible when it's the end of a long day for someone who's not been sleeping enough and is pretty stressed out over their job which requires them to be genki and talk to people all day.
"Yeah, you have... anou... I do not know English word for them but, we say 目の下の隈 in Japanese."
"I have bears under my eyes?"
"NO NO NO NO," she said laughing.
"I only know 'kuma' is bear..." I said.
"It IS bear but... this 'kuma' is not bear, this is other kanji for word, like darkness?"
"Oh. I think we call those 'bags under the eyes'. Do I really have them?"
"Yes, you have them very much."
So anyway, I finish class and say goodbye to her and look in a mirror and hot damn if I don't have these horrendously dark bags under my eyes.
It's kind of weird, because I need to sleep more, but sleeping more does not seem to be the Japanese way. Alas.
37 days until I come visit America. Also, I need to find out where the immigration office is in Saitama.
I learned a new Japanese word/phrase today: 目の下の隈. "me no shita no kuma" or I guess "kuma no me", it means "shadows below the eyes", or, well, what we call in english, "bags".
Unfortunately the way I learned this phrase was in my 9pm class... where the day's lesson's conversation and topics were all about "do you prefer to sleep late or wake up early?" and whatnot (for "do you prefer?" "Would you rather?" etc). At the end of class, my student said, "You look really tired."
"I do?" I said, smiling and trying to appear as genki as possible when it's the end of a long day for someone who's not been sleeping enough and is pretty stressed out over their job which requires them to be genki and talk to people all day.
"Yeah, you have... anou... I do not know English word for them but, we say 目の下の隈 in Japanese."
"I have bears under my eyes?"
"NO NO NO NO," she said laughing.
"I only know 'kuma' is bear..." I said.
"It IS bear but... this 'kuma' is not bear, this is other kanji for word, like darkness?"
"Oh. I think we call those 'bags under the eyes'. Do I really have them?"
"Yes, you have them very much."
So anyway, I finish class and say goodbye to her and look in a mirror and hot damn if I don't have these horrendously dark bags under my eyes.
It's kind of weird, because I need to sleep more, but sleeping more does not seem to be the Japanese way. Alas.
37 days until I come visit America. Also, I need to find out where the immigration office is in Saitama.
