Friday, June 30, 2006

Monday Morning Blues, TGIF and the Japanese Days of the Week

Was engaging in a bit of cross cultural exchange with Nagano Sensei at school, talking about little phrases used in the US to describe days of the week - Monday Morning Blues, TGIF, etc - and asked him if there was anything similar in Japan. Not really, as it turns out, given the Japanese propensity to, well, pretty much be involved in work 7 days a week, but it lead to one Japanese joke/saying that I now will share with you, the unwashed masses...

What are the Japanese days of the week?

Answer:

gets-gets-ka-sui-muk-kin-kin.

For those of you puzzled, the actual days of the week in Japanese are Getsuiyoobi [M], Kayoobi [Tu], Suiyoobi [W], Mukyoobi [Th], Kinyoobi [F], Doyoobi [Sa] and Nichiyoobi [Su]. When you string a bunch of days together, conversationally, you just use the first syllable. For example M-W-F would be gets-sui-kin.

So the joke, for those of you still paying attention, is that the Japanese week has 2 Mondays and 2 Fridays, with no weekend days.

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