Thursday, November 06, 2008

I will probably get kicked out

In Japanese class we had to fill in blank speech bubbles based on an exchange between characters in a drawing. A woman was trying to buy a camera -- the red one, no the blue one -- and the shopkeeper was accomodating.

I couldn't just say what was expected. Oh no.

First I suggested the shopkeeper hand her the camera and say, "Here (Dozo), baby." But no one would tell me how to say baby.

In the next frame the woman holds the red camera and looks confused, a blank speech bubble above her head. In the following frame she asks to see the black camera instead.

At first, we thought, maybe the red camera is too expensive?

"But wouldn't it be better," I postured, "if there was something *wrong* with the red camera?"

"Like what?" asked my unsuspecting partner.

"I know," I said. "Can anyone tell me how to say 'This camera smells like death'?"

We all agreed that no one would want to buy a camera that smelled like death. Not even if it was very very cheap.

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