Friday, December 08, 2006

Kaka "the Fan Boy" Eeday

A visiting librarian from Japan came to our department today for a brief tour and discussion. While she was here, I got a confirmation on something that a friend had told me long ago.

It's true: "Ben" means "poop" in Japanese.

She took it all in stride, and I doubt she would have commented on it if I hadn't mentioned it first. However, she admitted that she initially expected me to look more Asian since "Ide" (pronounced "ee-day") is a fairly popular surname in Japan.

After the tour, we sat at my desk while she asked me a few more questions. She kept looking over my shoulder at my computer screen, and it wasn't until she was about to leave that she laughingly said why.

I had completely forgotten that, months ago, I'd changed the scrolling banner of my screen saver to say:

オタク

Which is Japanese for "geek" or "fan boy".

I'm so embarrassed.

1 comment:

Ben Ide said...

It's just three Japanese charaters that spell out "otaku".