31st December is wonderful. It makes me break out of my hikikomori mode and reach out to people.
This holiday, I went to a friend’s house in Osaka. While interacting with his kids, my muscle memory kicked in and I just blurted out, “ゆるしてやったらどうや”.
This Osaka phrase marked a crucial period of my life. While working at Nishigaoka Junior High School, two eighth grader girls somehow saw it as their mission to teach me this phrase and hounded me relentlessly. “Repeat after me,” one of them even used classroom English on me! That was how I internalized this phrase.
Now I would normally have left it as that, but since it’s the last day of the year, why not I drop them a message telling them about how I have used this phrase, right? As a teacher myself, I love it most when ex-students inform me that they have benefitted from my teaching.
And so, I just sent them a message on IG. Celebrating how we had bonded over ゆるしてやったらどうや more than a decade ago.
This is curious to me. Google translate says it means "Why don't you forgive him?" I wonder if it has a similar feeling to the English "Let bygones be bygones" or "Forgive and forget."
How do you find it gets used? I'm also curious why it's particular to Osaka life.
(I really do love hearing about idioms like these)
Thank you for your interest! Let me explain better.
Foreigners assume that Japanese people are homogeneous from our outsider lens. However, since there are 47 prefectures in Japan, regional variations, such as personalities, exist.
Osaka people are known to be more money-minded (that’s another story for another day) and funny than the average Japanese. Many of the country’s famous comedians hail from Osaka. People from other prefectures flock to Osaka to watch standup comedy acts (my wife and mother-in-law did so).
ゆるしてやったらどうや Is a phrase popularised by a comedian. It isn’t the standard Tokyo variety either; it’s instead an example of Osaka dialect. It isn’t an idiom passed from generation to generation in that sense. I think a better equivalent in English is “cut me some slack!”
The killer punch to make people laugh with this line is the intonation. In which I deliver it. My ex-students made me practise and practise until I got the intonation down pat. And it worked for that dinner with my wife’s cousin’s family haha.
Sometimes the timely use of a word/phrase helps to break down the distance between people really quickly. That’s what I like to do haha.
Ahh! this is even better! Thank you for the very detailed explanation. I can see that I need to spend some time in Japan. Someday soon, hopefully.
Here's hoping you have a wonderful new year!
Happy new year! Thanks for reading my humble musings
Si siempre estás son palabras especiales y excepcionales, son únicas, hoy recibí un mensaje de una amiga que también dijo igual frase no para mí sino de una amiga que tenía un problema y ya su situación mejoro pues hacer las paces con su contraparte la hace sentir mejor y a mí también porque estamos lejos así que hoy me alegro por ti y por ella, no recuerdo bien pero una ves leí en la biblia un texto que decía " ustedes los fuertes soporten a los débiles" con mis palabras creo que cuando perdonamos de corazón de cierta forma sanamos y curamos nuestras heridas y las de otros, cuando tenemos una herida reciente nos duele pero con el tiempo ni nos acordamos de ella solo una vieja cicatriz, así es cuando pedimos o nos piden perdón dejamos sanar heridas y lo maravilloso es que después no duele. Es una palabra fuerte que solo los fuertes pueden decir, me alegro mucho sigue 💪
“You who are strong should bear with the weak.”
That’s a great line from the Bible!
It could be even hard to write.
Lo encontré es Romanos 15:1 Pablo lo escribió para mantener la unidad entre los primeros cristianos, creo que no fue difícil escribirlo ya que el mismo trató de mantener la unidad de ellos al igual que Jesucristo, la realidad es que fuerte no es quien da el golpe es quien aun teniendo la razón soporta la estupidez de otros esto no es tolerancia es saber cuándo hablar y como.
Wdym?