Two thin lines, really, and they make all the difference, sloppy texter finds out.
The indigenous Japanese word for “bag” is kaban, which can be used to describe just about any sort of cloth carrying device. However, that flexibility also makes kaban a little vague, and so there are a number of other words used to describe more specific types of bags.
Since many types of bags were introduced to Japan through contact with Western culture, many of these are originally English loanwords. For example, baggu, simply the corrupted Japanese pronunciation of the English “bag,” can be used to refer to a fashionable woman’s purse.
But apparently the not so fashion-conscious guy in a text message exchange shared by Japanese Twitter user @mankoukannon was a little fuzzy on the terminology. Wanting to gain a deeper insight into the fairer sex’s love of stylish bags, he asked a woman he knows, via text message, “Why do women like bakku?”
In his defense, in Japanese linguistics G and K sounds are mentally linked, and often even written in similar ways.
▼ The only difference is the two little dashes at the end of baggu.
And even with the vocabulary snafu, his question was still grammatically sound, and so the woman gave him an answer…just one a lot more intimate and explicit than he was looking for, as she replied:
“For me, I like how it feels like I’m being violated when the guy’s dick hits me in the spot way back there.”
▼ This conversation just got a whole lot sexier…but why?
See, bakku is also a sort of loanword in Japanese, coming from the English word “back.” However, this is one of those cases where the word has acquired a new meaning while crossing over into Japanese, and bakku means “from behind,” or, in other words, “doggy style.”
After receiving the woman’s detailed reply, the man responded with a polite, “I see. I actually was asking about kaban, but I used the wrong word.”
While it’s not totally unheard of for native Japanese speakers to be unsure whether the kaban-equivalent word is baggu or bakku, the mix-up usually only occurs with senior citizens. Just as surprising as the mistake is the matter-of-fact way the woman explained what she feels the position’s benefit is.
However, it’s unlikely that most women would respond to the question, as it was posed, with such calm helpfulness. So before you hit that send button for the next message, make sure to double-check not only the recipient, but your spelling as well.
Source: Twitter/@mankoukannon via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: SoraNews24, Pakutaso
Follow Casey on Twitter for more words they didn’t teach you in Japanese class.