sechan19 | Why I should not be allowed to make sample sentences.

So, as most of you know, I really don't like making sample sentences. I'm very bad at it for some reason. It's not a Japanese thing; it's a me thing.

Today, we were working on the grammar construction ～とは～の/ということだ, which translates roughly as "～ is ～ (kind of thing)." It's a phrase used to define something.

I'd been sitting mostly silently through the various sample sentence making activities, but when the teacher offered up the phrase 幸福とは ("Happiness is") I went positively wicked.

幸福とは暖かい銃のことだ、 I said.

"Happiness is a warm gun."

The look on Hirano-sensei's face was priceless.

Naturally, as you can all imagine, I'm too much of a softie to have left it at that. I relented quickly and qualified that it was the title of a song by the Beatles and not my personal opinion.

I'm not sure she bought it, though, and after a few seconds of exhibiting extremely confused expressions she finally summed her feelings up with a nearly-inaudible, "You guys aren't really very normal."

Which is, I suppose, as close as a Japanese person gets to telling people they're weirdos. Heh.