false friends Archive

Japanese Vanilla Ice

アイス (“ice”) is the word used to describe ice cream in Japanese. It’s another one of those false friends that can be confusing and misleading. So if you ask for a “vanilla ice” in Japan, you’ll get this:


But if you ask for a “vanilla ice” in America, you’ll get something else entirely:

This is not a mistake anyone wants to make!

Sand is Tasty

I’m sorting through Mato’s massive folders full of pictures and scan again. One of the grossest false friends to me is how “sandwich” is called “sand” in Japanese. As long as you know what’s up, it’s not a problem, but what if you took it literally!