This is the blog of another broad abroad. First, I wrote about my daily humiliations as a gaijin in Osaka, Japan. Then I wrote about re-acclimating to life in New York City. Next, I started writing about my daily humiliations in Ireland, which I’ve experienced while getting my Master’s in Creative Writing at Trinity College Dublin. With the Master’s course nearly done, it’s time to move on again. Now I live in a small town on Italy’s west coast, making a go of life as a freelance travel writer and finishing my novel. Four countries in three years? I must be crazy. Come join the serial expat fun.
Wait … you eat your what?
My pigeon. “I eat my pigeon” refers to a Japanese language mistake I made about a month and a half into my time in Japan.
What were you trying to say?
“My hat – table!” One night I forgot my hat on a table at Britannia, a “British pub” in my neighborhood. Of course, the proper thing to say to the staff when I ran back inside was “Excuse me – I forgot my hat!” but my Japanese was so poor that the only thing I could think of to say was “my hat – table!” … or what I thought was “my hat – table.”
I dashed into the pub, blurting ““私のハト食べる!” to the puzzled staff, snatched my hat and dashed back out - quite pleased with myself. I had just learned how to denote possession and I knew that many words in English could be used in Japanese, such as “ice cream” (pronounced aisu kur-ee-mu) and “card” (pronounced kaa-do). “Hat” and “table” are not such words. “Taberu” means “to eat” and “hato” means “pigeon.” I eat my pigeon.
You dork. Did you ever figure out how to say “Excuse me – I forgot my hat”?
Yes; “すみません – 帽子を忘れた!”
I have no idea what you just wrote. How many languages do you speak, anyway?
English is my native language, but since my parents are immigrants from Italy and Guatemala, I grew up trilingual. My Italian is stronger than my Spanish. Then, when I moved to Japan, I was determined to learn Japanese. In February of 2009, I passed the 3-kyuu Japanese Language Proficiency Test, which puts me at about early Intermediate Level. This should, in no way, suggest that I speak Japanese.
In Japan, I was paid to speak English so at work and with friends, English was the drug of choice. Japanese was the language of commerce and study. In Ireland, I spoke English that, by the end, had picked up some unseemly Irish syntax. In Italy, I conduct my life in Italian. If the dialogue seems a little wonky some times, it’s because I’m amusing myself by giving you a literal translation.
For more red-faced expatriate fun, follow:
IEatMyPigeon on twitter, on Stumbleupon, and on Facebook.
Contact:
ieatmypigeon@gmail.com
The pigeon story is hilarious! And look at you now…
had you really eaten any pigeons in your life ?
pity if you have not done that in real life , they are the best thing that could be eaten , i think i had more than a dozen this week
Liv,
Thanks for your positive comment on my Vagablogging post “Living the Indiana Jones Fantasy.” It’s nice to get encouraging feedback once in a while.
How is Japan? I’m from Hawaii and currently working in Taiwan. Got the travel bug now, not sure if I’ll ever make it out. My blog is over at this URL:
http://bluefox808.blogspot.com
Cheers,
Marcus
Hi,
At the editorial team of G’Day Japan, an English magazine published in Sydney about traveling/eating in Japan, we have been scouring the web for THE BEST JAPAN Blogs!
We are upgrading our website as well, and we would like to have your website linked to ours, like below.
http://gdayjapan.com.au/
If we don’t hear from you within a week, we will assume you are ok with that.
If you have a problem, please let me know and we will take down your website asap!!
Thank you and keep up the fab work..
Akiko
G’Day Japan
I like you pigeon lady. You crack me up.
you ate pigeons? sugoi!
Great blog. Following on twitter AND wordpress:)
Hello,
I’m a casting assistant on an American TV show called “House Hunters International.” I came upon your blog and loved it. We currently casting episodes of our program and we were wondering if you would be interested in participating with our show. From your blog, you seem like the ideal candidate!
Our show follows house hunters through their search for a home in countries around the world. The contributors must be fluent in English and be 25-50 years old. Participating in our show is a lot of fun and a great way to document your exciting search for a home and new life abroad. In addition, you will receive compensation for your time and efforts.
If you might be interested in participating with our show, let me know and I can send you more information. Please contact househunterscasting@leopardfilms.com.
Have a wonderful day.
Hi mate, just found your blog via stumbleupon and love it. Added you to the Indie Travel Podcast blogroll
Craig, I’m flattered! Thank you very much.
Hi,
I am reaching out to you regarding a fairly new program UpTake has started called, Travel Gems from Bloggers.
UpTake.com is a travel research site that helps users make better decisions about where to go, where to stay, and what to do. We are growing nicely and are a Top 50 Travel site on Comscore, with traffic that is well in excess of 2M Unique Visits per Month.
This program is a way to showcase bloggers content across our site as a helpful resource to our users. It also helps bring awareness and traffic to those who participate.
Here is a link explaining the program in more detail: http://www.uptake.com/travel-gems-for-bloggers-how-it-works.html
If you have any questions, feel free to let me know!
I look forward to hearing from you!
Best,
Brittany
Hi there,
I like your blog! I think you win the award for the most unique blog title. ; )
Anywho, I applied to write for a company called World Trade Press because they’re looking for writers who can write about Japan.
But they wanted someone to write a guide for Osaka and although I’ve been there, I never spent enough time there to feel comfortable writing multiple posts about it. But I remembered that you used to live there so I thought maybe you’d be interested in applying?
Here’s the link:
http://www.journalismjobs.com/Job_Listing.cfm?JobID=1199593
They pay 5 cents a word. Anyway, good luck. : )
And you can totally delete this comment if you want…I would have emailed you but I didn’t see an email address listed anywhere (???)
Hey, Reannon! Thanks for commenting – I really enjoyed your guest post on Vagabondish (who cares what those bitter guys have to say???). Thank you for the heads up; this sounds right up my alley.
Take care!
-L
Hey, This is a wonderful blog! Would you be interested in being a guest for Onetravel? Please let me know and we can set something up.
We share similar nationalities! I recently stumbled across your blog and LOVE it!
I’ve been meaning to take a Creative Writing course (or courses) for some time now. Do you have any recommendations? I’m currently completing a Master’s program here in Spain, so I wouldn’t want to jump into another one, but if you have any extra information about “smaller” creative writing programs or classes in the U.K., I would greatly, tremendously, appreciate it!
Thank you, and keep on writing!
Lovely blog!
I can relate to your pigeon story, have lots of stories that haunt me still through friends. Most recent one had to do with pronunciation I said my ‘ass’ hurts instead of NECK. Eating pigeons is not too bad 
Cheers and keep on writing ^^
Stephanie
Hi,
I would like to invite you to join my Global Expat group pages on Linkedin and facebook. We are dedicated to assisting the expat family in their years abroad as well as the trailing spouse (STARS) in maintaining a career. Also, check out our website, http://www.global-expats.com
Please feel free to post links to your blog in our groups and increase your audience.
Best regards,
Quenby
Found your blog because Barbara from Holeinthedonut nominated us both for the 7 Things project. I can only say I am delighted to have found you, and now look forward to flicking back through your blog and reading more! I can’t understand how I missed you in the past! Love the way you write and your attitude to life.
Thanks so much, islandmomma! Found you, too – hooray for tripbase and Barbara!
You have such a great blog! And the pigeon story is hilarious. Thanks for sharing your travels with the world
Found your blog via Mary-Anne (I think…it was one of the China expats on twitter) and I love your serial expat-ing! I also spent the last four years in three different countries, and am on my fourth now. And I’m actually looking into the Masters programs at TCD! I’d love to live in Ireland for a year, I’m a severe hibernophile. Anyway I’m glad to have found your blog just as you’ve started blogging again; maybe we’ll cross paths in our travels some day!
Hey, because I truly love reading your blog and checking out your inspiring pictures, I’ve nominated you for the Lovely Blog Award. Check out my blog for more information!
Hey, great blog! I spent 45 minutes browsing your posts yesterday when I should have been marking grade 11 essays. Ah, well.
Love the story behind the title. Language mistakes can be so funny. I once had a language student tell me he wanted to improve his ‘grandma’. I’ve made some funny ones too, once told a Spanish person to cagate rather than callate…oh and told a Spanish postman I wanted to send a backpack full of happy (rather than the contents of the backpack) back to Australia.