Friday, November 03, 2006

Mystery Sign

This is a picture of Ren signing that he's done. It looks like he's clapping. This is to imitate Aya and I when we finish eating and say,"Gochiso sama deshita". The problem is that it's similar to when he's asking for "more" of something. We've been helping him shape his hands the right way to make it easier to figure out, but he still has a way to go.



This sign on the other hand, where he claps his head with both hands as if to say, "oh no", is a complete mystery. He uses it as though it were a sign we taught him and does it to say... something, we just have no idea what it is. He looks at us like "why don't you get it?!".
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2 comments:

Julianna said...

Okay, what the heck does "Gochiso sama deshita" mean?!

Joseph said...

Good question. The easy answer is that it's just something Japanese appretiatively say when done eating, like the other end of Bon Appétit.The root "Chisou" comes from the expression for running around, which is what the person preparing the food your about to eat had to do for you. So it could be considered a way of saying, "thank you for doing all the running around to make the meal", or could be considered on a far deeper level as solomn expression of gratitude.

A real professional will put her palms together as if in prayer when saying it.(This is what Ren mimics with sign).

On the other hand, Bon Appétit or the before eating comment in Japanese is Itadakimasu. It comes from the verb to receive, as you are about receive food and need to express appreciation to everyone and thing that went into it's creation and preperation. Agian, good form requires hands together.