In the Way

邪魔（じゃま） can mean to be 'in the way' i.e 邪魔だよ！ but when you enter someone's house, saying ｢お邪魔します」 is a polite phrase.

In a reply about a tennis appointment I wrote the following, wondering whether to include the お in front of 邪魔:

「今日Veniceから帰ってきました。暑かった！明日早く起きたらお邪魔するかもしれないのでよろしくお願いします。」

I was quickly told that without the お this sentence sounds like I mean to disrupt the tennis session or have some bad intention. Lesson: include the お for politeness.

Related to this, I once learnt an interesting way of saying something like, 'Where do you think you're going?!' in Japanese. You can say, 「どこ見てんだよ？！」

Comments

[投稿： claytonian]

Um I thought that last phrase was "what are you looking at, creep?"

[投稿： Darren]

I think that would be 「何見てんだよ！」.

My translation was probably a bit off, come to think about it. It's hard to translate but if someone was driving recklessly and nearly drove into you, you could say 「どこ見てんだよ？！」