I was a new JET Programme participant located in rural Japan. The CIR variety, so I knew a good bit of Japanese and was there to teach and write about US culture, history, food, etc.

The local dialect was pretty difficult to understand however, and I was constantly asking what words meant. One day my coworker used an expression beginning with “o”, which is a common honorific prefix, and wanting to basically say “o - what?” I clearly proclaimed “onani?” in the middle of the board of education office. More than one person stifled a laugh and my coworker almost did a spit take.

It wasn’t until much later that I learned “onani” is masturbation in Japanese, based on the English term onanism, which I also didn’t know at the time. So I basically failed hard in both languages that day.