Kirk here with a little bit of “what foreigners think” nonsense related to なんばしよっと (‘What are you doing?’ in Kyushu dialects) that I wrote about yesterday. This article came up when I was looking for information about the expression. It discusses the claim that ’nanba shiyotto’ sounds like ‘None but shot’ to us and that, when addressed to us by a policeman, we would interpret “none but shot” to mean “The only thing to do is to shoot him.”
To their credit, the editors of this publication (J Town Network; Jタウンネット) check with some actual foreigners who debunk the theory.
I have, however, heard of a REAL misinterpretation of “なんばしよっと” by a foreigner. The person thought it meant “What place?” as in “何の場所” and would frequently say ‘なんばしょっと?’ to people when trying ask directions. Unfortunately, she was shot after attempting to ask a policeman for directions in this way. :( Just kidding about the last part but her misconstrual of the expression is true and I heard that it really did surprise people. ;)
