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The story
A post on Girls Channel titled “My boyfriend can’t read kanji and it’s turning me off” became a hot topic on 5channel’s News Speed+ board. According to the poster, her boyfriend misreads 開場 (kaijō, “doors open”) as “kaiba” (which sounds like horse feed), 御霊前 (goreizen, the phrase written on condolence-money envelopes) as “mitama mae,” and 用いる (mochiiru, “to use”) as “yōiru.” When the story was reposted to the thread, sympathy poured in (“no way, couldn’t deal”), but posters soon started confessing kanji they themselves had misread — like 就中 (nakanzuku), 月次 (getsuji), and 重複 (jūfuku/chōfuku) — until the discussion drifted from right-or-wrong readings to “just how ashamed should you feel about not being able to read kanji?”
In mid-June, a topic titled “My boyfriend can’t read kanji and it’s cooling my feelings for him” was posted on Girls Channel and sparked a big reaction.
The original poster is troubled by her boyfriend’s poor kanji reading.
“He often misreads things — like 開場 as ‘kaiba,’ 御霊前 as ‘mitama mae,’ 用いる as ‘yōiru.’ I wonder if he’s just weak with kanji, but I haven’t really said anything about it. Am I overthinking this?”
Source: news.livedoor.com / Original article here
What people said
Why would he even know 'mitama' in the first place?
Lol, "ii toshi shitsu"
Care to say that in actual Japanese?
Well, it's a pretty unusual reading anyway — it comes from classical Chinese-style kanbun
Oh my, that's high level
Sounds fun
Well, it does sound like "tsukinami" (meaning "trite/common")
What an embarrassing guy
Once you learn it wrong, it's hard to correct, huh lol
Like reading 重複 as "jūfuku."
"Jūfuku" isn't actually wrong, you know
Seems like "jūfuku" is basically accepted now lol
I once corrected someone with "It's chōfuku!" and they pulled out a dictionary — turns out it's fine these days
The nationwide "Gekkyoku Group" (joking like the misreading is a company name)
Japan's biggest building owner — "Mr. Teiso" (from the 定礎 cornerstone plaques seen on every building, joked about as if it's one guy's name)
Speaking of Kobae commercials, Yuri Mari used to appear in them back in the day.
"Yuri" there is actress Yuri Nakamura, who passed away recently.
The US Navy's amphibious assault ship is literally named "Iwo Jima," so don't get so worked up about it
But don't people say things like "strong in Japanese class" or "weak at math"?
The place with the Hanshin Racecourse is the real "Nigawa"
And yet he can't handle 開場 as anything but "kaiba"? No way that's true
"Kaijō" (doors open) and "kaien" (show starts) usually come as a pair, so
I wonder how he read "kaien"
"Oishō" for 追証 (a margin call)
Is "oishō" even the official reading?
People saying "keitsune" for 経常 (meaning "recurring/ordinary") don't make sense to me either
"Ichinichi-jū"… "yamamichi"
or
people who answer "Did you eat breakfast?" with "I had a sandwich" — I want to keep my distance from people like that.
"Did you eat breakfast?" — "I had a sandwich."
There's nothing wrong with that.
Are you an idiot?
That seriously gives me the "confused space cat" face lol (a popular reaction meme for bewildered confusion)
These days there are actually more people who read 他人事 as "taningoto" than the traditionally correct "hitogoto"
Background and Key Points of This Topic
The original source is an advice post on Girls Channel, and it’s worth noting that 5channel is only relaying it secondhand. In the thread, some pointed out that reading 重複 as “jūfuku” is actually accepted in dictionaries — an example of a reading long dismissed as a “mistake” turning out to be within acceptable range. How well someone reads kanji tends to vary with age and job-related experience, and growing reliance on smartphone auto-conversion — which cuts down on chances to actually write by hand — is likely part of the background, though the thread itself doesn’t dig into that. Note that a few comments crudely equated “can’t read kanji” with a general lack of ability, and those posts have been excluded from this article.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (News Speed+) thread “Post About Boyfriend’s ‘Kanji Too Weak’ Goes Viral — Misreads ‘Kaijō’ as ‘Kaiba,’ ‘Goreizen’ as ‘Mitama Mae,’ Draws ‘No Way I Could Deal With That’ Comments.”
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