Riot =/= grapes

whyyy-nihongo-whyyy:

For those of you who don’t speak Japanese, know that Japanese has a lot of words whose meaning depend on vowel length (as in, obachan is aunt, obaachan is grandmother). Scary at first, but not so bad once you get used to it.

Unless you’re a tired exchange student who really sucks at spelling. Then, boudou (ぼうどう) and budou (ぶどう) are very similar words. Budou means grapes (or sometimes martial art). I have come to find out that boudou means riot. Oops.

I just wanted some grapes.