Christmas is comming soon. Everyone loves Christmas and is getting excited, especially here in the UK.
However there is one problem most people face : M O N E Y.（お金！okane!)
You have to spend lots of money on presents for your family, friends and partners…
or even on Christmas KFC chicken :p (In Japan, our tradition is to eat KFC on Christmas lol)
And then the New Year will come…and then Valentine’s day…
And boom! You are broke.
So how do you moan that you are broke in Japanese?
We say ”金欠” きんけつ (kinketsu).
金 <- Have you seen this kanji? Yes! It means “money“.
And its kunyomi is “kane” and its onyomi is “kin” (e.g 金曜日 kinyoubi “Friday”).
And the second kanji ”欠けている” (kaketeiru) means “being chipped” or “lacking“.
(e.g 歯が欠けた。 ha ga kaketa “My tooth got chipped.”)
And its onyomi is “ketsu“. Yeah, “ketsu” means ass, but we write it in Katakana like ケツ.
例文 reibun / E.g
「今月は、クリスマスのせいで金欠だよ。プレゼントに合計で、20万も使っちゃった。節約しなきゃ。」
kongetsu wa kurisumasu no sei de kinketsu dayo.purezento ni goukei de, nijuuman mo tsukacchatta. Setsuyaku shinakya.
“I’m broke this month because of Christmas. I spent twenty thousand (yen) in total on presents. I gotta be more thrifty. “
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Or you could just say “お金が全然ない” (okane ga zenzen nai) as well. It means “I don’t have money at all.”
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Another essential word to learn is :
節約する setsuyaku suru – to be thrifty
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Then how do you say “I’m poor “?
If you look up at the dictionary, you would get these two:
貧しい mazushii and 貧乏な binbou-na
What’s the difference?
貧乏な is used in an usual conversation and informal speech.
And it only refferes to the meaning of being poor “financially“.
E.g 私は貧乏だから、車は買えないや。
watashi wa binbou dakara, kuruma wa kaenai ya.
I’m poor, so I cannot afford a car.
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While
貧しい mazushii sounds much more formal. You wouldn’t call yourself まずしい.
E.g 貧しい国 mazushii kuni – poor country
(developing country – 発展途上国 hatten tojou koku, developed country – 先進国 senshin koku)
And not just financially, but you can use like this :
想像力が貧しい。 souzouryoku ga mazushii.
Lacking in imagination. (having a poor imagination).
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However, when you say “the quality is poor“,
we say “質が悪い shitsu ga warui“.
E.g 質が悪いホテル shitsu ga warui hoteru – poor quality hotel.
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Also when you want to say “Poor you“, you say “かわいそう“.
BUT! Japanese people don’t really like to hear this phrase.
Because it can sound like you are looking down on the person.
So don’t use it too much. People often tend to say this about animals.
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And how is being poor (貧乏な binbou-na) different
from being broke (金欠な kinketsu-na)?
There is a quote that goes :
I’ve never been poor, only broke. Being poor is a frame of mind. Being broke is only a temporary situation.
– Mike Todd
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So did you get it? わかった？
Being broke means that you don’t have money temporarily, because you spent money.
金欠は、使っちゃったから一時的にお金がないっていうこと。
kinketsu wa, tsukacchatta kara ichijiteki-ni okane ga nai tte iu koto.
I hope you are not “kinketsu”, and will have nice Christmas.
Even if you are “kinketsu”, don’t worry, money is not everything.
You will still have nice one x
じゃあね！
