I am Binbo

Learning a different language isn’t the easiest thing to do.

The vocabulary is different, the grammar is different, the pronunciation is different, and the alphabet is sometimes different.

However, it doesn’t matter how each language is different, there are always similarities.

For me, the most difficult part in learning English is expanding my vocabulary. There are thousands of words that I don’t know and I am learning one by one.

It is not easy to remember the word and the meaning when I hear it only once. To fully understand the word, I need to hear it multiple times and then I gradually start using it.

Sometimes I learn new words without hearing them multiple times.

It is rare though……



Once Matto taught me a word few years ago and I remembered it right away.





Matto and I were graduate students when we first started dating.

We received a stipend from the school as graduate assistants, but it was just enough to live. We couldn’t buy or eat any luxury stuff.


One day, I told Matto this sentence……..


“Matto, I am binbo!!!”

He looked at me funny and said “No, you are not…..”.

I was surprised that he understood what I said. "Binbo" is a Japanese word and I had never taught him the word before.

Binbo in Japanese is an adjective meaning “poor”.

“I am binbo” means “I am poor”.



In English, however, “I am a bimbo” means “I am a woman who is physically attractive but has a low intelligence level or a poor education”


Both words are pronounced the same way but spelled a little different. Yet, they have totally different meanings.



Everyday I try to learn something new.

This word was one of my funny differences I discovered between the Japanese and the English languages.