“Yabai やばい” : Strongest Slang For Young Japanese

“Yabai” is a very useful Japanese slang because you can use this word in various scenes. It’s a time when you are dangerous or you made a big mistake or you are in panic, you can use it. For example,

Friend : Your mother was looking for you with anger.

You : Yabai!

In this case, you had to do some houseworks to help your mother but you didn’t. And eventually you left home to play with your friend. So your mother was angry.

Coworker : Your boss was saying you made a big mistake yesterday.

You : Yabai!

Yesterday, you were working until late. So you somehow finished the work and went back home. In the morning today, your boss told your coworker, “He made a big mistake, oh my God”. Hearing that, your coworker rushed to come to you to tell you. Okay, what to do?

Friend : You are too late to apply for the entrance examination.

You : Yabai!

You were going to apply for the college entrance examination. But you forgot to do that. It’s too late. Okay, what to do?

This slang “yabai” has a variation of it. It’s this.

“Yabakune?　やばくね？”

You can use this word as a question, and you need to raise the end. If your friend or coworker is in danger or made a mistake or in panic, try to say. “Yabakune?” Okay, you will be a perfect Japanese speaker!

お仕事 vs 仕事 : What's a different meaning between two words?

The Japanese language is sometimes complicated. Two words having the same meaning, sometimes have a bit of different meanings.

“仕事 Shigoto” means work or job in Emglish. “お仕事 Oshigoto” is a polite way to say more than 仕事. For example,

Man : パパはどこへ行ったの？ Where did your daddy go?

Little daughter : パパはお仕事. My daddy is job.

We use “お仕事” between familiar people. And we prefer to use “お仕事” against elders. And we use “仕事” relatively on formal relationships, public relationships.

Man1 : 君はこれからどこへ行く？ Where are you going from now?

Man2 : 仕事に行きます. I’m going to job.

“お” is a unique beautiful language in Japanese, but you can’t use it all Japanese words. I can say, there is a rule which we are using “お”. You can say “酒” and “お酒”. However, you can say “ビール” but not “おビール”. If you said “おビール” while talking with friends, they definitely say “You are funny!”.

Self-driving bus in my city

What will you call this vehicle? Ladybug?  You may be surprised to hear about it, I mean this vehicle has no driver. I saw this vehicle in front of the railway station in my city. So I tried to check it inside this vehicle, but I could not find the driver. Namely, this is a self-driving vehicle. And this is a bus in my city. It seems that the bus is running in the street as an experiment by the city hall. And this bus is running about 20 kilometers per hour. It’s very slow. If you want to go somewhere in a hurry, you have better to ride a bike rather than this bus. And, when I’m driving in the street, this bus is a bit disturbing. Although, it’s not avoidable because you should not clash with this bus on the street, isn't it? Anyway, self-driving is incredible. Do you want this bus in your town?