My flight home to Tokyo yesterday was cancelled because the shitters on the plane were broken. Two of ’em. They had to fix at least one of them for us to go (pun intended), and apparently it couldn’t be done. I let my roommates know I’d be getting home a day late, and one of them responded with:
どえ〜。そんな、いきなりキャンセルって、あるんだ！！
Love the onomatopoeia at the beginning. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard どえ〜 used, but it seems to me something like an even more exasperated version of the typical sound of surprise – げ.
Now I’m off to try and score a meal voucher or some other kind of restitution. This cancellation shit was exciting at first, but now it just sucks.
Been there, done that! If it’s American Airlines, you’ll probably just get a shaving set out of it.
What does the あるんだ at the end mean?
I assume “cancellation shit” was pun intended as well. :-)
‘doh!’ That sound will be ringing throughout the airports with JAL dropping staff.
That’s more of an interjection than onomatopoeia, if I understand those terms correctly. (And my years of viewing “Schoolhouse Rock” make me confident that I do.) So have you been able to board a plane with toilets that work?
JLJZen – あるんだ is just a shortening of あるのだ. I’m actually working on a short piece about it, but the の acts as a sort of explanatory mechanism and works out in English as something like, “So people really DO get cancelled all of a sudden like that!” It helps place that emphasis on the “do.”
Tornadoes28 – Unintended!
Durf – I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive. どえ〜 isn’t an onomatopoeia in the usual sense (meow, crash, bang), but it’s definitely the written version of a sound which I think qualifies it. It’s definitely playing the grammatical role of interjection.
Pingback: How to Japonese» Blog Archive » How to Fly First Class for Free