All of my former students in Japan officially ended their school year this week, I believe. Some will return in April, others have graduated. To them, I offer the proclamation, 「おつかれやま!!」
My first few years in Japan, I taught mostly adult students at a variety of locations. One of them was a language school in Yoyogi-Uehara. A nice young woman named Itoko liked teaching me 面白い日本語 ("interesting" Japanese).
I finished work on Monday nights there at 10pm. Itoko came up to me at the end of our 9-950pm class and shouted, "おつかれやま!” I didn't know what she meant, so I said nothing. She exclaimed once more, "おつかれやま!” I replied, "What--what is that?" She went on to explain that it was a variation on 「おつかれさまです」, the expression most commonly used among colleagues and co-workers at the end of a meeting or work day or project. (More on おつかれさまですin a future post. It's kind of a long explanation.)
The やま used to replace さま, she clarified, was the word for mountain (山). Therefore, おつかれやま was a way of denoting the end of a long work day. The 山 was to emphasize the tremendous time and effort you had put into it, like climbing a mountain.
Not long afterwards, I began teaching at 学習院女子大学 (Gakushuin Women's College). At the end of one of our classes, a presentation day that left everyone looking slightly exhausted, I decided to try it out. 「おつかれやま!」 said I, in a hearty voice. One of them, a girl named Yumi, said 「言わない、言わない。ださい。」 In English, something like "Don't say that, don't say that. It's corny." (More on ださいin a future post. It can be translated in multiple ways. In this case, I think "corny" seems appropriate.
But I remain undeterred. I don't know anyone who uses this word nowadays. Yet I say to all my former students, お疲れ山!!!
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