KY and the BJ

Japanese love to shorten words and use acronyms. These creative words became a source of some good jokes and fun during "English Conversation Hour" hosted by yours truly, to help the students work on their spoken english skills. Here are a few of my favorites.

The BS News is a national news show aired on NHK.
I have mentioned this one before in a prior post (click here to read).

B.J. is the Japanese basketball league.
"He plays for the BJ doesn't he?"

K.Y. is a word to describe a person who doesn't know when to keep quiet or how to act in a given situation.
"That person really needs K.Y."

It certainly lightened up the mood in the room as I tried to explain these concepts in English to them. I laughed out loud lots as you can imagine. At the end, one of the students made a point of noting to everyone how strange it is that I laugh so outwardly. I asked him if he didn't find this funny, he said no, that he found it very funny but is able to laugh "inside" at these kinds of things. He found it strange that I don't have that ability.