Teacher: Look! A beautiful butterfly is flying beside the bungalow. (sennsei: mite! bangaro- no mae ni kireina choucho ga iru wayo! ) Student: I can’t see it. Where is it? (seito: mienai kedo, doko desu ka.) Teacher: There! (sennsei: soko yo!) Student: Underneath? I can’t find it. (seito: soko, desu ka. imasenn yo.) Teacher: Oh! Now it is above the roof. (sensei: aa, konndo ha yane no ue ni iru wa.) Student: It’s not there. Teacher, you’re seeing things. (seito: imasenn yo. sennsei, gennkaku wo mite iru nn desu yo.) Teacher: You have very bad eyes, don’t you? (sennsei: Anata ha hidoku me ga warui no ne.) Scene 1. A beautiful butterfly is flying beside the bungalow. In Japanese “mae” not only refers to in front of something (for instance, a building), but also beside it. The teacher means “beside” (“temae” is the more accurate way to express this). Scene 2. As the teacher said “mae,” the student looked around the front of the bungalow. In other words, the teacher is looking in a different direction. Scene 3. The student mistakes the teacher’s word “soko” to mean “underneath” and looks under the bungalow. Scene 4. The student mistakes “ue” to mean “on” and thinks it is on the roof. In actual fact, the teacher means “over.” In Japanese “ue” means “on,” “over,” “above,” and “top.”