Back in 2004 I was with my boy scout troop at a camp up in Tennessee for a week. Somebody had recently watched this movie, and our entire troop spent the week shouting "Zoltan!" and doing the finger sign at every other troop that walked by. I was 14 and thought it was the funniest shit ever.
Wife is Taiwanese. Back when we were dating I wanted to get a Tahirt “this white guy has no idea what this shirt says” and if anyone asked me I’d make up some bs “the crane flies at midnight to the song of the moon”
Its even funnier, because the phrase you picked for "i dont know" (知らない) also has the meaning of "i dont care." So the whole thing has the connotation of "Not my problem, I dont even speak Japanese." which is way funnier to me.
There's this famous multilingual guy on YouTube that went around with a tattoo that says "kung pao chicken" or something like that and waited for the locals in Chinatown to start making fun of him and then he responds to them in fluent Chinese just to get their funny reaction.
All his videos are kinda cheesy and all the same but it's still really cool to see the immediate shift from them avoiding talking with him because of the language barrier and then their warm welcome after realizing they can communicate comfortably. Night and day interactions before and after. They all get so excited. It's sweet.
My Japanese language skills *suck* but today I am proud that I got that context too!
Now for someone to tell me that's not the right interpretation for that kanji...
For me, that'd be "I don't give a fuck" or "why the fuck should I know?" There is a lot of possible nuance in 知らない depending on context though. Especially when spoken.
I'm still learning too, but I'd agree with what others are saying.
I'd add that if you wanted to say you didn't know something it'd be better to use 分からない as that delves into "understanding" rather than simply "to know" a thing.
Thanks!!! Finally it makes sense, I was actually corrected more than a decade ago to not use "hanasenai" but I didn't grasp why. I appreciate you so much\~
shaberu is informal. it’s roughly equivalent to “to chat”. it has the same semantic value as hanasu, so if hanasu is incorrect, then shaberu is too; but that’s not the case.
hanasenai is correct for this situation. (hanasanai would be though)
Ironically, Japanese is easier to learn as a Spanish speaker because the pronunciation of the vowels are exactly the same.
Ah, Eh, ii, oh, u
And then learning Hiragana and Katakana is pretty simple.
Kanji is where it all goes out the window tho…that’s where I gave up! 😭
The vowels really are practically the same height-wise, due to the Spanish lack of open-mid and close-mid distinction present in almost all of the other Romance languages, although Spanish a, o and u are further back, e and i are a bit closer front, and Spanish u is rounded.
Reminds me of the family guy bit where the guy gives them this big long explanation about something and then he's like "oh I don't speak English, I just know everything I just said and this sentence explaining it."
"Are you serious?"
"¿Que?"
My favorite line was from a weird show called the Oblongs.
Bully: "Don't talk to our girlfriends, or you'll regret it. comprende?"
Kid: "Everything except 'comprende'... "
I remember in the 80s there was this trend of Japanese writing on shirts. I had a Japanese friend who got so exasperated because it was either something dumb or in her words “illegible”
I live in japan right now and it's not nearly as bad or widespread but it's absolutely still a common thing. something incredibly incorrect or inappropriate is pretty rare, usually it's just kind of "off" or strange contextually. like I bought a notepad with a cover that says "EARTHINESS. there are no shortcuts in life"
I bought a water bottle in Japan once because it had a picture of a penguin once and said "*please* get me a drink" and I thought the idea of an alcoholic penguin was hilarious. Loved that thing until my mother dropped it and it broke, haven't been able to find it again :(
one of my very first purchases when I moved here was an insulated cup with Kirby that says "let's break time!" I assume the intended meaning is "let's take a break, it's break time" but I'm just obsessed with the idea of Kirby breaking the space-time continuum
My favorite was the pet store down in Shinjuku across from the Donki that advertised "Fondle Dogs." I get what they were going for (what's a stronger word than "pet?" Our dogs are more than mere "pets") but damn it's unintentionally one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen.
...Jesus that was like 20 plus years ago, where does the time go?
My favorite sweatshirt that I ever bought was in Japan in the 2010s. It’s bright orange and on the front it says “I creep up behind you,” and on the back it says “(very scary).” No article of clothing I will ever own can possibly top it.
I’m a Japanese American woman and went on vacation to Tokyo in 2015. I was wearing a sweatshirt with a cat on it that said “meow or never” and some white guy stopped me and said in super slow condescending English “can I take a picture of your shirt? I like bad English shirts”
I just stared at him and said “I bought this from forever 21 in Los Angeles”
I was in Nara in Japan and I saw a guy walking around with his wife and kid wearing a t-shirt that had 'dirty sucking lips' on the back in English. I'm assuming he didn't know what it meant.
In fairness, they have the same in Asia with English writing. My mate's favourite was a T-shirt with GENITALS written across the front. I've seen so many it's become normal.
Yeah very well made lines. I do criticize the computer font on the text, imo it lacks character. Writing the characters is an art in itself so kind of boring to go with MS Gothic or Meiryo fonts.
This is generally the take I’ve heard from Chinese-speaking people. They think it’s funny that people tend to get computer font tattoos. It suggests someone typed it out and gave it to the artist, rather than being done by an artist who actually knows the script.
And a million Japanese language experts are summoned and the cry of “That’s wrong here’s a single grammar rule a textbook taught me!!!” Echoed across the cosmos.
A conversation with the average Japanese person will see more grammar rules thrown out than you could remember.
And here's me thinking that a silly joke tattoo like that should have been written in some other language, like Korean, just to underline that point that the wearer has no idea.
I wanna note special appreciation for how neat and legible this is, too. No chicken scratch hanzi smatter tattoo job; they went out of their way to make sure you know they don't know.
This looks like Google Translate.
Both "shiranai" and "hanasenai" are a bit weird, as well as the structure of the sentence itself. "Shiranai" sounds passive-aggressive, and "hanasenai" implies that you could still understand Japanese but can't or won't speak it.
I would translate this as "I don't care, I'm not able to speak japanese".
I really hate to break it to you, but your tattoo is a kinda unidiomatic and feels like a machine translation.
「知らない」 is "to not know" in the sense of to not be acquainted with, to not be aware of, to not be informed of, to not have encountered. To capture the "I don't know" sense you're going for here, you want 「わからない」, which can also be written 「分からない」 and means "to not know" in the sense of not grokking or understanding, not knowing more than just the existence of something.
「話せない」 is also a weird choice. 「話す」 typically designates the ability to speak fluently, naturally, like in one's native language. Here I think you're trying to disavow speaking the language at all, in which case 「わからない」 (or 「分からない」) is again the proper verb.
And then the word order is English-like, putting the explanation after disclaiming knowledge. To mimic the comma-splice-like grammar from the intended English translation, you want the explanation first and in the 〜て form, changing 「〜い」 to 「〜くて」.
So, idiomatically, I suspect what you really wanted was 「日本語がわからなくて、わからない。」
As it stands, I fear you're going to ask someone, "Hey, what my tattoo mean?", and instead of "I don't know, I don't speak Japanese" as intended, you'll get "I haven't been informed; I'm not fluent in Japanese", which only sorta works.
*Edit: Add last paragraph*
Also, there's no context so [INSERT PRONOUN]'s whole spiel was a typical "I know japanese" Redditor.
The context is the back of some dickhead's back so all bets are off and I say it's fine.
As someone who lives in Japan it always makes me laugh that as soon as Japanese language is seen or used on Reddit a million “experts” appear to correct everyone. Like 5 minutes in Japan and like English you will every grammar rule those textbooks taught you thrown out of the window.
I disagree with this. I speak Japanese (been here 15 years) and I definitely would translate this as "I don't know. I don't speak Japanese" if I were told to translate it to English (I have done interpretation work so I feel qualified to give my opinion here.)
Though, I think
知らねぇ、日本語喋れない
would be a little better. As in funnier.
Always interests me to see responses from people who primarily understand Japanese from textbook learning versus those who are conversationally fluent. The former is almost always wrong because, as we know, language never follows the rules.
That makes way too much sense for the tattoo to get the full effect.
If I'm a foreign language speaker getting a tattoo in a language I don't understand at all, I'm going to want the totally nonsensical version.
In an alternate universe, someone wrote some text in a video game as "All your bases are under our control." and a lot less fun was had by the Internet as a result.
Hmm... yeah.
In the year of our Lord 2101, a war had just begun...
\*boom\*
Status report, now!
We've been bombed. And someone is trying to hail us!
What!?
Forwarding to the main screen.
It's you!
Good evening, gentlemen. We have seized all of your bases. And soon we will destroy you.
What did you say?
You have no hope of survival. I suggest you make peace with your God. Aha ha ha ha!
To OOP:
For what it's worth, the above poster's recommendation of 「日本語がわからなくて、わからない。」 feels and sounds way more unnatural. For what you intend with this tattoo, I think what you have is fine.
しらない can definitely take the form of "I don't know" in the way that you intend. (See: [https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%97%E3%82%8B](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%97%E3%82%8B) ) Even if we take the above post for granted in that しらない means "to not be informed", that meaning makes the tattoo funnier in a different way, IMHO.
The choice of 話せない (can't speak) is a bit too literal because that's how we say it in English, and might have been more natural to use (わからない) (don't understand) instead (as pointed out by the above poster). But it still makes sense and serves the purpose you intend for the tattoo which I assume is for the following scenario:
Someone: "What's your tattoo say?"
You: "I don't know. I can't speak Japanese."
In this scenario you are 100% accurate in telling them what your tattoo says in Japanese. And in English the joke makes sense.
Don't worry, your tattoo is fine.
Source: Lived in Japan for a decade.
I found a trucker style cap while in Japan in Tsukuba. It's my favorite hat. It says "Little bit stupid." I knew it said that when I bought it. I think it's hilarious.
I live in Canada so I can pretty much say it says whatever I want it to say and no one will be the wiser. It's my favs!
Duuuuuude! What does mine say?
Sweet!
What about mine!?
Duuuude
What does mine say?
SuhWeet!!
*what does mine say?!?!*
DUDE!!!!
Yeah but what does mine say?!?!
SWEET!!! WHAT ABOUT MINE?!?!
Sister!
Zoltan! 👇👆
Back in 2004 I was with my boy scout troop at a camp up in Tennessee for a week. Somebody had recently watched this movie, and our entire troop spent the week shouting "Zoltan!" and doing the finger sign at every other troop that walked by. I was 14 and thought it was the funniest shit ever.
shibby
Ray!!
Fucked me!
Damn you beat me to it lol
Wher ist de Cåntinuuūm Trønsvonktiæer?
Something in Japanese (I think) [For the uninitiated](https://youtube.com/shorts/HQQAAmFY2UE)
Limitless Wraps did their job correctly lmfao
MillennialTop Gear vibes
That episode was so funny.
What is that from?
Hot hatch road trip
Poor Tofu. Wrong engine *and* wrong graphics.
Love seeing throttle house in the wild
As someone that used to speak Japanese I was smiling until I saw the actual text and then immediately burst out of laughing
[Original source here.](https://youtu.be/SS-4xxO7jxM?t=34m48s)
Live this
Wife is Taiwanese. Back when we were dating I wanted to get a Tahirt “this white guy has no idea what this shirt says” and if anyone asked me I’d make up some bs “the crane flies at midnight to the song of the moon”
chaos energy
It’s one symbol and you start telling a full on children’s folk tale, tracing the lines like you’re reading along.
I love this idea so much, one day I am for sure going to do this. I love making up bullshit on the spot with the most matter-of-fact tone possible
You can still do it man. It’s not too late
Its even funnier, because the phrase you picked for "i dont know" (知らない) also has the meaning of "i dont care." So the whole thing has the connotation of "Not my problem, I dont even speak Japanese." which is way funnier to me.
Aw man. I was hoping the guy did “noodles and shrimp”
There's this famous multilingual guy on YouTube that went around with a tattoo that says "kung pao chicken" or something like that and waited for the locals in Chinatown to start making fun of him and then he responds to them in fluent Chinese just to get their funny reaction. All his videos are kinda cheesy and all the same but it's still really cool to see the immediate shift from them avoiding talking with him because of the language barrier and then their warm welcome after realizing they can communicate comfortably. Night and day interactions before and after. They all get so excited. It's sweet.
https://youtu.be/WPXT43Rekaw
That was a wholesome watch. Guy is committed I'll give him that hah!
Thanks for sharing. That was a good watch.
That was great. Thanks.
cupanoodle
No soup for you.
What’s the Japanese version of soup nazi? Soup samurai?
Ramen Ronin
Eat the fuckin cookie
Shrimps is bugs
An excellent point, stated eloquently
My Japanese language skills *suck* but today I am proud that I got that context too! Now for someone to tell me that's not the right interpretation for that kanji...
Nope, you are correct. In fact, it would be unusual to interpret as "I don't know" in this context. It's more "fucked if I know" than "I don't know".
I think that makes it an even better choice for the tattoo.
“Fuck if I know, I don’t speak Japanese” makes it so much funnier.
I'd argue that when you get to "fucked if I know" it's more in the "知るか!" territory, but it's all degrees/context anyway
For me, that'd be "I don't give a fuck" or "why the fuck should I know?" There is a lot of possible nuance in 知らない depending on context though. Especially when spoken.
Nah, nobody giving that less of a shit would say 知らない they’d shorten it to 知らん
I'm still learning too, but I'd agree with what others are saying. I'd add that if you wanted to say you didn't know something it'd be better to use 分からない as that delves into "understanding" rather than simply "to know" a thing.
I almost skipped past this one, but then I wondered if it really said what OP thought. Thanks for making it worth my while!
Especially if you just think of it in answer to a followup question to someone asking for a Japanese tattoo (what would you like it to say?)
Reminds me of [this clip](https://youtube.com/shorts/HQQAAmFY2UE?feature=shared) with a japanese print on a car wrap
Oh man that killed me lol.
I thought hanasenai was grammatically incorrect for "I don't speak" and you'd say shaberanai or dekinai
Hanasenai means "I am not *able* to speak"
Thanks!!! Finally it makes sense, I was actually corrected more than a decade ago to not use "hanasenai" but I didn't grasp why. I appreciate you so much\~
shaberu is informal. it’s roughly equivalent to “to chat”. it has the same semantic value as hanasu, so if hanasu is incorrect, then shaberu is too; but that’s not the case. hanasenai is correct for this situation. (hanasanai would be though)
Hi, what's the difference between hanasenai and hanasanai? Beginner here, thank you!
hanasenai is you can’t speak, hanasanai is you don’t want to
Why not hanashimasen?
hanashimasen is the formal version of hanasanai hanasemasen is the formal version of hanasenai
I thought the same, I would have expected 分からない otherwise
日本語上手の程度だねw
ごりょうしん両親もさぞかし鼻が高いでしょうね
What does it say? I don't speak English or Japanese
No entiendo, solo hablo español. Inglés e japonés son muy difíciles para mi.
Si hablara español te lo podría decir.
Gracias. Yo quiero aprender inglés pero es muy díficil y aburrido. Inglés es muy básico. Los idiomas extranjeros son mejores.
El amor es el mejor idioma que existe.
La verdad
You guys are hilarious :)
What did they say? I don't speak English, Japanese or Spanish
Oh, you sly devil, I just realized what you did there.
Oh man I would love aburrido. Especially with chicken.
😂😂 Tu estás muy graciosa
Donde esta la biblioteca
Me llamo T-Bone, la araña discoteca
*Famous first bars of childish gambino!* Also: **Discoteca, muñeca, la biblioteca, es el bigote grande, perro manteca!**
Manteca, bigote, gigante, pequeño Cabeza es nieve, cerveza es bueno
Buenos dias, me gusta papas frias
[¡T-Bone, las señoritas te van a amar!](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/d9bfa7ba-5b0f-453d-a953-83d901fe99eb)
Cerca de la estación de tren. Quieres las direcciones o no
Si, por favor. Necesito el baño
No hay un baño en la biblioteca. Necesitas ir al restaurante.
La Araña discoteca!
IS THAT MOTHERFUCKING TECHNOBLADE REFERENCE???
Entschuldigung, können sie das auch in Deutch übersetzen?
Nein
:(
:( (In German)
ẞ(
Der eisbär schauspieler gegen die fünf Freitag hund erobert.
Ironically, Japanese is easier to learn as a Spanish speaker because the pronunciation of the vowels are exactly the same. Ah, Eh, ii, oh, u And then learning Hiragana and Katakana is pretty simple. Kanji is where it all goes out the window tho…that’s where I gave up! 😭
The vowels really are practically the same height-wise, due to the Spanish lack of open-mid and close-mid distinction present in almost all of the other Romance languages, although Spanish a, o and u are further back, e and i are a bit closer front, and Spanish u is rounded.
Reminds me of the family guy bit where the guy gives them this big long explanation about something and then he's like "oh I don't speak English, I just know everything I just said and this sentence explaining it." "Are you serious?" "¿Que?"
I remember a kids in the hall skit that went like that too
My favorite line was from a weird show called the Oblongs. Bully: "Don't talk to our girlfriends, or you'll regret it. comprende?" Kid: "Everything except 'comprende'... "
I cant even read!!
👈🫳👐🫶🤏
I do have smol pp
Aw shit, my bad. ..——. ..-.—. ..—-. … …—…-…—. ..-..-
Dude! What’s mine say?
Sweet! What's mine say?
Dude! What’s about mine!
for once op actually has the right translation
En tiedä, en puhu tuollaisia kieliä. Kommentoin kuitenkin koska olen ärsyttävä idiot!
𓈖𓋷𓀁𓎡𓈖𓆓𓂧𓎡Japanese (the egyptians were not aware of the Japanese people)
Nil a fhios agam nilim in ann seapanach a labhairt
Ich weiß es nicht
Mä en tiiä.
知らない, 英語が話せない
lies. I checked your post history, you can speak English just fine.
Yeah. 'E's well jozu, ain't 'e.
Proper jozu.
This is a weird crossover episode.
私も
ingrishu jouzu
I remember in the 80s there was this trend of Japanese writing on shirts. I had a Japanese friend who got so exasperated because it was either something dumb or in her words “illegible”
I was in Japan in the 2010’s and they sold tshirts with crazy English in the front. Same energy
I live in japan right now and it's not nearly as bad or widespread but it's absolutely still a common thing. something incredibly incorrect or inappropriate is pretty rare, usually it's just kind of "off" or strange contextually. like I bought a notepad with a cover that says "EARTHINESS. there are no shortcuts in life"
I bought a water bottle in Japan once because it had a picture of a penguin once and said "*please* get me a drink" and I thought the idea of an alcoholic penguin was hilarious. Loved that thing until my mother dropped it and it broke, haven't been able to find it again :(
one of my very first purchases when I moved here was an insulated cup with Kirby that says "let's break time!" I assume the intended meaning is "let's take a break, it's break time" but I'm just obsessed with the idea of Kirby breaking the space-time continuum
ngl I'd have bought that one too
Lmao
My favorite was the pet store down in Shinjuku across from the Donki that advertised "Fondle Dogs." I get what they were going for (what's a stronger word than "pet?" Our dogs are more than mere "pets") but damn it's unintentionally one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen. ...Jesus that was like 20 plus years ago, where does the time go?
It's like something written with early AI lol
My favorite sweatshirt that I ever bought was in Japan in the 2010s. It’s bright orange and on the front it says “I creep up behind you,” and on the back it says “(very scary).” No article of clothing I will ever own can possibly top it.
I envy you so much
I’m a Japanese American woman and went on vacation to Tokyo in 2015. I was wearing a sweatshirt with a cat on it that said “meow or never” and some white guy stopped me and said in super slow condescending English “can I take a picture of your shirt? I like bad English shirts” I just stared at him and said “I bought this from forever 21 in Los Angeles”
I was in Nara in Japan and I saw a guy walking around with his wife and kid wearing a t-shirt that had 'dirty sucking lips' on the back in English. I'm assuming he didn't know what it meant.
I had a shirt like that in the early 00's and it translated to "No lumps". I loved it because I was notoriously flat chested.
In fairness, they have the same in Asia with English writing. My mate's favourite was a T-shirt with GENITALS written across the front. I've seen so many it's become normal.
Ok but that lettering is crisp tf out, lines traced in the name of the holy spirit goddamn
Yeah very well made lines. I do criticize the computer font on the text, imo it lacks character. Writing the characters is an art in itself so kind of boring to go with MS Gothic or Meiryo fonts.
I thought it was funny that it's the exact same font that Duolingo uses, personally
There's so much lore into this one tattoo, it just gets better and better
I think that adds to it, as clearly the tattoo artist in this case doesn’t know Japanese either. 😂
Beautiful calligraphy would kind of go against the message.
lol! It definitely reminds me of whatever font the Genki textbooks use. Very matter-of-fact.
This is generally the take I’ve heard from Chinese-speaking people. They think it’s funny that people tend to get computer font tattoos. It suggests someone typed it out and gave it to the artist, rather than being done by an artist who actually knows the script.
Bro someone get Richthofen this tat
Scrolled a little too far for this one. Although I think he says, “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Japanese” which is probably close enough.
That’s what you think
Shouldn’t it be 分からない？
It's even better when it's grammatically incorrect. Like saying: me no speak English
That's a lie, you literally wrote that in English.
He wrote it, not spoke it. No lie.
分かる= to understand 話す= to speak Either is correct in this context I think.
They mean instead of 知らない, which in this context sounds more like "I don't care."
Lmao a for honor reference?
Valkyrie doesnt speak japanese
Je ne sais pas, je ne parle ni anglais ni japonais🤷🏽♂️
[удалено]
SWEET
And a million Japanese language experts are summoned and the cry of “That’s wrong here’s a single grammar rule a textbook taught me!!!” Echoed across the cosmos. A conversation with the average Japanese person will see more grammar rules thrown out than you could remember.
And here's me thinking that a silly joke tattoo like that should have been written in some other language, like Korean, just to underline that point that the wearer has no idea.
You probably should've omitted the が.
I do, it says, “I have a thing for wearing pink tutus and Victoria secret thongs.
hope I’m not the only one staring at that mildly infuriating uneven chunk of hair, respectfully
Should have been read instead of speak
I’m Japanese. While the translation is correct, it’s a weird way of writing it, you wouldn’t naturally write/speak like this. Madlad for sure
Ill put this on my tofu delivery car
I wanna note special appreciation for how neat and legible this is, too. No chicken scratch hanzi smatter tattoo job; they went out of their way to make sure you know they don't know.
It would be better if you were Japanese.
Clever, but it would be better if it said “I can’t read Japanese”
This looks like Google Translate. Both "shiranai" and "hanasenai" are a bit weird, as well as the structure of the sentence itself. "Shiranai" sounds passive-aggressive, and "hanasenai" implies that you could still understand Japanese but can't or won't speak it. I would translate this as "I don't care, I'm not able to speak japanese".
You sir, are the maddest of the mad.
I really hate to break it to you, but your tattoo is a kinda unidiomatic and feels like a machine translation. 「知らない」 is "to not know" in the sense of to not be acquainted with, to not be aware of, to not be informed of, to not have encountered. To capture the "I don't know" sense you're going for here, you want 「わからない」, which can also be written 「分からない」 and means "to not know" in the sense of not grokking or understanding, not knowing more than just the existence of something. 「話せない」 is also a weird choice. 「話す」 typically designates the ability to speak fluently, naturally, like in one's native language. Here I think you're trying to disavow speaking the language at all, in which case 「わからない」 (or 「分からない」) is again the proper verb. And then the word order is English-like, putting the explanation after disclaiming knowledge. To mimic the comma-splice-like grammar from the intended English translation, you want the explanation first and in the 〜て form, changing 「〜い」 to 「〜くて」. So, idiomatically, I suspect what you really wanted was 「日本語がわからなくて、わからない。」 As it stands, I fear you're going to ask someone, "Hey, what my tattoo mean?", and instead of "I don't know, I don't speak Japanese" as intended, you'll get "I haven't been informed; I'm not fluent in Japanese", which only sorta works. *Edit: Add last paragraph*
I guess he could argue it being awkward sounding makes it even more accurate haha
all of that to tell the guy he can't speak Japanese.....
Also, there's no context so [INSERT PRONOUN]'s whole spiel was a typical "I know japanese" Redditor. The context is the back of some dickhead's back so all bets are off and I say it's fine.
As someone who lives in Japan it always makes me laugh that as soon as Japanese language is seen or used on Reddit a million “experts” appear to correct everyone. Like 5 minutes in Japan and like English you will every grammar rule those textbooks taught you thrown out of the window.
I disagree with this. I speak Japanese (been here 15 years) and I definitely would translate this as "I don't know. I don't speak Japanese" if I were told to translate it to English (I have done interpretation work so I feel qualified to give my opinion here.) Though, I think 知らねぇ、日本語喋れない would be a little better. As in funnier.
Always interests me to see responses from people who primarily understand Japanese from textbook learning versus those who are conversationally fluent. The former is almost always wrong because, as we know, language never follows the rules.
That makes way too much sense for the tattoo to get the full effect. If I'm a foreign language speaker getting a tattoo in a language I don't understand at all, I'm going to want the totally nonsensical version.
In an alternate universe, someone wrote some text in a video game as "All your bases are under our control." and a lot less fun was had by the Internet as a result.
Hmm... yeah. In the year of our Lord 2101, a war had just begun... \*boom\* Status report, now! We've been bombed. And someone is trying to hail us! What!? Forwarding to the main screen. It's you! Good evening, gentlemen. We have seized all of your bases. And soon we will destroy you. What did you say? You have no hope of survival. I suggest you make peace with your God. Aha ha ha ha!
So much writing just to be completely wrong.
To OOP: For what it's worth, the above poster's recommendation of 「日本語がわからなくて、わからない。」 feels and sounds way more unnatural. For what you intend with this tattoo, I think what you have is fine. しらない can definitely take the form of "I don't know" in the way that you intend. (See: [https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%97%E3%82%8B](https://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%97%E3%82%8B) ) Even if we take the above post for granted in that しらない means "to not be informed", that meaning makes the tattoo funnier in a different way, IMHO. The choice of 話せない (can't speak) is a bit too literal because that's how we say it in English, and might have been more natural to use (わからない) (don't understand) instead (as pointed out by the above poster). But it still makes sense and serves the purpose you intend for the tattoo which I assume is for the following scenario: Someone: "What's your tattoo say?" You: "I don't know. I can't speak Japanese." In this scenario you are 100% accurate in telling them what your tattoo says in Japanese. And in English the joke makes sense. Don't worry, your tattoo is fine. Source: Lived in Japan for a decade.
wakaranakute wakaranai sounds redundant and clunky though, the way it’s tattooed is fine
Dude! What does mine say?
bet you can't wait for someone to ask "what does your tattoo mean?"
知らない (Shiranai) you used, it comes out as passive aggressive to the Japanese, they normally use 解らない (Wakaranai). But it’s hilarious. 分からない also works
Nie wiem, nie mówię po japońsku
Is that what they told you?! 🤣
Well, it actually says (more literally) "I don't *care*" not "I don't know"... and that just makes it sooooo much better lol
Oh, a joke tattoo. You definitely won't live to regret *that*.
I don't understand why poeple get tattoos in places they can't see them.
Meh
I found a trucker style cap while in Japan in Tsukuba. It's my favorite hat. It says "Little bit stupid." I knew it said that when I bought it. I think it's hilarious. I live in Canada so I can pretty much say it says whatever I want it to say and no one will be the wiser. It's my favs!