That’s so Doji

July 9, 2008 on 3:43 pm | In Culture, Language, Society | | Email This Post

Here’s a fun Japanese phrase I just learned…

ドジを踏む (doji wo fumu)

It means to make a blunder or a goof.

An example sentence in something that came up in a document I was translating was さまざまなドジをふむ私を助けてくれて As in, “I always make so many blunders but you helped me out.”

ドジ DOJI. Great word. Love that sound.

Another use of DOJI that I noticed while googling around is this, ドジっ娘 from Wikipedia, (pronounced, dojikko) that is from Japanese Otaku culture. The phrase dojikko refers to a girl who repeatedly fails, in a cute way that you just can’t hate, at general activities such as house chores, sports, or other random physical activity.

Examples of typical blunders that a ドジっ娘 from a Manga might make include… slipping and falling down stairs, tipping over a mug of coffee, falling off the roadside, or breaking plates while working a waitress job. (Weird examples, but I”m not making this up.)

An example of a manga character who fits this ドジっ娘 character that is mentioned in the Wiki article is Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon.

Wow. Too many Manga references, I’m out of my league! Does anyone know any other manga characters that are probably ドジっ娘?

DOJI sounds like “clumsy” to me. But my dictionary swears that it is a “goof” or “gaffe”, as well as other terms that are so old-school they’re not worth mentioning, like, “a howler”.

- Harvey

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4 Comments »

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  1. Gravatar

    First of all, congratulation on your blog, i read it often but i’v never made a post before, but this time I just had to.

    “Does anyone know any other manga characters that are probably ドジっ娘? ”

    Definitely, Tenma Tsukamoto from School Rumble. Perfect match to the description :P

    Comment by Peter — July 9, 2008 #

  2. Gravatar

    Hey glad you commented Peter!

    The Wikipedia article also mentions…

    エースをねらえ!の岡ひろみや
    (this anime http://www.google.com/search?q=%E3%82%A8%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E3%82%92%E3%81%AD%E3%82%89%E3%81%88&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a)

    “Go for an ace!” - Character: Okuda Hiromi

    Not sure of the official manga translation, but that’s what the direct translation is!

    Comment by harvey — July 9, 2008 #

  3. Gravatar

    I agree with you on the clumsy thing. A song that I liked maybe 6 or 7 years ago had a line 張り切った日
    ヒール履いて大ドジ, so I always took that to mean she was clumsy because she was wearing heels. But I could be wrong.

    Comment by Bri — July 9, 2008 #

  4. Gravatar

    lol, tsukino usagi from ’sailormoon’ sounds like a sensible candidate for a doji. other characters (regardless of the gender part of your definition) might include nana in the manga/anime/movies ‘NANA’, the lead girl from ‘fruits basket’; ‘zettai kareshi’’s heroine, the little leading dude from ‘yakitake!! japan’, etc. i know there are tonnes more but nothing else comes to mind right now…

    i’ve read/watched too many japanese manga or their adaptations so i’ve forgotten a lot of their character names, sorry… -_-;; the pattern usually goes that girls tend to be more ‘doji’ish than guys tho, especially in teen shoujo manga, hehe~

    thanks for adding another vocab into my life. i think im pretty ‘doji’ myself, tho i’m not sure if i can describe my clumsiness/goofiness as anything remotely cute, haha~ XD

    genki ne~

    Comment by zaty — July 10, 2008 #

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