カテゴリ:life

step lightly

ashidori karuku

One of my students used the phrase, "step lightly", which I hadn't heard before, and was struggling to understand how to use it in context. So, he was kind enough to give me a few of the following examples;
"Step lightly on the lawn." Hmmm, even if you try to walk lightly, surely your weight doesn't change, does it?
"I stepped lightly around my boss because he was in a bad mood." It seems the meaning of the phrase is not what I first thought.
"You step lightly when the ground is filled with landmines." Now I understood!

My literal translation of "step lightly" into Japanese was "ashidori karuku(足取り軽く)" which means "walk in a happy mood," like when we pass an exam, receive a compliment from our boss, or go for a skip on the lawn on a beautiful sunny day.
Sometimes the meaning of the direct translation from a student's language into Japanese differs a lot, and I find the differences so interesting.