It's hard to keep thinking of lesson topics for these daily lessons.

Luckily, Rei-chan is always helping me.

Yesterday, she said, "Why don't we write a lesson on other uses of ちょっと?"

Specifically, she was referring to a usage I'll introduce later in this lesson, but when she first suggested that, I was reminded of when I learned about ちょっと years ago in my Genki textbook:

"ちょっと literally means 'a little,' 'a bit,' 'a small amount,' as in ちょっとください (Please give me a little) and ちょっと待ってください (Please wait for a moment). It is commonly used for a polite refusal. In this case, it means "inconvenient," "impossible," and so on. Japanese people don't normally reject requests, suggestions, or invitations with いいえ (No), because it sounds too direct.

A：土曜日に映画を見ませんか。
どようび　に　えいが　を　みません　か。
Will you see a movie on Saturday?

B：土曜日は、ちょっと。
どようび　は、　ちょっと。
Saturday is not convenient.
(lit., Saturday is a little bit.)"

( ↑ That's from pg. 94 of Genki.)

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I love Genki, and the book was immeasurably helpful when I was a beginner.

But some of the lessons kind of bug me now that I'm at a higher level.

First, there is the fact that no one has ever asked me a question like this in my entire life. Yes, it's correct Japanese... I've just never heard it being used in Japan by Japanese people in exactly this way. Also, textbooks obsess over not using question marks after polite questions ending in か... yet another rule that seems to be ignored in most cases (except, for example, when writing a novel--uses I like to classify as "fancy-pants Japanese").

And then there are statements like, "Japanese people don't normally reject requests, suggestions, or invitations with いいえ (No), because it sounds too direct."

Isn't dropping a flat-out "No" to a suggestion a little too direct in most languages?

A: Hey, wanna go to the beach tomorrow?
B: No.

Person B sounds like a jerk... even if he's not Japanese.

Oh, dear. I'm getting sidetracked. Anyhow, the ちょっと part is good. People say that. Let's take a look at how it might show up in everyday, casual Japanese:

A：土曜日映画行こうよ。
どようび　えいが　いこう　よ。
Let's go to a movie on Saturday.
Literally: "Saturday + movie + let's go + よ."

B：土曜日はちょっとなぁ。
どようび　は　ちょっと　なぁ。
Saturday's tough for me.
Literally: "Saturday + は + a little bit + なぁ."

Now that ↑ is Japanese I've heard several times before.

Still, knowing the polite stuff is probably helpful. So let's not ignore it completely. ^_^

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Moving on...

When Rei was talking about other uses of ちょっと, she was initially talking about how it can mean something like "Hey!"

For example:

ちょっと〜！
Hey! (What do you think you're doing?!)
Note: For example, if I was eating at a restaurant with Rei, and then I reached over and stole a huge bite of her food without asking, she might say this.
Note #2: Intonation is important for this one. If you have a teacher or language exchange partner, maybe get them to say it for you. If not, you can also just wait until I compile audio for this set of lessons in a couple of months. ^_^

ちょっとやめてよ！
ちょっと　やめて　よ！
Hey, stop it!
Literally: "a little bit + stop + よ！"
Note: For example, if someone is poking your arm for three minutes straight, you can yell this at them.

ちょっと聞いてんの？
ちょっと　きいてん　の？
Hey, are you listening?
Literally: "a little bit + are listening + の？"

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In the next lesson, we'll look at a few more uses of ちょっと, as well.

Get excited.