Biting Off More Than One Can Chew

It seems to me that here in Japan, the food, if it is cut before serving, is always just a little bit larger than bite-size.

When I first came to Japan I thought the servings looked too small but after I while I found out that the serving sizes were just right, especially for one interested in staying healthy. I then began to wonder at the huge servings that I used to get in the United States and soon began to realize why there are so many overweight Americans. I was a little overweight myself.

Now, mostly due to the delicious and healthy cooking of my wife, I feel healthier than I have in ten years. Of course, I have started exercising, but before that, after almost two years on a low fat, low sugar, high fiber diet, I feel better than ever before. For two years I didn't catch a cold! Before my wife started cooking for me, when I was "cooking" for myself, I was sick all the time. It wasn't until I started visiting middle schools and elementary schools that I started catching colds again. So far, about once a month I have been catching a cold but I have been able to shake them off in less than a week. (It seems I always catch a cold after visiting one school in particular.)

Getting back to biting off more than one can chew, Japanese people, in particular, Japanese men, often take very large bites of food. Sushi (sticky rice eaten with raw fish) is prepared in "bite sizes" that are more than a mouthful. I usually eat them in two bites, which is not very easy because after you bite into one kan of sushi (they are counted by "kan") it crumbles. You really need to eat it in one bite. It is just so much of a mouthful for me.

As, the purpose of this Howdy English "blog" is to write on things in English related to Japan, the USA, international relations and from time to time, English, I will introduce a related expression that got me off on this tangent in the first place.

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Now, to introduce the English expresion: Bite off more than one can chew.

Let's look at the individual words:

• bite =(動詞） 噛む（かむ）
• bite off = かみ切る, 食い取る;
• more than = ～よりも、I have more apples than you. (私はあなたよりも多くりんごを持っている）
• one = 一なのですが,この場合は「一般的に人」または「あなた」
• chew = (動詞）〈食べ物を〉かむ
• can = できる

Biteのほうが噛み切るという意味で、chewは噛み切った食べ物を口の中でかむということ。

ではBiting off more than one can chewの意味は大体理解できますか。直訳すると「（口の中で）かむことさえ出来ないほど多くかみ切る。」という意味になります。これはそのままの意味でも使えますが、慣用としての意味は「手に余ること[大仕事]をもくろむ[に手を出す].」（『新和英中辞典 第4版』）。たとえば、

I think he's biting off more than he can chew with this project.
彼はこのプロジェクトで手に余ることをもくろんでいるのではないかと思います。
Don't bite off more than you can chew.
手に余ることをもくろまないほうが良いですよ。

Book Covers

Can you tell a book by its cover?

The other day I went to a class for couples that intend to have the father present at the birth with my wife. This is called tachiai shussan in Japanese. The mid-wife who was leading the class looked over at me hesitantly and asked if I could understand Japanese. I replied in the affirmative and, relieved, she continued with the class.


During the class the mid-wife taught us about breathing and how to cope with the pain and about how the father can help with massage and by encouraging and leading the mother through proper breathing. After the class we were treated to a tour of the birthing facilities and she told us about the general methods of the hospital like mother-baby rooming in, kangaroo care, and other things. She showed us that room I saw on TV and in movies were all the babies are put in plastic boxes on display. Of course, there were no babies because all the babies were rooming in with their mothers. Learning all this really put my wife and I at ease because this is just what we wanted.

At some other hospitals here in this same area the father is not allowed to be present at the birth, only allowed to be present at one of the check-ups and the babies do not room-in with the mothers. I feel very fortunate to be where we are. We didn’t know anything about the hospital’s policies before we decided to go there. It was just the most convenient hospital at the time and the same hospital where my wife’s sister gave birth to her last baby.

Later on that day I went to a doctor myself. The receptionist looked at me and asked, “Can you read?” I said “yes”, and filled out the questionnaire and waited my turn. Then I began to think about something that hasn’t bothered me in a long time. I am often asked if I can understand Japanese or read the Chinese characters used in Japanese when I am using city services, shopping or doing something else that requires me to interact with a Japanese where verbal communication and or reading or writing are concerned. Several years ago this bothered me. “Why don’t you just treat me like a normal human being!?!?” I thought to myself in frustration. Eventually I began to think of it in a different way that allowed me to ease my frustration. I began to realize and accept that there are many reasons why this happens. Of course the most obvious is that when a Japanese person looks at my face he or she assumes that I am not Japanese and therefore may not be able to speak, read or write Japanese. Japan went through hundreds of year of isolation from the outside world and the residents of her neighbors, when naked and shaved, look just the same as her own. While I was interacting with the receptionist I started to wonder how a person who was born and raised in Japan, who was Japanese, but who looked like I do, would feel being asked this same question all the time all of his life? When I was called in to the doctor’s office the doctor asked me “Can you understand Japanese?” and I said “yes.” Regardless of this short exchange the doctor tried to speak to me in English. I could understand his English but I could understand his Japanese much better. I don’t mind chatting in English but when something is important, like when I am speaking with the doctor, I want to understand him the best I can and I want him to understand me the best he can. If he is not capable of speaking English well, then some of the energy that he should be putting into helping me is being wasted as he struggles to speak English. I don’t know, perhaps I’m just touchy right now.