I took a two week vacation to the States and I’m back now.   My infant son got to meet his paternal grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins for the first time.   Good times had by all.

I didn’t do any language study during my vacation, so I came home to a lot of due cards on Anki.  I just spaced through them all and gave them “2″s though to zero them out.

I learned a new Japanese word today.  It’s 人見知り (hito mishiri).  It means “being shy  or frightened around strangers”.  Our son had his 7th month checkup today and the clinic gave us a list of questions to answer about his behavior.  One of them asked if he had hito-mishiri yet or not.  Babies are usually pretty cool around strangers when they are very young.  But sometime after 6 months or so they can develop a fear of strangers and freak out if anyone other than mommy or daddy holds them.  It usually lasts through the toddler stage and often elementary school (and sometimes far beyond).  Our son doesn’t have 人見知り yet.

The word has two parts.  The 人 (hito) part means “person” and 見知り (mishiri) comes from a verb 見知る (mishiru) which means “to recognize” or “to know by sight”.  I dont know why “recognizing a person on sight” equals “fear of people”, but I think it’s a pretty cool word.  Do you have 人見知り?

Related posts:

1. Japanese and Swedish Peek-a-boo
2. Cool Japanese Word – 十字軍
3. How The Japanese Remember Months

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