whatsa happeninga hotstuff

I live with a cool Japanese exchange student named Misato. He's working to improve his English, which is already very good. But I'm finding that the experience is really helping me think carefully about my native tongue. It's also often quite funny (ha, ha and odd).

Tonight, as I grabbed my bag and got ready to head out to study, Misato asked me a simple question: "Are you going to class?"
I replied "What's up?," assuming that he needed to talk with me.
He looked at me with a confused expression and it slowly dawned on me that I'd used an idiomatic expression. I sought to clarify by asking "do you want to talk?"
Misato looked even more confused and asked "why?"
I replied "'What's up?' can mean 'how are you?' and I thought you might have wanted to talk, but I'm headed out (I just realized while typing this that I used another idiomatic expression) to study now."
He said "I thought 'what's up?' means 'what's happening?'"
I told him he was right, but that it was slang and also could mean that he was getting ready to talk to me.
We both laughed over it and then I proceeded to give him a lesson on slang derivations of the same phrase: What is up? --> What's up? --> 'Sup? --> 'Sup, yo?

That's when it got really funny. We high and low-fived each other, then did a secret handshake as we mimicked gangstas saying "'sup, yo." He pointed out that we sounded "like black musicians." (Sidebar: He likes rap.)

I gave Misato a quick "Later. I mean 'see you later' or 'late'" on my way out the door.

I had to tell someone about my latest "Lost in Translation" moment and stopped by Zach and Rhiannon's. Rhiannon said that she'd witnessed the whole handjive thing as she walked by a minute earlier, but figured we were busy and just kept walking. Then she suggested that I add "peace out" (along with the two-fingers to the eyebrow gesture) to the lesson and we all laughed.

I left with Zach. As we passed the kitchen window, I said "'sup, yo" to the roommate. And Zach yelled "later."

Misato laughed and so did we.

My roommate rocks.