学生：先生、悪いのは相手の方ですよ。狭い道からいきなり飛びだして来たんですから。
先生：始めから喧嘩腰（ごし）は良くないね。それに相手は怪我をしているのでしょう？ まず、見舞いに行ったら？
Kenka-goshi
Gakusei: Sensei, warui no wa aite no hoo desu yo. Semai michi kara ikinari tobidashite feita'n desu kara.
Sensei: Hajime kara kenka-goshi wa yoku nai ne. Sore ni aite wa kega wo shite iru no deshoo? Mazu, mimai ni ittara?
Student: Professor, it was the other guy's fault. He suddenly darted out in front of me from a narrow side street.
Professor: What's with this aggressive attitude? He's banged up and in the hospital, isn't he? The first thing you ought to do is go and visit him.
* * *
Kenka-goshi refers to a defiant or aggressive attitude, a chip on one's shoulder. Other idioms where koshi (one's bottom, backside) means attitude are:
koshi ga hikui (to be modest, unassuming), koshi ga takai (to be haughty, proud), koshi wooru (to take the wind out of someone's sails). I expect these idioms arose because bowing is such an important part of Japanese culture.
It's springtime and cars sporting the green and yellow beginner's mark are in abundance around our university. The way beginners suddenly stop or turn without signaling, it's no wonder more accidents occur at this time than at any other time of the year.
In most accidents both sides are usually at fault.
Since the student above was a novice driver, I'm sure this was the case in his accident as well. With the car his father just bought him a wreck, he was more than a little upset when we talked. Aite ni taishite, kenka-goshi no taido wo torimashita (He had assumed a defiant attitude toward the other person).
My heart, however, really went out to the other boy involved in the accident. On top of having his car totaled, his right leg was broken in about six places. He was just 20 years old and employed in a small company. The student told me that when he went to the hospital to visit him, the boy said that he had been really surprised at the student's defiant attitude (gakusei san ni kenka-goshi de korarete bikkurishita)
when he (the boy) had apologized. The fees for the hospital alone will come to \2 million. He won't be able to work for about three months and it's doubtful his small company will be able to pay him a salary during that time.
I cautioned the student that it wasn't a good idea to take such a defiant attitude toward what happened (kono koto ni taishite, kenka-goshi ni naranai hoo ga ii). Afterall, the student's car only had liability insurance coverage. The most the insurance company would pay was about \1,200,000. In other words, without any voluntary insurance coverage, if it turns out he is to blame, who will pay the injured boy's bills? Perhaps it's only natural for him to feel hostile (Kare ga kenka-goshi ni naru no mo toozen kamo shirenai), to feel that, afterall, he hadn't done anything wrong. If only he'd decided to commute to school by bicycle instead of by car....