留学生：佐々木先生、この着物5万円ですか。私、買います。
佐々木：エミ、早とちりしないでね。この着物は50万円ですよ。
Hayatochiri suru
(Kimono no tenrankai de)
Ryuugakusei: Sasaki-sensei, kono kimono go-man en desu ka. Watashi, kaimasu.
Sasaki: Emi, hayatochiri shinaide ne. Kono kimono wa go-juu-man en desu yo.
(At a kimono exhibition)
Foreign student: Professor Sasaki, is this kimono \50,000? I think I'll buy it.
Sasaki: Hold on a minute, Emi. I think you've got the wrong idea. It's actually \500,000.
Hayatochiri suru means to jump to the wrong conclusion.
Recently I took some of my students to a rather unusual kimono exhibition. In most people's minds, the kimono tends to be associated with images of tradition and antiquity; but the show we saw turned out to be a dramatically modern affair. At first we were plunged into total darkness and the room was filled with the sound of synthesized music. Then, under a bright spotlight, the mod1 els came dancing out in their kimonos. It was just like being in a disco. Afterward there was a display of kimonos for sale.
The kimonos had looked very nice on the models, and soon one of my Australian students was holding one of them up in front of the mirror to see how itwould look on her. I told her, "It really suits you," and so she had a look at the price tag. "I think I'm going to buy it," she declared.
I was sure there was no wav she could afford it, and when I looked at the price tag myself I could see it was more expensive than she realized - in fact, 10 times more expensive: she had misread the number of zeros. Kanojo wa itsumo haya- tochiri wo shite shippai suru. (She always goes off half-cooked and gets mixed up.) Just a short while before, she had apparently opened the door to the models' dressing room, thinking that it was the toilet. Yet when I told her, Hayatochiri bakari suru no de, shinpai de shikata ga arimasen yo. (I can't help worrying about you, the way you're always rushing ahead of yourself.), her reply was, Watashi wa tashikani haya-tochiri wo shimasu ga, inochi ni betsujoo wa arimasen kara, shin- pai shinai de kudasai. (Don't worry about me. I know I'm a bit overhasty, but it's hardly a matter of life and death.)
I get the feeling, however, that one of these days something really serious is going to happen to her. So I still say, Hayatochiri shite shippai shinai yoo ni, yoku kangaete koodoo shite kudasai ne. (Try to slow down and think before you jump to the wrong conclusion and get yourself in a muddle. )