Put your clothes on the table?!?!?

Now we will study various meanings of the word "fuku". Why? Because today somebody earnestly tried to communicate something to me using this word and what resulted was a HUGE communication breakdown.

#1 Fuku - (noun) clothes
#2 Fuku - (noun) happiness
#3 Fuku - (verb) to wipe

So, the directions I received were along the lines of "teberu wo fuite kudasai" (or, "please wipe the table"). Should have been easy enough, eh? Unfortunately, no.

It is an unspoken rule here in Ikata that if Japanese is not your first language, Japanese people will inevitable speak to you in faster than normal Japanese. It also follows that they will use the most round-about way to construct a sentence, the goal being to use as many words as possible. I believe that extra points are earned when the words are particularly abstract, vague, or old-fashioned (but I'm not completely sure on that last point, I'm still learning the rules).

So this man at school tries to tell me something. Of course, his directions were delivered in the usual rambling way, accompanied with some strange gestures, and punctuated by two grunts (why are old Japanese men soooo freakin incomprehensible?). Caught off guard, I could only manage to gaze very stupidly back at him as he continued to speak at rapid fire speed. I heard the key words: "teberu"..."fuku"(dictionary form, tricky)..."teberu"..."fuku"..."teberu"..."fuku"... Amidst this verbal carnage I quickly surmised that I was being propositioned to take my clothes off and put them on the table. Only later, with dictionary in hand, did I realize my mistake.

Ah, but my original interpretation makes for a more interesting story, doesn't it?