なるほど (naruhodo)

The title is a Japanese phrase that means something along the lines of a very drawn out, "Oh, so that's it."

Our story involves the Suzuki family:


Above, from left to right, Kanako, Etsuko, and Nozomi. That picture was taken last July, so the girls are each a year older now. I teach Etsuko, the mother, once a week, usually Friday evenings. She's fairly advanced, so we usually just read and talk about newspaper articles. Sam teaches Nozomi, who's in the third and final year of Japanese middle school this year (though she's the equivalent of an American 9th grader).

Earlier tonight, we were over at their house talking about the upcoming trip to the US (they're excited), when Kanako disappeared for about 20 minutes. She came back with her hair teased into a fairly intricate bun that made her look, shall we say, older (she's a seventh grader). Nozomi replied by saying (in Japanese), "You look like (some word Samantha and I couldn't understand)."

After Sam and I stood there looking confused, a light went on in Nozomi's head and she said, "夜の仕事". That transliterates as, yoru-no-shigoto, or "job of the night."

She called her sister a whore. We all laughed, even their mother.