A couple weeks ago I was leaving school. My supervisor’s homeroom was responsible for cleaning the downstairs hallway and the principal’s room that day (the kids clean the entire school every day after classes finish), through which I must go in order to exit school. A few of them saw me, yelled my name, and then stood around me in a circle all talking at once. Every time a kid came out of the principal’s room, it was, JESSIE!, and the circle got bigger. There were about fifteen chattering ichinensei girls by the end.
Then, one of them says, Jessie, new Japanese word!
New Japanese word?
She continued. Do you know ‘tehepero’?
Tehepero?
Ahhhhhhahhhh, kawaii! Yes, yes, she said. Do you know?
I had never heard this word before. What does it mean. I asked.
They all looked at each other. Hmmm. It means…
She put her hand against the side of her head, tilted her head, and made a high-pitched, anime character-like squeak. Eh-heh.
I blink my eyes.
They repeated the gesture. It means, Eh-heh.
Eh-heh? I asked, and tilted my head in like fashion.
Ahhhhhahhhhh, kawaii!
I roll my eyes. Okay, girls, what does – tilt head, Eh-heh – mean?
They all look confusedly at each other again. Hmmm. It means…Very Shy!
Very Shy?
Yes, yes, they say.
I blink my eyes again.
Eh-heh – repeated gesture – means very shy?
Ahhhhhhahhhh, kawaii! Yes, yes. Very Shy! New Japanese word!
Uh, okay, girls. I’ll see you tomorrow.
Exit Scene.
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Next Day, after class, different classroom with different group of girls.
Two other ichinenseis, whom I swear had not been there the day before, come running up to me after class.
Jessie, Jessie! Do you know tehepero?
Yes, I do! It means – tilts head, Eh-heh – very shy.
Ahhhhhahhhhhh, kawaii! Yes, yes!
They run away giggling.
My JTE looks at me and says she has never heard that word before.
That’s because I'm pretty sure they made it up.
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UPDATE: I have since done some re-con about this word. It, apparently, is a real word, but I was told by a seventeen year old boy that it is a word only fifteen year old girls use. Eh-heh.
