【No. 1359】How to Wear Trousers
I heard that most Westerners pass both their legs through trousers at the same time while sitting on a bed or something.
On the other hand, most Japanese people wear trousers from their left leg while standing on one foot.
It is said that this custom comes from the fashion of samurai.
Samurai wore hakama (袴 - culottes-like Japanese garment), but it was difficult to wear hakama due to the long hems.
Because of this, samurai came to wear hakama while standing on one foot so that they can face enemies rapidly even when they are changing the garment.
欧米人は、ベッドなどに腰を掛け、両足を同時にズボンに通す人が多いと聞きました。
一方で日本人の多くは、片足立ちになって左足からズボンを履きます。
これは、武士の作法からきているそうです。
武士が身につけていた袴は裾が長く、履きづらいものでした。
そのため武士は、着替えの最中に敵に襲われてもすぐ対応できるよう、片足立ちで袴を履くようになったそうです。
Corrections (3)
I think that rumor is false, at least for the US lol. We also put our pants on one leg at a time. In fact, it’s a proverb that means “everyone is the same, don’t worry.”
He/She puts their pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else. (Don’t worry they’re not gods who are perfect).
Thank you for the comment!
I frankly believed the Internet articles and books, but it was dangerous.
- How to Wear Trousers
- How Different Cultures Put Pants On
- I heard that most Westerners pass both their legs through trousers at the same time while sitting on a bed or something.
- I heard that most Westerners pull pants onto both legs at the same time while sitting on a bed or something else.
- On the other hand, most Japanese people wear trousers from their left leg while standing on one foot.
- By comparison, most Japanese people pull pants on from one leg while standing on the other one.
- It is said that this custom comes from the fashion of samurai.
- Rumor has it that this custom comes from the time of the samurai.
- Samurai wore hakama (袴 - culottes-like Japanese garment), but it was difficult to wear hakama due to the long hems.
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Samurai wore a special kind of pants called hakama (袴 - somewhat like baggy pants that were tight around the ankle or knee), but it was difficult to put on hakama due to the long hems.
Hardly any English speakers will know the word "culottes"
- Because of this, samurai came to wear hakama while standing on one foot so that they can face enemies rapidly even when they are changing the garment.
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Because of this, samurai started putting on hakama while standing on one foot so that they could quickly face any assassins or enemies, even when they were getting their pants on.
This last part may seem like somewhat of a stretch -- as most people would not expect the samurai to be attacked suddenly in the night. It might make sense to write a sentence about this prior to this one, so people are more likely to believe the threat was real.
Nice overall -- I made suggestions on how to make this sound like more natural American-English.
よろしくお願いします。
Thank you so much for the corrections and explanations! (^^)
- How to Wear Trousers
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How to put on trousers
To "put on" an item of clothing is to go from the state of not having it on one's body to the state of having it on one's body.
To "wear" an item of clothing is to continue to have it on one's body after one has already put it on.
The Japanese verbs having to do with this, such as 履く、着る and 被る can all be used for both meanings, but in English, "put on" and "wear" cannot be substituted for each other; they describe different actions.
- I heard that most Westerners pass both their legs through trousers at the same time while sitting on a bed or something.
-
I heard that most Westerners pass both their legs through trousers at the same time while sitting on a bed or something.
I doubt that this is true.
- On the other hand, most Japanese people wear trousers from their left leg while standing on one foot.
- On the other hand, most Japanese people put trousers on their left leg first, while standing on one foot.
- It is said that this custom comes from the fashion of samurai.
- It is said that this custom comes from the customs/practices of samurai.
- Samurai wore hakama (袴 - culottes-like Japanese garment), but it was difficult to wear hakama due to the long hems.
- Samurai wore hakama (袴 - culottes-like Japanese garment), but it was difficult to put on hakama due to the long hems.
- Because of this, samurai came to wear hakama while standing on one foot so that they can face enemies rapidly even when they are changing the garment.
- Because of this, samurai came to put on hakama while standing on one foot so that they could face enemies rapidly even when they are changing their clothes/garments.
This story sounds very unlikely to me. I would guess that it was invented long after there were no longer any samurai, perhaps as a way to make little boys feel important while they learned to dress themselves.
Thank you so much for correcting me!
I learned something new. :)
As you said, my information sources might have been wrong. I'd like to be more careful.