I hear this sound frequently in Japan:
It loosely translates to “oh, really?”, “I am so suprised!”, “are you for real?” or “you have got to be fucking kidding me!”
I hear the utterance often when new acquaintances learn that I am left-handed. Or when they discover that I can use chop-sticks. Or when they realize that I can use chop-sticks with my left hand.
Other times when “Ehhh?” comes up:
- Celebrity guests on a Japanese TV show learn that the rice cakes they are sampling were made from scratch.
- I tell a friend that I ride my bike two to kilometers work.
- A well-travelled, teacher friend learns that the majority of Jews in America do not look like Hasidic rabbis. An even louder “ehhhhhh?” was verbalized when I revealed that Steven Spielberg was in fact Jewish.
- Celebrity guests on a Japanese TV show watch footage of other celebrities finding a picturesque waterfall during a well-planned hike.
- I inform my students that Minnesota temperatures can go below freezing in the winter.
- I tell a coworker that class had gone well that day.
- Celebrity guests on a Japanese TV show are shown footage of a pug wearing a miniature, pug-sized t-shirt.
I want the ehhh to be followed with …”Ruh ro Raggy, roob need a rooby rack”… or the sound of choking on a chicken bone.
Elyse, is that Scooby Doo?
Four star crack-up thoughout this one.
Thanks Stacia, the sound is quite abrasive. I sometimes hear it in my dreams.
Thank you for putting a humorous spin on this…I started to turn off Japanese television, particularly the amazing animal facts shows after hearing ehh one thousand times or when the cooking shows revealed the dish to an audience of dumfounded ‘ehhs?’…
I think the sound is very similar to the ‘uehh’ at the end of the Home Improvement intro.
Thanks for saying thanks, Thoroughly. I too took a break from Japanese television because of ‘ehh.’ Since I don’t speak Japanese, the ‘ehh?’ is the only thing that stood out from the drone of celebrity chatter.
It does sound a lot like the Home Improvement ‘uehh’ but less dumbfounded and more shrieky – like an easily startled child with the voice of a car alarm.