What time? or when ? on twitter.
<Is Japanese really difficult? (Part.48)>
I came across an interesting Japanese word "何時" on a website.
The website explains someone's twitter post.
This is the dialogue.
A: 沖縄行かない?
B: あり。何時？
Something felt wrong about the word "何時" because A suggested a trip to Okinawa and B answered "great! what time should we meet up?"
I wondered why B didn't ask what day they are going before asking at what time they should rendezvous.
In this case, Japanese people would say "いつ?" instead of 何時?(なんじ?).
Many readers also thought the Kanji meant "what time should we meet up?".
Actually, B says "when will you be going?".
It can be pronounced as either "なんじ" or "いつ", but most people don't use kanji when asking "いつ", so that can be confusing.
For your information.
When we want to write "なんじ", adults use Kanji.
