The Most Common Japanese Expressions - Heeee
heeee (I don’t believe it!)
Japanese language features quite a few interjections used to express surprise, including majide?, uso!, honto? and ariehen! These can be equated with English expressions such as ‘really?’, ‘I don’t believe it!’, ‘no way!’, ‘get outta here!’ etc.
One such interjection often heard in Japanese conversation is heeee / hēē / he～ (へえええ), which is pronounced ‘hair’ but can be elongated to express greater surprise. The length this phonetic phenomenon is sometimes drawn out to makes it an unusual sounding interjection to non-Japanese, especially when uttered simultaneously during a group conversation.
heeee also bears the distinction of having the premise of a TV show, Trivia no Izumi (トリビアの泉=Spring of Trivia), constructed around it. Panellists are shown a video clip of a surprising piece of trivia and have to express their astonishment by hitting their hē-botan (’hē’ button), a buzzer which makes a heeee sound. The Trivia no Izumi video clip above reveals that Cinderella was a murderer* and shows the panellists reaction to this startling revelation.
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*A transcription and English translation of the Cinderella story featured in the clip can be found on Japanese Meetup, from where I poached the idea of using the clip in this context.
July 7th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
I totally noticed this when I was living in Japan, particularly among middle-aged women. It really freaked me out the first couple times I heard it.
July 21st, 2009 at 7:07 am
Haha it sounds really funny now that i hear it! I love it how they pronounce Cinderella
November 15th, 2009 at 4:33 am
Little longer than heeee, it is an unusual expression for most of the foreigners, but once they used to the Japanese way of living, they also tend to utter these heeeee.
There are many expressions like this in Japanese language, which may seem funny to foreigners, but are essential to the daily living in Japan.