Funny CultureParenting

My Son Thought His Friend Was Going Abroad on Accumulated Karma

A fourth-grader mixed up "miles" and "karma" — and the internet ran with it.

· 3 min · Togetter

What's going on

Airline miles — the reward points you accumulate from flights to redeem for travel — are called マイル (mairu) in Japanese. Karma, the cosmic ledger of good and bad deeds across lifetimes, is カルマ (karuma). To a fourth-grader who's never flown, the two words are just similar enough to cause trouble.

A dad shared the moment his son came home and asked, with complete sincerity, whether their family had accumulated enough karma to go abroad that summer — because a friend at school had announced he was going overseas on his family's accumulated karma. The father's brain stalled for a second before realizing the friend had meant miles. He urged his son to go correct the record with his classmates first thing in the morning.

The thread that followed took the mix-up seriously — in the worst possible way. If karma is what's getting you on that plane, where exactly are you headed?

Comments

My fourth-grade son asked me, “Dad, have we not accumulated any karma?”

Me: “Come again?”

Son: “Karma.”

Me: “…”

Son: “My friend said his family’s going abroad this summer on their accumulated karma. He told everyone at school. So lucky~”

Me: “That’s probably miles, not karma — please go correct everyone first thing tomorrow morning!!!”

lmao
This is too funny 😂
pfft lol
Don’t worry, Dad’s been clearing the karma in advance ( ˙ω˙)و ｸﾞｯ!
It’s like purging the corruption gauge in pachinko slots (a mechanic in some slot machines where built-up “impurity” is periodically cleared for a payout) — except the payout is a vacation
Deep in karma (go — the Buddhist concept of accumulated sin or karmic debt)
Sounds like they’re shaping up to be quite a karmic household 😏
I’ve got plenty of karma (the sinful kind). More than I know what to do with.
I feel like my household has a pretty healthy karma stockpile
Wouldn’t having a lot of karma be… bad?
Everyone’s accumulating karma, one way or another
I guess you’d need to rack up some good deeds first
Wait what lol that’s the kind you’re NOT supposed to accumulate lol karma lol karmic debt lol!!
Karma does seem easier to accumulate than miles tbh lol
Going abroad on karma? That’s called exile.
Banishment to an island?
Forced deportation lol
Accumulate enough karma and you get deported — that’s a pretty dystopian country
Spending your accumulated karmic debt on a vacation…??
I wonder where you’d go with all that karmic debt
A trip funded by accumulated karma… If it’s good karma, sounds like an amazing vacation. If it’s bad karma, sounds like you’re not coming back.
By train, on karma! Oh wait, it’s a plane (^o^;)
The only trip you can take on karma is the cycle of reincarnation (in Buddhist belief, karmic debt determines your rebirth in the next life)
“The whole family, on karmic debt!!!” ⊂二二二(　^ω^)二⊃ブーン (the emoticon represents a small airplane)
Having karma stocked up would be a problem… can’t level up (Xanadu, a classic 1985 Falcom RPG, had a karma system where sinful acts raised your karma value and blocked you from leveling)
Thought they were heading for a bad ending — high karma leads to bad ends (Summon Night, a tactical RPG series, where karma points pushed you toward darker story routes)
Heard you can’t beat the game with low KARMA — smart to check! (Ultima, the classic CRPG series, had a Karma system where good deeds were required to complete the game)
“Going abroad on accumulated karma” — taken at face value, sounds like an advanced-level reincarnator

My take

I imagine we've all accumulated more than enough for a round-the-world trip — it's just that the only destination on offer seems to be hell.

Comments loosely translated for tone.

Source https://togetter.com/li/2703935