Dear John

On Thursday in class some students were making up stories about what was happening in a picture in the textbook. In the picture, one man was reading a letter and looking very upset, and students were speculating about what the letter contained.

One of the students asked me how to say it was a letter from his girlfriend, breaking off the relationship. I explained, and then added,

"You could also call it a Dear John letter."

"Dear John letter?" said the student, looking puzzled.

"Yes. It means the same thing - a letter breaking off the relationship."

The student didn't believe me, or didn't get it, and looked it up in his dictionary. When he found the entry his eyes bugged and his jaw dropped. He looked at me, aghast.

"NO! No, Sensei! SHHH!" he said, glancing around the classroom. "Don't teach that! Don't tell us!"

He was clearly worried about what would happen if I taught this to the class. I asked to see the dictionary entry, but he hid it from me. He was looking very, very embarrassed.

"No! It's different! It's not what you mean! Shh! Terrible!"

Confused, I went back to my desk and looked it up in my own dictionary. I found two entries. One said Dear John and the other said Dear John (letter). I chose the second entry.

The Japanese entry had some kanji I didn't understand, so I had to look those up as well. (I love my electronic dictionary.) When I found the meaning I immediately understood why my student was so horrified and concerned at my attempt to teach this new expression. Here was a meaning of Dear John letter I had never come across before. The English/Japanese dictionary defined it as a letter sent to a lover breaking off the relationship AND explaining that the sender had given the recipient a sexually transmitted disease.

Where on earth did THAT come from? And how did it end up in one of the most authoritative bilingual dictionaries in Japan? I thanked the student for stopping me from making a fool of myself, and told him I was pretty sure the dictionary was wrong. I said I'd look it up. (The first entry, Dear John, is defined as I normally understand Dear John letter, weirdly.)

Last night I looked it up, and I can't find anything to justify the Japanese definition of Dear John letter. Does it make sense to anybody else?


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