Today's word: やばい (yabai)
Meaning: crap, lame, this sucks
Probably everyone in Japan already knows this one. やばい isn't quite as strong as 災厄--the former tends to be muttered under one's breath, while the latter is screamed and accompanied by wildly dramatic gestures. やばい is used when you forget your evaluation sheet for a speaking test or get so pumped for the test that you slam your textbook down on the teacher's desk and knock over all the evaluation sheets*, and figures heavily (along with 無理, "impossible") in the students' pre-test mumblings. Like many い-adjectives, the ending frequently morphs to create the even slangier やべ.
Example sentence: 教科書見ないで？やべ！ぜんぜん無理です！
*This happened yesterday and I couldn't stop laughing at the poor kid. Despite his pre-test nerves, he got a perfect score.
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