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I have this phrase in my JLPT textbook, as one example of the use of `バカ`:

> 自分{じぶん}だけバカを見{み}る

The translation offered in the book is:

> Waste time and money among others

The English is both awkward and lacks context, so it doesn't help me
understand the Japanese at all. The only thing I gain from it is that my own
somewhat literal translation is almost certainly wrong. I would translate the
Japanese as something like "look only at oneself (to a ridiculous degree)".

Is this some kind of idiomatic usage? What exactly does it mean and why?
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2013-01-31T08:57:13.127
11097
2019-12-31T20:23:35.457
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question
grammar jlpt
What is a better translation for 「自分だけバカを見る」?
My dictionary records it as 慣用 (idiomatic). The two examples are:

> 1時間も待ってばかを見た｜I wasted a whole hour waiting for her.
>
> こんな古い家を買ってばかを見た｜I should have known better than to buy such an old house.

I have thought of it as close to もったいない or even "...I was a fool."
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2013-01-31T15:48:24.773
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2013-03-12T21:08:42.333
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
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answer
It is used when a person has some **expectation** of what the outcome of the
situation will be, but somehow the outcome has been **failed to meet** his/her
expectations in such a foolish way.

Using the examples that Tim has provided,

> I thought she is going to show up to meet me, but she didn't and I had
> waited for almost an hour now. I'm going home. Foolish of me to believe her.
> バカを見た。
>
> I thought this house was very cheap and rooms are very clean, but I didn't
> know that it has been 200 years old and underlying structure is very weak.
> It was foolish of me to buy this house. バカを見た。

Now 自分だけ implies that one has shared some expectations with a number of
people, and all of them except you had an expected outcome in the situation.

> At dinner, my boss said that the company is going to be in a good shape in a
> next few years so I made a plan of moving to a new apartment and buying a
> new car etc etc, only to find out that he was such a drunk when he said
> that, and nobody except me believed it nor expected such a salary raise. It
> was so foolish of me to believe him. 自分だけバカをみた。
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2013-01-31T22:35:51.050
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2019-12-31T20:23:35.457
2019-12-31T20:23:35.457
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answer