What is wabaki?

Answer 1

They are slippers students and teachers must wear in Japanese classrooms at Japanese schools.

The above answer is incorrect. Simply because the word used in the question is incorrect. The slippers we wear in school in Japan are called "uwabaki", "上履き", also, they are not worn in all schools. We also wear them at home, and some companies have uwabaki for employees and visitors to wear while inside of the building. I think many people watched Tokyo Drift, and because they are not a native speaker of the Japanese language, they lack the "ear" for it. Many times, to a non-native Japanese language speaker, certain letters are said so abruptly or nearly silent that they are not heard. However, we Japanese hear those "silent" letters, such as the "u" in "uwabaki" where as a non-native speaker only hears "wabaki" and that is why the American student says "wabaki" and not "uwabaki" like the teacher in the classroom. However, if you listen very, very carefully, you may just hear it, as she repeats it multiple times, and the reason she does this is because he's not saying it correctly.