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Today in Japanese we learned about giving verbs (next lesson will presumably be receiving verbs). There are, in all, 5 of them. In order to determine the correct verb to use, you must evaluate the relative closeness of both the giver and receiver to you in terms of how well you know them, as well as their relative social status. For example, if your teacher gave something to your classmate, it would be a totally different verb from if your classmate gave a gift to your mom. The book helpfully gives three large diagrams to explain this. All five of these verbs translate into "to give" in English. >.<

Other oddities:

"Sympathy present", 見舞い, combines the kanji for "to see" and for "to dance". As in, you give them the gift to see them dance. Maybe.

"unworthy" (or "boring"), 詰らない, means "not full" or "not filled", as in hollow, and it is customary to call any gift you give someone this, to be respectful.

"to be helped", 世話になる, literally translates to something more like "to become a burden".