English night
The church ran an English night this evening (where “English” mean either “English-speaking” or “British”). We had tomato soup, cottage pie, and roast vegetables, followed by trifle, banoffee pie and carrot cake – this was our traditional British meal. We also played “re-construct Blackpool Tower in five minutes” with modelling clay and straws. The best part of the evening though was the quiz. I’ll finish with a few of John and David’s questions (note the distancing myself from any involvement):
- What is the first line of the British national anthem?
- a) God save our gracious queen
- b) God save the bodacious queen
- c) God watches Camberwick Green
- d) The Wombles of Wimbledon are wombling free
- On which side of the road do people drive in Britain?
- a) The right side
- b) The left side
- c) Both
- d) Whichever the horse decides
- What is the most popular dish in Britain?
- a) Roast beef
- b) Sushi
- c) Indian curry
- d) Natto
- Who is the captain of England’s football team?
- a) Johnny Wilkinson
- b) Brooklyn Beckham
- c) David Beckham
- d) Phil Mitchell
- What is this?
- a) A Scottish hunter
- b) A traditional musical instrument
- c) The King of Scotland
- d) A man squeezing a small animal
Answers on a postcard to “Matthew Weston, Aomori, Japan” – you never know, it might actually get through.
Matthew @ 13:45, June 15, 2006 to Miscellaneous | Comments (9)
Comments:
Sheepie
Given the Japanese fascination with Beckham 4 years ago, #4 should be easy…
Comment added at 21:18, June 15, 2006
Matthew
I’d forgotten that :)
Comment added at 01:48, June 16, 2006
Rory
I got “captain” confused with “coach” and got all muddled…
I don’t like it when people use “English” for “British”.
“Ah, yes, Scotland, that’s in the north of England, hmm?”
Drives me nuts.
Comment added at 11:24, June 16, 2006
Matthew
I don’t like it either, but the Japanese translations confuse things a bit for this country. I have been told to say I come from “Ingurisu” rather than “Ingurando”, as a lot of Japanese won’t know where Ingurando is but will understand Ingurisu. Or something. Anyway, you can see how similar the words for Britain and England (Ingurisu and Ingurando respecively) are, and where the confusion might come from in translating. (I think I’ve spelt the translation of Britain wrong actually.)
Comment added at 11:49, June 16, 2006
Penguin
So you did help make them up?
Comment added at 23:21, June 16, 2006
Rory
I thought Ingurisu was just the name of the language?
(Just ignore me, I know no Japanese.)
Comment added at 00:06, June 17, 2006
Matthew
Penguin: No. I’d just forgotten about the whole Beckham thing. So I said so.
Rory: My dictionary tells me the following.
So you can see that one of the names for a British person has its root in the English language. Hence the confusion on translation. (I always use “watashi wa igurisu no” which literally means “I, the topic of this sentence, belong to Britain.”) And as a linguistics person, I’m sure you recogise the relationship between k and g: in Japanese, they are the same character with almost a punctuation mark to say one is voiced and the other not, so they often replace each other in different words. For example, ć (ko) and ć (go).
Comment added at 02:24, June 17, 2006
john
It’s better to use “Watashi wa igirisujin desu” meaning I am a Brit. You can add jin to any country just like go to mean someone from that country. Or even area, like “tsugarujin”.
Comment added at 03:41, June 17, 2006
Matthew
I shall remember that. (I only knew igirisu before, not -jin.)
Comment added at 03:45, June 17, 2006
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