<< Previous: Weather (or not)
>> Next: We're no longer called Sonic Death Monkey

April 27, 2001

Parlez-vous London?

When reporting on how naive the average Japanese youth is when it comes to matters of global geography, I have a fairly helpful rule of thumb. It's okay to take the piss if the Japanese themselves would clearly agree - which is why I have no problem with mentioning the following excerpt from tonight's TV, a panel show exploring "Japanese people's general knowledge". If it's got Beat Takeshi in a white coat presenting it, it must be scientifically rigorous. That's how things work over here.

A twenty-year-old and her boyfriend are stopped in the street. She is asked, for the benefit of the studio panel, if she'd like to travel abroad and, if so, where she'd like to go. "Disneyland", she answers. Hmm. Next question: "Which country is Disneyland in?" Answer: "The United States of America." No problems so far, apart from the rather obvious one of taste.

Next she is given a map of the world and asked to mark America on it with a pen. "Um... it's very big, isn't it?" She draws a big ring around the entirety of North America, thereby granting US citizenship to an extra 30 million Canadians, 100 million Mexicans, and numerous residents of the Caribbean. Big it may be, but not that big. "Where is Canada, then?" asks her interviewer. "Um, over here somewhere...?" She indicates Siberia, so I guess she could have been further off the mark.

Next, a nineteen-year-old is asked where in the world she'd like to travel. "I hear London and Paris are very beautiful, so I'd like to visit them someday" she replies. Promising. At least she didn't say Disneyland. Again the map - can she correctly pinpoint the two cities?

Can she buggery. Paris is "pinpointed" as being on the southern coast of Ireland. Mind you, at least the continent was correct. No such luck for London, which is summarily re-located to Nova Scotia. The interviewer asks which country London is in. "Er... France?" I bet the Quebecois would be delighted to hear that Canada's newest city of seven million is full of French speakers, but I rather think Ken Livingstone (the Mayor of London) would have something to say about it.

As long as they put London back before I finally head back to the UK, that's all...

Posted by chris at April 27, 2001 12:35 AM | Permalink

• Cinema [8]
• Clubbing [20]
• Culture [3]
• Design [8]
• Fictionsuits [10]
• Fun stuff [64]
• Gaming [18]
• General [155]
• Japlish [26]
• Kanji SITE [9]
• Literature [7]
• Music [17]
• New York [18]
• Only in Japan [56]
• Out and about [21]
• Politics [12]
• Rants [26]
• Tech [26]
• Urbanism [1]
• Web [39]
• World Cup [16]
• 日本語 [3]

• April 2006
• March 2006
• February 2006
• January 2006
• November 2005
• October 2005
• September 2005
• October 2002
• August 2002
• July 2002
• June 2002
• May 2002
• April 2002
• March 2002
• February 2002
• January 2002
• December 2001
• November 2001
• October 2001
• September 2001
• August 2001
• July 2001
• June 2001
• May 2001
• April 2001
• March 2001

• Ninja Tune Zen TV II Timetable up
• Assorted linkery for April 1st (no, really)
• Byte Size 060401 at Bar Aoyama
• Sony to Ditch UMD Movies?
• Assorted linkery for March 27th
• Spanking size-case
• May the Telnet be with you... always
• Heehee heehee heehee heehee heehee heehee heehee
• Star spotting
• Ninja Tune "Zen TV II" night at Ageha, April 7th

Syndicate this site (XML)

Home

Blog
About
Gallery [at flickr.com]
Glossary

Away

The Kanji SITE

Nihon:go

rikai.com
Jeffrey's J-E Dictionary
Moji (Firefox plug-in)
WWWJDIC
Babel Fish Translation

Disperse peacefully

[blogs:]
an englishman in osaka
antipixel
arakawa riverview
blackbeltjones
boing boing
bwg
easterwood.org
geisha asobi
gen kanai
gizmodo
gladwell.com
hanzi smatter
joi ito
kotaku
kottke.org
lifehacker
linkmachinego
melissa havergal
metroblogging tokyo
ninja polymath blues
plasticbag.org
sushi zume
tokyo times
undercover in japan
[not blogs:]
tokyo clubs info
tokyo food page
tokyo art beat
pingmag
superfuture tokyo
kakaku.com
tokyo train routefinder
tokyoplastic
yugop.com
the japan times
japan today
waiwai
[webring:]

Flash design by

hoohacorporation
[disable Flash banner?]

Hosted by

DreamHost

Powered by

Movable Type 3.2