執筆者 Modern English | 2012年06月28日 | Trivia
June 28 is Paul Bunyan Day. Paul Bunyan is an American folk tale. He was a giant lumberjack. They say he created the Grand Canyon with his axe. That’s how big he was. His pet was a giant blue ox named Babe. He carved Babe from a mountain so he wouldn’t be lonely....
執筆者 Modern English | 2012年06月14日 | Trivia
Baikingu: This is a katakana rendering of Viking. The Vikings were Scandinavian people of the 8-11th Centuries who raided and traded mainly in Europe, but also reached as far as Canada and North Africa. When referring to the Japanese バイキング native English speakers...
執筆者 Modern English | 2012年06月07日 | Trivia
“Why was six afraid of seven?” “I don’t know, why?” “Because seven ate nine!” This is a very old joke. The number “eight” sounds like the word “ate”. If you count from seven to nine, it sounds like the number seven has eaten the number nine. In this joke, the numbers...
執筆者 Modern English | 2012年05月31日 | Trivia
“See you later, alligator!” “After a while, crocodile!” Alligators and crocodiles are both called “wani” in Japanese. Alligators live in the U.S. and China, while crocodiles live all over the world. One way to tell them apart is to look at their noses. An alligator’s...
執筆者 Modern English | 2012年05月24日 | カテゴリーなし
How many years are there in a decade? There are ten! The “dec” part of the word means “ten”. You can find it in other words such as “decimal” and “decimetre” (one tenth of a metre). How many years in a century? One hundred! “Cent” means one hundred. There are one...
