(Look closely at this picture... I'll tell you all about it in a minute!)
I'm not sure why I started this blogging thing... I'm usually such a quiet guy... nothing to add to a conversation... shy... OK, OK! I'm just either lazy, or busy, or I guess I don't have anything important to say!
Thanks for visiting my blog... my daughter told me about a funny website that her teacher pointed out to her.
Now, I don't know if you've seen my pic, but if you have you know that I'm not Scandinavian in background (not that there's anything wrong with that)! As a matter of fact, both my parents are Japanese... my dad's parents came from Japan, which makes me third generation Japanese (or Sansei).
(from Wikepedia)
Generations
Japanese-Americans have special names for each of its generations in the United States. The first generation born in Japan or Okinawa, is called Issei. The second generation is Nisei, third is Sansei, fourth is Yonsei and fifth is Gosei. The term Nikkei was coined by Japanese-American sociologists and encompasses the entire population across generations.
Pretty cool, huh?
Anyway, my dad's family was in a relocation center during WWII, and after the war, my dad went to Japan as an interpreter for the U.S. Army, where he met my mom and convinced her to come to the U.S and get married. So, that makes me Nisei from her... no wonder why I'm so confused!
ANYWAY, back to my daughter (who is either Sansei or Yonsei!)... she showed me this website called "Engrish.com"... now, I know some of you might be offended by this, but personally, I think it's a riot! I don't feel like this site is mean spirited in any way... it just points out the peculiarities of translating English to Japanese, and vice versa. (I think we're getting much to "PC" nowadays anyway, don't you?)
I sold electronics for many years, and I remember a Mitsubishi VCR with a wireless remote. The directions on the back of the remote said something like "To Record, pless Red Button." I loved it!
As a matter of fact, my own mother, who has lived here and in Canada for over 55 years, still gets her English a little mixed up.
Back when my kids were little, my wife and I had moved into a new house... first single home dwelling... I know many of you remember that move from your last apartment to your first house... it's a BIG deal!
So my mom came to visit, and my grandma, my dad's mom, came to visit from California. Now, if you've ever been to CA, you know that they have Lucky's, a big grocery store chain. Well, my uncle had worked for Lucky’s for many years. We started talking about my uncle and my mom said, “Oh, so he still works for Rucky’s?” and my grandma (88 years old at the time… she’ll be 103 this November! Go, Grandma!) said, without skipping a beat, “It’s Lucky’s, not Rucky’s!"
During that same visit, my wife was trying to take a nap on the couch, but still awake, and my daughter was in a high chair, watching my mom make dinner.
My daughter said, “What are you doing, Grandma?”
Grandma said, “Oh… I’m just chopping cerry (celery).”
My daughter said, “What?”
Grandma: “Cerry.”
“What?”
"Cerry!”
My wife said she was almost crying, trying to keep from laughing out loud!
Finally, after one more “What?”, my mom said, “I’m cutting vegetables!”
OK, back to “Engrish.com”!
I was looking at a few pages on their website, and I came across the picture of the CD cover that just cracked me up and I had to share it with you! Oh, and by the way, when I was a younger man with much longer hair, I too, once believed that "Clapton is god!"
[Not the Almighty, Three in One, Omnipotent, Most Holy One... if you're too young to know what "Clapton is god!" means... go ask your parents! Have you heard of "The Who"? "Derek and the Dominoes?" The song, "Layla"? Not that wimpy, weak, acoustic MTV version... the kick @#$ rock and roll version! Oops! Can you say "@#$" on a blog? Sorry!]
Oh well, until next time… be safe, be healthy, say a prayer once in awhile… and maybe I’ll see you in church!
Pray for peace… and passion!
Prairie Pete
