Japan/The World and Stereotypes

a) soda
b) garage sale
c) tennis shoes (i have no idea where this comes from. I've been trying to change it to sneakers, but tennis shoes still sneaks itself in from time to time.)
d) freeway
e) ...sandwich >_>
f) front porch
g) firefly
h) cart/shopping cart

"Lemonade (UK): A cold sweet fizzy drink".

Mind = blown.

If people want my answers...

a) soda
b) garage sale
c) I use sneakers and tennis shoes interchangeably, though I tend to think of tennis shoes as being a bit lighter.
d) I use both highway and freeway, but not interchangeably because there's a difference between them.
e) sub (short for submarine sandwich, but who takes the time to say that)
f) porch
g) firefly
h) I'll use both grocery cart and shopping cart, but mostly I just shorten it to cart.

I understand your pain. I've never seen them here in Oregon either. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen them in real life period, despite often visiting family in New England during the summer.

Not a native speaker, but I spent some years in the US midwest, soooo I'm marking the words (I think) I picked up there with an *.

a) Soft drink/soda/pop*

b) Garage sale/yard sale(?)*

c) Sport shoes/sneakers*

d) Highway/freeway(?)*

e) Sandwich*/sub*/footlong(?)*

f) Porch/verandah

g) Firefly

h) Shopping cart/pushcart(?)*

Fireflies are really pretty! It's quite usual to see some of them here during spring/summer if you're out in the road or have a big space with grass near.
Fact: "soda" here is how we refer to carbonated water. When I first started learning english it was SO CONFUSING.
Also...I'm not a native speaker, but where everyone thought 'sneakers' I thought 'trainers'. Though I believe trainers lean more towards the sporty side? Yes?

Pretty sure it was 2001, but before 9/11 - I was there in February. It miiiight have been 2002, though, which would explain it all.

I think a lot of it is purely regional. Where I'm from I never hear anyone say trainers. Nor do I hear lightning bug, hoagie, pop, pushcart, trolley (except in reference to the type of street cars you see in San Francisco/Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood or former trolleys that have been refurbished for other uses; one of the colleges I went to had shuttle buses made from former trolleys), or buggy (which is another term someone who answered this survey said they used for shopping carts; someone else said they sometimes used carriage, which I haven't heard used either, except for describing the type of horse-propelled, closed vehicle on wheels that was used for transportation before cars and is commonly seen in fairy tales.)

I hear both garage sale and yard sale used, but there tends to be a difference between them, with garage sales being held in your garage/driveway and yard sales being held in your yard. However, garage sale is the more commonly used term and is the general catch all for when you have items for sale on in your garage, on your driveway, and in your yard, as well as the term that's used when you're not being specific ("I'm going to go garage saleing this weekend.") I don't hear veranda used for "the covered area in front of the front door of a house, usually up a couple of steps" either, though you might sometimes here it used for a backyard patio. I seem to remember that I've also heard veranda used to refer to a balcony, but I can't really find any reference for this and I'm starting to question myself about it, but I could be wrong.

That said, in places where more than one term is used for something, the terms could either be interchangeable or could refer to similar, but slightly different concepts, such as highway and freeway do here (though I've been guilty of using them interchangeably before.) I'm not from a place where people say trainers to talk about shoes, so I couldn't say if that was the case with the term trainers.

Another interesting thing to note: you can typically tell what side of the country (or what side of the pond) someone is from based on how they use the slang term "wicked." Here on the best west coast, it's used as an adjective, as in "That's totally wicked.", but on the east coast (and in the UK as well, unless I'm mistaken) it's used as an adverb, as in "It was wicked cool." Note that this only applies to the use of wicked as slang, when you use wicked to mean that someone/thing is bad or immoral, both sides of the country use it as an adjective.

a) Soda
b) Garage sale
c) Sneakers
d) Highway
e) Sub
f) Porch
g) Firefly
h) Shopping cart

See, Canadians don't have some crazy other language. Makes you wonder what accent people keep talking aboot, eh?

a) Pop
b) Garage Sale
c) Running Shoes
d) Highway
e) Sub
f) Verandah
g) Firefly
h) Shopping Cart

a) Soda
b) Yard sale
c) Sneakers
d) Highway
e) Dom Sub
f) Porch
g) Firefly
h) Shopping cart

It was 2002, I moved to CA in August of 2001, I know you know this.

a) Soda
b) Garage/Yard Sale
c) Sneaker
d) Highway
e) Sub Sandwich
f) Porch
g) Firefly
h) Shopping Cart

I'm from Portland too (as you know) --though some of my speech was informed by a decade in Idaho.

I see wicked as in "That's wicked cool." Also my boyfriend (who is from Massachusetts) and I constantly bicker, for fun, over whether rotary or roundabout is correct.

When he told me how they pronounce Concord Mass (Concurd) I was all like no, it is Con-Cord, like Concord California. We just decided that both were right for their respective places. Oh god! The way the pronounce 'Peabody' makes me laugh! Peebiddy just seems wrong.

Narita airport? I flew into Kansai in summer of 2002 and don't remember any Japanese guys with guns there. In fact I distinctly remember being relieved at how lax post-9/11 Japanese airport security was compared to America.

Conclusion: Ingmar walked into the middle of a gun nut/military nut/Call of Duty cosplay convention but didn't realize it.

a) Läsk
b) Loppis
c) Gympadojjor
d) Motorväg
e) Macka
f) Altan
g) Charterplan
h) Kundvagn

a) Gaseosa.
b) Venta de garage.
c) Zapatillas.
d) Ruta/Carretera.
e) Sandwich.
f) ??????
g) Luciérnaga.
h) Góndola.

Oh! That reminds me!

JAPAN. EXPLAIN.

Wow, Jesus sure traveled alot! I guess walking on water is useful sometimes.
I like how his younger brother 'casually' died for him. 'Onii-chan, see you in heaven! Ittekimasu!' 'Itterashai!'

Also, Jesus himself as gave the testament of his death! Totally badass.

I wanna do that word list too. But since I'm guessing most people won't have Hebrew on their computers, I'll have to use English letters for that, and it comes out really funny, thus: a firefly = gahlilit. And that looks like some orc language. I never get to have any fun.

I'd totally watch that anime.

Well, if we're going to do this...

A)汽水
B)？？
C)运动鞋
D)高速公路
E)THERE IS NO SUCH THING IN CHINA
F)门廊
G)萤火虫
H)手推车

How can there be no sandwiches in china?? There's bread, and there's veggies, and something pasty. Has no one ever consider putting them together?
I can see how you won't have garage sales, but sandwiches?

I was transferred to that airport while heading back to America over Thanksgiving. My most prominent impression was that the airport workers were rude and cranky. It was only 8 p.m. Then, I got back to America where the passport control guys were all smiles and good humored chuckles. Also: asian airplanes give you way too much food. No, thank you, I do not need any more suspicious beef products but water would be nice. Stale cake is great but how about some water? I had to pull out cough drops.

a. Well, kinda, but, is there not another term for it?
e. ...! ... ... ...um...how about /can't be bothered to search for the characters/ mantou jia lao gan ma?
h. My parents just call it che zi

Well, you DO have the word "sandwich" in Chinese, but's it's basically a transliteration of the word "sandwich" (san wen zhi), so I don't see the point.

Also people in China eat rice. Bread? What is that? Sandwiches is a foreign food, so just like there's no English word for, say, dim sum, similarly, there's no Chinese word for sandwich.

@Para: Qi shui is how we say it where I come from. LOL.

It's like you live in opposite world. On JAL, they usually walk by with water, green tea, black tea, and coffee at regular intervals, and if you ask for water they'll happily get it for you. What Asian airplane are you referring to?

? Those sliced buns with pork inside (Kong Bak Pau) are basically sandwiches.

Bible fanfic?

Can you tell where I'm from?

A) Soda
B) Yardsale!
C) Tennis shoes
D) Freeway!
E) Sub, or hoagie... I interchange them when I see them, oddly.
F) Portch
G) Firefly
H) Cart

I'd like to see the hebrew! I could read Elyscape's, and my compy can hardly read anything!

Slight topic deviasion, but on the subject of accents... People say certain languages are 'romance languages' or sound more sexy spoken. Spanish, French, Italian... Never really affected me. You know what does though? Israeli. I could listen to a person with an Israeli accent read the worse mary sue fanfiction on the internet for HOURS and be lulled into contentment. I have NO IDEA why it has that affect on me, but I love listening to that accent. Forever.

I've heard a handful of people say American accent is sexy. I don't know how I feel about that...

a) soft drink
b) garage sale
c) runners
d) freeway
e) sub
f) verandah
g) firefly
h) trolley

Romance languages? Portuguese please.
Maybe I'm biased because BRAZIL but I really really love their accent/language in general.

Also from the general Portland area.

A) Soda, although I do use Pop on occasion.
B) Garage sale if it's in a garage, yard sale if it's in a yard. Logic!
C) Tennis shoes. I don't think I've ever heard someone actually say sneakers in real life.
D) Freeway
E) Sub
F) Porch
G) Firefly
H) Shopping cart, although playing too much Aisle got me used to saying Trolley.

I've also never seen fireflies, and oatmeal is disgusting.

Romance languages don't actually have anything to do with romance; it just means it's descended from Latin. I personally think French is super sexy, and yes, that is part of the reason why it was my foreign language of choice in High School.

But that's a completely different kind of food! It looks different, tastes different... In Chinese, we would never refer to American-style subs as "pau", and if we did it'd be really confusing because pau aren't sandwiches.



vs

Bak Pau is not at all like a sandwich... Pistols at dawn!

Yeah, that'd be like me calling a sandwich an empanada. They're two different things.
Btw, these are empanadas, for you poor losers those who have never tried one.

Those look exactly like what we call curry puffs!



Does this mean we can call a curry puff an empanada and vice versa?! :D