picture of the day

German visitors

3 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© AP

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

3 Comments
Login to comment

Why do they need translators when the emperor and empress speak pretty good English and so do Germans???

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

A joke of older vintage than the class I learned it from ('Prof. Wilga Rivers' class on teaching foreign languages) goes like this: Great Britain and the United States are "two countries separated by a common language!" If you can get it, do you not see that the super English that the Emperor and Express could use and the probably equally super "globlish" that the German leaders could speak, while providing a 'common language for global communication', would separate the two groups? One can imagine that one issue is perhaps freedom to express themselves with diplomatic precision. There may be issues of loyalty too. The respective groups may feel that English neither expresses their culture nor reaches the ears of the opposing party with culturally appropriate politeness.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

(Transcript: "Next time, let's leave out the Italians.")

Okay, that's an old joke, but it is lovely to see old people who've survived the 20th century in a better place enjoy such a fabulous carpet. Life could be worse.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites