I got a call from my daughter at the end of ec88 meeting last Friday, and she said, “It seems a cicada has broken into our home. Help me.” “Just stay in your room, and I’ll kick it out when I’m back, OK.” I replied.
You know what happened when I came home? I executed the 'cicada' for his break-in as you can imagine. Heeeey, you're 「死刑だ」 ... Isn't this good???
Supposedly it wasn't a cicada but a scarab beetle or something.. I haven't found it yet anyway. But still I enjoyed being thrilled when I came home.
Well, at least, you can’t forget what蝉 (semi) is called in English, right? Thank me a lot!
Of course I know cicada, anyway, I didn't know how to pronounce it. When I called it “cicada (鹿だ)” recently, my son pointed it out as “cicada(死刑だ)” immediately.
When it comes to bugs or some specific topics, my son knows much better English words than me. Can you guess earwig, stag beetle, grass hopper, mantis and maggot in Japanese?
Or can you guess Pluto, Uranus, Jupiter and Neptune? Sometimes I get confused…
Pluto、私もよくUranusとごっちゃになってましたが、息子が「Pluto isn't a planet anymore」と言ってたので覚えました。そう、天文学上、冥王星が太陽系から外れましたよね。現地校で習ってきたそうです。親子のこういう会話、印象的なので覚えてます。そういや浦沢直樹の漫画でもやってますね。読んだことはないですが。。
Uranus sounds like urinous 「尿の」 でしょ。でもむすこしゃん、さすが more like a native English speaker kid! 親父ギャグ的なひねり出しと違って、自然なリアクションですな。なるほど urin dough「おしっこで練ったパン生地」ですか。そうかー、doughnut って、ナットの様に輪っかになった生地で焼いたってことですもんね。おしっこ入りdoughnut...ヤック!ドーナットんねん。
Speaking of a mantis, it's also called a praying mantis as I mentioned above.
Look at this.
What is she praying for?
"I wanna be a cockroach..."
A mantis is a relative of a cockroach, you know.
Both of them are categorized into Dictyoptera.... Scary!