【英语趣味课堂】大阪和东京-Osaka and Tokyo

Todd: Kawabe, can you explain the difference, or compare, Tokyo and Osaka?

 

Kawabe: Tokyo and Osaka? OK, I think that Tokyo is like New York City and Osaka is, like where? It's like, I guess it's like, OK, let's say, little Irish city.

 

Todd: A little Irish city?

 

Kawabe: I'm just imagining. Maybe this is the wrong example, but um, you know, people are so friendly. This is what I want to say, and people, the relationship in Osaka between each, between, you know people, are so close, very very closer than Tokyo one and people are so friendly, you know, for example when buy something at the shop, where ever it is, someone's gonna talk to you. "Hey, where are you from? What do you want to buy? and this is better than this. You better take this one."

 

Todd: Mm, that's nice!

 

Kawabe: Yeah, in Tokyo nobody will tell you know this kind of thing in the shop, you know, it's a 

weird¹ thing in this big city.

 

Todd: That is strange. Why do you think people are different in Tokyo than Osaka? They're only,

you know, 500.

 

Kawabe: People don't care about each other in Tokyo. It's like New York City and, you know, there are too many people to deal with, to, you know, so in Osaka it's a big city but it's always, it's also, at the same times like a huge village.

 

Todd: Mm, that's a good point. A huge village!

 

Kawabe: And in Tokyo, nobody speaks with a dialect² but in Osaka everybody speaks the same language, I mean that Osaka dialect. That is why I think they are feeling the same kind of

tie. Some kind of ...!

 

Todd: Bond³!

 

Kawabe: Yeah, with each other, so and we call it Osaka-ben in Japanese, Osaka's dialect, and that way of talking is always like very funny, always like sometimes noisy, but it's lovely dialect. You know, everybody likes it, so the most of the famous comedian⁴ in Japan, on every kind of, any kind of TV show are from Osaka. In Japan, most of the famous comedians⁵ are always from Osaka. Yeah, so, it's a big difference. The, OK, simply, character in Tokyo is cold, the people are cool, you know, stay cool. You don't show your emotion very much. You've got to be very, very, like, decent⁶, square, and you've got to act cool. This is what you have to be in Tokyo, but in Osaka, you just, you know, anything goes. You can do whatever you want to do. You can be whoever you want to be and then, you know, people are wild and free and cheerful, lovely and it looks like they are enjoying the life, like an Italian, like Italian, yes! I think this is a good example. It's like Moscow and Venezia, or Moscow and Napoli or, you know, North Korea, Pyongyang and Rome. It's like this.

 

Todd: Yeah! Wow!

 

Kawabe: People are so different.

 

Todd: Interesting. Interesting observation. 

1 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

2 dialect   

n.方言，土语，地方话

参考例句：

• He wrote a play in a local dialect.他用当地方言写了一个剧本。
• They began to speak rapidly in dialect.他们开始叽里呱啦地说起地方话来。

3 bond   

n.结合，债券，契约，粘合剂，保证人，键，关栈保留；vt.存入关栈，粘着；vi.结合

参考例句：

• This glue makes a good firm bond.这种胶水粘得很结实。
• His word is his bond.他是讲信用的。

4 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

5 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句

6 decent   

adj.象样的，不错的，体面的，正派的，恰当的

参考例句：

• We want to raise our children to be decent men and women.我们盼望把孩子们培养成优秀人才。
• There isn't even a decent table in this room.这屋里连张像样的桌子也没有。