The conversation between my two children on the subject of soccer (see previous post) reminds me of the fine soccer education I received from my own big brother. He was watching England v Japan. I know this because when England scored, he punched his fists into the air and shouted “TOSHAK!”. I asked him what that meant and he replied “It’s Japanese for GOAL!”. And thus it was that I went through many years of childhood, and indeed adulthood, thinking that I knew three words of Japanese: mitsu bishi meaning three lozenges (look at the logo), and toshak meaning goal.
I now know that John Toshack is a Welsh football player (so actually it must have been Wales v Japan), whose career was at its peak in the 1970s. He was then manager of four Spanish teams, and (according to Wikipedia) amused Spanish audiences during press conferences with his use of English stock phrases translated literally into Spanish. "Hay más posibilidades de ver a un cerdo volando por encima del Bernabéu" (you're more likely to see a pig flying over the Bernabéu). "La liga es el pan y la mantequilla y la nata es la copa del rey" (the league is the bread and butter and the cup is the cream). John Toshack, I’m glad you have your linguistic struggles too. It’s a bond between us. And you do have a marvellously expressive surname. It ought to be a shout of triumph in some language or other, even if it isn’t. In another life, I’d be married to you, and be called Mrs Toshack. I think I’d persuade you to change our name by deed poll so that we spelt it Toshack! Mr and Mrs Toshack! I like that.
I’m a bit worried that mitsu bishi doesn’t mean three lozenges. It was my big brother’s best friend who told me that.
Aged 14, I once mispronounced 'virginal' as - you guessed it - vaginal. In front of my grandparents. Now that's what I call linguistically challenged.
ReplyDeleteQuite what I was doing even saying 'virginal' I'm not sure...
how funny that he thought the welsh soccer player's name was a japanese word.
ReplyDeletewe went to a hockey game in montreal once, and it was a lot of fun to hear the announcer call all the plays in french.
advantage numerique is what they call a power play. (since there might not be a lot of hockey in england, let me add to your education: a power play is when one of the players gets thrown in the penalty box for 2 minutes and one team has one more player than the other team during that time.)
I'd be a bit worried about that mitsu bishi translation too - big brothers best friends are notorious for that sort of skullduggery. Three lozenges? Nah. That sounds well dodgy.
ReplyDeleteI remember the name John Toshak - didn't he advertise Brute or Denim or one of those other eye wateringly potent aftershaves?
Mya x
I think ending that last name in particular with an exclamation point! would be priceless...far too close to Toshag. Although, you know, he'd never live up to it.
ReplyDeleteI have had nothing but raised eyebrows about the '3 lozenges' story. I was finally inspired to check it on wikipedia, and it seems that it's not far off the mark after all...
ReplyDelete"mitsu" meaning "three" and "bishi" meaning "water caltrop" (also called "water chestnut"), and hence "rhombus", which is reflected in the company's logo. Another translation is "three diamonds".
water caltrops ... diamonds ... lozenges ...