What the.....

Really, this kind of thing doesn't surprise me although it does interest me. I mean, when Westerns import Japanese to use, it can also, at times, not make any sense either (ie- no one here has ever heard of "oyster motoyaki"). Regardless, I still find it really amusing because I always try to figure out what exactly they TRIED to say.

Take the above as an example. The first half of the sentence makes perfect sense- to produce the world's elites. That's all fine and dandy, but what about the method by which they produce these elites? An English shower?? When I read that, the first thing that came to mind was a lot of elementary school kids huddled in a group in a soccer field while teachers on ladders rained flashcards down on them. At least all these years of claiming to "learn by osmosis" actually makes sense in this context =).

But then again, what did they REALLY mean? A flood of English? Are the children immersed/submerged in a constant English environment? Perhaps they really meant shower and all the water tanks are murky with pulp from all the textbooks they've soaked in them........... perhaps =P........

Then there was another one at a store. It was a garbage can but on the front it said:

"Would you like to review your purpose in life?"

Wha-........ why would I want to read that when I throw things away?? It could be potentially disastrous y'know....... I'd imagine more than a few people being reduced to a quivering ball, hugging the garbage can and bawling their eyes out as they review their life only to realise they weren't very happy with where they were. But then again, maybe it's inspirational, as said people pick themselves up and gather their resolve (against the garbage can) to better themselves.

But again, what does it REALLY mean? To review my wastefulness? Am I to look at my broad over-consumption and change my evil ways? What I really want to review is what they wanted to say in Japanese to get a good feel for what they want.

Then again, I'm looking too deeply into it all since the big point of having English on the can is just to have English. No one needs to know what it means or even if it makes sense- having English is just cool. It's just like people with clothes or tattoos of foreign alphabet or characters. It may not make sense but the foreign-ness is what makes it interesting.

But if you're like me and question these things, then perhaps this is for you. I stumbled across this while reading The Economist (don't ask =P). The John Templeton Foundation asks a bunch of top flight scientists or scholars really broad questions, not unlike the one asked by the humble garbage can. Currently they're discussing the purpose of the Universe, almost as if the Universe itself bought the garbage can, questioned its own meaning, and asked these scientists to help.

There's some really interesting things in there. More than one author claims that if there was a purpose, perhaps it is to give life to sentient beings to question it. Afterall, the fact alone that carbon just happen to have all the right properties to give rise to life should be celebrated, right? But then again, as another author points out, if indeed the purpose was to give rise to life, it's odd that all the life that we know has only existed for a extremely miniscule portion of the Universe's timeline. In other words, it was pretty inefficient at acting upon it's purpose, a singular purpose at that, so perhaps life wasn't part of the plan at all.

Of course, the most interesting part is how so many authors easy tread the line between religion and science. Almost all of them leave the option of a Creator open, yet subject it to the same objectivity as they do when they review physical or chemical options.

Above all this, it's really interesting to read............................. and really serves to draw out my nerdiness haha. So if you happen to have some spare time or you truly are interested, http://www.templeton.org/purpose/ holds some rather intriguing statements. Of course, I get quite a bit of intriguing statements regularly being exposed to Japanese-imported English =).........