ALPHABETICAL NOUN PAIRS ORDER: Do we say ladies and gentlemen or gentlemen and ladies, using alphabetical order or what?
assertion by some of his students of English. Recently he was discussing bad
manners concerning chopsticks, and he had written that a person should
not hold "chopsticks and a bowl" in the same hand.
One of his Japanese students, an adult, was
adamant that it should be "a bowl and chopsticks". She and other
students said that when they were children at school in Japan ......shortly
after World War Two .....they and all Japanese kids were taught that nouns in English should be
put in alphabetical order.
Even after Mr James showed them collocations
such as "ladies and gentlemen", "salt and pepper" and "fish and
chips", his students wouldn't budge. Anybody have any info or ideas
about how this curious preconception arose?
Does it apply also in Taiwan? In China? In all of Asia? Que pasa?
(hat tip to Michael Quinion on the UK for bringing this question up)
WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 692 Saturday 26 June 2010
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posted by dan at 5:50 AM
2 Comments:
Why do we say:"Ladies and gentlemen" and not "Gentlemen and ladies"?
traditionally society has had a "ladies first" mindset.. and the expression "Ladies and Gentlemen" came out of that mentality.. the feminist movement changed the idea of "ladies first" in their quest for equality, but the expression still remains..
A Japanese friend tells me
"No, I've never learned and even heard such a thing.''
"John, Paul, George, and Ringo" is wrong ? NO WAY
"George, John, Paul, Ringo" is
right ? NO WAY John and Paul would've been pissed off.
Rhythm and blues, wrong ?
Blues and rhythm, uh, what's that ?
Hidetoshi , Tokyo, age 51
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