Watching "have I got news for you" last night and heard the funniest thing: -
On discovering Australia, Cpt Cook started to explore with the help of an aborigine man. On seeing a kangaroo Cook said, "what's that?" and the aborigine replied, "kangaroo". And so the creature was named.
However the aboriginal word "kangaroo" roughly translates as "I don't know"!!!! Don't know how true that is but it definitely should be.
hehe.. I heard a joke once.. it doesn't translate into english well since it's a norwegian joke about a norwegian family, not well versed in english, who go to a zoo. when the kid in the family asks what that animal is, the father replies "that animal is dangerous" (only when you say "dangerous" in plain norwegian it sounds silly, right finti?). And so on it goes with the whole meat-eater section of the zoo...
I dont know this joke so I have no idea what you are talking about Supa.
Why do we say CPT Cook discovered Australia. What about the aboriginees who already lived there? Doesnt they count.
Same things go for America.
There are lots of stories like that.
The national flower of Scotland is a "Thistle".
When the King was looking for a flower for an emblem to represent the country he went up into the Highlands with a local man. The man was ordered to find an unusual flower or he'd be thrown in jail. He saw a weird looking thing and said "this'll do".
The King thought he said "Thistle" and that how it was named.
Well, he did discover it on behalf of the English, the fact that a thriving civilisation was already living there did seem to escape people back then...
You can't say that a red indian suddenley woke up, looked around himself/herself and said, "wow, I've discovered America". Of coarse Columbus discovered it for us Brits - a modern day equiv would be... say trying to find your way around Walsal's one way system without an A-Z.
Actually RC..I would say that Columbus "discovered" the Americas on behalf of Spain. As far as European "discovery" the vikings were in North America first.
As far as Native American Origin..there is supposed to be alot of Asian genetic contributions but I don't think they were the only people to come over. They say that there were probably alot of paths of migration to the Americas by various peoples.
About the Kangaroo thing. I learned that Kangaroo meant "You can't pronounce it." in reply to Cook's question. Of course these people knew what a Kangaroo was. The real name for a Kangaroo in Aboriginese was and is "Woolloomoolloo". Try pronouncing that!
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Aug 21st, 2001 12:33 PM
